I believe that they were going to make it to mtv and get more radio fans even if they didn't change ... If you checked the sale numbers of their albums before "black album" , it was rising dramaticaly ... I remember that I've read or heard that "justice" album sold 7 million copies in the U.S. only , and that was realy something.

Since they made their change , they became more of a live band than anything else , but that was cool cuz IMHO , they're the best and the most interesting live band in the world ever.

I realy wish like every metalhead that their next album would be in-your-face metal like the old days , but I'm not too optimistic about that cuz everything going around metallica (with exception to the new bassist "rob trujilo") doesn't seem promising at all.