Metallica’s SEO

Stan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:08:02 +0000

Has Metallica has squandered any cultural relevancy it has had over the past twenty-five years? I make the case, using Google search results.

Let me be the first to say that this post is just chart porn and contains no real science.

Hypothesis

Metallica has become less relevant over the last twenty-five years, which will be evidenced through declining search engine ranking for their song titles.

Methodology

Metallica has opinions about the Internet. They famously spoke out against Napster back in 2000. In 2006, they begrudgingly joined iTunes. They once leaked new songs to bloggers but sent cease & desist letters when they were reviewed. It is fitting that the Internet, in all its raw democratic ability, should serve as their jury.

Each song on each album will be scored from 0 to 10, with 10 signifying a #1 result from a Google search referencing the band and a 0 signifying an absence of the band’s name from the first page of search results. The song’s album will then receive a composite score as an average of the song scores.

Results

“Kill ‘Em All” – Metallica, 1983

Yes, they make the first page for “whiplash”. Upsetting lots of lawyers.

Song	Score
Hit the Lights	9
The Four Horsemen	1
Motorbreath	10
Hit the Lights	10
(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth	10
Whiplash	1
Phantom Lord	10
No Remorse	10
Seek and Destroy	10
Metal Militia	8
Album	7.9

“Ride the Lightning” – Metallica, 1984

Song	Score
Fight Fire with Fire	10
Ride the Lightning	10
For Whom the Bell Tolls	9
Fade to Black	10
Trapped Under Ice	9
Escape	0
Creeping Death	10
The Call of Ktulu	10
Album	8.5

“Master of Puppets” – Metallica, 1986

Song	Score
Battery	7
Master of Puppets	10
The Thing that Should Not Be	10
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	10
Disposable Heroes	10
Leper Messiah	10
Orion	0
Damage, Inc.	10
Album	8.4

“…And Justice for All” – Metallica, 1988

Song	Score
Blackened	10
…And Justice for All	10
Eye of the Beholder	7
One	0
The Shortest Straw	10
Harvester of Sorrow	10
The Frayed Ends of Sanity	10
To Live is to Die	10
Dyers Eve	10
Album	8.6

“Metallica” – Metallica, 1991

Song	Score
Enter Sandman	10
Sad but True	10
Holier Than Thou	9
The Unforgiven	8
Wherever I May Roam	10
Don’t Tread on Me	0
Through the Never	10
Nothing Else Matters	10
Of Wolf and Man	10
The God that Failed	10
My Friend of Misery	10
The Struggle Within	10
Album	8.9

“Load” – Metallica, 1996

I’m shocked they made the first page for “2 x 4″.

Song	Score
Ain’t My Bitch	10
2 x 4	5
The House Jack Built	10
Until It Sleeps	10
King Nothing	10
Hero of the Day	10
Bleeding Me	10
Cure	0
Poor Twisted Me	10
Wasting My Hate	10
Mama Said	10
Thorn Within	10
Ronnie	0
The Outlaw Torn	10
Album	8.2

“Reload” – Metallica, 1997

Seriously, first page for “fuel”?

Song	Score
Fuel	4
The Memory Remains	10
Devil’s Dance	10
The Unforgiven II	10
Better Than You	0
Slither	0
Carpe Diem Baby	10
Bad Seed	5
Where the Wild Things Are	0
Prince Charming	0
Low Man’s Lyric	10
Attitude	0
Fixxxer	10
Album	5.3

“St. Anger” – Metallica, 2003

The Harrison Ford movie just barely wins for “Frantic”.

Song	Score
Frantic	7
St. Anger	10
Some Kind of Monster	10
Dirty Window	10
Invisible Kid	8
My World	0
Shoot Me Again	10
Sweet Amber	9
The Unnamed Feeling	10
Purify	1
All Within My Hands	10
Album	7.7

“Death Magnetic” – Metallica, 2008

The final single, “My Apocalypse” is the only result that links explicitly to Metallica.com.

Song	Score
That Was Just Your Life	10
The End of the Line	10
Broken, Beat & Scarred	10
The Day That Never Comes	10
All Nightmare Long	10
Cyanide	7
The Unforgiven III	10
The Judas Kiss	10
Suicide & Redemption	10
My Apocalypse	10
Album	9.7

Analysis

First, it should be noted that Metallica took a few albums to get started. Here are the Billboard peaks for each album in the year it was released. Their first #1 record was the eponymous “black album”, no doubt propelled by their single “Enter Sandman”, and they have been able to reach that position for each new release since.

Rising throughout the 1980s, the search engine visibilty of Metallica’s song titles did indeed wane in the late 90s. Although it has recovered again with the notoriety of Metallica’s 2004 documentary “Some Kind of Monster” and the release of their latest album, “Death Magnetic”.

In fact, if we remove the albums “Load”, “Reload”, and “St. Anger” from the data, we see the trendline of the band’s early rise closely predicts the relevance of “Death Magnetic”. While many reviews claim that “Death Magnetic” is a return to form for the band, recapturing the glory of pre-”Metallica” albums, we now have the unassailable scientific evidence.

Think I’ll go torrent that now.

Sunshocked » metallica