special introductory
paragraph!
Kill 'Em All
No Life 'Til Leather
Whiplash 12"
Ride The Lightning
Day On The Green 1985
Master Of Puppets
The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited
...And Justice For All
Metallica
Live Shit: Binge & Purge
Load
A Change Of Seasons
Reload
Garage Inc.
S & M
St. Anger
Some Kind Of Monster
Six Feet Down Under
Live On Long Island (reviewed by Nick G)
Live at Grimey's
Death Magnetic
Six Feet Down Under Part II
Lulu (with Lou Reed)
Metallica weren't innovators. Their contribution to the speed scene was to build upon what the early speed bands did and refine it and make it more acceptable to the masses. As to their sudden rise in popularity, it can be traced to two events. First was the backlash to the glam metal scene of the late 80's. The second and probably more important event was that they were picked to support Ozzy Ozbourne's U.S. tour in 1986 (when Master Of Puppets was released). This allowed them to expose the mass metal audience to the speed scene.
Now, on the other hand, Load and Reload are not so much "sellout" albums as they are "we have a good name, so people will now buy anything we slap it on" albums. In other words, it seemed to me that they just stopped trying altogether. It was as if they realized that the masses would still eat up music without any effort behind it, just as long as they recognized the name Metallica. They knew they wouldn't have to be so meticulous about how they put stuff together, and so they gave themselves a break and produced a bunch of sub-standard music. Just for an example, listen to the solos Hammet belts out in "Damage Inc.", "Blackened," "Ride The Lightening," "Enter Sandman," and "Wherever I May Roam." It's obvious that he spent time and effort putting each one of those masterpieces together. Now listen to his pitifull effort on "Hero of the Day," as well as his shit work in all the post-black album solos. Isn't it obvious that he's just fucking around? There's no substance there, no emotion behind what's being played. The problem I have with Load and reload is not the lack of speed. Hell, they dropped enough in speed in "Metallica" to piss any self-repecting thrash fan off. There's something else missing. Its the dense layering of intricate riff on top of intricate riff. It's the masterful fashion by which the songs fit together. It's Hammett's soulfully powerfull wailing guitar solos. In short, it's the effort that made their past releases such masterpieces.
Motorhead started up in about 1975. Lemmy had a band called `Iron Fist and the Hordes from Hell' beforehand (after being sacked from Hawkwind); that was the direct precursor of Motorhead. I've read Lemmy's description of Motorhead as a blues band; just very, very fast.
Motorhead's first album release was `On Parole' in 1976. The album called Motorhead by Motorhead was released in 1977 - 'twas their second. http://www.cannedchaos.com/motorhead_disc.html
Larry Wallace was in the band (IFatHfH *and* Motorhead, IIRC) in the very early days. He'd previously been the guitarist with the Pink Fairies, also very fast and very noisy - but predating Motorhead and playing a similar sort of thing.
Lemmy had developed his trade (so to speak) playing with Hawkwind starting in 1971 (Hawkwind started up in 1968ish - first name `Band X' or `Group X' depending on who you ask
http://www.starfarer.net/timelin1.html . People don't pay much attention to Hawkwind, but in Simon King (from 1972) the band had a *very* fast and dedicated drummer http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/hawkwind/index.html , and when you've got Lemmy on bass the effect is - well, what you get is a cross between fast metal and whacked out hippy space rock. Certainly loud and fast - try the Hawkwind track `Brainstorm' from the `Space Ritual' album, to take one example. Maybe the bpm isn't as high as some would like, but imagine how it'd feel at a gig with some really *big* speakers. As I heard Lemmy say about the effect of the music being so loud and fast `We used to really hurt people at times'.
So you might call Lemmy under cover of Motorhead the godfather of speed metal - but the story began a long time before Motorhead. Consider also that Lemmy developed his musical ideas by listening to what was going on around him - stealing some elements, developing others, inventing some. I'm sure a careful study could show the line of development all the way back to the old bluesmen and rock'n'rollers - and where did those styles come from, in their turn?
btw, far from being a silly overblown band in the early days, Iron Maiden was a *reaction* to all that sort of stuff that bands like Led Zep put on. Then Bruce Dickenson replaced Paul Dianno in the early 1980s, and I began to lose interest (I shan't tell you my age, but that should give you a hint). btw, I saw Robert Plant and Jimmy Page perform at a folk festival[1] a year or so back and was utterly blown away. The bloke I thought was Jimmy Page was flying around like he was 18 years old and had a *huge* grin on his face a lot of the time.
Rowland
(who grew up in London and has a copy of the leather-clad `No Remorse'
which he bought new when it came out in 1984 and never did care how
silly anyone thinks it is)
[1] Priory of Brion appeared at Cropredy in 2000.
http://www.moss53.freeserve.co.uk/crop2000.htm
I note that page say Jimmy Page wasn't there. Well, *I* thought I saw him, and heard him - it was the guitar playing which convinced me that it could hardly be anyone else because hardly anyone at all can play like that (it's not humanly possible to move your hand up and down the fretboard like that - he must have made a pact with the devil). But then again, I was a fair way back from the stage so I could be mistaken. On the other hand, my wife recalls Jimmy Page being introduced and is *sure* it was him.
On the other other hand (is that three so far?), the music was superb, so who really cares?
The only real problem with the album is that, in comparison to the mindbogglingly thrashin' speed shredders "Hit The Lights," "Motorbreath," "Phantom Lord," "Metal Militia" and the deservedly legendary "Whiplash," the slower, more conventional metal tracks, though catchy enough, seem awfully sluggish. "Jump In The Fire" and "Seek And Destroy" in particular seem to be poking along at like one mile per hour. I guess they help to make the fast ones seem even tougher, but they still seem a bit out of place. Awww, why complain? Cliff Burton's distorted bass solo is totally wild and, if I recall correctly, is cherished by bass freaks just like "Eruption" is honored by budding guitarists. And ummm.... Oh! The lengthy "Four Horsemen," in addition to being about sixty-eight jillion times catchier than The Clash's song of the same name, makes it pretty clear that these acne-prone lads are capable of tons more than straight head-bangin' R 'n' R. Artistic growth? Comin' up!
By the way, "Four Horsemen" was a slowed down version of a song Dave Mustaine wrote called "Mechanix."
The whole history of thrash metal seems pretty haphazard - there's no general consensus on when and wwhere it began, or who started the whole thing. Though many will argue, I believe you can hear the very beginnings of what would become the thrash sound all the way back in 1969, with Zep's "Communication Breakdown" - you can really hear the foundation for Motorhead's sound in that song. Further signs of thrash/speed can be heard in Deep Purple's song "Fireball" from 1971 (Wargasm covered this song and when you make the guitar tone heavier, it sounds very much like a modern-day thrash song) and "Highway Star" from 1972.
I believe the first song that can be in any way be classified "thrash" is Sabbath's "Symptom of the Universe," from 1975 - as Prindle said in his review, this is a VERY important song. 1977 sees the release of Motorhead by Motorhead (obviously), probably the single most influential band in this genre (and all of so-called "extreme metal"). While I wouldn't categorize Motorhead as metal per se - the guitar tone was more bluesy then metallic - they were the first band to fuse the blues-rock approach of Sabbath and the speed of punk, laying the true foundation for thrash metal. So, like the Stooges (who are considered "The Godfathers of Punk" without being punk themselves), Motorhead are "The Godfathers of Thrash" (or, rather, Lemmy is, because Lemmy IS Motorhead).
The members of Venom were also from England and watched Motorhead play, and they started playing similar music (though much less skillfully). Unlike Motorhead, Venom were/are definitely metal, and their 1982 release Black Metal (predating Slayer and Metallica's first LPs by a year) features double-speed riffs, i.e. the quintessential trademark of thrash metal.
So, I would have to say that Venom released the first thrash album, but that Slayer and Metallica were probably the first true thrash *bands*, as Venom's previous release was not a thrash record and Venom is generally considered mostly a black metal band. Hellhammer (which became Celtic Frost) did not release "Apocalyptic Raids" until 1984, placing them two years behind Venom, robbing of them of the status of thrash-originators (as someone claimed); Frost has always been more death metal, anyway, and with Possessed can claim to be the first true death metal band. Similarly, Sodom did not release their first EP until 1984, putting them behind Venom (of all the thrash bands still around from this early period, however, Sodom are unquestionably the most vicious and have changed their approach the least).
On the difference between thrash and speed metal... Some people may argue, but there is a major distinction between the two. While I know less about speed then thrash, the first true speed metal song seems to be Priest's "Exciter" (1978), the approach displayed later elaborated on in future Judas Priest releases, and also in the work of such bands as Iron Maiden, Agent Steel, Rage, and Running Wild. Speed metal is actually not as fast as thrash, but is generally more melodic and far less heavy and "brutal" (as that factor is quite important to some metal fans). Listen to a Rage's "Perfect Man" and then Slayer's "Reign in Blood" and the differences become obvious quite quickly.
Well, I think that concludes the history lesson on thrash metal...
As far as my opinions on Kill 'Em All go, what do you want me to say? What can I say about a classic thrash record that hasn't already been said a million times? It rules, that's a fact.
1.HIT THE LIGHTS:......................................................ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHGHGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG YEOW! BLASTING OFF WITH A LOUD PRODUCTION THAT IS DIRTY, JAMES SAYS NO LIFE TILL LEATHER, GONNA KICK SOME ASS TONITE! SPEEDY SONG THAT NEEDS TO BE PLAYED ON THE RADIO MORE THAN THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD SANDMAN! JUST LIKE THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD TRIPLE H WHINING ON HOW HE BEATS UP ALL THE PEOPLE AND STAYING CHAMPION FOR THE 10TH TIME! SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!! TRIPLE IS A PENIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
2.FOUR HORSEMEN: DAVE MUSTINE WROTE SOME OF THE SONG FROM THE ALBUM BUT WHEN HE GOT REALLY INSANE ON COKE, HE BOOTED HIS OUTTA HERE! GALLOPING METAL SONG WITH A DEADLY THEME: 4 EVIL HORSEMEN! KINDA LIKE IRON MAIDEN SONGS LIKE PROWLER OR TRANSYLVANIA! KIRK HAMMET AND HIS LOUD LEAD DRIVE THE SONG!
3MOTORBREATH!: SPEEDY ROCK AT YOR SERVICE! JAMES SOUNDS LIKE AN ANGRY METALHEAD SLACKER! BOB ROCK IS THE ONE WHO KILLED METALLICA JUST LIKE SUPERMAN NEARLY GOT ZAPPED BY DEADLY KRYPTONITE! AT LEAST HE QUIT HIS DAY JOB AND HE WILL BE KNOWN AS A METAL PRODUCER WHO DID THE CULT. YES I LIKED THE SANCTURARY SONG IN THE NISSAN COMMERCIALS. CHER, BON JOVI, AND YES YA SQUEELING TEENYBOPPERS SIMPLE PLAN! FUCK THEM UP IT'S GAY ASS!
4.JUMP IN THE FIRE!: TO YOU THE RIFF MAY SOUND DATED AND REPETITIVE BUT I STILL SAY THAT IT ROCKED!
5.ANASTHESIA, PULLING TEETH: BASS SOLO TAKE ONE. BASS FREAKS HEAR YE! CLIFF BURTON IS THE JIMI HENDRIX OF THE BASS GUITAR! FLAME ME IF YOU MUST BUT I SAY HE DISTORTED LEADS MADE YOU THINK WHOA THIS GUITAR IS HEAVY! BUT IN REALITY IT HAS FOUR STRINGS! I STILL SAY CLIFF IS GOD. MAYBE A CLICHÉ BUT I STOLE THE CLICHÉ. LONG LIVE CLIFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6.WHIPLASH: THE CONCERT STAPLE! THAT MAY BE METALLICA'S ROCK N ROLL ALL NITE!
7.PHANTOM LORD: IRON MAIDEN 2! THE DEADLY PHANTOM LORD! DARK NASTY RIFFS WITH FIRE AND THUNDER!!
BOW TO YOUR KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND BOW TO THE PHANTOM LOOOOOOOORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8.NO REMORSE: WAR SONG ABOUT THE COMING OF NUCLEAR WAR. THE TOPIC MAY GO ON FOR MORE SONGS LIKE DISPOSABLE HEROES AND EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. HEY I JUST FOUND OUT THAT SADDAM IS IN HIS UNDERPANTS!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! HERE COMES YOUR NEW PORN STAR!
9.SEEK AND DESTROY: IT WAS USED FOR THE WCW STING THE WRESTLER BEFORE HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN. MY MOTHER TOLD ME THAT. I LIKE STING BETTER THAN JBL! IT WAS THE RADIO HIT BUT I CHOOSE HIT THE LIGHTS.
10.METAL MILITIA: LAST JAM!
10! you cannot get more metal than this.
"He speeded up Mechanix to try and make it better than Metallica's version, but it literally bellyflopped IMO. Everything about it sucks. The lyrics suck, his vocals blow, and the musicianship is grotesque."
I think it's pretty obvious that he wasn't just trying to make it sound more bad-ass by speeding it up, seeing how it's not even a proper thrash metal song. He made it a lot more rockin' and thus it's not as stale as Metallica's version here. The vocals were HIS more than can be said about James', and as for the lyrics, I still don't understand how people keep bashing it. I mean at least it's funny, at least today he can look back and not feel as if he was trying to be oh so epic as James probably does now, or whoever the fuck penned those lines.
That's why Dave was always the winner (not in terms of commercial success), he had more guts than James and Lars, and maybe he just managed to get out his crazyness in a positive way.
All hail Dave Mustaine.
I hate that last paragraph. Fuck you, last paragraph.
You'd think that replacing half a band would change their sound at least a slight bit, but in the case of Metallica, you'd be wrong as a hatter. J'apparently Mustaine's replacement (Steve Johnson or whatever - the Mexican-looking guy) chose to simply recreate his solos (at least as far as I can tell) (I don't really give a shit about solos). But these songs are GREAT! Aren't they? All these thrash classics? All seven were re-recorded for Kill 'Em All, but the only one that sounds significantly different here is the early version of "The Four Horsemen." Entitled "The Mechanix," it finds the band plowing speedily right through the "Detroit Rock City" ripoff parts, rather than having Lars slow down and place accents. Mustaine retained the original title and arrangement when he recorded the song with his next band, The Iris Daylillies.
The reason for the 8 is that it's impossible to download a copy of this that isn't 400,000th generation, so the sound quality is literally the La Brea Tar Pits. Plus you already have all the songs, played nearly the same way. Oh! This is kind of interesting: Hetfield's voice sounds more like Mustaine's on here than it does Hetfield. Some say that they actually exchanged identities shortly after it was recorded, and the newly appointed "James Hetfield" fired the awww fsdk
I hate writing. Fuck you, words.
You may recall about a month ago when I announced that my post-marital-separation "Lost Weekend" had reached cessation due to a particularly unpleasant incident regarding a table, my face, and two women I didn't know. Well, that cessation lasted a good ten days before I decided, "You know what? I'm bored. I know I can regulate my alcohol intake, so I'll just do that." And this worked for a while -- I would always be careful to drink a glass of water with each shot of vodka, as well as eating at the same time. So I got comfortable.
Okay, so last Sunday night a woman I know from karaoke was having a birthday party in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. It was B.Y.O.B., so I brought a big cheap bottle of cherry-flavored vodka. I got there and everybody seemed to be already well and sloshed so I dug right in. Unfortunately, I ignored the following facts:
a) I had not eaten a thing all day
b) I was already dehydrated from jogging earlier in the afternoon
c) I should not have been pouring the vodka into a big cup and just drinking it straight
Here then is my memory timeline for the rest of the evening:
1. Looking at the bottle and realizing I'd drank an entire half of it by myself in less than an hour
2. A split-second of weaving down the building's hallway, vaguely aware that I was leaving on bad terms
3. A split-second of taking two steps into the street, only to lose balance and fall to the ground on my right side
4. A split-second of trying to dial a number on my cell phone, only to realize that the entire back was missing
5. Waking up the next morning handcuffed to a hospital bed in Queens
Okay then! So yes, I won't be drinking anymore. It's fun and all, but really not worth the risk of ending up paralyzed or imprisoned. I alerted seven of my friends to this development, telling them that if I have even one more drink, they need to make me go to AA. I don't think it will be an issue because (a) it takes effort to purchase alcohol, (b) I'm not physically addicted to it, and (c) it tastes godawful. But I figure it's a good idea to have a support group, because you never know how your brain is gonna try to trick you one day.
Here's what I later learned about my evening of fun in the metropolis of my dreams:
1. I lost my keys and cell phone. Pretty sure I broke my cell phone actually, judging from that tiny memory.
2. The policemen told me that they'd found me lying on the sidewalk. When they tried to help me, I fought them and tried to get away. At some point I shouted that I was going to kill myself, so they took me to the hospital.
3. I left my bag with umbrella and Touch & Go book at the party thrower's apartment. HOWEVER.....
4. I must've done something terrible at the party because when I arrived home, I discovered that the party girl had unfriended me on Facebook.
5. My karaoke friend Shandi told me that I called her about ten times that night, starting at around 1:00 AM. The last time I spoke to her, I was apparently in a car going home. Was this a cab that I later exited? Or the police car? We'll never know.
6. My old college friend Adelfa told me that I left her several slurred voicemails and texts reading "Please help me." In one of the voicemails, I shouted at somebody "IT'S 91!" which is the street I live on, so again I was apparently in a car at some point.
7. I'm the coolest person in the world.
On that note, Metallica's "Whiplash" 12" is definitely not the place to hear Metallica's awesome thrasher "Whiplash." Stick to the Kill 'Em All version, because what you've got here is a remixed version that plants the drums fifty times louder than the guitars. Why? I don't know; maybe Lars was playing with the knobs. (He's certainly spent enough time playing with MY knob, if you know what I mean!!!!!) (he molested me) The 12" also includes the LP version of weak midtempo bore "Jump In The Fire" and two ridiculously fake 'live' versions of Kill 'Em All asskickers "Seek & Destroy" (midtempo yes, but hooky and heavy!) and "Phantom Lord" (thrash my ass, o lord of the phantoms!). Good songs and definitely alternate versions, but if these are 'live,' then my dick's an eggplant salad.
A fucken HUGE eggplant salad, that is!!! With a big fucken boner!!!!
Also check out the EP Creeping Death, although really all you have to do is listen to Creeping Death and the two covers of Blitzkrieg and Am I Evil? Side B of Creeping Death was the first Garage Days Revisited. So that’s why the EP with Newsted is called Re-Revisited. Elektra added them onto their re-relase of Kill ‘em All making the EP pretty much obsolete.
Glad to hear you are ok, we will miss hearing about your drunken antics on the ol’ interweb.
It's also a lot more bottom-heavy than Kill 'Em All, and the melodies, though still somewhat traditional, are taken to wonderful levels of depth and elevation by this thoughtful instrumental combo. A ridiculously high level of reverb on the vocals renders Mr. Hetfield's throaty delivery a bit ugly at times, but not enough to spoil an otherwise phenomenal display of tearin' speed metal, gripping riffage, depressing lyricism, and a neat album cover. If you try to find flaws, you'll succeed (the nine-minute instrumental "Call Of Ktulu" is, well, NINE minutes long, and "Escape" is seemingly some sort of pop song and, as such, takes a little while to get used to), but this is still the most fully-realized combination of intensity and dark beauty that drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Cliff Burton (or his replacement Jason Newsted, or his replacement Robert Trujillo), and rhythm guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield have unfurled onto this crazy Web site we call the world as of the turn of '08.
What else can I say to make you buy this? The band is much more serious this time around, leaving the "good time rock and roll" lyricism of "Whiplash" and "Hit The Lights" behind to concentrate on epic tales of misadventure and pain, and replacing the groovy hard rock guitar lines of "Jump In The Fire" and "Seek And Destroy" with intelligent fully-developed minor-key anthemic heavy metal music of a calibre far beyond the reach of the endless numbers of simple-minded combos that are to blame for the bad reputation attributed to an otherwise perfectly enjoyable genre of music.
Yeah, that'll make you buy it.
