Kurt Cobain is not usually linked with conventional heavy metal, but the article argues that metal influenced parts of Nirvana’s early sound and his listening habits. It highlights his enthusiasm for Metallica as evidence that, despite grunge’s rejection of 1980s hair metal, Cobain admired heavier and more aggressive forms of the genre.

Cobain reportedly attended Metallica’s Seattle Centre Coliseum show in May 1992 from the Snakepit area and became particularly animated during ‘Whiplash’, which Kirk Hammett said was his favourite Metallica song. Cobain had also asked Hammett about ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘Whiplash’, and later included Metallica’s ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’ from 1986’s Master of Puppets on a mixtape published in his Journals; Hammett remembered him as mellow, witty, vulnerable and funny.