Metallica turns the Internet into 13-year-olds.

Love ’em or hate ’em, the mere mentions of “Metallica” turns the series of tubes into two giant 13-year-olds.

Take a look at the comments from Digg and Reddit, Metallica is still hated by many for whatever the reason is. On the other side, some diehard Metallica fans would defend their idols to the death.

It is obvious that Metallica had made some unpopular move in the past. They did the wrong thing for the right reason. Wait a minute, they did the right thing for the wrong reasons. OK, that’s a bit confusing. The point is that Metallica became the enemy when they sued Napster and their own fans (who used Napster to download Metallica songs). The original Napster got shutdown, but the apparent victim of this event was none other than Metallica’s reputations.

Metallica has taken a lot of heat since the release of “Metallica” a.k.a. “The Black Album” in 1991. Sad but true, many Metallica’s haters were not even born in 1991. The ultra-diehard Metallica fans didn’t like the radio-friendly Metallica, they wanted another “Master of Puppets”. Even though “The Black Album” put Metallica and Metal into the mainstream. Metallica gained humongous amount of fans after the release of “The Black Album”, only to be harshly criticized during the Load/ReLoad era. The departure from Metallica’s classic sound brought the band into the court of public opinion whether or not they were being a sell-out. Despite all of the criticism, Metallica still managed to draw the crowds to fill up arena and stadiums only a few bands in the world could.

Fast forward to “St. Anger”. The trash-can-like snare drum sounds, repetitive riffs and lyrics, and the absence of guitar solos, Metallica managed to bust tons of eardrums. Many fans were turned off by “St. Anger” and many would give Metallica one last chance.

“Death Magnetic”, Metallica’s ninth studio album is slated for release in September 2008. Metallica held a special listening party previewing the work in progress in London to select journalists/bloggers (Kerrang, Metal Hammer, The Quietus). Along came another controversy. Apparently, somebody at QPrime demanded the preview/early reviews to be taken down without Metallica’s consent.

Once again, the series of tubes turned into giant 13-year-olds. Comments on sites like Digg and Reddit clearly shows that Metallica is still hated. CNET’s own Don Reisinger who seems to be wearing bright red lipstick, posted some psycho babble about the fiasco by quoting Ars Technica which was quoting a blog that quoted the original source.

After the official statement from Metallica, Ars Technica corrected their article and removed the picture of Cliff Burton which was inappropriately used. Seriously, what Ars Technica did was tasteless and factually wrong. Cliff Burton has nothing to do with whatever Ars Technica wanted to say.

Metallica, one of the greatest band in the history, will grace the music world with “Death Magnetic”. The early reviews have been positive, and many of us are hopeful. Comes September, Metallica will have to prove that they are indeed still the mighty one that brought “Kill ‘Em All” and “Master of Puppets”. Based on what I heard so far, it is indeed the Metallica I remembered. For those who hates Metallica, please put down the keyboard and stop reading anything Metallica-related.

I for one am looking forward to “Death Magnetic” and would call it as I hear it.

Head over to Metallica.com and MissionMetallica.com for more Metallica.