Creeping Death- same story as Ride The Lightning... Call Of The Ktulu...is quite alright actually,then again Dave Mustaine took part in writing this.This album shows how Metallica are not enough creative to make touching albums... Sure,after this album they had lots of songs that really rocked, but that's it...it just rocks,nothing more,
so there's no need buying the albums,you can play kick-ass riffs on your own if you want.And it's really not surprising, it's why they have so many fans, they offer A LITTLE to everyone.THIS album takes the price,ripp-off from the more melodic Sabbath tunes... those of you who want to listen to really great thrash music,get the early Megadeth albums, 'cause Dave Mustaine is a brilliant writer, both the lyrics and the songs are three times better than Metallica... and before i end this, Motorbreath is credited to Ulrich and Hetfield on the CD booklet, it was actually written by another guy (i don't remember the name)..the intro is written by Dave Mustaine.
"i just wonder what Metallica will do when they run out of my riffs"
-Dave Mustaine,1984
Not a bit original? Sorry...your little blinders are causing you ex post facto bias. Wasn't much that sounded like *this* at the time. Sure, thrash existed, but look at Slayer's debut--more Venom influenced than anything.
and whoever said RTL spawned the death metal scene, thanks for a million laughs. how the hell did Metallica influence anything remotely death metal?
Best Metallica album out of the ones I've heard [KEA, RTL, MOP, AJFA, Black album].
Maybe the songwriting on MOP is a little more developed [and Orion beats Ktulu hands down] but all the songs on RTL are great [and yes that includes Trapped Under Ice and Escape]. I used not to like some tracks that much, but then I dug this album out again and the whole thing 'clicked' [same happened with Master of Puppets].
But what makes this album special is the vibe it has. The whole album sounds like the cover looks-remorseless, icy cold power. A 'wintery' vibe, one of ice, and cold blue lightning bolts, and glowing metallic power surges.
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
In conclusion, Lightning Bolt = Metallica.
- Immense speed (Fight Fire with fire - I swear, people must have shit their pants when they first heard this back in '84. The speed...)
- Thrash ballad (Fade to Black - not too deep, but still thoughtful and exemplary of talent and songwriting ability)
- Long ass instrumental (The Call of Ktulu - I admit, it gets boring after a while, but who else dared to do something remotely similar back in those days?)
- Usage of non-generic themes (Creeping Death - ancient mythology and shit... Pretty ambitious for a thrash band)
These elements, along with a very obvious maturation compared to Kill 'em All are what make Ride a very likable album.
However, I think Master of Puppets expands and improves on the aforementioned elements, and shows even a deeper degree of maturity.
Final verdict: Thanks RtL for inventing it, thanks MoP for perfecting it.
The only plus side I can add to my previous thoughts about RTL is that the title track is slightly better than I used to think, although still the chorus melody is dumb and in general the latter part of the song is lame.
It's obvious why this album is so popular in metal circles in general though. It's because the style appeals to the sectarian attitude of "true metal"-fans. RTL is as close as Metallica ever got to traditional heavy metal. True metal is all about being into wussy metal with clichéd melodies while trying to find a way to make this not conflict with the badass macho ideals of the person. So you have to solve this by just going total reverse about the whole thing, calling everyone who's not into metal a "fag". That way you know you're still way badass even if you dig on "Fade To Black" or "Hallowed Be Thy Name" or something. The rest of it is just about being into tired melodies and Hollywood/Fantasy novel aesthetics.
However, this is the Prindle site, and I think recommending RTL as Metallica's best may steer people away from the goodness of MOP, AJFA and KEA, for the ones who will just figure that since Mark has good taste in music, "I must have missed something". Then they'll put on RTL and soon enough it's like "okay, it's just heavy metal".
"Fight Fire With Fire" and "Trapped Under Ice" are decent thrash songs, and the title track + "For Whom The Bell Tolls" are also Metallica-worthy. The rest - instrumental one aside - is at best extremely clichéd and mediocre and at worst just shit music. Compare this to the heavy attack of MOP and the uncompromising effort of AJFA... Again, I just don't get it.
And here's another thing that I've been meaning to bring up before since it's not just about Metallica. It seems to me like there's some unexpalined bias in the reviews on the site, like the set standards being so different for different bands.
For instance, imagine if Guns 'N' Roses had written a song very similar to "Fade To Black". Even if it probably would have been three times better, Axl Rose and the rest of them would have totally been laughed at for making such an unoriginal metal balad. But with Metallica, it's as if they have to be given some slack as if they're a bunch of 8 year olds who can't be expected to perform something better. Even if the lyrics make Phil Collins sound like a poet, we have to pretend like they're moving or something. Or look at all those 90s bands. Smashing Pumpkins have taken so much shit, while Van Halen can write a generic hard rock song that gets credit for being "emotional" just because that's the intention. And Slayer of course can't miss a riff on a whole album since it's all badass. But if a heavy 90s band does the same thing, then it's judged by some kind of intellectual criteria by which the band consists of a bunch of posers who try to hide their artistic limits behind heavy riffs.
Plus, the whole darn album is like a remake of Ride The Lightning. It starts off with a pretty acoustic bit that turns into a kickass speed thrasher, which is followed up by the epic midtempo title track which gives way to the downtempo weirdass catchy-in-spite-of-itself lengthy-titled third song until side one ends with the slow eerie beautiful note-filled youth angst ballad. Then side two begins with a nearly impenetrably speedy semi-ugly number followed by a not-quite-as-interesting midtempo track, followed by - oops! A discrepancy! Ride The Lightning has a radically violent hardcore splorcher followed by a long instrumental; Master Of Puppets switches the order. So, in conclusion, if you liked the last one, you'll like this one and vice-versa. Less reverb on James's voice is good, and, again, side one will take you places you once thought only Whitney Houston could take you. But haven't they already made this album?
Simple complaints aside, I'd like to finish this review by pointing out that if air sounded like "The Thing That Should Not Be," I'd breathe a lot more often.
Saw Metallica twice, once for Justice and once for the Black Album, and was not greeted with "Disposable Heroes" or "Battery" either time. To add insult to injury, we could hear them soundchecking with "Battery" the first time we saw them.
This is probably the single most important soundtrack record of my not-too-long-ago high school career. The title track alluded to all the kids in my class getting whacked out of their skulls on coke (and worse), and "Disposable Heroes" seemed very appropriate to me the pacifist when the "Gulf War" broke. And "Orion", "Damage", wooooeeeee!
Plus "Sanitarium" is the story of my life.
And did you know that if you think about it, Black Sabbath's Volume Four and Paranoid follow basically the same structure: they both open with the lengthy eight minute epic ("War Pigs"; "Wheels Of Confusion"), then they have the two and a half minute poppy single ("Paranoid"; "Tomorrow's Dream"), then the slow ballad ("Planet Caravan"; "Changes"), then the catchy heavy one ("Iron Man"; "Supernaut"), etc... until they both end with the long heavy one ("Fairies Wear Boots"; "Under The Sun").
Oh yeah, don't make fun of Sheryl Crow. I would bang her anyday!.
later
This is their best album ever.
Fuck these sellouts.
for me, this album is metallica's high point until the black album. the tunes are more mature, the melody/riff combinations are well-developed, and the lyrics are certainly more sensible than all the other 'devil! blood! death! argh!' shite of bands like slayer. AJFA is also excellent, but seems to be a bit too self-congratulatory and indulgent, and doesn't have the same instantly gripping factor as MoP. come on guys, 'the thing that should not be' rules! heavy, heavy, heavy...
Of course there's no denying this one's greatness, and as musicians they are definitely at their peak here, but the sound of the album - which I used to love - now sounds sort of flat and restrained, as if it's straining to burst into new realms of heaviness but just can't make it. It just doesn't spit and crackle like Ride the Lightning does.
And yes, the format is the same as that album's (and indeed ...And Justice for All's) - but hold on people!! That's a strength, not a weakness! It allows you to see their musical development within clearly defined boundaries, almost as if they were challenging themselves to improve on the last effort; and it is also a sort of Metallica calling card, like a big spiky 'M' stamped all over it. What did you want after Ride the Lightning? Twenty 2-minute rock'n'roll standards?
So maybe not ten. Either these three classics all deserve tens or none of them do - they just can't be compared to one another. Go round to Fred Durst's house and play this at top volume - he'll thank you for it one day.
The greatest album is MASTER OF PUPPETS greatest now load and reload were okay but no KILL EM' ALL, RIDE THE LIGHTNING, MASTER OF PUPPETS(of course) AND MAYBE and...JUSTICE FOR ALL. All and all the best of METALLICA'S works ever and I take my hat off to thses former "METAL" bands.
I just read the review for that one, and I seriously don't understand where you're getting all this from. RTL is a poor record because it's a metal album that doesn't kick ass and isn't really all that heavy. It's somewhat sharp, but it's got the speed on merely two - TWO! - tracks, one of which is pretty darn lame.
This one however has some fierce energy, speed and heaviness...And there's actually some substance in the songs except of predictable higher end arena rock riffs. "Welcome Home" is the "Fade To Black" of this one, and that's just one way of seeing the difference. The former is good, the latter is EMBARRASSING. And that goes for the balads, the heavier, faster tracks really put their earlier counterparts to shame. Rhythm, leads, vocals...ALL the arangement is superior.
At its worse, there are a few tracks that do get boring at times, but atleast they're not CRAP like half of the RTL songs.
And how can you refer to "Creeping Death" as a "violent hardcore splorcher"? It basically sounded like a more straightforward Maiden! Do they get that aggressive?
I don't really own Master Of Puppets, but I've heard it and you don't really need that many listens to tell that it's superior to the previous effort. Whether or not RTL is the base of Metallica's trademark sound, it sure as hell needed some improvement, and they managed to fix the problems on here and the next one, even the selftitled album. I just wish I'd known this, so that when there was a time that I thought it was a good idea to spend some money on Metallica, I'd bought the best ones.
Seriously, I think your view on Metallica's career, with RTL as the peak that they only managed to make lesser versions of, is the most insane thing there is to read on the whole site. I just don't get it and I can't really accept it...There must be some other reason behind it.
Ride the Lightning is the pinnacle of Metallica's career by some distance. For you to say Fade to Black is embarassing when it's actually one of the most moving songs they ever wrote is just puzzling.
Anyway-Master of Puppets............ good album but not worthy of the legend status bestowed on it. It has its good points-the songwriting is more developed, the title track is-well, amazing-and Orion is one of the best instrumentals that I've heard.
But......... there's a couple of problems. For a start I can't remember how Damage Inc. goes. Leper Messiah is a bit substandard, and Sanitarium is a letdown after Fade to Black. The main problem however is The Thing That Should Not Be. This stop-start track is just boring. I'm sorry, it may be heavy but there's no reason for it to stop-start like that all the time. Keep the momentum up a bit!
But apart from the substandard songs the main gripe I have with this album is the production. It's too flat, dry, two dimensional. On RTL the production was three dimensional, it made everything crackle and glow and hiss, gave everything a special vibe, made the whole album sound incredibly epic and heavy. On MOP the dry, flat production just saps some life out of the record. If it had had Black Album production it would be Metallica's second best album, but as such I'm going to rate it joint third [1=RTL, 2=Live Shit Binge and Purge, 3=Justice=MOP=Black Album] and give it 8/10.
Still good mind.
Embrrassment may be harsh, but it still makes sense to me to call "Fade To Black" such. It's just too damn clichéd even for a metal record. The melody is cliched, the lyrics even more, the cheeseball leads in the early parts, the theatrical power chord sequence of the "chorus", the too obvious cheap Sabbath-ness of the second half of the song.
Now you could say a few of these things about "Sanitarium" as well, and it'd be true to a certain extent, the chorus particularly get on my nerves a little bit, but all in all, the verses are a lot more moving, the melody is more complex, the lyrics are okay, and James vocals are finally rid of the pube-ness from the first two records. The vocal arrangement in general here is a lot better.
And I do agree that Master is somewhat similar to Ride. But think of it along these lines: RTL laid the base, MoP built up on it. MoP is more mature in every aspect.
"Let It Loose" - Savage ("Dirty Money", also by Savage, which was on the demo
EP with "Let It Loose", was omitted. I am at a loss as to why.)
"Sucking My Love", "Am I Evil", "The Prince", "Helpless" - Diamond Head
"Killing Time" - Sweet Savage (not the same as Savage, mind you)
"Blitzkrieg" - Blitzkrieg
"Crash Course In Brain Surgery", "Breadfan" - Budgie
"The Small Hours" - Holocaust
"The Wait" - Killing Joke
"So What?" - Anti-Nowhere League
Luckily, the razorsharp chunka-chunka doesn't get dull 'cuz the riffage kicks assage. "Blackened" and "Dyers Eve" are faster than a Jewish guy on some holiday or some crap, "To Live Is To Die" and the title track lope along like road-trekkin' hippy vans, building and building mountains of chords until your head explodes all over the ottoman, and the frightening Johnny Got His Gun tribute "One" is one of their finest moments yet. Beautiful, sad, disturbing, scary, and the end kicks tomorrow's poop clear out my ass before I even sit down to eat yesterday's Twinkie! Not every single song is phenomenal ("Harvester Of Sorrow" doesn't do much of anything, for example), but they're all good, and most of them are totally captivating for a ridiculously lengthy amount of time. Jason Newsted's the bass player now; Cliff was tragically killed in a bus accident that the rest of the band somehow survived.
"One" sucks. There. I said it. I can't stand that song. Blech....
Anyway, the overall sound of ... And justice for all is better than on their previous albums, and the compositions are -- with the exception of "Harvester of boredom" and "The shortest draw" -- damn good. I rank "Blackened", "Eye of the beholder", "Frayed ends of sanity", "One" and the title track among Metallica's best recordings.
The bad news? Lars Ulrich announced that future albums would feature shorter, more to-the-point songs such as ... "Harvester of boredom" and "The shortest draw". Oh my God.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying bass is bad, i love it, it provides a lot of depth, and no band should be without it, but i mean, that shouldn't be a reason not to like any album. Metallica makes up for the lack of bass by muting the strings, in which they place their palms on the strings themselves, and this gives a more bassy sound (believe me, I know). To sum up this bass argument; ...AJFA may not have the bass, but it is still the heaviest out of all of 'em, maybe they should take the bass out of all of em!(nah, that would suck)
The last issue is this whole screw the government theme. Although i gotta admit its been done, it hasn't really been done by metal bands that i've heard. Punk bands, that's for sure, there's plenty of anti-government punk bands, but this album was a first for Metallica. Its' not like every Metallica album is about the government, and even if you don't want to admit it, the government in 1989 when this album was released was a fuckhole under president (bush or reagen? i think it was bush. hell.). The bottom line in this topic is that it made for an awesome album, so i approve.
So, i apologize for all this text, but i had to blow off some steam, see ya later.
Well, the production is certainly weird. NO BASS, anywhere (at least I can't hear it). Cliff's gone (sob) and that hurts the melodic structure in the songs. I was told by a friend who was close to James Hetfield that Lars didn't play for more than 4 seconds anywhere on this record--and that seems to make sense seeing as you won't ever hear Dyer's Eve or a few others from here played live. A
But, I still like it. Not as much as I used to, but it's pretty good for a band that went through a pretty bad time beforehand.
I'd agree with most people that Puppets is the best album. 2nd best is a matter of taste, but it could be argued that this is second best. I would give it a 9/10.
When they recorded again (Black Album), the crown was already on Entombed's head. Don't be a sissy, go listen to Entombed's Clandestine. Or Corrosion of Conformity's Blind, proving the Metallica legacy wasn't wasted.Corrosion of Conformity, another casualty of the Great Metal Band Turns into Mediocre Sub-Bluesy-Rock plague. Entombed, too (last album). Megadeth (after RIP). Sad times. Cowboy hats will fit neatly between your buttcheeks.
These riffs are stunningly complex - the only other album that takes The Riff to this crazy level is Relayer - but this new art form is for a reason; the songs are complex too. Uneasy listening in the extreme. I can see how some people would find it boring, but I can also see how those people would think Metal Militia is the greatest song of all time. You hear One? Why those changes? From mournful melodic mediaeval melody-making to hell's-teeth breakneck machine-gun assault? Nobody can say. There is no explanation. You have to experience it; it's just awesome. The Frayed Ends of Sanity is so insanely complex it's almost unbearable, and Dyer's Ever features Kirk Hammett's greatest guitar solo. There is genius at work on this album.
To Live Is To Die. This piece of music is the most enormous, terrifying, beautiful thing the world of metal has ever produced. Its scale is breathtaking, the genius of its playing unbelievable. Orion is left in the dust. It's Metallica's masterpiece and if you don't agree you've just got to keep listening until you do. All hail.
P.S...
The Basslessness of Metallica
People will moan about ...And Justice for All's lack of bass until the end of time, but there's more to it than that. To be honest, none of Metallica's 1980s albums had much bass on them at all. Disbelievers of this theory always mention The Call of Ktulu, Orion, Damage Inc. and Anesthesia, which of course have plenty of bass on them, but that's Cliff playing LEAD bass. He wrote the stuff and he was hardly likely to be inaudible on his big set-piece compositions. But listen to any other song from those first three albums and you won't hear much bass at all. What makes Justice stand out is that it's not happy with being bassless: it has to go too far and have a gaping great HOLE in the mix where the bass should be - the thing sounds pretty similar to the noise Montgomery Burns's power plant makes and if you play the album too loud it will destroy your speakers. The other problem is that, on the first three records, heavy guitars and drums made up for the bass's deficiencies, but here the guitars have no middle at all and the drums sound like someone battering a cardboard box. I can see how sneaking in at the last minute and deleting the bass might have been necessary to make this album listenable at all - but I still wish they'd taken the time to get it right in the first place.
Conclusion: big problems with the sound.
But a ten nonetheless.
But yeah, there are other problems like you mentioned that certainly dont help matters. However, i think if James and Lars didnt fuck with the controls like Jason accused them of in the Playboy article, and bury his bass, it would have been a lot more tolerable of a mix.
Okay, so everyone's noticed that the song order on these albums is eerily similar. You've got your all-out frenzied aural assault to begin the album (with intro), your long, rangey multifaceted title track opus in second position, your Metallic ballad in fourth, and ultimately (or more often penultimately) a fabulous (and long) instrumental. Now what exactly is the problem here? The suggestion seems to be that in setting themselves this album structure, Metallica somehow imposed limits on their creativity. But what about Sonata form in Classical symphonies? Surely many of the greatest musical works follow a more-or-less prescribed musical structure? I'm sure I recall some composer or other (Dvorak? Sibelius?) blathering on about the burden of too much freedom. Not many people accuse Beethoven of composing the same symphony again and again just because he tended to whack an all-out frenzied aural assault at the beginning, with a Sanitarium-esque adagio second movement, a jokey Trapped Under Ice kind of number in third place etc?
The point I am belabouring is that structure in and of itself can be a good thing. This trilogy of fabulous albums follows a fairly obvious structure, but in my view that just makes it easier to compare them, cause in a way you're comparing like with like. After many wasted hours pondering which of the three albums contains the best opening scorcher, the best title track, the best mellow-melancholy-ballad-cum-powerful-thunderous-ballbreaker etc, I would like to proffer up to the masses my own suggested track-listing for the greatest Metallica album ever, laconically titled "Master of Lightning for All":
1. Blackened. The opening bars of this song were the first Metallica sounds I ever heard, at the tender age of 14. I was instantly smitten. Those soaring backwards guitars, goodness me. Who would have thought music could be simultaneously so beautiful yet so menacing? Incidentally, a similar effect (beautiful yet menacing) can in my opinion be found in Radiohead's "Exit Music for a Film" ("we hope that you choke") and in Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" ("you're going to reap just what you sow", with that exquisite icy piano). One last comment - try playing the intro to Blackened backwards, if you have the software. A completely different mood altogether. Cool. Oh yeah, the rest of the song kicks ass too.
2. Master of Puppets. Greatest metal song of all time. The wickedest all- time riff (esp. Figure 2 at the start), gorgeous middle section adds loads of colour, and my favourite single section of the song, that thundering rising figure just before the reprise of the main Master theme. My only regret in giving Master the second slot here is that Ride the Lightning was a strong contender, having what is hands-down the best guitar solo in any Metallica song ever. Pretty awesome composition for a bunch of 21-year-olds.
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Okay, so the bell sound effects sound better on "Hells Bells", and the main riff (before the vocals begin) IS pretty generic, but the harmonies in the guitar interlude made me cry back in 1989.
