Metallica vs. mainstream airplay (band, heavy metal, albums, song)

[ditchlights]

This has been a gripe of mine for some time now: Very rarely do mainstream rock stations play older Metallica.

By older, I mean tunes from "Justice" or prior. The only exception is during the one hour of "Mandatory Metallica" sessions between 10-11p.m.on certain stations.

Sure, the time from the "Black" album to present has produced some hit songs, but Metallica gained their TRUE die-hard fans from their earlier albums. There were no "mediocre" songs back then. St.Anger was a catastrophe. Load and Reload were marginal at best. The newest one does not impress me either.

My question is: Does the band have some contractual agreement with mainstream media that keeps their older material off the air outside of their "Mandatory Matallica" sessions to possibly try to boost older album sales? Contract lawyers are nasty. I could totally see Metallica doing this.

Unless something has changed in the last year, you cannot find older material from them through BMG or Columbia House either. What gives?

I know they are gods in their own minds, but c'mon, I'm tired of hearing Enter Sandman and Three Leaf Clover on the radio all the time.

[Herbrocks]

Our local hard rock station went "modern" a few years back, pretty much the only older groups they play now are METALLICA, PANTERA and OZZY. And yes, they only seem to play the "newer" METALLICA. They also only play OZZY with Wylde, no Randy or Jake.

[ditchlights]

Are there really no Metallica fans that have an opinion on this. That's hard to believe considering they are the #1 selling heavy metal band of all time.

Oh well... I guess I'm the only one that has an issue with the lack of quality music on hard rock stations these days. Ho-Hum...