Members of the rock band Metallica no longer have any real music to produce, so they have resorted to shamelessly promoting themselves as celebrities. It’s a status, however, they have rightfully earned by being one of the most beloved rock bands of the past 20 years.

They formed during the early ’80s when metal was taking shape in the shadow of Black Sabbath, lurking just beneath the veneer of hair-bands like Poison and Whitesnake. The two founding members, Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield, maintained the band’s definitive sound even through constant rotations of bandmates. They weathered the death of founding member and bassist Cliff Burton in 1986 while on tour in Europe. They buoyed the Seattle grunge backlash of the early ’90s, even releasing their most critically acclaimed self-titled album in 1991 when the “new sound” was emanating from the Northeast. They toured relentlessly until redefining themselves with the release of the album “Load” in 1996.

But then something happened. The band that had once earned the nickname “Alcoholica” for its over-the-top drinking antics in the ’80s had grown soft. It followed up “Load” with “Reload”, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts but failed to dazzle old fans. They cut their hair. Hetfield’s singing had a more melodious tone.

As opposed to one or two videos, every hit single from the album had a video featured on MTV. More mediocre albums followed, lacking the punch of the original rage. Then they attacked Napster, blaming declining record sales on copyright infringement instead of a growing dissatisfaction with the music. Fans reacted violently, and Metallica’s popularity has never fully recovered.

For me, it was the exact moment I began to hate the modern incarnation of the band.

They hid for a few years from the backlash of fans and recorded their most recent album, “St. Anger,” while filming sessions with a psychiatrist. That footage has been compiled into a movie called, “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster” that was released in New York and Los Angeles on July 9. They also have a book coming out soon called “So What!” You can pre-order the book online at Metallica’s official Web site, along with other great product offers. The online store features the heading, “SOME KIND OF MONSTROUS SALE!”

Product offers? You’ve got to be kidding me. Wasn’t this the band whose first official album was titled “Kill ‘Em All”, featuring a cover of a metal hammer with blood splashed in the background? Didn’t the band write songs about paraplegics begging to be killed, killing babies, odes to pagan gods featured in the books of H.P. Lovecraft and death by electrocution?

Metallica used to be obsessed with the bottom: Emotional rock bottom, the bottom of a bottle, the bottom of hate, the bottom of the psyche, bottomless regret. Now, like so much else in the music industry today, the aging rockers are only obsessed with the bottom line.

The product they should be offering is the attitude that used to define them as a band, because the music industry needs that old fire right now. We’re being subjected to sappy pop songs from actors/musicians who use their albums as an audio component to their fashion lines and perfumes.

We don’t need to bottle what the old Metallica used to smell like; we know they stunk, and that is precisely why we loved them. They consistently rocked with music that satisfied fans despite changing popular tastes. They were dirty and kept the rage in rock, as it should be.

They can’t keep making “Metallica” over and over again; that is obvious. Artists are sometimes forced, through fame and time, to re-invent themselves. Fine. But does that mean they should release a self-serving film about their internal struggles in a desperate attempt to reconnect with fans? Their collective egos might have trouble being contained on so small a canvas as a movie screen.

No wonder Jason Newstead left in January 2001.

Hey Lars, if you want to connect with me again, write a song that is worth listening to more than once in passing. Get out from in front of the camera and back under the headphones, maybe even behind some drums. You used to be one of the best in the world, remember?

The fact is that as a creative force, Metallica has little left to say. The band members seem content to ride out popular opinion and grab whatever cash and publicity they can as they descend further and further from what made them distinctive. They have gone the way of the other dinosaurs: The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. They might as well be doomed to touring the world playing their old stand-bys and selling their hits to commercials for new cars and new soda.