4. One. I think it's the best of the three "ballads". Okay, so the lyrical idea is so morbid its funny, but Fade to Black is a bit adolescently self-indulgent and the second half of Sanitarium is kind of boring. But don't get me wrong! I'd disembowel myself with a butter knife if only I could have penned one of these tracks!
5. Disposable Heroes. This one gets my vote solely because of that incendiary section where all hell breaks loose, where the boys play that awesome palm-muted staccato figure with the skidding single note in between before locking down at the end like a high-precision machine shifting down through the gears. It's great stuff. Then again it probably doesn't have that much competition - Trapped Under Ice is probably the crappest song from the whole trilogy, and Shortest Straw takes itself a bit too seriously (I know, it's a cool solo though).
6. Leper Messiah. Now what do people have against this song? It's a sullen, beautiful beast of a thing if you ask me. Cool main riff (thanks Dave Mustaine), but everything pales in comparison with that section before the solo, c'mon you know the bit I mean, de-dah-dah-de-dahhh.. de-dah-dah-de- dahhh.. Etc. Now that's the kind of musical interlude that makes you want to kill yourself with twisted joy when you're a 14-year-old - and that can only be a beautiful thing right?
7. Orion. Because it's the greatest single composition that Metallica have produced. Yes it's better than "To Live is to Die" - I know, the Am-G-Em-F chord sequence at the heart of the latter breaks my heart too, but the composition as a whole is too much, too dark, too repetitive (that consciously wrought arch structure doesn't do it any favours, because you just get bored at the end). Orion on the other hand has Burton's bass (which is a damned sight better than his poetry - give me Sylvia Plath any day), and just where the hell did they get the ideas for those sounds in the second section, way back in 1986?? The kind of jazzy, oriental stuff. Plus no-one ever mentions that the second guitar solo in Orion (by Hetfield) is a sublime piece of guitar doodling. Perhaps that's because it recalls the Quoniam of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, that winding rising figure. Could Hetfield have been listening to this?? Of course that solo makes way for Burton's own solo on bass, which is where the piece really starts to plumb the interstellar depths.
8. Damage Inc. The truth is that I've never liked this song. I've always found the crushing power-chord blows that begin the song-proper to be a bit low- brow. It's not the fact that it's all one note, after all it can be quite exciting when a band like Sepultura lock into a frenzied single-note rhythmic thing, perhaps because of the sense that they're playing just so fast and intense that it would be DANGEROUS to come off that note. Anyways, both Dyers Ever and Creeping Death are fine songs and would deservedly close this album except for one thing - the Damage Intro. Burton on bass again, and man this intro makes me really genuinely and sincerely SAD that this man died. It's so beautiful, the yearning in these chords, so very very beautiful. If I had to pick one single minute of Metallica's music to put on a gold record with the Goldberg Variations and assorted whale noises to blast off into space, this would be it. This single minute, created by one man who has not been in Metallica now for 18 years, represents the very greates of Metallica. 'Nuff said.
So that's it folks. The ultimate Metallica album. In the spirit of acrimonious dissent, allow me to pour scorn all over Mr. Prindle's claim that side two of Master of Puppets is a let-down. For it won't have escaped your notice that side two of this ultimate album is none-other-than side two of Master of Puppets. Adios.
I actually was disapointed with this record when I first bought it back in the 88 but it's grown on me since, although the bass could have been turned up a few notched and Ulrichs drums sound week, thankfully I have a good sound system now and it sounds better than I remembered.
One is boring now, I've just heard it so many times and seen the vid so many times that I can't be bothered with it but every other track on this record gets my blood pumping, I cant say I agree with you about Shortest Straw, personally I think it's a strong track.
The last real Metallica speed metal album, after this they became stadium rock and a household name.
First thanks for the great site full of even greater info and a good forum. This is the first single time I ever got interested in some forum writing.
Second, I don't know is the forum about Metallica albums still active, I see some posts very old (as far as 2001) but anyway I felt the need to contribute... So here it is:
I am a kind of so-called 'die-hard' hardcore fan who collects everything possible about Metallica (various versions of the same song, either they played it live once or 100 times, to me it doesn't make any difference...). The work of these guys meant a lot to me through the hard times, and it still does... Have been lucky enough to see them twice, once on a "Nowhere Else To Roam" tour 1993 in Budapest and second time here in Serbia, last year ("Madly In Anger With The World") and both times they kicked everyone's ass... anyway this is the post about "And Justice" album...
In my modest opinion, it's the far as they could possibly ever go. Not only for the so-called 'progressive trash metal' masterpiece writing, but in a sense of feel and atmosphere they gave on this record. I actually started listening to them about the Black Album era, but wasn't overwhelmed by it... and I still think it was overrated, and Justice was underrated. People have different reasons for disliking each one of them (not to mention the Load/Reload era when I almost stopped listening to M.!) and they both are sure right - each one has it's qualities and vice versa. Since I'm into production stuff a bit, I have to say that TBA is simply TOO POLISHED, on the opposite of Justice which isn't polished at all. So that gap is drastic. I guess the period of Justice mixing was a bit strange for everyone in the band, and I don't think we'll ever find out the whole truth: why they put down Flemming Rassmussen from producer to simple sound engineer, ('cause he, whatever you think about him, pulled out something best out of these guys on Lightning/Puppets/Justice trilogy). Some say Jason was left out of mixing process, but it's pretty unbelievable since you can hear him more than clearly on Garage Days EP. Nobody of the guys today is very happy to talk about this period in their history, they just keep repeating that TBA is their Dark Side Of The Moon and stuff... (nah...)
Nevertheless, although a bit complicated for listening, Justice is for me a world for itself (literally). There is no bad song here, not a single one (I disliked some of the songs on RTL and MOP - i.e. Escape and The Thing That Should Not Be). They created a very dark atmosphere (noone in the forum mentioned this, so far I haven't read it) by using an unusual guitar-tuning (try playing the beginning of "One" on any standard-tuned guitar and you'll hear the difference) and by already billion times mentioned mix without the bass (which is obviously the greatest mistake!) and dry guitars. It's like someone told Hetfield or Ulrich they had too much reverb and echo on MOP, so this time they went into another far end. It is not necessary they record it again: just to take the master tapes, turn up the bass and add a bit of effects on the guitar section - there it is, the best metal albums of all the times (could be ideal for today's fashion of publishing so-called "digitally re-mastered albums"). Lyrically, it sure is the most mature album about the outside world (later albums speak better about the personal man's world). But what differs him from TBA is surely the construction of songs, not only the length, but their structure. This is the peak of "old" Metallica (along with the "Damaged Justice" tour which I'll regret my whole life for not seeing it). Later on, they moved from tour buses to tour airplanes, which was one of the reasons we saw them literally disintegrating before St.Anger went out. I am not using the word "sell-out" on intention because it can be read in many ways; I just don't like the sound and the structure of their songs after Justice. That's just not it... On TBA I can swallow "Sad", "Wherever", and the excellent painstaking "The God That Failed", but nothing else... Ah, even "Nothing Else Matters" to me sounds more acceptable than the poor copies of what they did before: "Tread", "Never" or "Within". Compared to, i.e., "Dyers' Eve", it's another band we're talking about (interesting, someone here said that it wasn't played by Lars at all; how comes he played it live exactly 17 times on last tour, 2004?)
All in all, their best album (without Cliff, of course). I managed to get a demo of the whole (whole!) album on the Internet, most of the songs don't have the words but it blows away in every single note. It's SO powerful! So much authentic dark personal anger and pain I have never heard afterwards. Load and ReLoad have a bit shiny moments, but it's hard to make a decent one out of them together. As with St.Anger - the only Metallica-sounding and structured song here is "The Unnamed Feeling". It would be like a dream comes true if I ever hear they fire Bob Rock and get back Flemming (which is not likely to happen... ever :-(
As you can see, I'm not one of the "how can you say this-is-better-than-that" guys, and I think there is something for every Metallica fan; on the opposite of many people, I am not going to spit or bless anything Metallica did. After all, it's just their music and their personalities that we listen to.
But Justice is Justice... :-)
The popular rockers "Enter Sandman," "Sad But True," and "Wherever I May Roam," along with the dark ballads "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters," were all over the airwaves in '91, but why the hell not? They're good songs! Sure, they're just basic simple midtempo verse-chorus-verse ditties, but, darn it to heck, they make you bang your head slowly, they've got great hooks and fine metal vocals, and they at least required more thought than, say, No Doubt's entire career. And heavy? How! Heavy heavy. No sissyish air-filled distortion like Nirvana's classic Nevermind LP. This stuff is Helmet-heavy but Hollies-hooky. So why, you may be wondering, did I only give the record an 8 out of 10? Because it's got too darn many songs on it, that's why! The last four songs are just like the first eight but less catchy. Screw 'em! All five of the hit singles are among the first eight, so maybe just turn the darn thing off after "Nothing Else Matters." No surprises await you following that stunningly melancholy love song. Except the loud fart noise right at the end!!!!
Okay, there's not really a loud fart noise at the end.
Anyway...I kind of liked this record. It still rocks...the production is great, too...so there.
Anyway, having been a Metallica-listener (though not necessarily a Metallica-fan ... I rather choose to worship AC/DC, Scorpions, Slayer, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, of whom those idiots Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett have said some pretty nasty things) since about 1988, I do feel justified to claim that Metallica, by now, have sold out. Still, I found myself listening to their untitled (black) album over and over again, and I am willing to admit that this recording features some pretty good songs. In fact, I prefer this one over Kill 'em all. One point deduction for the fact that it's too long. One point deduction for playing "Nothing else matters" during their live concerts (during which this great ballad reduces to a lengthy, boring tune with incredibly weak vocals). One point deduction for being responsible for the ugliest song on the album, "Enter sandman", being played over and over and over again on TV and radio. Hence, I'd allocate seven points to this album.
I just read your reactions to my comments on the Metallica album reviews on Mark Prindle's site. Since English is not my native language, I'm not sure what a "cunt" is. But if it is what I think it is, then you have lost your bet (I am a male).
Anyway, I believe you could do with a new pair of glasses. In contrast to your remarks, I have never claimed mr. Ulrich and mr. Hammett to be wusses. I have only called them idiots! The remark that Ulrich and Hammett are idiots was not meant to be offensive. I only meant to say that I disagree with some of their public views on bands such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Slayer.
I don't mind if you think I'm a wussy for listening to Scorpions or AC/DC. I would agree that the lyrics and image of these bands suck big time, but they have really made some wonderful music. In particular, if you like the simpler rock songs on Metallica's most recent albums, you may well like such great hard rock albums as Love at first sting (Scorpions) and Let there be rock and Back in Black (AC/DC) too!
However, you may be correct in thinking that my comments to the Metallica albums are too negative. In fact, I think they are (or, rather, have been) one of the best metal bands of all time. And they have surely been very influential (though not necessarily innovative).
Still, I do think that they are a little overrated relative to MY favorite bands (Maiden, Priest etc.) Hence my negative reactions. And I still think Load is a disappointing album, relative to classic albums such as Ride the lightning and ... And justice for all. And from what I gather, you yourself would have preferred them to stick to REALLY heavy and creative speed metal too.
The thing I like about Mark Prindle's home page is that everybody is allowed to give his or her opinion. After all, musical tastes differ. An album that you like, I may hate (and vice versa). Still, I don't like people calling me names (i.e. "having a cunt") or misrepresenting my statements ("wusses" rather than "idiots"). Hence this letter.
On a different note, thay didn't sell out on this album. It's called aging gracefully, you cocksmokes. Listen to the first four Danzig albums and then their last one--that's selling out. Listen to Bleach by Nirvana and then to Nevermind--that's selling out. Why do I get the feeling most of these reviews are coming from disgruntled 14-year olds?
The second side of Master of Puppets is not that good. The last 4 tracks of Black are bad. The even-numbered tracks on Reload are a bunch of bad rip-offs. It seems almost like you are criticizing tracks because of their placement in the sequencing of the album! What you blatantly ignore is that, for example, "Leper Messiah", "Damage Inc.", "My Friend of Misery", "Attitude", and a whole bunch of other tracks you toss aside rank up there with the best Metallica has made!
Oh well. I like all the new stuff too. When a band makes a record like Master of Puppets, you know that whatever they do afteward (even though it may be entirely different) is probably going to have great shit on it. A group that puts out an album that good at their ages back then is rather incapable of producing "a piece of shit" record. It's just a matter of "can you accept changes?" If you can't--then play your old stuff. Don't sit there and call them sellouts. At the point of which TBA came out--really, where was Metallica to go next? There comes a point, no matter how anti-corporate claiming a band is, that the limelight is going to just land on them full throttle. It's what happens when a good band gets out there and kicks ass--people notice it. And more people. And then some more...
So what did the four boys from the Bay Area do? They went nuts and made a record that CONFUSED everyone. Really, can't you imagine how liberating that must have been in their position? It's like saying "well check this shit out---" and making a complete drunken spectacle of yourself in front of a public crowd.
BUT still--they write kick ass songs. Even Mama Said. It doesn't sound country to me--more like a southern rock tune that even a band like Zeppelin would have experimented with. So METALLICA still gets a big METAL UP THE ARSE award from me.
By the way, if you really don't like them, you should play their music even more often. That would really piss them off!
I started listening to this band in the summer of 1985, when the only two LPs were Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning. I purchased Master Of Puppets 3 days after it's release.
I can certainly remember Lars Ulrich saying time and again that "This band won't lose it's touch with the streets". I remember watching MTV's Head Bangers Ball and thinking, Why doesn't Metallica do any videos? I watched the World Premiere of the One video, and again -Lars saying that they wanted to be different from other bands, even in the way they do music videos...
Enter Bob Rock the same producer of such "talented" acts like Bon Jovi and Motley Crue. Shortly they had a more mainstreem sound and videos that aren't unique and released before the CD hits the shelves. I've often said "You know they ought to change their name to Alternica!
With all this having been said, I actually think that there are some good songs on the self-titled CD, but it's not even close to the 4 that came before it, and they SOLD OUT -no doubt about it!
Metallica passes that test for me in spades. I reckon it's my favourite HM album of all time (and I've heard plenty).
okay - say you're in the best thrash band in the world, you're up to your fifth album, and what are you gonna do? what have you got left to prove? do you wanna be the fastest, all machine-gun riffs and moshing? been there. you wanna be the most complex, using your musical talents? done that. do you wanna combine the two, in an album that could be the 'zeppelin IV' of your generation? didn't just buy the t-shirt, but designed and printed it to boot. so what else is there left?
two things. first, since the production on all the previous albums has left something to be desired, get a decent producer. get a good sound. all that bass and treble is okay, but there's a little something that makes guitars sound really, really hot - it's called middle. turn it up. turn up the bass player's amp. rock out. doesn't that feel good?
secondly, since the metal crowd already hails you as gods, if you're looking for recognition and acclaim you need to break into a new audience. a large audience. a crowd that up til now would never dream of admitting they liked a heavy metal band. and if you can hook them, you must be doing something right, right?
lo and behold, the black album. big fat riffs, well produced, not too long and complex, nothing too brain-damagingly fast. this album rocks. personally, I tend to skip 'nothing else matters' and 'the unforgiven', but try putting on 'sad but true' and turn it up - I mean way, WAY up - and tell me metallica have sold out. not a chance.
can I also just add that metallica owe SO MUCH to bands like ac/dc, judas priest, and in particular iron maiden. without these and other NWOBHM bands, we'd probably all still be listening to whitesnake, and thrash/death/whatever metal as we know it would never have existed. if you don't believe me, check out judas priest's 'deceiver', maiden's 'phantom of the opera' for proto-thrash tunes.
the scorpions do suck, though.
No way did Metallica know that this was going to conquer the world - if they had consciously 'sold out' they would have gone all Nirvana, and wouldn't that have been horrible? ...And Justice for All was as far as the epic-prog-thrash genre could go, so no repeating that one. Cliff Burton was dead, so no repeating Master of Puppets or Ride the Lightning. So what if these songs are short and catchy? So are those on Kill 'Em All! Metallica is a fine, fine record, obnoxious Don't Tread On Me apart, and some people are just ungrateful.
The reason why the headbanger posers don't like it is because all this 'black album' stuff occured during their so-called "selling-out" period when they agreed to appear on MTV and do videos. Something they once claimed they'd never do. It really doesn't have jack-shit anything to do with the music, itself. That's just a lame-o excuse.
"Wow shit man, how UN-coool, man... Dey sold-out, man...", I can hear them say. Jezus, gimmie a fucking break....
Well guess what children? People get older and they say things when they're younger that they don't mean. Grow fucking up. Times change and it's utterly fucking stupid for musicians to be stuck in the way-back-when. 1985 was sixteen years ago and Metallica had to grow somewhere, so get used to it. That doesn't mean I like EVERYTHING that they did in the 90s, but so what. Big fucking deal.
Ya don't gotta listen to their newer stuff, boys and girls, so get a life....
I never did get into thrash metal and to honest, I don't think anyone really did in the first place. It was just a new way to piss off your parents, the way punk was. But did punk ever move on? No, its still stuck in the '70s twix disco and new wave. Heavy metal pressed on because it was about musicianship, and punk was anything but. (hell, most just stood there with an instrument but didn't know how to play it) It was loud, obnoxious, and incoherent. It never grew up. Same with thrash metal.
So Metallica made some money in the '90s, BFD. (they grew up) Most of their '90s stuff is still grittier than any other rock band, and at least they weren't doing rap shit, like Anthrax. They were the only stewarts of heavy metal in the '90s and they outlasted grunge and may even outlast this latest wave of rap-n-roll. (Linkin Park, Limp Biscuit, give me a break) Hopefully, they'll stop being dicks to each other and keep from imploding, because if they split up for good, where does that leave us?
C-mon, do you really want Kid Rock to be representative of rock-n-roll in the future? Really? No shit? You gotta be friggin kiddin me! Well, then its time for you to take a fuckin bath for a change, quit your job at Sam Goody's and get a real job/life, and then move out of your mom and dad's basement you pieces of human debris! AC/DC ROOLZ!!!!!!!!
I don’t think Metallica sold out on this album… that event would take place 3 years later, with the release of Load (of Shit). I think they were just evolving a bit; I think its called “maturing” by some, the same way other artists do. It would be pointless to make another copy of Ride the Lightning, just like if Van Gogh refused to paint the same picture twice (lame analogy, I know)… instead the band wanted to try something a little different. They still clung to the musical ideals of the “old” Metallica, but progressed a bit in the melody and song structure department. That’s why MTV and the public (the kids whose musical tastes barely go beyond boring FM rock stations) embraced them so. They weren’t intentionally trying to be superstars at this point.
Now, on to LOAD (of SHIT). That’s the perfect example of SELLING OUT. You don’t go from kick-ass metal band to simpering alternative band overnight, without some loss of credibility, do you? Money-grabbers! If you don’t agree, just take a look at the “Napster” incident and tell me why these assholes aren’t concerned more with money than music!
Kill - 9
Ride - 10
Master - 9
Justice - 8
Black - 5
Load/Reload - 3
St Anger - 2
Although their self-titled album IS a motherfucking sellout, Rivers Cuomo is back to what he does best, making brutally loud cutesy rock from my freshman year in college and making me happy as a band geek with Clearasil under
Although their self-titled album IS a motherfucking sellout, Metallica has
managed to come up with a metal masterpiece here. Seriously. No
forking joke. I can't think of a single song on here I would do without--
except for "Don't Tread on Me", of course, since it just repeats the main
riff of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", and perhaps "Struggle Within", since it
just sounds a little dumb. Screw all those who cry "Sell-
Out", "Capitalist", "Pop Metal", "Pansy-Ass", and "Too !%$#@%$
Thanks for reading the top two paragraphs. That was my Prindle for the day.
Look, I don't listen to Metallica 'cause they play fast, loud, and "sound
tough." I don't listen to them because they thrash and because they're the
thrashiest thrashing thrashers who ever thrashed. I don't even listen to
them because they knocked Bon Jovi off the charts. I listen to them because
they write good songs. (Gasp! The horror!) And they simply don't write as
consistently on their other albums. That's my opinion as of now. Hope I
offended all the "tru" Metallica fans out there.
(a few months later)
MAN, what a dick that guy ddickson is.
