Comic Strips

That’s the band.

Funny enough they still play those same anti-war songs off the early albums. Play what pays so they can ride around in their private jets.

Edit:

I did some digging. AJFA - One to most anyone objectively is about the horrors of war. The music video opens with the sounds and images of war. Lyrics say the war is done with the speaker in the story. It’s zero distance to understand that the person in the video suffered their wounds as a result of that war. The lyrics literally say a Landmine caused the wounds.

However, Hetfield walked back that imagery and the lyrics to mean:

In a Howard Stern Interview, James states that the song isn't inherently anti-war, but the lyrics were rather about the feeling of being trapped in your own body and feeling like you're unable to interact with the world around you and express yourself and speak your mind and feelings.

So it’s not an apology, he’s retconning the song to this instead of what pretty much everyone legitimately understood it to be about.

Also, regarding Don’t Tread On Me, what people associated with the Gadsden Flag:

Hetfield said the song was a reaction to the anti-American tone of their album ...And Justice for All - "This is the other side of that. America is a fucking good place. I definitely think that. And that feeling came about from touring a lot. You find out what you like about certain places and you find out why you live in America, even with all the bad fucked-up shit. It's still the most happening place to hang out."

Hetfield also said "Don't Tread On Me, I love the song, but it shocked a lot of people, because everyone thought it was pro-war when they thought we were anti-war, and alls we're doing is writing songs, we're not standing politically on any side. "Don't Tread On Me" was just one of those 'don't fuck with us' songs, and obviously referencing the flag and the snake and what it meant, that all tied into the black album and the snake icon on the album cover, and I think it's great to play that song live. We're over here in Europe playing it, and people aren't appalled by the songs. We haven't played it in Iraq or Iran yet, though."

It sounds a lot to me like Hetfield is softballing pandering to right wing fans he doesn’t want to offend and/or personal beliefs that lean Right. He completely disregards the obvious anti-war sentiment in AJFA with “Oh, you all thought we were anti-war? We’re not pro-war, we’re pro-America.” If that isn’t some Chauvanistic Nationalism I don’t know what is.

Anyway, I don’t know one way or the other, but considering the crowd’s fashion choices at the event and his unwillingness to just say “war is bullshit”, which you can do apolitically, I figure Metallica, or at least Hetfield, support right wing ideologies.

E2: another interview where Hetfield says why he left the Bay Area:

*There was an elitist attitude there that if you weren’t their way politically, their way environmentally, all of that, that you were looked down upon. *

So by inference and the preponderance of evidence, he’s probably right wing.