Reporter's notebook: Metallica has merit

Who says metal music has no merit? Certainly not Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, which will be rewarded to metal institution Metallica in June.

The band will receive 90,000 euros for creating emotional works that recall “Wagner’s emotional turmoil and Tchaikovsky’s cannons,” according to Polar Prize judges.

Past recipients of the award have included Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney and Chuck Berry. Metallica’s award will be the first given to a metal band.

“It puts us in very distinguished company. It’s a great validation of everything that Metallica have done over the last 35 years,” drummer Lars Ulrich told The Guardian on Wednesday.

In addition to the prize money, Metallica will be named one of the Polar Prize’s two “laureates,” the second one being Ahmad Naser Sarmast, founder of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

Not bad for a band that makes music your grandparents would hate.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Eamon Scarbrough