HEY! THAT'S FUNNY!! DICKSON!! DICK! I COULD MAKE PUNS FORKING EVER ON
THAT!! HAHAHAUAHAHUASIDI
I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend any fans, Metallica or no. I just like
this damn album. I don't think I've ever heard a better metal LP. And I'm
intrigued by the fact that most fans came by this band via their more extreme
stuff. I honestly didn't know Metallica was supposed to be known as a fast,
speedy, extreme, underground band until a year and a half after I first heard
The Black One. That interests me.
If you've read some online review archives about this album from when it was
first released, you know critics were hailing it as a metal landmark in
1991. Many were comparing it to Led Zeppelin IV. Then (sigh), of course,
Nirvana broke, and the underground became the dominant school of thought in
musical criticism. Hence, the Black Ablum was suddenly seen as a mediocre
blot on history. It's funny how critics can flip-flop so quickly in the face
of popular trends. Then again, Ryan Atkinson would probably have more than a
few angry things to say about that, so. . . I will leave the field open.
First and foremost, Metallica did not sell out. The only thing they did was take two riffs out of each song so that every song was six minutes long instead of eight. That is it. There is nothing pop on here except that it was popular.
This was the day the music died. A band who had faithfully served up viscera and bile to their loyal minions for years was sucked into the abyss of mass marketed crap. This album was produced by Bob Rock (whom I will henceforth refer to as Satan), a man who had such serious credits as Poison, Bon Jovi, and Cher. Metal fans everywhere knew that their music would soon be dead. “Those who could not be tainted” had made an album for the bubblegummers. I bowed my head, shed a tear and tossed this piece of garbage out the window of my car at 70 MPH. I held some faith that they would come back around, that they would kick Satan in the ding-ding and be done with this pansy music. But alas, it was not to be so. It got worse and today Lars is a whiny little girl complaining that he’s not making enough money because of file sharers. Perhaps, the reason his records don’t sell like they used to is because they have lost any passion that they once had, and people are turning to those who never left the fold (e.g. Slayer).
Bob Rock simply did for this album what he did for Motley's "Dr Feelgood"......turn a mediocre band into million sellers by turning the guitar amps up. And it worked. Who's laughing now? Or as Journey once said Who's Crying Now.
This was no sell out. All they did was take two riffs out of every song so that they are six minutes as apposed to eight. Look no run on sentences.
As I did with "... And Justice For All" I will give the last word on this album.
One thing that has to be said in favour of Metallica was that they at least tried to expand their sound, while a certain Steve Harris preferred to remain the 'truest' of them all. That is not necessarily such a bad thing as it is often made out to be but I digress. The problem is Metallica's execution doesn't keep pace with their ambition. Hetfield is one of the top riffmeisters of 80s metal but that's his main bag. He is a very good thrash metal vocalist and, sorry, a rather boring and mediocre heavy metal singer. Hammett too is a rather limited and one dimensional guitarist. Sounds hot, sort of, when he's playing thrash/speed metal but that again is what he is mainly good at. All that tells on this first decisive break from their thrash metal sound. I find you can enjoy these songs better if you don't listen to them all at one go (which one tends to do with an ALBUM). But end to end, it gets rather tedious. A bit too much of heavy, mid paced metal music that never gets into top gear aka Ride the Lightning and still lacks the subtlety and breadth of great rock. Black Sabbath's Dehumanizer is somewhat like that but they had Ronnie James Dio to take care of vocal duties. Hetfield simply doesn't have such presence as a singer (not many do, for that matter) so he cannot lift the album the way Dio could. As for selling out, well, metal is not exactly high art anyway and certainly Metallica weren't operating on the fringes of the esoteric even in their 'underground' days so that's a secondary issue.
I'd also like to add that you are the best reviewer on the internet. I agree with pretty much everything you write, AND I don't think I've ever laughed as hard anywhere else on the net. You're a genius man!
P.S. - AC/DC rules this earth!
This stuff is real bluesy. It's still heavy, but they've replaced the "lock-step" (I'm not sure who coined that phrase, but I enjoy it) guitar style of old with this bending note crap that usually offends the cynical anti-pretentious side of me, but somehow sounds just fine with the whole heavy Metallica vibe backing it up. A lot of the songs sound pretty similar with all them bendy note thingies and funky grooves goin', but it's still 80% less soundalike than The Black Album, so why bemoan?
As far as the singles go, both "Until It Sleeps" (whose chorus sounds suspiciously similar to the main melody of "Nothing Else Matters," but the bass line and neat surf/spyish guitar bit in the verse totally kick ass) and "Hero Of The Day" (a catchy/annoying pop song whose entire guitar line is lifted from Fleetwood Mac's "Hold Me") have been played and played and played all over that dang M channel, leaving the superior "Ain't My Bitch" rotting in the "others" basement. It's a little disturbing that they appear to be repeating themselves in the melody department (I already mentioned "Until It Sleeps," and "The House Jack Built" is basically a slower version of "Ride The Lightning"), but, on the upside, it's nice to see that it's still possible for a band to record a good hard rock album in the nineties. See, I'm not into this Tool thing. Or any of them bigtime Grunge bands (besides Nirvarner). But this album is nicely funky and well-produced with heavy crunchy guitars, and "Mama Said" sounds like something off of Led Zeppelin III!!! By far their most accessible release to date (and by "to date," I mean post-Death Magnetic too), this rockin' lil' record greatly pleases my 53-year-old dad and, I must say, it makes me pretty happy too. It doesn't tear like their finest work ("Fight Fire With Fire," awww man....), but it's still pretty cool. Probably won't bore you too much if you have any history at all with classic rock. Metalheads I can see givin' it the thumbs down, but fans of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and early Aerosmith should be all over this baby.
Just like Michael Jackson!
My thoughts on the subject are very simple. If you have half a brain, you know not to listen to this Load trashing bullshit these 13-year-old dimwits (who probably started metallica with TBA and went back along the discography from there) are spewing out. You don't trash an album or a group because they're popular when they once were not. That's incredibly closed-minded and IGNORANT. You also don't trash a group for how they decide to change their look. It's people like this who probably forced Metallica to have the long hair and mean look for all those years, anyway. Maybe they're saying 'FUCK YOU' to people like this. Sure sounds like it to ME.
Metallica is doing what THEY want to do, not what some pussy wanna-be headbangin' Cool-to-Hate (listen to the offspring song with this name) closet-homo long-haired crack-smoking numb-skull wants them to do... and that's the way it should be. So they got haircuts, so they play slightly different music, so they got piercings. So fuckin what!
Tell ya what. Here's what we can do. Metallica can just stop working, and keep releasing Ride the Lightning every few years so all these brain-damaged people can keep yelling 'rock on!' and smackin their heads against brick walls. If we did, it'd be more than they deserve.
And why does the critic compare every song to some earlier song done by Metallica or someone else? I didn't see what the fuck he was talking about.
The first time I heard this album, I hated it. "Ain't My Bitch" just plain annoyed me. But my brother kept playing it, and I keep listening to it, and soon enough I couldn't stop playing the thing. I'd probably give it a nine.
ONE INTERESTING NOTE. EVERY TIME I LOOKED AT THE RECORD JACKET, THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO MIND WAS U2'S ACHTUNG BABY: SAME CAMERA SHOTS, SAME LAY OUT, SAME CLOTHES, ETC. I SHOWED IT TO MY FRIEND AND HE COULDN'T AGREE MORE. FINALLY WE LOOKED TO SEE WHO PHOTOGRAPHED THE U2 ALBUM AND LOAD AND SURE ENOUGH, IT WAS THE SAME GUY. I LIKE U2 AND I LIKE METALLICA, BUT COME ON, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND I FOR ONE HAS HAD ENOUGH.
This is not Metallica. This is a bland, uninspiring pile of sonic dung recorded by four short-haired sellouts in slacks who look like they belong in the Village People. No way is this the same kick-ass progressive metal band I adore above all others.
By the way, turning your band into hackneyed alterna-fodder and pissing all over many of your old-school Metallifans is *NOT* 'maturing musically'. If these guys want to play this crap, fine. I have enough _real_ Metallica albums and memories to keep me happy. I just think they should have changed the band name before releasing this abomination.
Metallica
R.I.P. 1982 - 1996
Here's another fact, too. Music and their respective creators are neither good nor bad simply based on whether or not it sounds like the same thing they did five years ago. If you don't like it, go away. Leave. Never listen to Metallica again. Get back inside your trailer park mansion and stop breathing everybody else's air. Musically and artistically you are a primate. You should be taken behind the woodshed and seriously beaten. Profusely even. With a baseball bat. With nails in it. And a crow bar. And take off that damn Master of Puppets T-shirt! It's been nearly twelve years now! You people make my entire intestinal track hurt. If you love Ride the Lightning so much, shut up and listen to it. Stop whinin' to Metallica for moving on...
10 out of 10, but I don't really like Reload.
The members of Metallica are "over 50"? When did that happen?
I hated it, and it grew on me. Now I think it's pretty cool coming from a band that once played ninety mile an hour riffs and double bass for eight and a half minutes straight. They can do what they want, and that's that.
Kill 'Em All - the big 10
Ride The Lightning - 9
Master of puppets - 9
...And Justice For All - 8
Metallica - 5
Load - 1
Reload - 1
Record companies don't know what real rebellion is, so they just make a carbon copy of it, and create the IMAGE of some sort of rebel band, wearing dark clothing with scary faces or masks or makeup or whatever gimmick is necessary to make you think they ROCK. And that's what Metallica has turned into.
And a lot of old Metallica fans don't want to just say "hey, this isn't any good. These guys are sellouts." We want to say "hey, the music is softer and less threatening. These guys are really mature. I want to go out and buy an SUV right now!" But the truth is, no matter how much of a knee-jerk reaction it was to just say that Metallica is a bunch of sellouts, it's just true. It only seems like knee-jerk because it was so clear from the start after opening the album up and looking at the cover and the liner notes. It's just a shadow of what Metallica once was. Listen to "Ain't My Bitch." It sounds aggressive, but it's not the same. It's the sound of Metallica trying to sound as aggressive as they once were. And don't say that they just don't have the youthful anger, because why is the song on there in the first place if they aren't so angry anymore? It's all about that record company illusion of rebellion and aggression.
For a while, I actually told myself that yeah, I like this album. And musically, to tell the truth, it's not bad.
But you see, it's the principle of the thing. If we let record companies know that we'll buy any fake product they sell us, then it's just one step closer to hell. Just another foot in the already-dug-grave, where musical integrity and real art is going to go.
When a band changes their sound to reflect their growth or whatever, it's usually not very drastic. It's usually the same genre, but different in some small way.
I dunno why, but Metallica went from being a metal band on the last album to not even bothering to act like they knew what metal was or is. They have totally abandoned everything metal, and just play these gay country ballads.
Mama Said is the worst song on here. The rest is listenable as far as music goes, but this shit isn't Metallica. As far as I am concerned, Metallica is dead. Since S&M, I realized that they didn't have the will to try making great music anymore.
Load is pretty much an alternative album. I would say it was classic rock, but the production is too modern. Plus, they try to sound angry at some points. Unfortunatly, because it's not metal anymore, all of their anger just sounds like whining. Self-depreciatory whining, which is just fucking gay.
Not a bad album, but I would rather hear it done by NIN. Because that's what most of this sounds like. I mean, Poor Twisted Me? Or whatever that song is fucking called.
This was their worst album until Reload and S&M. The vocals took a fucking nosedive into the ground after The Black Album. I think James started using a vocal coach-AH or something-AH. Gay.
So I like the album. But this was the last time I liked anything they did until that song No Leaf Clover, which was co-written with a team of 80 record company execs and studio musicians. Doubtlessly. No Leaf Clover, the over produced high point of one of the worst live albums ever.
At least Megadeth is coming back, or so it seems. I hope so.
This is basically an excellent record. Too long, yes. Some boring bits, yes. Jim developing some rather irritating vocal mannerisms, yes. But quality still abounds. It's not all or nothing - you don't have to EITHER love this record unconditionally OR despise it completely. There is middle ground. I shed a metaphorical tear that Load sees one of the great thrash metal bands abandoning the genre they created (one of music's most magnificent genres, too)... but I also enjoy its hard-rocking grooves. Contrasting feelings, see? You can hold them both at the same time! It's good for the mind.
Bleeding Me is the best song here, what with its nasty grind, nasty descending riff and cooking Hammett solo, but there are plenty of others which are Almost As Good. Namely, Hero of the Day, The Thorn Within, King Nothing and Ronnie. Thery're not rocket science, they're just good songs. Enjoy them! Life's too short not to.
The Outlaw Torn is a bridge too far for me though - I can accept most of the changes Metallica have undergone, but playing one (quite boring) riff for ten minutes? Uh-uh. That's much more of a betrayal of everything the big spiky 'M' stands for than Mama Said or video clips. On the other hand, though, I have warmed to The House Jack Built a lot - because, like most of this album, it ROCKS.
Sell-out schmell-out. And that's that.
postscript: Dream Theater stole the riff of Ain't My Bitch for their 2002 epic 'The Glass Prison', which was just plain naughty. As is the fact that Mark hasn't reviewed them yet... he knows he wants to though...
John, your assessment of what "music" has become could not have been more accurate. Unfortunately, since "nu metal" is now dominating the airwaves, Metallica have now chosen to go that route with St. Anger. Can they get any more lame? Perhaps the question should be this: Can modern "music" possibly suck any more than it already does?
It's funny what you said about record companies pulling the strings on a bunch of clueless teenagers today. In fact, every time I hear a hit song on the radio all I can think of is that particular song by Metallica: Master Of Puppets. Because that's essentially what the record companies are now. They are the masters, and the idiots who buy this shit are the puppets.
Oh yeah, and Load bites it big time. Worst Metallica record outside of Reload and the awful St. Anger (Great review, Mark).
I know all the metalheads wanted Master Of Puppets 2, 3, 4.. but the reality is that type sameness taints a bands legacy in the long run!
In 50 years when people who know their music talk about Metallica, LOAD will be seen as an essential work in their cannon.
But that St. Anger garbage makes me want to vomit!!!
So the sounds, umm? The auralacity? Well, you know how Load was really accessible? Like bluesy tough metal? Reload, for the most part, is almost a complete 130, concentrating on trudging, plodding uglyass songs that take about four listens to make any sense because when you hear them for the first time, you can't but think, "Why the hell would anybody bother writing this song?" They're still bluesy and very Sabbath-esquoeoa, but the riffs aren't accessible at all! Well, the best of them aren't, anyway. In case you own the CD, I'll go ahead and tell you that it's the odd-numbered tracks that thrill me. Not number five, but all the others. "Fuel" burns rubber, and the others are just so darned icky! Like "The Thing That Should Not Be" with more diverse guitar tones. Grand stuff. I'm very fond of them. Disgusting guitar stylings abound, along with some really cool Zeppelin rips (or homages) every once in a while. I'm going to end this paragraph here because it's making me uncomfortable.
This is by no means the strangest record ever recorded, nor in fact one of the top hundred strangest metal albums ever recorded, but it is, by a wide stretch, the weirdest (and least immediately enjoyable) record Metallica has made, which makes me personally pretty damned happy because it lets me know that they aren't content to follow up the success of "Hero Of The Day" with more dippy pop tunes. Would my dad like this CD? Not a chance in Hell. Too dark and depressing (except for "Fuel," which pumps, baby!). So why then would I dare to insult the altar of Metallica with yet another paltry 7? Because the other half of the record, that which isn't filled with lengthy head-smashers, hurdy-gurdy ballads, and cooler than shit vocal harmonies (did I mention the vocal harmonies? The vocals on this record are fantastic!) is a bunch of Black Sabbath rip-offs - songs that are decent enough, but basically pretty empty, when you get right down to it. You know, like they have a couple of really cool aspects, but the main riff is just your basic little two-chord heavy groovin' thing. None of the songs are lousy, you understand. They just sound more like B-sides than album tracks. "The Unforgiven II," for example. How necessary could this song be? Now don't hit me - I love the Pagey lead guitar as much as the next guy, but honestly - how necessary could the song be? And can you sit there with a straight face and tell me that none of the four band members heard the lead riff of "Slither" and thought to themselves, "Say! That sounds almost identical to 'Enter Sandman,' one of our biggest hits ever!" So that's my gripe. Six fantastic, beautiful and disturbing odd-numbered tracks paired with seven other ditties that are really just okay. At least none of 'em are as lame as "Poor Twisted Me," though, eh?
reload's great. i love it. how can you disdain to mention 'prince charming' and 'attitude' (both of which are even number tracks)? i personally love the direction that james' vocals have gone with this latest album. great guitar work, and jason is finally getting some writing credit ("wtwta" is one of my favorites). for ya'll who keep wanting to hear old school metallica, you got four kick-ass cd's to choose from. for us who like everything they've put out, more power to us, we've got three more cd's to choose from.
1. People who hate Metallica's new style of music blaming Metallica for
their problems is just plain lame.
2. Something to the affect that perhaps Metallica changed their look to
tell them which of their fans are LOYAL. Ie, 'telling you freaks who
hate their new look to FUCK OFF.'
3. Metallica does what THEY want, not what everyone else wants.
Now, here's what I found interesting about the article. Now, #1... well, that's just a plain ol' philosophical call, and it's an accurate one. On the subject of #2, I can quote 'Years I was in trouble for having long hair, now I cut it off and I'm in trouble again. Oh well.' This was James. Similar details were examined at that point, Including... in reference to #3, the Metallica Motto: "Fuck it." James made two things very clear... 1st, is that Reload is filled with Songs from Load that weren't finish, songs which got extensively experimental (truth)... and 2nd, that Metallica is doing what they want to do, that the same old thing has gotten boring (and that's what TBA was about), and that if anyone has a problem with where they're going, they're perfectly welcome to jump OFF the bandwagon.
Conclusion: If you don't like it, then don't buy it. Don't listen to it.
Sorry this ended up being so long. :)
And you people, if you don't like Reload, don't listen to it, ok. Most bands have down periods in their careers!
And another thing, while Ride the Lightning was the best metallica shit ever made, they stole that album cover concept from Nazareth's 1973 album Razamanaz! The logo, the lightning and all.. unoriginal BASTARDS!
What bothers me most about this album is that any time I put this CD on I keep expecting Layne Staley to jump out from the shadows and scream, "Been there, done that". This album reminds me a lot of Dirt. I can't believe that Metallica could think that they could release this one without comparisons to Alice In Chains' best album. That alone should knock two points from my grade.
The solos are pretty uninteresting save the blistering "Fueled" solo which hearken back to the days of Master Of Puppets. And I was taken aback by the wholesale rippoff of Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song" which shows up in pieces of the solo section of "Fixxer". Marriane Faithful sounds like she's gasping for air on "Memory Remains". That's what you get for dating Mick Jagger I guess.
By every right I should loathe this album. But darn it I can't. It's just too different from anything they've done before, which given Load is saying something. Metallica did what I thought was impossible, they wrote slow songs I liked. "Devil's Dance" is just so heavy and kicks so much ass I can't believe it. Despite the unwelcome forray into Jane's "Mountain Song" the pleading vocals and guitar licks of "Fixxer" sell the song for me. Almost the whole album is just so heavy and crunches. "Unforgiven 2" is dumb and "Low Man's Lyric" underwhelms me. But I don't have much else to say negatively about the album.
What's really interesting to me is if they'd pulled the best tracks off of Load ("Until It Sleeps", "King Nothing", "Hero Of The Day", "Ain't My Bitch") and the best tracks off of Reload ("Fueled", "Memory Remains", "Devil's Dance", "Prince Charming", "Fixxer") and put them on one album it would be a classic. As it is it misses that mark, but not by too much. I begrudgingly give it a 9.
Speaking of things that suck... what about the horrible "Unforgiven II"?! I didn't mind the first one, but crimmey! Don't things of this nature usually go on the same album as it's predecessor. I believe these are commonly called reprises, and almost never equal to the level of excellence achieved with the original recording. All these requirements appear to more than apply to the "Unforgivable II"...
I admit Metallica looked a little anal on Saturday NIght Live, but the new "Memory Remains" could have been on Ride the Lightning, it is that good. Their live performances still kick ass. They have gone from the old Metal genre to a great rock and roll band.
PS. Don't get me wrong, I have all the albums and love every single one of them and play them all the time.
PPS I wonder how long it will be before we find out Hammett is gay...
People may laugh now, but I think they may be finding the path to the new Metal sound. They almost singlehandedly created the current sound, so it wouldn't surprise me if they do it again. Besides in a year or so someone else will sound like this album.
