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I have heard that it's important to use a black undercoat when painting metallics. So far, the main primer I've used has been white and I've brushed on Abaddon black on places I want to paint metallic. I ran out of white primer and am switching to grey, and I'm wondering if it's worth my time to keep doing that black undercoat thing. What do you guys think?

Drybrushing metallics over black has a very nice effect and is pretty easy to do. But if you're just painting the metallic over the entire area in an opaque base coat, it probably doesn't make a huge difference what color your primer is.

I did my mechanicus with metal over grey primer. Not sure if black would have given me better looking metal.

Depends on your goal. Bright undercoat results in a flat metal effect meaning it looking like Abbadon has had his armor spray painted rather than it actually being made out of metal.

Sometimes you want this clean neat appearance but chaos marines are likely not that occation.

It does not have to be black btw.
under gold I'd recommend a dark brown.
under brazz you do well with a dark camo green
and copper looks amazing when brushed over turquiose.

Silver has the most options as it lacks taint itself and can be combined with all sorts of colors like blue commonly seen on grey knights.

I hope this helps