James Hetfield made a massive contribution to the heavy metal scene by co-founding Metallica with the drummer Lars Ulrich in 1981. He has attracted the spotlight on the band and heavy metal with his characteristic voice since the foundation. His powerful vocals have impressed fans and music critics throughout his career spanning over 40 years.
With his broad baritone vocal range, the frontman can communicate all emotions, such as anger, sadness, and pain, which underlie the song’s lyrics. While the vocalist can convey sentimentality in songs like ‘Nothing Else Matters,’ he can also carry the songs ‘One’ and ‘Enter Sandman’ to a different level with his growling style. Not only his bandmates but also fans could not imagine that anyone else could replace him. However, there was one name in mind that had this ability.
Jason Newsted Was Able To Impress Metallica Fans Replacing James Hetfield
Jason Newsted contributed to Metallica albums between 1986 and 2001 and joined after bassist Cliff Burton’s passing. He contributed to the band’s critically successful ‘The Black Album’ and others like ‘Load’ and ‘Reload.’ On the other side, the fans were also astonished by Newsted’s talent for delivering vocals besides playing bass whenever he had a chance to sing during the performances.
The bassist was already singing backing vocals during the band’s concerts. Later, he provided some lead vocal parts of the pieces titled ‘Seek & Destroy,’ ‘Creeping Death,’ and ‘Whiplash’ starting in 1989, after James Hetfield left the duty for him during the shows. Furthermore, during the Summer Sanitarium Tour, he sang the lead vocals in most of the songs for three shows when Hetfield had to stay away from the stage for a few days due to his back injury.
Besides the band members, the fans also realized Newsted’s talent for lead vocals, and he succeeded in impressing them with his heavier voice. His brutal singing in the track ‘Seek & Destroy’ became some fans’ favorite, and they expressed their willingness to hear him more. Especially his Woodstock 99 East Stage performance was one of the listeners’ favorites, and many of them thought he ‘killed’ it.
His bandmates must have also noticed his aptitude as they left some vocals that were initially Hetfield’s to Newsted at numerous concerts. Thus Jason Newsted has been considered the only vocalist who could achieve to maintain Metallica’s original style as well as James Hetfield.
You can check out Jason Newsted’s vocal performance below.