So my rates would be
Kill 'Em All - 10
"Seek and Destroy"
"Motorbreath"
"No Remorse"
"Whiplash"
"Metal Militia"
Ride The Lightning - 10
"For Whom The Bell Tolls"
"The Call Of Ktulu"
"Creeping Death"
Master Of Puppets - 9
"Damage Incorporated."
"Orion"
"Welcome Home"
"Battery"
"Master Of Puppets"
The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited - ? Hard to say I've heard the only track on it.
...And Justice For All - 10
"One"
"Harvester of Sorrow"
"Eye of The Beholder"
Metallica - 9
"Sad But True"
"The God That Failed"
"Enter Sandman"
"Wherever I May Roam"
"Unforgiven"
Load - 5
Reload - 2
Re-Load is a good album...it definitely stays fresh after repetitive listens, which is the yardstick I would use for measuring the overall quality of the album.
A few contributors are stating that this is not the kind of music Metallica usually writes. WHAT? Has Metallica ever written the same style of album twice? Negatory. No two albums in Metallica's fifteen year career have ever had the same feel.
Judge the album on its own merit, not on your expectations based from previous albums. If you're looking for music that feels like Kill 'Em All, I'm sure that Testament probably has some tracks out to meet your needs...
Yes, it's crazy--the whole thing. But I love that. Prince Charming sounds like it could have been pulled from Garage Days, and that tickles me just fine. What else? Fuel rocks. I even like "Unforgiven II" better than the original. Fixxxer is a masterpiece to me. I like all the songs--though Slither and Better than You are probably my least favorite. It's Where the Wild Things Are that just blows me over. What a cool tune! Just listen to it loud and in the dark. Neat ambience! I think it's cool that everyone had a hand in writing it--proof that Hetfield and Ulrich really should let loose and give Kirk and James room for the spotlight.
Anyway, it rocks me. Lots.
Uh, Diablo? Nice summary of the last few years, but Megadeth? How can you stand Dave Mustaine's voice?
This whole alternative Metallica comparision is stupid. Just accept it, get grabbed by the arse and get dragged kicking and screaming out from the metal closet. Once you relax from getting screwed in the butt--you might enjoy it a bit.
It doesn't matter how much Kirk protests "we sold out every show" - Metallica sold out completely and produced chart-fodder in the form of the Load pair of drink coasters (that's all they're good for!) If you buy Load or Re-Load you're buying EXACTLY what the record companies WANT YOU TO BUY - they think that marketing a band with a "hard" reputation who play "soft" music will appeal to the teenage crowd who 1) want to show some sign of rebellion and 2) want to appease their parents.
Another comment on this board about someone's 53 yr old father mentioned the poster wouldn't play Ride the Lightning to him - when my father (in his late 60's at the time) heard RTL for the first time, he thought it was the most ORIGINAL thing he'd heard in years, and loved the song's anti-war, anti-government tone, even though he thought it all too fast. He could hear classical music in there that was actually a challange to play - if everyone thinks what I'm saying is wrong, let them listen to the MUSIC played on Load and Re-Load, and they'll see that a kid of 10 who has been playing guitar for 2 weeks could play them!
What do they sing about now? They get a faded harlet (who used to screw everyone who was famous way back in the 60's - before most of you were born!) Marianne Faithfull - to go "la la la la la la" through a very lyrically weak song:
"fortune
fame
mirror
vain
gone insane"
That looks to me like an "idea script" - think of some words that rhyme and sing a song about them. Metallica have no balls anymore, no message, no path and no meaning. Long live Metallica, may NewMetallica rot in the hell they once dreamed about.
How about this for an exercise:
dice
men
lice
pen
den
nice
The words written here can be extrapolated to something like: (this is a quick example and not like my real work)
"The men with no ties, those men with their dice
Gambling away all of their life
Sweat running like lice, paying the price
Saying what no one will say
Using a pen, one of the men
Scribbles his name on a check in the den
The man comes around without making a sound
And shoots him dead see his blood on the ground"
See what I mean???
You write down some words that sound the same and turn them into
lines. Anyone can think of just rhyming words........
Remember kiddies, everyone wants you to buy these pieces of crap - so REALLY be a REBEL - and don't give them the satisfaction of being right about how dumb you are.
Nuff said
F*** EM ALL
Now, before you shoot me, let me also say that I am not, repeat NOT one of those fans who thinks that Metallica's discography starts with The Black and who has never heard of Cliff Burton. I've been a Metallikat since the underground days and have enjoyed every freakin' minute of the ride.
The reason that I became hooked on Metallica in the first place is that they essentially make hard, fast music that never looses sight of the melodic sensibility which as far as I'm concerned separates music from rhythmic background clatter. No where is this more evident than in Load and Reload. I also am pleased to note the turn that Hetfield's vocals have taken, gone from sounding (as one friend put it) like he was "singing into a toilet bowl" to really being able to refer to himself as a lead *SINGER*, One with incredible depth, range, and dare I say, diversity.
Let me also educate you all on the definition of the term "Sell-Out", which is so vastly overused, misused, and turned all bass-ackwards by frustrated music-fans. A Sell-out is a band who writes and performs music for money rather than the lofty ideal of artistic purity, or who produces music which they *think their fans want to hear*. Obviously with Reload this was not the case. If they tried to do Ride the Lightning Part Deux, would that not be more of a sell-out?
(a couple of weeks later)
I have a follow up to my other post. The same sort of thing happened to Black Sabbath with Technical Ecstacy. After two uninspired albums with a couple of good songs each, they lost a member (Ozzy). Then they picked up a new guy and had one of the best albums of their career, heck, even in all of rock: Heaven and Hell. Maybe this is what's happening to Metallica. They put out two uninspired bags of festering puss called albums, somebody leaves, and the new guy, Dio, gives them the will to make good stuff. Except that I think that Technical Ecstacy and Never Say Die are Seargent Peppers and Led Zeppelin 4 compared to Load and Reload. Metallica just has to prove it now by releasing a good album with a new bassist. And another thing, Dave Mustaine can still shred. In fact, Megadeth just put out the fantastic "The World Needs A Hero". It sounds like his eighties stuff, back to the sped up soloes and riffs. I believe that Megadave was meant to be thrown out of Metallica so that he could go on to keep the good name of thrash. Metallsicka melted in a pool of corporate vomit and have been whizzing on the world of rock since 1996. Mustaine has stayed fast and has released more albums than the OLDER Metallica. That's right, Megadeth is 2 years younger than Metallica and has released more albums. And Mustaine still has his hair. Pardon me while I go out and get Peace Sells... and Countdown to Extinction. I'm also going to buy Load and Reload, as I happen to be out of toilet paper.
I stand defiantly by Load, but this is a waste of time.
Where did it all go wrong?
Here, I suppose...
Ain't My Bitch
2x4
Until It Sleeps
King Nothing
Hero of the Day
The Memory Remains
Fuel
Attitude
Unforgiven II
Better Than You
Slither
The Thorn Within (The most underated song on Load)
I know these aren't the most experimental tracks from the albums, and that's why I like them. Just because a band gets bored and starts changing their direction doesn't mean all the fans will follow. Judging by the sales of these albums (especially of Re-Load) a lot of them didn't. The Black Album sold more than both Loads combined. Not that that's their best album. That, of course, is Master of Puppets.
Ain't My Bitch
Hero of the Day
Until it Sleeps
King Nothing
Mama Said
The Memory Remains
Bad Seed
The Unforgiven II
Better Than You
Attitude
Bleeding Me
Fuel
The House Jack Built
Low Man's Lyric
THERE!!! Now, if they'd done that, then neither Load nor Reload would suck! They'd be the best album Metallica ever cut! But NOOOO, they had to get it into their heads that, having been on hiatus for five years, they had to put on tape EVERY SINGLE FRICKIN' SONG THEY'D RECORDED! Dimwits! If you change your style, you're going to suck!!
Phew! I really don't care if they sold out--I actually kinda like the new style. It's melodic, bluesy, and cool, and for fuck's sake, it has nothing to do with alternative rock, you fucking dimwits. Here's my impression of a disillusioned early fan:
fuck metallica fuckin sellouts they were just jumpin on the alternicrap bandwagen i fuckin hate alternicrap they just wanted money and more money just like bush and enron and iraq and britnee spears and n'stink fuck tha sistem i shure wish i could spell
And there you go. Dumfucks reign supreme. My problem with both Load and Reload is the irritating OVER-load (har!) of filler. Too much dang filler, dangit. But half the songs are really, really good. Some comfort, I guess. Except for the filler.
1.A TEHCNO COVER OF FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS! IT WAS BUTHCHERED BY DJ SHAGGY! W/ THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ?!
2.SUM 41! I HEARD THE GUYS DID A SPIDER MAN SONG BUT ON THIS I CANNOT REMEMBER THE COVER THEY DID. PERHAPS IT WAS 2X4!
3.SNOOP DOGG!: OH NOOOOOOO! JUST WHEN IT SEEMED TO GET WORSE HERE IT GOES! FO' HSIZZILE MY NIZZLE! GODDAMN! JUST PLEASE TELL ME JESUS FUCKING LORD WHAT THE FUCK!!??!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!? LOOK YPU RAP COCKSUCKERS! STOP FUCKING AROUND WITH HITS ALREADY DONE BY PEOPLE! AND JA RULE'S DICK IS JEWISH AND HE IS A COON! WHO LET ALL THIS RIFF RAFF INTO THE ROOM?????????!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!? THERE IS ONE SMOKING A JOINT! AND ANOTHER IN SPOTS IF I HAD MY WAY I HAVE ALL OF YOU SHOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SORRY JUST A WALL JOKE!
4.STAIND. NOW THE ONE COVER IS OKAY. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS IS DONE RIGHT I LOVE WHO THE LONE SOUND OF THAT GUY ARON LEWIS. I DID HEARD THE SONG OUTSIDE ON A CLOUDY DAY AND I LIKED WHEN HE WAILS! AND I FEEEEEEEL! GODDAMN! MY MOM DID NOT LOVED IT AND SAID IT WAS TOO SAD POO ON YOU BITCH!
5.LIMPDICKSHIT! AY CARAJO! CARAJO! CARAJO! LIMP DICKSHIT BY FAR THE MOST SATANIC SMELL OF CACA! FRED DOES NOT DESERVE TO SING! HE WILL DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PUTA MADRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6.ANUS LATRINE'S FUEL! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!! LORD WHY WHY WHY !!!?!
MY DUDE JACKIE LOVED AVRIL LATRINE! HE SAW HER UNDERWEAR! EW!!!!!! IT MAY SEEM COOL AT FIRST BE WHEN YOU GET TO THE FEELING IT IS DONE BY A SK8TER CUNT! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
I SCREAMED NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND MY GIRL FEELS THE SAME WAY TOO! I SHOT JACKIE WITH A SILENCER IN THE BATH ROOM ! I DUMPED HIS BODY IN THE TRASH AND I FEEL THE SUDDEN URGE TO VOMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PUKE STAINS! MS. LOCKHEART TOOK ME HOME AND FED ME AND TOOK CARE OF ME THANKS SWEETHEART I CUDDLE HER BY HER LAP AND MADE LOVE TO HER! MAN SWEETIE YOU MADE MY DAY AFTER TV WE CHILL FOR SOME MUSIC BY MARVIN GAYE LET'S GET IT ON! DELUXE EDITION! NOW GO AWAY I WILL MAKE LOVE TO HER! GO!!!!!!!!!!
(a few months later)
speaking of that, her sweet love is so incredible! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh anyway back to reload
1.FUEL: GIMME FUEL GIMME FIRE! SPEEDY TRACK THAT WAS USED IN THE NASCAR COMMERCIALS.
2.THE MEMORY REMAINS: FORTUNE FAME MIRROR VAIN GONE INSANE BUT THE MEMORY REMAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA!
3.DEVIL'S DANCE: JASON NEWSTEAD IS IN ECHOBRAIN!
4.THE UNFORGIVEN 2:..................EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOMMMMM
I LIKE THAT ONE BETTER! SOUTHERN FRIED METALLICA!
5.BETTER THAN YOU!: I AM BETTER THAN YOU YA STUPID HO!
6.SLITHER: ENTER SANDMAN 2: THE REMIX!
7.CARPE DIEM BABY!: SUCKED!
8.BAD SEED: CHOCKE ON YO SEED BITCH!
9.WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: WAAAAAKE UP SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPY ONE IT'S TIME TO SAVE YA WORLD!
10.PRINCE CHARMING!: FAST SONG!!! YIPPIE!
11.LOW MAN'S LYRIC: AH COUNTRY BALLAD. BETTER THAN TOBY COCK!
12.ATTITUDE: AWSOME!
13.FIXXXXXXER!: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAH! VERY FUNNY!
10. OKAY HERE I GO BACK INTO MY SWEET LOVER'S ARMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The 2nd CD is where it's at for me, particularly because it let's me chuck a hella lotta CD singles which are now redundant. Saves space that way.
And another thing! Metallica is a dumb name. It's like calling a rock band 'Rock N Rollica'. They should think of changing Metallica into something more alternative like ' Evermetal ' or ' MetalliPumpkins ' or 'Sublimetal' or ' The WallMetals', 'Metalbox 20' anything that fits into the type of sissy rock they're playing right now. I dunno.. Whatever MTV will play I guess..
Disc one is pretty good, actually. It's Electric is my favorite track, but Whiskey is good and so is just about everything else. Disc II--if you've been a fan for awhile, then it's a treasure chest. Finally, the compilation from HEAVEN that has only been available for years through numerously overpriced import CD's.
I give it a 10. It's ELECTRIC.
By the way, someone made a crack about Metallica covering alternative songs on this album. Since when did Black Sabbath, Bob Segar, Lynard Skynard, and Queen become alternative bands?
Now, onto the subject of this cd. It kicks ass. Any questions? No, godanek, you may not have more glue to eat.
Disc one is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it shows that Metallica are excellent musicians. On the other hand, they're sellouts. Such a tough descision.
I bought this instead of Master of Puppets, and I curse that. Not because this is a bad album, but because I should have gotten Puppets instead, as a rule. But oh well.
Half the songs on the first disc are all terrible choices. The other half are all run of the mill. There's a few interesting things in those, like a cover of a Bob Seger song, but that novelty wears off after about 2 minutes in, with James' 100th AH tacked on to the end of a line. Or something.
Fuck these sellouts.
Fuck these sellouts. They just don't have enough millions of dollars.
And by the way, yes, disc 1 is also alternative. If it has guitars and yet endless amounts of "slow start/loud whiny chorus" vocals and playing, then it's alternative. It's also alternative if it sucks. Hence Metallica being an alternative band ever since Load. If you currently still have respect for Metallica, you shouldn't be allowed to listen to music or have opinions. You're just a big waste of resources.
Sabbath is alternative? Thin Lizzy alternative? Lynrd Skynrd alternative? Man, THIS is the shitty attitude I hate the most among hardcore metal fans: if it doesn't go at about one billion beats a minute and shows any kind of human feeling at all, it sucks. If this is the legacy Metallica, Slayer and their contemporaries have brought to music, maybe it should never have existed in the first place. And as much as I've never been a big fan of Load, Reload or even TBA, if that's what it took to piss off a bunch of girlfriend-beating (providing they have girlfriends) trailer-park inbreds, then they have my blessing.
The reason, you morons, that Metallica sounded so good back in the '80s is not because of how fast they could play, but because they were one of the few '80s bands that delivered the raw, intense feeling of those old '70s hard rock and metal bands without copying their styles directly. Every '80s band had dreams of being Led Zeppelin, yet Metallica didn't even try and they became the Zeppelin of the '80s.
But I guess the classics are all "faggoty alternative". The fact that he even says the word "alternative" in 2001 shows he's already badly dated.
I'm pretty sure that last unproofread post in this section was directed at me, although no names were mentioned and no clues were given as to what exactly "jeffm3424424243" was talking about. Metallica was good not just because of how fast they could play? Wow, I believe we were talking about simplistic, formulaic song structure being an obvious sign of the (semi) recent alterna-trend in music, not simply "DUH SONG GO FAST IS METAL SLOW MUST BE NOT METAL." Graduate high school, then come think with the big boys. And get a real fucking e-mail account, cluetard.
P.S. Yes, faggoty alternative. I'd just say "alternative," but apparently some 12 year olds actually LIKED that shit in the early 90s, so it may not catch on exactly what I mean when talking about that kind of wimpy music.
But Disc I has the same old problem - half good, half terrible. I think someone must have bet them quite a lot of money they wouldn't put Loverman and the Mercyful Fate medley on the album, because they are easily, definitively, beyond any doubt, the worst songs Metallica ever recorded. Whiskey in the Jar and Tuesday's Gone are totally enjoyable if a little predictable, and Astronomy... well that one's a bit of a classic, (and much better than the original. Surprising that nobody else thinks so.
But what happened to the Metallica guitar sound? In them good old days it sounded not unlike the sheet metal press from hell, but since Reload it sounds as heavy and menacing as an electric potato masher. Seriously, Hetfield's guitar just doesn't have a TRACE of power any more. They have to fire Bob Rock, hire Fleming Rasmussen and get that old wires-dangerously-loose-and-studio-walls-crumbling- under-the-onslaught sound back, or else the next album (assuming it materialises at all) will be too painful to listen to.
Eight.
Actually, I wouldn't reccommend doing that. Why? Because the Garage Inc. compilation (both the new stuff and the old stuff) had most of its dynamic range squashed when it went through the mastering process (I haven't heard the songs on disc 2 in their original releases, but I imagine since most of them were recorded during the early '90s or earlier, before "squashing" became commonplace that they had more dynamic range preserved before going through the remastering process). For those who don't know what dynamic range compression is, it's basically altering of the levels of different sounds and dynamics in the song itself, pushing softer parts of the sound closer to the louder parts, making the song "louder" in the sense that there is more presence rather than higher peak levels so that the music is easier to make out in heavily populated areas like resteraunts and when driving in a convertable. While some compression is neseccary to make the music sound solid and more accurately recreate what the band in the studio actually sounded like, in recent years record labels have taken compression to uncomfortable extremes, making music as loud as possible to get people to notice the music they publish when played on the radio and television, with rival labels trying get their albums to sound "hotter" than the other in a relentless loudness war, meanwhile the actual LISTENER who buys or downloads music for private listening gets the shaft. Overcompression "squashes" the sound, taking much of the force out of the percussion, sucking out the ambience and is very uncomfortable to listen to, especially at loud volumes.
Some more information on this phenomenon can be found at:
http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/essays/compression.html
http://georgegraham.com/compress.html
http://www.digido.com/compression.html
http://users.belgacom.net/gc247244/myths.htm
http://homerecording.about.com/library/weekly/aa110100a.htm
http://www.electronic-projects.net/projects/dynamic/index.shtml
This album still sucks, though. So do Load and Reload. And The Black Album is the best heavy metal album ever.
Whoa, I just alienated the whole fucking world.
That said, based on my comment. . .
Often when a heavy metal band decides to record an album with an orchestra, the results are underwhelming. For example, the CD that Sepultura recorded with the Boston Pops made most listeners poop in their refrigerators, and the Deicide/London Symphony Orchestra ballet troupe didn't fare much better. But somehow here, somehow indeed, Michael Kamen of The Final Cut fame has written a bunch of orchestral sections to accompany already existing Metallica tunes, transforming them into delightfully incongruent masquerades of ambiguity.
Oh sure, at some points it sounds like Michael made up the orchestra bits without even bothering to listen to the songs first, but most of the time the violins, horns and such add a majestic, bizarre feel to the songs that TOTALLY works in presenting the songs in a new light. Plus Metallica is putting on an awesome show, James' voice is powerful as FUCK and the production is heavy as a 5-pound barbell while still allowing the most important of the symphony parts to creep through. Bits and pieces sound corny (not sure about all that toodling stuff during the chorus of The Thing That Should Not Be), but as a whole, it's just a really, really, really cool approach to the "live album" undertaking, with 20 of the best Metallica songs given the proper treatment (although sadly there's nothing on here from Kill 'Em All).
I'd like you to know that I was very wary of this idea and vowed to stay away from the CD until I saw it really cheap, but the day after it came out, a record store downtown was BLASTING this version of "The Call Of Ktulu" and I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY. By a hooker. But at the same time, the music blew me away too! Powerful, righteous, self-important and so much better produced than Ride The Lightning! I knew I had to make it mine. Even my girlfriend likes it! And it has two brand new songs that are really good too, in that bluesy Load tradition.
