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Inside the documentary that turned Metallica into mental health trailblazers and changed rock

Some Kind of Monster took an unsparing look at the therapy session that saved the metal gods from oblivion – and made them trailblazers

It is to Metallica’s great credit that despite being required to pick up the tab on their foray into motion pictures – not least, an outlay of $4.3million to acquire the rights from their then record company, Elektra – the band duly ceded full editorial control to Berlinger and Sinofsky. I had the strong sense that the famously complicated relationship between drummer Lars Ulrich (whose vision and drive, in the studio and beyond, had lit the path to world domination) and Hetfield (the man responsible for many of the riffs that formed the spine of Metallica’s songs) was presently in the doldrums. So that James Hetfield might learn to function in an environment that had caused him no end of grief, each week on tour in North America, Metallica played three consecutive stadium concerts before flying home aboard a private jet for four days’ rest.

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