That’s fair if you grew up in the US and I understand that it is likely that a good number in the community did as well but that wasn’t my experience. Maybe stretch your imagination further than your own borders and things will seem less odd.
Weren’t they very much thrash metal during this period, even in their European tours? They did go pretty alternativepop in the late 90s with load/reload and their overall image. It was a sad time for heavy metal, driving many of us into the underground before we found reprieve in bands like Electric Wizard and Sleep. Still a banger of a track though, I wore this tape out so bad it broke.
In places where metal is part of the culture as a birthplace it’s easy to forget that metal might be prolific but it hasn’t saturated every market yet.
Hands down my favorite track by Metallica. I’m going to check out those bands you mentioned. Always looking for new tunes