Say! This is a double-CD. Am I the only one who's noticed that Metallica has put out four really long albums in the past four years? That is an astonishing rate of output for a band this rich. Respect it!
One final thing: Earlier today I wrote an email to my good friend and golfing buddy Alex Rapagna about the nature of "selling out." Since everybody in the world accuses Metallica of selling out, I thought I would reprint it right here. Feel free to respond!
It's hard for kids to understand the "selling out" phenomenon -- I know because I never understood it when I was young. But when you're an adult (if 26 is old enough to be called an adult), it makes a lot more sense. See, you really do change a LOT the older you get. Your priorities change, your interests change, your tastes change and things that seemed really, really important when you were younger no longer seem as important. Yes, Metallica once claimed that they would "never make a video" and would "never do a love song," but they were REALLY young when they said that. They're almost forty now and have likely slowed down a lot, tired of thrash and begun wanting to concentrate on playing the sort of music that they actually LISTEN to these days. They've also realized that it's not a crime to make money off your music if you're playing music that you love. It's understandable that old fans would call them "sellouts," but the truth is that they changed their music because they WANTED to change the music, not because they knew it would sell. Look at what was going on in the rock world in '90-'91. Was there really any indication that the black album would sell so damn many copies? Not at all. It didn't sound like Guns n Roses or any of those pop-metal bands that were so big in the late 80s. More than anything else, it sounded like really angry AC/DC, who hadn't been selling many records for quite some time. The reason the black album hit was because it was really HARD music, but not fast and noisy. Personally I think the riffs on there are awesome. LOAD gets boring in places, but it's still not a sellout. They're playing music they want to play and they're successful. And I say more power to them! This orchestra thing is DEFINITELY not a sellout; what other metal band has ever done this sort of thing? I think it's a really cool, unique idea! And Reload is WAY too ugly to be a sellout. If anything, it seems like it may have been calculated to drive away all the fans that the bluesy/accessible LOAD had won them.
I myself don't care if a band "sells out" because when you get down to it, a band HAS to make a living. They can't live off their parents. All that matters is whether I like the music or not. Yes, Aerosmith's music is clearly aimed towards teenaged girls now, rather than guitar rock fans, but I still like SOME of the new songs, and hell, they're in their 50s and I understand that they need to make a living! And besides, when you get right down to it, the minute a band puts a CD out for sale, they have "sold out." Their "art" has become "product" for them to profit from.
P.S. One more side note, it can sometimes be sickening to see arrogant "indie" stalwarts refuse to "sell out" and keep putting out the same fucking records their entire lives (I'm looking at you Superchunk and Sebadoh).
I don't know--you couldn't have predicted this thirteen years ago. Not a chance in hell. People would have thought you mad. I would have laughed until I spit snot from my nose.
Metallica and an...orchestra? I said before, I still love PUPPETS and find it to be my nostalgic fave, but RELOAD is my second runner up and I play the hell out of it more than anything else (this is my studio album deal--GARAGE INC. gets played more than just about everything) Black album I went back and forth on...Load I loathed and then learned to gently love and nurish, and now...this. This is fucking brilliant.
Why? Because, simply, only this band could have done such a thing. Metallica's work has a definitive symphony feel, all the way back to Lightning. It's the structure work--and this certainly proves the theory. A great list of songs, all played at full volume by the band, and made even cooler with a nifty, dark maestro thingy happening in the background. I love and adore it.
Man, No Leaf Clover is good! Damn good! A perfect fusion of the two styles. You can play this album loud and still sleep to it--that's how wickedly cool it works.
It was a great idea, an original, innovative move that Metallica has sort of become accustomed to making in the last few years. You just had to sort of take the damn leap of faith with them.
Get it and be grateful we still have the masters.
Seriously though, No Leaf Clover sounds goddamn awesome. It's certainly a cool song, and it's another GIANT step in the Load direction. I mean, the song is even more different than stuff on Load, while also sounding similar to TBA. The song really rules.
The only bad thing about the song I guess, is that fucking dumb orchestra. I think classical is ok and people who occasionally listen to it for it's musical qualities are in their right mind, certainly. But orchestras and rock music DOES NOT EXIST. Rock was made to KILL all that smaltzy whites only music, which it succeded in. Micheal Kamen can eat my ass. The "Rock and Roll Ensamble," I'm afraid not Mike. Fuck Kamen and Fuck his Final Cut fame.
But I suppose he might have wrote more than just the orchestrated parts on No Leaf Clover. In that case, I give him a SMIGIONLY SMIGON of credit. Because orchestras and rock bands just = GAYNESS.
The above was not meant to reflect the homosexual community of our world. It is simply used as it's own word, as an insult. YOU FAGS.
Also, bands like Iced Earth, In Flames, and Children of Bodom are playing real metal music better today than Metallica ever was in the 80s.
An another note--I don't particularly care for metal at all anyway--just Metallica. All of it. It never really was anything but its own thing. I always hated Slayer and Anthrax and Pantera--and I'm sure I'd probably hate all the "european" metal I could get my hands on.
Love Sabbath, love Zeppelin, love Metallica. That's all there is to it.
OWELL.....Bottom LINE! S+M is a AWESOME CD for *NEW* or *OLD* metallica lovers alike................10/10 all the way
I was making a reference to what he was talking about. Zeppelin and Sabbath go without saying...I figured that would be obvious. Guess not.
While I'm on the subject, I want to add THE METALLICA SUCKS for the NAPSTER thing. Way weak. Way gay...
Well, I'll put it this way... What do you get when you cross Metallica with the San Francisco Orchestra? The soundtrack to any James Bond film. Just listen to Ktulu! Can't ya see bond dodging bullets or something...? Maybe it's jus' me...
But I. Love the album... Really! I do!
PS. I miss MASTER, MASTER!!!!
I will concede that in a few places (Puppets, Fuel, Battery) the orchestra had to struggle to keep up with the band and that in some parts the upper-string noodlings got a little too cute. (Thing that Should Not Be) But how in the hell did Kamen manage to turn "Hero of the Day" into a *good* song, Give "Outlaw Torn" the extra kick it needed to really resonate and turn "Call of Ktulu" into a damned BEAUTIFUL fireworks-show?! More power to Kamen, and more power to the guys for weathering all of this snobby "sell-out" bullshit and turning out two hours of Heaven-to-Hell-and-back that would've made Dante proud.
I'm not debating that they sold out with this album, because they didn't. They sold out when they started suing fans. My debate is that cramming a completely unrelated and overdone movie soundtrack into your live-AH album-AH doesn't equate to "classically trained," or even listenable.
And just because Mr. Nosering was classically trained (Cliff was not, he was self-taught) doesn't mean that Metallica was meant to put a shitty LA symphony behind the band. LA being the capitol city of morons and posers.
And no, black metal bands almost never use a real orchestra. It's called a synthesizer, and it duplicates the sound of real instruments by use of sampled sound effects and notes. Blind Guardian did use a real orchestra, but they also threw in a fake opera vocalist. The same fake opera vocalist they used on all their other albums. And of course, they're still really queer. Fuck those pussies.
The symphonics in this album don't even match up with the real music. Kamen threw some left over Aerosmith sheet music on top of some Metallica songs, and Hetfield went AH and WAH for two entire hours. That's what S&M really is, in a nutshell. The whole thing reeks of a movie soundtrack, totally unrelated to any of the goddamn songs that the band is actually playing. Kinda like all of Kamen's movie soundtracks. Just a big collection of musical stings. Sorry, but that's not music, and it requires no talent at all. You know what talent is? Heavy metal, just in general.
What was done on this album actually requires NEGATIVE amounts of talent. It's certainly one of the worst live albums since Kiss' live bullshit. Not like it's as bad, because then none of the album would have been recorded live, and S&M is at least live.
Megadeth has actually returned to playing metal, because Mustaine knows that this poppy nu-rock crap isn't even fucking worth writing or thinking about. The new music on that Best-Of is excellent. Thank God for Megadeth.
(two milliseconds later)
Whoops, didn't even read that last one, and it was a reply to me. Darn.
And it turns out to be a fairly worthless reply. Just more sucking up to a band that's so past it's prime that it's both funny and sad. Kinda like the actual message directed at me.
By proclaiming that I said "classical music is smaltzy [yes, sic, I didn't bother looking it up] whites only music," you bring up the question, "are you on peyote or something?" I don't know, maybe you're not a very good reader, or maybe English isn't your first language.
Wagner dealt mostly in operas, which is a different writing field from classical, obviously. So I answer my own question with a resounding yes. And you defeat your own argument.
20 years ago, Metallica left SoCal, with the loud and proud exclamation of "LA SUCKS!" And not only were they right, but LA went right ahead eating up bands like Poison and Scorpions. Now they're collaberating with arguably the worst symphony on planet Earth. That's what a sell out is. It's when a person defies logic and rational thought to look cool or make more money. Kinda like a certain someone who gave S&M a 9, or maybe the person sticking up for classical and ignoring the fact that S&M is still a terrible album.
It's a nightmare of music, made even worse by the syrup-thick trendiness surrounding it. A fucking orchestra. Talk about running out of ideas. Anyone who's a fan of this album is just kidding themselves. Thousands of losers thinking that just because there's an orchestra screeching tunelessly behind the band, suddenly it's high-art and it "FUCKING RAWKS DUDE." These people are too afraid of real metal, instead opting to gulp down some watered down "we're-just-finishing-up-our-contract" lie of music.
I don't care if Cliff would've let this happen or not. Cliff is dead. What he would've ever done about anything doesn't matter. For all I know, he would've been all for this album--therefore deserving the death he got.
S&M is the worst thing ever made by a group of dark-colored designer-clothes-wearing sellouts, ever. This is Metallica's Kilroy Was Here.
I mean, its one thing to express displeasure about the direction your favorite band is going, but to call yourself a fan and then proceed to call the band names because they had a hand in taking away your pirating music service (yes people! grow up! napster was WRONG and you knew it. be happy you were allowed to steal mp3s from it while you had the chance.), or because they dont play the kind of music you like anymore, OR because they just happened to pen one of the most enjoyable hooky albums of the 90s that also happened to sell lots of copies(TBA), is just laughable. And the really funny thing is that you people call yourselves ex Metallica fans. You are/were (at best) thrash or speed metal fans. Nothing else. Oh, i cant wait to see what lame, childish namecalling replies i see to this post.
I shelled out fifty Deutschmarks for S & M and to this day occasionally break out in a cold sweat when I realise I will almost certainly never listen to it again. Not because they sold out, not because they have short hair or anything so childish, but... well, for three reasons, actually:
1. Too damned long. Metallica seem to be determined to prove that more really is less - of the six full-length CDs they unleashed on the world between 1996 and 1999 only one (disc two of Garage Inc.) deserved to be over forty minutes. Hire an editor, boys - I'd be happy to do it.
2. The Orchestra - and what Kamen gives them to play - is so very bad. At times it sounds as if the band and the orchestra were accidentally booked for the same night but decided to carry on and play regardless. At least half of these tracks are big old wastes of time. Make you kinda wanna slam in God Hates Us All.
3. It is a missed artistic opportunity. Tracks like Fade to Black, Orion, To Live is to Die and Fixxxer were the absolute perfect material for this sort of project, songs destined to be brought to life by the might of a symphony orchestra, so WHERE ARE THEY? Why do we have to put up with Hero of the Day and The Unforgiven? I guess the sad truth may be that they just can't play some of the classics any more.
But if you don't like S & M, and want to hear how it should be done, hunt down Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra. If you do like S & M, then you hunt it down too. And don't kill the whale.
John, Josh, R. Fratzl and all the Corporate KissAssica ex-fans (myself included)--I applaud you all. THANK YOU.
Folks, after Napster, I lost all fandom towards this band. I own almost every album and videotape these retards released. I had, and to a point still do, thought that the albums they released after Smell The Glove Part II had their moments (Low Man's Lyric, The Outlaw Torn). I ignored all the sellout talk, saying to everyone who said that that I thought they were just "broadening their horizons."
Oh, how wrong I was.
When Lars started bitching about Napster (VIVA!) and their "thievery" of the shittyass track "I Disappear," I gave up on 'em. Stopped listening to them 24 hours a day. Stopped looking for rare shit on eBay. Just stopped with 'em entirely. I frequented campchaos.com and viewed all the Metallica-bashing cartoons, all of which are a hoot and three-fourths. Check out the Metallica Millionaire one for a great, piss-yer-pants laughfest.
When Jason left, I couldn't have been happier. The "fascist nature of whip crackers Lars and James" Roland "Frequently Right" Fratzl was true. Yes sir. I heard his statement about leaving because it was getting "harmful to his health." I didn't believe that crock of sheeyit for a second (*cough* Lars and James told him to say that *cough*). When it happened, I remarked in my comment on the MJA DT review page that I'd give Kirk two weeks. I'm still waiting.
Josh--dead-on assessment of the city of L.A. Everyone there is a fake, phony, yuppie trash spoiled brat corporate ass-kisser. Fuck 'em.
John--yeah, Kilroy sucks. Yeah, present TakeItInTheAssica fans are afraid of real metal. Yeah, this isn't high art. Scenes From A Memory, Awake, Disconnected, SMPTe, Fragile, etc.--now THAT'S high art for ya, bub!
Roland--dead-on assessment of Marianne Faithfullofshit. Creative downfall, anybody important?
All I know is that when Hetfield gets out of rehab, I'll get their new album. But I won't enjoy it. No sir--I'll savage it mercilessly for my school newspaper and I'll send all three of you that review.
And thus ends my tirade. I leave you with a sentiment that makes perfect sense in this context...
FUCK THESE SELLOUTS! FUCK 'EM! FUCK 'EM ALL TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, this stuff is awesome. I'm not saying all of their new songs sound that great with the orchestra, but they are all pretty good to excellent. 9/10 all the way. Only a fool argues this isn't kickass.
I have been reading your whiny-ass stuff for a while now, and to be honest, I thought you were full of shit. Actually I think you still are, but the more I read, the more I see that there might be some brain activity going on behind all the shit you pull off. To my own dismay, I kind of like it...
I am one of those inferior metallica fans that discovered the band in -91 with their "sell-out album". Through that album I have later discovered and learned to appreciate and grow to love their earlier stuff. Had it not been for their "selling out" or "maturing in taste" - whichever way you wish to put it, I would never have discovered the wonders of "whiplash" or "call of Kthulu", etc. Their broadening of horizons expanded my musical world, and I would have been a lower lifeform had I not hooked on to the so called sell-out album.
Entering the S-O discussion, I must say that prindle's own letter was the most intelligent statement ever made on this site, on any band or topic (...yeah, I know. How likely is that?). People grow older, and change. Their priorities change, and their musical tastes change. I sure as hell would not like to be held responsible for things I said, thought or did when I was a stupid teenager (yes, teenagers are generally stupid! ask anybody who turned 25...). Neither should Metallica. I too think that the Napster issue may have come across as a little greedy on Metallica's behalf, but htey should have credit for being one of few bands who stood up and said "those money are ours!".
Metallica is perhaps not the hottest band in showbiz anynore, but they've been around for 500-odd years and STILL they make kick-ass music (albeit different from their first couple of albums). How many other 20-year old bands make good music today, whatever the genre (I tell you: Pantera, but not many others!)? Bob Dylan once said "just because you liked my music before, it doesen't make me responsible for you liking my music now" (this is not a straight quote, but the spirit of it is intact).
In conclusion: Metallica are NOT sellouts. Only stupid-ass pussy-silly, rigid, dorkhead idiots think that. They changed their output. Changed their musical tastes, and surely they are securing their (financial) exits, and they are doing it with their heads held high and their pride intact (maybe except for the napster thing). That said, I'm gonna go pull some teeth!
PS: If you're hunting down Deep Purple's Concerto, make sure you get the new one and not the 1970 version because the orchestra sucks on that one. The new one showcases one of the better orchestra performances out there, check it out!
I don't know why we were so mad. I listened to this album again, and it's actually really good. I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with your revised score Prindle, this is a pretty kick ass rockin' album!
No just kidding this album is still fuckin retarded. 8)
I mean we were trolling back then, but we were trolling with our honest opinions. I actually liked Metallica even up to Load and so on, but when I heard songs from S&M on the radio and TV and all that, it was like watching Cats. I couldn't help but think, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? It sounded like a fuckin train wreck. They didn't really add an orchestra to Metallica, they just had violins screeching back and forth playing the same two notes over and over and over until the album ends. It's like that Todd Barry joke about Guns n Roses playing with a live orchestra, "A, okay, over to A minor whoa, BACK TO A, CURVEBALL! My 30 years of practice did not prepare me for this!" This just sounds like a band desperate to be relevant, and trying anything to stay that way, but it just sounds like a cheesy mess. I dunno, Metallica wasn't that important to us as kids anyway, so when they started taking themselves way too seriously like in this (and the new shit from Garage Inc which is still laughably pretentious) it wasn't really much of a loss for us as much as it was an opportunity to mock people about it.
Also our hatred for Kiss has really waned in the past several years. We got a few Kiss songs on mp3 now. But we only like them in the same way we like Billy Squire or Whitesnake, or the occasional Styx song. Sure the bands suck ass, but it's always possible to squeeze enjoyment out of it against the forces of all gods. See, even the worst band of untalented jerkoffs can produce a guilty pleasure every once in a while. So it's a happy ending after all. ^_^
Let the child dream. Children must dream or their hearts fall out - it's a medical fact easily proven by removing a non-dreaming child's ribcage and dangling him/her upside down from the ceiling.
St. Anger. Hmmm.... So much to say, but where to begin. Hmmm.... Oh wait, I know! It doesn't have any good songs on it! It sounds completely half-assed! The lyrics are embarrassing! The vocals are far too loud! The bass guitar is (a) not played by either the old bassist or the new bassist, and (b) not audible AT ALL on the disc itself! All of the songs are seven minutes long and for the most part repeat two or three boring detuned chord sequences over and over and over and over and over! The songs are all mindless riff-by-numbers running up and down the three or four lowest power chords on the neck in surprisingly similar permutations! The band didn't bother to arrange the songs at all, leaving Lars to fake an arrangement by indiscriminately speeding up and slowing down the drums whenever he gets the hankering! None of the parts follow each other or have any flow at all! Most of the songs eschew vocal melody for ass-dumb shouting or crapping rapping! Lars has apparently added a sewage pipe to his drumkit, creating an out-of-tune "CLANG!!!!" noise that permeates the whole album! The guitars sound completely gutteral and are buried under the drums! Some of the songs have neat crunchy noise parts, but they always return to the actual riffs, which sound like the worst Helmet outtakes ever! (By the way, if you like this shitty album, buy Helmet's Strap It In because it's the same minimal low-pitched songwriting schtick, but done CREATIVELY instead of just plopping three boring major chords together and assuming it will kick ass if Lars thrashes hard enough.)
75 minutes long -- and CHRIST, does it draaaaaaaaaaaaag. But you're in luck if you like part of a song, because they will inevitably return to it seven or eight more times before the song ends! Look, to be honest, I actually LIKE the gutteral anarcho-crust guitar tones, especially in the sick, weird intro track "Frantic." And heck, even that copper pipe that Lars keeps banging his wrench against has kind of a neat (though completely amateurish and moronic) tone to it. But these riffs are SO LAME. These don't even count as songs, do they? Fingers go UP the neck! Fingers do DOWN the neck. Fingers go UP the neck! Fingers go DOWN the neck. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The few parts where they actually branch out a bit (a quiet, intriguing part in "Shoot Me Again," some interesting guitar note tones in "All Within My Hands") stand out as the only parts that sound like any BRAINPOWER was put into this record at all. The rest is boring, predictable blues-metal interspersed with fleeting moments of hamfisted funk. Even a few high-speed thrash segments in every single song can't raise this stinker above a three out of ten. Unless you're not really familiar with the concept of songwriting, this album is the musical equivalent of the world's greatest female basketball player -- she just ain't no good!
and when I walk in, I see it's Metallica's "St. Anger."
So do my ears just go to mah-mah-mah generation, or do you know of others who like this song?
P.S. I'm not a big enough metallica fan to recognize their "sound," so it wasn't if I went, ahhhh, comforting music that I can deal with. It just didn't sound as obvious as all the other acts.
