Some Kind of Monster is a 2004 American documentary film featuring the heavy metal band Metallica. It shares its name with a song from Metallica's 2003 album St. Anger.

What began as a simple documentary of the making of St. Anger turned into a much more personal exploration of the band's relationships with each other, and their struggles with the creative process.

The documentary shows many studio rehearsals and fragments of concert footage. It won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The DVD release was handled by Paramount Pictures, whose 2000 film Mission: Impossible II features a song by Metallica.

Synopsis

Metallica is forced to examine their nature and their very existence as bassist Jason Newsted quits the band and frontman James Hetfield abruptly leaves the group to enter a rehabilitation facility. Metallica's management Q-Prime hires "performance-enhancing coach" Phil Towle to help the group better understand one another as friends, bandmates and human beings. Towle is frequently yet erroneously referred to as a "therapist", since he voluntarily revoked his own license from the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board in the early 1990s for "trying to improperly convince clients to continue treatment". When the members of Metallica decide that 'The Therapist' is no longer required and tell Phil Towle this he tries to convince them that they still need him - "We've still got some trust issues that I think we need to sort out.".

Former Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine also appears briefly in a scene where he confronts Ulrich on the band's decision to fire him for excessive substance abuse, an incident from early in the band's career. The two had not had any personal contact for many years and Mustaine speaks about his resentment stemming from his being ejected from the original Metallica lineup in the early 1980s without the opportunity to redeem himself with an alcoholism treatment program, and also how, even though he now has his own successful group, Megadeth, he still endures constant ridicule from Metallica fans which has weakened the enjoyment of his success.

Of particular note is the perceived "power struggle" between Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich - best friends for over two decades who are finally beginning to understand one another. In one of the film's more memorable scenes, Ulrich confesses that he resents Hetfield's need to control everything, even when Hetfield is not present; a stipulation of Hetfield's rehab release required him to work only four hours per day from noon to 4pm so he could spend time with his family. Hetfield subsequently objected to the rest of the band working on recorded material when he was not present. The scene ends with Ulrich starting to curse under his breath, before finally getting nose-to-nose with his best friend and roaring "Fuck!"

In a scene where James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and several others are discussing titles for the album Hetfield suggests to use the name of the song "St. Anger". Many of the other people in the scene agree that it is a good title, however Lars Ulrich prefers "Frantic", which would become the first track on the album.

The film contains many excerpts from unreleased tracks. The only unreleased song that can be heard fully is "Temptation".

The movie also addresses the early 2001 departure of Newsted. He is interviewed and footage of his own group, Echobrain, both in rehearsal and playing live, is shown. Footage is shown from public auditions the band held to find a replacement. In a scene after Robert Trujillo's audition, guitarist Kirk Hammett notes that he uses his fingers to play, rather than a pick and mentions that it "hasn't been that way since Cliff [Burton, former bassist of Metallica; killed in a bus accident in 1986]".

Aftermath

Fan reception to the movie was divided. Many applauded it, praising the band for having the courage to show themselves as naturally as possible, without the pretentiousness associated with millionaire rock stars. Other fans derided the movie and the band for being nothing more than insecure rock stars struggling to come to grips with age and maturity.

Metallica asked for Dave Mustaine's approval to show footage of a 2001 interview between him and Ulrich, for Some Kind of Monster. Although Mustaine denied the request, he had signed a release form and Metallica proceeded to use the footage. Mustaine claims that it marked "the final betrayal," and that he has given up hope of ever recording with or becoming friends with Metallica members. Although he was glad to be acknowledged as Metallica's guitarist in the film, Mustaine felt his interview footage was edited to portray him in a "less than flattering" manner. Responding to Mustaine's criticism of the film, Ulrich said, "So put these three facts down, he was in our band for a year. He never played on a Metallica record [official release], and it was 22 years ago. It's pretty absurd that it still can be that big a deal."