I don´t completely agree with you on this one, although I had similar feelings after the first two times I listened to it. I would have given it a Five or something. But I like it a bit more now, after hearing it maybe six times.
In Sweden, St Anger has been hailed as a major return to form. I don´t really understand this. It does remind me of ...And Justice For All, in the way that the songs are looong (and not always because it´s necessary)... but this doesn´t sound at all like an ´80s Metallica album. Helmet is an obvious reference (I actually thought about it yesterday - what does this sound like? Suddenly I got it - Helmet! And then I checked out your updated reviews and found out that someone else thinks the same way).
At first it irritated me quite a bit that all songs seemed to be in the same key and sounding pretty much the same. However, as I mentioned, this album has grown on me. OK, the songs could have been shorter in most cases, and there are a few passages where the drummer starts playing at double speed but the others don´t (giving the impression that they don´t listen to each other) which STILL irritates me, but all songs have something memorable, some kind of identity. Not as accessable as their ´90s songs, but songs all the same. It´s still somewhat retro, though - as the Helmet reference indicates. But, then, who else plays music like this nowadays? On the hit lists??
This album is not a complete success, but at least Metallica have tried to do something they don´t completely master instead of just dragging on playing things they know in their sleep. I´d rather have them trying, and failing, than not trying at all. That´s worth something, isn´t it?! Like a Seven, or something. Better luck next time.
Well, if you enjoyed Slipknots 'Iowa' album I know youre gonna dig this - cos its basically the same but get this - without the memorable hooks and individuality! (yeah - I finally got a reason to give the 'Knot some praise publicly no less!) -
We have detuned 3 note riffs for the Korn fans, we have a bit of screaming for the Disturbed fans, we have protooled up distorted vocals to keep up with the production values of - well, everyones doing that distorted vocals/processed drums on an AM radio type thing at the moment...
We have St Anger the lead off single which is the best arranged tune on the album, we have The Unnamed Feeling which minus the barking and the unnecessary extra 4 mins duration could easy be a single... hey... have we just had the Lars album? Think about it - Load and Reload were very groovy-bles boogie guitar oriented albums - this is well... a 75 minute drum solo with guitars overdubbed where it felt it might work!
plop CLAAAAAANNNGG ploppa CLAAAAAAAAAAANG duga dugga dugga dugga claaaaaaaaaaang (imagine this rhythm being banged on an empty metal dustbin)....
I dug 'Iowa', It was an extreme metal album that got to Number 1 in the national charts - no mean feat! This, has some moments - Unnamed Feeling, Frantic, St Anger, All Within My Hands, Purify would have been a beter choice of first single as it sounds like one of the only naturally constructed songs on the CD....
But then you watch the making of the album on the bonus DVD and there it is! Its clear as a bell - nothing tacked on - all well played (though a bit rough) - and believe it or not this is briliant! Would have made an awesome follow up to the Black Album released in this form!
SO! THE VERDICT!
5/10 for the album
9/10 for the version of the album on the bonus DVD
Its not for me really - but I bet the nu metal fans will love it and thats where Metallicas paycheck is.
I have no use for the title track. Whenever he says "Fuck it all and fucking no regrets," and then rhymes that with "dark sets," I remember that line being used on a much better Metallica track. "Damage Inc."
The entire record suffers from mediocre lyric-writing. Only the same verse or two repeated over and over, and that makes for a half-assed sound. I am happy they are trying to stray from the "Alternica" mode, but the results are mixed, mainly because Lars has apparently fallen in love with the worst drum sound in the band's history. Make the snare sound like the snare instead of the tom (the DVD clearly shows Lars hitting the snare on the tracks), and this album is a seven, possibly an eight. But those drums make it a 4-5.
It's still superior to Re-Load and the Black Album, and worth having, though. The DVD is pretty cool, though that new bass player is damn annoying, in a "Look how cool I am making an ass of myself crouching on the floor!" kind of way. The code included in the CD booklet leads to hours of live Metallica goodness online.
Album gets 6/10. DVD 8.5/10. A good album that would have been so much better if the quality made the cd listenable
Anyways, i havent decided what to rate this album yet, but i do think you are being a little too harsh, Mark. "Frantic", "Dirty Window", and "Sweet Amber" all kick ass, and I really dig the guitars during the chorus to "The Unnamed Feeling". I can also say the title track and "Some Kind of Monster" are awful. But a 3? I'd give it higher than that just based on the 4 tracks i like in preliminary listens. Thats just me, though. After all, i could change my mind and give it a 0 in a few days. ;-)
Bah. Basically, alot of the songs on here sound like Load outtakes, but faster and dirtier. Honestly, the production doesn't bother me too much. I think it's kind of a neat sound how everything kinda just blends together during the heavy parts, even though the snare sound can get incredibly annoying at times. The bass is also definately ambient, which doesn't bother me because Bob gets on my nerves anyways. But the actual riffs vary from being acceptable to completely generic. And the lyrics are so damned stupid. Why did they start printing the complete lyrics again if they all suck so bad? The melodies can get pretty bad too. "Invisible Kid" sounds like a damned "Money for Nothing" rip-off for god's sake. I thought that riff was retired twenty years ago. Oh well. My top cuts are "Dirty Window", "St. Anger", "Shoot Me Again", and "All Within My Hands" (which could very well be the best track on the whole album). Honestly, I think if Hetfield/Ulrich/Hammett/Rock shortened each song so that the entire album length was about 35 minutes, this could have been a damned good album. But nope. 4/10
Anyway, there's no way in hell I would want to listen to their wares, but in this mass media age there is, sometimes, no way around being aurally mugged, (unles you do the Ichi the Killer deafening procedure, oh... this is a killer Japanese film you just have to see!!!) I digress, down these parts we've just had Wimbledon (bloody tennis, pah). The good old BBC cobbled together some clip reel to play out over the final credits (you know, where they show the high points, low points, hysterical pigeon interference, mass satanist orgy) and this year the music they chose was... yup metalica. The reason? Well one of our boys, Greg Rudeski (a Canadian), lost his rag, swore, swore again and then, a little bit more. Hence the logic??? St. Anger...??>>?? So, those demonic rockers are now being played behind Wimbledon highlights, (actually quite surreal when you have that racket OH HAHAHAHAHAH juxtaposed to a clip of veteran English rocker, christian and celebate cause-celebre CLIFF RICHARD. Oh, I came in my kegs, I tell you.
To finish, you might not have heard the bass, but the sound mixer certainly did as he/she gave us a good 16 bar loop of the track's bass break. So I guess I've heard all the bass that album has to offer. Still shit. Shit Shit Shit. Shit shit. SHIT
There are a couple of decent songs on Metallica's 1991 black album. That album was the beginning of the decline of Metallica. They really can't get any worse now. Actually they could put out another album and have guest pop vocalist's Timberlake or Spears. That would be worse but would also be hilarious.
well, you get the picture.
i used to think this album was, well, listenable. then i came to my senses and realised what a shit album it really was. "st anger around my neck" um... ok scary freaky guy. if i had to rate it out of 100 i would give it a 7.5. it has 75 minutes of music so i will give it a rating that high.
I aM a MaLlCoRe KiD aNd I lOvE ThIs AlBuM LolZZ!!!111!11
pedroandino@msn.com = idiot.
As for this album... it's hard to know what to say really. There were only ever two talented people in this band - one of them has got dead and the other has got rich and old (I'm talking about Hetfield). There is therefore zero talent in Metallica these days, so the apocalyptically awful St Anger really shouldn't come as any surprise.
They're just not a good band any more! By any standard! They have negligible levels of talent, no motivation and no artistic inspiration! If they had two, or even ONE of these things then they would have a fighting chance of recording something worth listening to.
But no.
I would normally say something along the lines of 'I don't blame them for trying', but that would be a lie, because I DO blame them for trying. They must know how shit they are these days, it must be obvious to them. They are wealthy enough never to go near a recording studio again, but no, on some cruel impulse they insist on recording whatever artless, pointless, tuneless, sclerotic noise pollution their clapped-out brains and uncoordinated fingers produce in between court appearances. It can't get worse than this, can it? I pray we never find out.
If you laid the tolerable sections of St Anger end to end you still wouldn't have enough materilal to fill up one minute's worth of the worst song on Reload. No band has fallen from higher heights to deeper depths than Metallica has.
I hope St Anger won't put me off enjoying their earlier, great records, but I have a feeling it already has. I would rather listen to virtually any album in any genre of western music than this despicable waste of precious finite natural resources. American Life? Haven't heard it, but I'll take my chances...
(a few weeks later)
Ignore my last comment on Metallica, it was an angry, silly, immature post (pretty much like all my postsJ) since then ive given these guys, well their 80s material that is, more of a listen and instead of pointing out the obvious…ill just say Kirk Hammnet looks more like a gay Hawaiian fashion designer, who wears tight black leather and does backup dancing for various Boy Bands in his spare time, than a friggin metal guitarist.
I am now here today day with 2 of my favorite guys! beavis and butthead! I hope u are ready! ^_^
pedro andino: welcome to the record review page!
butthead: uh so you got any chicks? heh heh heh heh he heh!
beavis: no way,butt goblin!
bu: shut up!,dill hole! you never scored In your life!
pe: guys! hey! calm down! I got the new metalica cd! this one is called st.anger!
bu: uh I hope these guys won't suck this time! load and reload both sucked!
be: no way, butthead! I like this song called em..... kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing nawthing! ha!
bu: boy this song sucked! I like 3 songs bleeding me, hero of the day, and cure the rest is like a cowboy metal album that sucked! heh heh heh heh heh
be: no way, man! I like these songs! gimme fuel gimme fire gimme that w/ I desiah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bu: shut up, assmunch! they changed into this stupid trendy crap that gay men wear!!!!!!!! it is like that queer eye show! damn that was stupid! heh heh heh heh he he they changed from metal to country!!!!!!!!!!!!! ugh!!!!!!!!! what wussies! I think these wussies should do disco! heh heh heh!
pe: shhhh! any way here we go with this one (plays one track from the album) what the hell is this crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
be: uh this rocked!
bu: shut up, dill weed
(a few months later)
ok. so the joke did not turn out good. and you know it is going to be a long page. yeesh! so many comments! very angry. I still think the cliff burton burton era rocked. say, what do you think of the new band called lacuna coil? they have a woman! mmmmm yum! a gothic woman! fuck evananananashamalamafuckwad! ha ha ha ha ha ha ! did you catch fuse with juliya? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmm bitch! yay! juliya! juliya! juliya! juliya juliya! I can go on forever! say is st.anger on top of the list as unioin, q2k, from genesis to revalation, love beach as the most hated albums ever!
NEWS HEADLINE:
JUNE 5, 2003 ST. ANGER DEBUTS, SATAN SEEN LAUGHING WITH DELIGHT
I have 4 words for you - "YOU FLUSH IT OUT, YOU FLUSH IT OUT" These 4 words are what truly bring me back every time to realizing how god-awful this album is when I try to convince myself it's not that bad. Oh wait, no that's 8 words, because...they repeated it... like, um, every single measure of music on this entire half-assed compliation. To me this album wasn't maddening or infuriating...just disappointing and sad, really. Actually, no, I take that back. It pisses me off in ways that transcend space and time.
I'll start out with this -- I consider myself to be a very well-read and reputable 'tallica fan all-around. I'm not a rock snob who only listens to puppets and lighting and accuses all other fans of not being "true." I'm not someone who jumped in late in the game and thought they were rock gods when I heard "Enter Sandman" on the radio for the first time. I happen to think Load is an awesome album, albeit in a different way than Justice is an awesome album (my fav of their "old skool" works). ReLoad definitely has its moments, and, yes, I even get a kick out of hearing them play "Tuesday's Gone". I would have given my first-born child to have been in San Francisco in 1999, but i did get to seem them touring last year (2004 madly in anger tour, Columbus Represent!) Basically, I'd like to think my opinion counts for something a little more...at least more than some of our youngsters of the Modern Era of Retard-Rock following the turn of the century. Before this album came out, the only song i really had a major problem with was Escape, from Lightning, which I can't stand for some reason.
Having said that....
I WANTED SOOOO MUCH TO LIKE THIS ALBUM!!! I watched some band footage before the release where they talked a little bit about the new album...Kirk actually used the words "rain of torrential hellfire" or something to describe it, so, of course i was nearly pissing my pants in anticipation. The first song I heard was the title track, of course, which was nothing short of traumatizing for my young and somewhat impressionable mind. I seriously put these guys up on a pedistal for years, and "St. Midlife-Crisis" was the demolition team that reduced that pedistal to a pile of disillusioned rubble. I never thought in a million years I'd be embarassed to be a Metallica fan around my friends. Don't get me wrong, I still love Metallica probably more than is socially appropriate, but this album stinks with a capital ST.
It took me a year to "get a taste for it". I figured I just hated it because I was expecting Master of Puppets II or something, so I was being unfair. For a short time I actually liked it, but the more I listened to it, the more I realized it just stank. I have given it a very generous listening-to on many occassions, and am being very fair in my judgement in my opinion. I was very relieved, although not terribly surprised, when I found out I wasn't alone amongst many Metallica fans that were left simply dumbfounded and in disbelief. When I attended a concert in 2004, Jaymz had the balls to scream into the mike, "ANYBODY HERE GO OUT AND GET AN ALBUM CALLED...ST. ANGER?!", obviously expecting some kind of uproar akin to that which automatically occurs at the sheer mention of Kill 'Em All at any live venue. I'll admit I didn't cheer with enthusiasm, but I was actually surprised when i heard what must have been at least 1/4 to 1/3 of the crowd erupt in a very audible explosion of booing and hissing disappointment. Oops is right.
The Composition? This album is REPETITIVE in every sense of the word. The style is repeated, the chords are repeated, the lyrics, the HORRIBLE word plays, everything. Think about it: the words repeat in the lines, the lines repeat in the verses, and the verses repeat in the songs!!!! You couldn't make it more repetitive if you tried!!! And HOW the FUCK do you make an 8-minute long Metallica song with NO GUITAR SOLO?!
The Lyrics? Does anybody think these play-on-word puns are actually clever? Let's take a look at some of the literary GEMS Hetfield cranked out for us:
"My lifestyle determines my deathstyle" i told this to my friend and he
looked at me like i was insane
"Ominous, I'm in us, Ominus, I'm in us" - WOW it sounds the same!
therefore it has meaning in the song?
"Projector, Protector, Rejector, Infector, Projector, Rejector,
Infector, Injector, Defector, Rejector, Verschmechter, Bean-rector,
Pee-nectar, Profector, Mo-mector, class lecture, interjecture..." i
might have missed a few
"Fuck it all and fuckin' no regrets" does that sound...familiar to anyone?
"Frantic-tick-tick-tick-tock" no comment.
"I feel my world shake....like...an earthquake." wow, that was a far
reach, but i THINK i get the connection.
"I'm madly in anger with you" ooooh i get it,
kuz...its...like...opposites...heh.
"Drape your back so you won't shine" does this even mean anything? honestly?
"KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL" what a creative way to display angst. 5
stars, really.
Compare these to "dyer's eve" "leper messiah" "...and justice for all" "fade to black"....the list goes on. There is something clearly missing here....Effort? maybe. Inspiration? Who knows. My frustration with the horrible lyric writing led me to make a highly inappropriate off-color comment regarding a certain someone's ability to write lyrics better while drunk...which i took back and apoligized for! We're proud of you Jaymz! Really!
By any chance have you heard the SKoM "Remix" on the single? As far as I could tell, it's basically what the song should have been in the first place...simply without the repitition that is so mind-numbingly apparent throughout the whole album. i think it's like 5:44 compared to the song's original length, which, if memory serves me right, exceeds a gut-wrenching 8 minutes...
Admitedly, my favorite tracks are Dirty Window and Some Kind of Monster (in spite of the last 10 seconds of the track, which make less fucking sense than any other 10 seconds in the decades-long history of Metallica). I just think Dirty Window has the best lyrics because its actually a great metaphor, and the lyrics actually have a discernable meaning and purpose (god forbid). Some kind of monster also has lyrics that actually seem to go somewhere, and it's just heavy enough for me to forgive it for lasting four times longer than should be legal in the state of California. Also, as much as I hate this album, I listen to it wayyy more than the Black album.
In my essay-writing class we were asked to write a comparitive review. I
wrote a 15-page angst-ridden paper comparing the albums Justice to St.
Anger, which my teacher insisted I reduce to 10 pages because the
requirement was only 5 pages and I was "overdoing" it.
St. Anger is heavy. I'll give it that much. But so would be any album by
a band who screams "fuck" o'er top of lightspeed DROP-C CHORDS to the
beat of Oil Drum McGee and his Crazy Pipes. Maybe if Kirk played in this
album it would have been better. Maybe if they had let Newstead's
creative juices flow instead of bitching at him like a clingy girlfriend
whose increasingly boring sex and one-sided conversations were no longer
worth the relationship, this album would have sounded better. Maybe if
they hired a new bass player BEFORE attempting to record, Trujillo could
have had something spicy to add? At least something more than Pop Rock,
who is actually "heard" on the studio recording. But that's anyone's
guess. As far as I'm concerned, I've made peace with this piece of shit
and have grown to accept it like the crazy uncle who farts and tells
racist jokes at family gatherings. I could go on, (obviously, for
another 10 pages or so) but i have to stop because i'm sobbing like a
baby and my tears are short-circ iting the k ybo rd.
For those that found this review offensive, you better get a life right
now or I will chop your head off!!! It's an easy choice, if you ask me.
And for those about to rock....I salute you.
As noted in the previous reviews, the drum sound is awful. It sounds like
the snare is turned off for the whole recording. The guitars are tuned too
low. The riffs are boring and repetitive. The lyrics are horrid. How did the
record company allow this to be released? It is not a return to their roots
as proclaimed. It's a failed attempt by 40 somethings to re-establish
themselves as players in the heavy metal genre. But to be completely honest,
there are no real new heavy metal bands coming out these days.
Saying SLipknot and Korn are heavy metal is like saying Big Macs and
Whoppers are fine dining. Any band that is played on a radio station after a
Velvet Revolver song and before a Maroon 5 song is not metal. It's pop. It's
Rob Thomas with long hair, a mean face, black clothes and distortion.
Metallica is the same. They lost it when they released the black album. Any
metal fan will agree. For James Hetfield to stand there onstage and act like
his former self is a disgrace.
For any fans of true heavy metal, check out bands like Lamb of God, Black
Dahlia Murder, and Entombed.
A masterpiece? No. A piece of shit? Nah.
Some of both? Yeah, I guess that's what this album is.
Where to start? Well, to begin with, I'm in the minority: I love Alternaca
(Black Album, Load and Reload) as much as I do Metallica (Kill 'Em All, Ride
the Lightning, Master of Puppets... And Justice for All). Though a few
tracks off of Reload seemed a bit too uninspired, all in all I can just feel
for this band. Personally, I believe that it wasn't going mainstream that
prompted Metallica's alternative phase, but rather the opposite: I may not
be Metallica and I'll admit I'm not too aware on what must have happened or
what they were thinking, but I think it would be safe enough to say that
their sudden urge for their alternative phase was what prompted going
mainstream (only they made the Black Album a bit more radio-oriented to wank
out their still-remaining desire to play metal and still give a great first
impression to the mainstream and find a good place to start once they went
commercial). Think about it: Metallica's music is, after all, meant to be
heard, and I think Metallica realized what shit they'd get for releasing
stuff like the Load series. If they did this kind of stuff while
underground, I doubt that they'd have this much face.
Whatever, I guess I'm just rambling.
Getting to the album...
First off, I can say that I like James Hetfield's urgent, gruzzled, yelling
country-singer vocals on this album. I like the garage reverb and slight
ambient effects that appear every here and there. I don't mind the fact that
Bob Rock pretty much sounds absent (really, with the exception of folks like
Les Claypool, bass barely impacts or helps jack shit). I don't mind the
sudden weird distortion the riffs have. I don't mind the way the lyrics have
suddenly turned personal and are based on the band's frustration and hard
events ( Hell, I don't even mind the fact that Lars Ulrich traded drumsets
with Oscar the Fucking Grouch and mostly plays standard
'bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-
bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang' blastbeats again and
again... Hell, a lot of hardcore bands and death metal bands do the same
kind of shit.
The only thing I dislike about this album is that some tracks have guitar
work that is just so fucking half-assed. Hell, even I could do better than
that if I could just get the fingering to the guitar down. Sure, Metallica
might be getting up there in terms of age and would likely get heads
hollowed by their younger counterparts, but there's still no excuse for
repeating the same small, simple 3 to 4 chorded melody strings over and over
in some of the songs. I mean seriously, if you're going to play that kind of
shit, at least back it up with some fucking SOLOS.
That said, however, there are some really awesome tracks on this mofo. Sure,
the music is pretty much nu-metal, but for once we can have a band that
plays nu-metal in a good way other than uninspired rap-beating drums mixed
with repeated detuned monotone mosh chords mixed with rap and sung by either
a cum-guzzlin' jock you probably bumped into during high school or some
whining, spoiled middle-class white boy.
The style on this album is relentless and gives that kind of feeling like
"bang rip shred bam boom bang bang bang, pump up, shout, criss cross,
a;sfja;sldkjf nonsense, bambambam, charge, BAMM BAM BAM BOOM BANG
D:LFKJSD:LFKJ:LSDKJ' and in some ways rather punkish for its urgency and
attitude. Hell, interestingly enough a lot of this sound seems to be derived
from not only Helmet, but also Superunknown-era Soundgarden.
For when the band puts some thought and expertise into their riffs, it all
comes together really nicely and it's a fucking blast to listen to. Take the
song My World for example: They have that nice and quick chug-swing-chug
kind of thing rather reminiscent of their old thrash days and can hammer out
hard riffs that go back and forth with dexterity and great melody, then go
sliding down, then start banging out some more heavy riffs and keep on
slipping and sliding and trucking about from one note to the other rather
quickly. Also check out the riffs on Sweet Amber: Switching back and forth
with all sorts of notes with that relentless rattling, hyper-intensive
speed-shred that goes from note to note and then quickly shreds and burns
way up with a jazzy vibe, giving a lot of nice and rather melodic 'bang bang
chugga chugga chugga' action. Throughout a lot of songs are really awesome
hammering leads, and for what it's worth when Metallica actually try, there
is a lot more ingenious melody and dexterity than anything they've done
in... Shit, maybe even ever, and it's still the heaviest album they've put
out other than maybe Ride the Lightning. There are a bunch of other examples
I could list, but I won't bore you with it. Simply put, I think that
Frantic, Some Kind of Monster, Invisible Kid (well, whatever, this track's
listenable), My World, Sweet Amber, Purify and All Within My Hands are
awesome tracks.
Still, throughout the album the melodies are so awesome, and even if James
Hetfield sounds a bit like a weak old man and sounds dorky and pathetic
whenever he tries to shout, he belts it out like mad. I can just feel the
whole pain and aggression in here.
At any rate, as someone else here said, it's better that Metallica tried
than not try at all... For the times in which they DID try. All in all, I
know I'm going to get shit for this, but I'm actually gonna give this about
a 7 or so... If you minus all the filler where they don't really bother with
the guitar (St. Anger, Dirty Window, Shoot Me Again and Unnamed Feeling),
you've got yourself one bad-ass mother fucker. The only real complaint I
have is the lack of real guitar solos, but other than that, this album is
killer. Besides, this album still has a lot more power driven into it than
lots of nu-metal bands. For once we can get a nu-metal band with members
that know how to play the fucking music right, and Metallica is that hero...
When they try.
Besides, it's in no way as bad as other let downs like Slayer's God Hates Us
All. ;)
http://www.thelisteningsessions.com/mp3/MattSmith-St.AngerTribute.mp3
It's a parodical tribute of course, and is actually poking fun at the album.
Even someone such as myself who thought that St. Anger was pretty good find
this to be funnier every time I hear it. Give it a shot!
First there was the time I had just led my volleyball team in gym to a crushing victory. We were all getting changed afterward, and I saw the captain of the football team listening to his iPod. It went a little like this:
Later, at the prom, I was dancing better than everyone, and the hottest girl in school begged me to dance with her, and I was like "Alright." So Limp Bizkit's version of "Behind Blue Eyes" came on, and she said "This is the best song ever and Fred Durst is a GENIUS for having written it!!!" I replied "Actually, Pete Townshend wrote it." She said "Who!!??" I screamed "That's right!!!!" and flexed, causing my tuxedo to explode off and turn into diamonds.
Then right after prom, I was making out with one of my teachers in my limousine (not rented, i own it), and "Ticket to Ride" came on the radio.
You wouldn't question my interactions with these people if you understood the perfect egalitarian nature of Connecticut's public schools. As for the completely implausible super-ignorance of these people, *loud fart*
Below are links to sped up thrash renditions of the
St. Anger songs. Of course, the vocals sound
unrealistically fast, but these are NOT chipmunk
renditions of the songs: They have simply been sped up
without being given a higher pitch. Simply due to the
speeding up of the songs, I personally believe that
this fixes lots of problems to St. Anger: The fact
that it drags, that its songs were too long, that the
riffs were too slow to be classified as good and that
the drumming was half-assed. The drumming is awesome
and the riffs are more agile. Sounds like some sort of
really twisted punk/metal album, in a way. Sure, the
songs mostly just push beyond 3 minutes, but it sure
as hell beats the original if you ask me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3wr3rmAmig
Maybe you should give a review of the sped up version.
luv, The Chodbin
Oh Christ. I don't know where to start. After reading the reviews on this
site, I feel I have nothing to add, but here goes:
Well now, what do we have here?
I found this really funny tribute made towards the Metallica album St.
Anger, made by Matt Smith. I don't know if you've already heard it or not,
so sorry if you have, but even then what's a little re-run?
This album sucks big time. If this is the best that Metallica can do now,
Fuck them. They suck ass anyway. They were awesome one time, when the
calender read 1986. This is 2006. Even The black album sucked ass. There
were a few fans who completely turned against them after the Black Album,
and Im one of them. Fuck ST. Waste of Jerk!!!!!!
I guess it's bad form to keep commenting on albums I haven't listened to (In this case, also a band I haven't listened to), but I have to comment on Rojasandres' incredible story about the True Metal Fan vs. the Stupid Corporate Pop Music Cheerleader. I completely believe your story, and have a few experiences of my own to relate.
Me: What are you listening to?
Jock: Led Zeppelin!
Me: Oh cool, I like Led Zeppelin too. I like "When the Levee Breaks" and "Communication Breakdown."
Jock: WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE!!!!
Hot teacher: Oh I love the Beatles!
Me: Me too. Did you know Paul played the guitar solo in this song?
Hot teacher: WHO IS PAUL, WHAT IS A GUITAR SOLO?
I personally think that this guy fixed all but the
annoying repetivity of the songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCeqTFObc4w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjgPcTz6NRw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAUeuZ39c6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1tchgMWdE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK9CTErdQ4s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn5sDl2R8ag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGOTC8ZELZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iad_kDolrM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06bo7Z1aPss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CovbS4iRcTE
I have a mental image of the Fonz water-skiing over a shark when I ponder this record. But, to be frank, I think they went over that particular fish quite a while ago. Black Album perhaps. Their next record has to be the second coming of the metal messiah or they will be royally boned. Fuck it, they're boned.
I don't know if you people have seen the Some Kind Of Monster documentary, but basically it shows Metallica to be a Dumb Kind of Monster -- a group of immature crybabies who never had to grow up and therefore didn't. And check this out -- this morning when I was scooping sewage out of the tunnels beneath NYC (I was making smoothies), I came across a reel of the film's outtakes! Here, I'll play them for you now, in text form:
James Heftield: Don't listen to playbacks when I'm not here.
Lars Ulrich: Fuck. Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUUCK!
James Hetfield: What are you yelling about?
Lars Ulrich: I'm hungry! I need a fuck!
James Heftield: It's called a "fork."
Lars Ulrich: Oh.
Robert Trujillo: I could try "Battery."
Lars Ulrich: "Battery"? You can play that fast with your fingers?
Robert Trujillo: That's what SHE said!
Lars Ulrich: Ha ha!
James Hetfield: Ha ha!
Lars Ulrich: Ha ha ha!
Robert Trujillo: She didn't really say that.
James Hetfield: You're fired!
James Hetfield: I committed the Robin Wood Murders!
Joe Berlinger: Wrong movie.
James Hetfield: Okay, but I did.
Ghost of Cliff Burton: I still feel cheated that you threw me out of the band for being dead. You didn't even give me a chance to go to Corpses Anonymous.
Lars Ulrich: It was a long time ago.
Ghost of Cliff Burton: I miss my little animate friend!
Kirk Hammett: (crying) Why won't you let me play any guitar solos!? It's what I DO!
James Hetfield: We're trying something different on this album. Just go with it.
Kirk Hammett: (crying) But I don't know how!!!!!
James Hetfield: Jesus, just play your guitar.
Kirk Hammett: (crying) I DON'T KNOW HOW!!!!!!
James Hetfield: What are you ta-
Kirk Hammett: (wailing) WHAT IS THIS THING WITH ALL THE STRINGS ON IT??? IS IT A BICYCLE??!?!
"Performance-Enhancing Coach" Phil Towle: You guys ready for today's session?
James Hetfield: I'm sorry, but we won't be requiring your services anymore.
"Performance-Enhancing Coach" Phil Towle: Nooo. No no no no, guys. No. We've still got some trust issues that I think we need to sort out. Please don't do this.
James Hetfield: I'm sorry. We're going on tour, and we don't need you anymore.
"Performance-Enhancing Coach" Phil Towle: But look, I wrote you an entire album! It's called Death Magnetic!
James Hetfield: I SAID WE DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE!!!!! Leave it on the table.
How could Metallica have "no worries" about releasing a disc whose entire first half is nearly unlistenable? It certainly won't be "good onya, mate" when you realize you wasted fifteen "quid" on tinny monophonic crowd recordings! What, were they off playing "footy" when the record company threw this batch of "dongers" together? James Hetfield sure wasn't burning the "midnight oil" when he sang "Eye of the Beholder" completely flat! And what, was he frolicking in a "little river (when the) band" tried to follow the backbeat of "Fight Fire With Fire"? I'm not saying those are "easybeats" to keep up with, but come on! They make the song sound like "a toilet flushing in the wrong direction"!
Interestingly, the two best performances/recordings are songs from the oft-maligned Reload. Most of the others are as distasteful as a "vegemite sandwich" covered in "koala bear" "TISM."
Say, that reminds me of a little joke:
Q. What should you rub vigorously across the playing surface of this CD before inserting it into your player?
A. "Now THAT'S a knife!"
Also, "let's forcibly remove Aboriginal children from their families for a full century and then put out a Kylie Minogue album."
If you are going to download this boot, I recommend downloading the Free lossless audio codec "flac' version. It is smaller than the regular wave files, but has no artifacts like the MP3 version. You'll pay a few dollars more though.
The concert opens with a track off the S&M album called "The ecstasy of Gold" before going into "blackened". Now I've been to the Coliseum before for Islander games. This place is loud, very loud. I've heard the crowds on TV in the playoff games, they're that loud! So Metallica should be open with a song that's faster than a racecar. This song puts you in the mood for a great show, and James is in fine form.
"Strong Island! Metallica is here!"
Says James after Blackened the crowd yells themselves horse. I always thought that a song like "Blackened" needs another fast song to medley into, and that's wisely what they did here, going right into "Fuel," doing it as strong as ever.
"If you can count how many of us are on the stage, then you know the song we're about to do,"
Says James. Yes, "the four horseman" is next. The show basically continues on like that, James talking a lot to the crowd, occasionally saying,
"you're not aloud to be louder than the band!"
But yes, the folks from Long Island are louder than the band. The only low points of the show were when he did songs from "St. Anger," doing them as bad as ever. Also, Jason Neusteds presents if particularly felt in songs such as enter sandman and battery, where he would sing. Robert Trujillo tries, but fails bringing battery for one down a few notches from it's kick butt self. Also, James really likes to talk with the crowd, communicate with the fans, which I really like. There was a part when the fans were chanting
"we want more!"
And the band was playing along with them. And like "live shit," they go into some great songs, but back out going for something else.
All in all though, get this show off of www.livemetallica.com
TRACK LISTING (AS IT APPEARED ON THEIR WRITTEN SET LISTS):
Kill 'Em All - 3
Live at Grimey's is unlike any other Metallica live release in that
its cozy atmosphere and small audience have resulted in something more akin
to a party than a concert. The band members constantly chat and joke with
the audience, even letting a couple of tone deaf buffoons sing an entire
verse and chorus of (the unlisted) "Frayed Ends of Sanity"! I'm not great
at distinguishing any of their voices aside from James, but I'm pretty sure
every member of the band gets in a rib tickler or two over the course of
the hour-long concert.
Rib Ticklers include:
- Lars (I think): "We're gonna play the whole new album!" James: "But it
sounds a lot like the old stuff."
I'd probably give this album a 9 just for its good times and fancy freedom
if it weren't for James' painfully flat vocals making the band sound a lot
more amateurish than expected. Luckily the riffs rock, the mix is raw and
filthy without sacrificing any bottom end and, most importantly, they sound
like actual people again rather than the out-of-touch millionaires they
were content to be for so long.
So here are some great Metallica jokes I just made up for you:
Q: Why did Metallica cross the road?
Q: Knock knock!
Q: How many members of Metallica does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Yes, it's a shame that Metallica joined the National Front and changed its
name to Skrewdriver, but we can't always get what we want in life.
Luckily, as the Rolling Stones once sang, "If you try some time, you just
might find, Angel of Death."
I don't want to overstate things here, but Death Magnetic
honestly sounds like the proper follow-up to ...And Justice For
All. Returning to the shouted vocals and vicious thrash guitar tone
of their first four albums, Metallica have combined AJFA's
endless, hypnotic riffing with Load's looser blues-, funk- and
hard-rock approach, without a hint of The Black Album's pop
structures and commercial concerns. Only two of the ten songs are
shorter than 6 and a half minutes and, unlike on St. Anger, the
band doesn't simply drag every track out by playing verse, chorus and
bridge over and over and over. These are epic thrash songs that
develop, expand and suck you in as James and Kirk layer harmonized
melodic leads and solos atop mean, crunchy riff "workouts" that often
leave the songs free of vocals for 4 or 5 minutes at a time. The
longest track is a 10-minute instrumental, for Pete's sake! And
a good one!
At 75 minutes, the CD has a few too many corny Load-style funk-rock riffs
to reach the 'indisputable classic' level of Metallica's first four.
However, since each song also has about ten different parts, there are
no tracks that deserve to be skipped entirely. Having said that, why on
Earth did they feel it necessary to write a third installment in the
"Unforgiven" series!? It already sucked by its second
installment! Come on guys, take a hint from Clint Eastwood and find a
new topic (ex. a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent, a bunch of old men
going into space). Still, even though it's honestly more of a 'low 8' album than an '8 proper,' Death
Magnetic is far more consistent, well-written and exciting than
anything Metallica has released since The Black Album. Plus, they sound MEAN again!
And yes, in case you were wondering, they do somewhat adhere to the old
Ride The Lightning template:
Track One: Clean dark arpeggiated intro into straightforward thrasher
(well, midtempo thrasher here)
I hesitate to describe the songs any further because they each course
through several different moods, speeds and passages; thus it would be
misleading to try and sum them up with pithy little descriptors. But
just to give you an example of how the songs progress, here are my
written notes for the 10-minute instrumental "Suicide And Redemption":
Chord chuggin' intro. Then slow bendy-string chords. Funky but
hypnotic! Likable! Groovy! Then a very Black Sabbathy chord bit
(heavy, sludgey) At 3:49, it changes to clean sad chords, and lead.
Nice harmony lead too. Then westerny tone over a couple of funky
chords. Then two cool loud chords and good solo over it. JUST RIFFIN'
AWAY! Love it! Then a cool note riff with good driving beat. More
harmony playing. Back to good first part.
Yes, it's true. I have insightful descriptions like that one written
down for every single song on here. No NO DON'T get JEALOUS!
Here, I'll throw out a few more little snips and bippets at random, to
tempt your tasties:
"The loud funky note riff is ANNOYING though. Makes you sing 'Faded
primadonna!'"
"Mean, fast, etc. And a 'doodly' hammer part!"
"Palm muted mean!"
"Chorus is a non-4/4 note riff timed to follow his vocals."
"Lots of 'whatever' riffing at the beginning - but then, but then ----
PULL-OFFS!"
"HAPPY thrash! High-speed anger, but HAPPILY so!"
"Piano. Sorrow with violins. A trumpet!" (hint: this is "The
Unforgiven III")
(actually, that one about making you want to sing 'Faded primadonna' was
"The Unforgiven III" too)
(quite frankly, "The Unforgiven III" isn't a very good song)
Rick Rubin produced it and by golly wow did he help 'em rip out a
shredder. It's mostly midtempo, but Lars kicks up the beat every once
in a while and even when he doesn't, it's almost all suitable for
headbanging. And listening too, I guess. If you're a FAG with EARS.
I didn't become a Metallica fan until after The Black Album was
already out -- not because that album spoke to me in a way that the
others didn't, but because I'd always avoided heavy metal as a young
punk rocker. By the time I was finally able to hear past the convoluted
'We're EVIL!!!' trappings and recognize the genius of Ride The
Lightning, Kill 'Em All, etc., it was already like 1992. As
such, I've only been an active fan of the band during their cutting
their hair and changing their name to Alternativica era. Frankly, I was
fine with this stuff too; though the albums were less consistent than
before, a lot of the songs still sounded great to me -- either hard rock
good (Load) or just weird (Reload). But with
St. Unbelievably Goddamned Bad and its accompanying film Some
Kind Of Monster, it became eerily clear just how immature and
downright childlike these men are. If you've not seen Some
Kind Of Monster, I urge you to -- IMMEDIATELY. Even more so than
Let It Be, this film shows you exactly why a great band's most
hated album turned out the way it did. In The Beatles' case, it was
heroin, laziness and disrespect. In Metallica's, it's because the band
is comprised of stinking-rich crybabies with the collective mentality of
a six-year-old.
This is why the forceful, menacing Death Magnetic comes as such
an incredible surprise and relief. Slogging through St. Anger's
endless repetitions of lyrical idiocy ("My lifestyle! Determines my
deathstyle!"; "Frantic-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tock!"), it honestly
seemed as if the band had undergone a group lobotomy and would never
again be capable of creating an intelligible work, let alone an
intelligent one. But such turned out to be an untrue case. All they
had to do was put a little effort into it, step up their game, and start
using their old logo again. The rest was cake, a cakewalk, and a walk
in the park! (to buy a cake)
Here's to YOU, former Suicidal Tendencies bassist Robert Trujillo! You
play BASS on this album!
Speaking of wives and pleasure... My friend, how could you say those mean things about Sara Palin? She could be like, the first vice president I'd like to fuck! She might not be a democrat or afro-american but she sold a jet on eBay! And she likes guns! How cool is that! I'd tap that ass! Just for your comments, I am sticking my unlubricated finger into your rectum and giving you a dirty sanchez!!! Take zat!
But back to metallica, and your review, where is the buggery, the blood, the vaseline farts? I'm disappointed a little, I think you are mellowing out. I think now that you smoke marijuana and drink alcohol you may be losing your edge. What's next for you, LSD and magic mushrooms? Are you giving in to all the pressure from amazon.com executives who are grooming you to become their Kept Boy on staff at Rolling Stone to become more "mainstream"? Don't do it man! The kickbacks are NOT worth it! You'll end up fat and ashamed with bad skin and all these videos of you floating around on youtube acting like an ass when you were drunk. Hey wait a minute, did I just describe James Hetfield? Fuck, he's my hero. Look waht you're making me do. Now I'm sticking my thumb in your rear! Feel that! UH UH! UH! You're not going to be able to shit for weeks! You are going to start rethinking your identity as a woman!
Hey are you going to print my Metallica comments on your page?
I bought Death Magnetic yesterday, listening to it right now and I think it's pretty great! Could anyone reasonably expect Metallica to make a better album than this right now? It's very rare these days that I hear any music you could straightforwardly class as metal that I enjoy. And this is a very enjoyable album, it makes me feel right bright and cheerfull!
P.S. Since I didnt make any comments about the individual songs, i'd like to add "This Was Just Your Life" may be the best song they written since Master or at least Justice and "My Apocalypse" and "Judas Kiss" are darned good too among others. Thankfully the first 3 albums i sold in the wake of the Loads and Napster were all on sale for 10 bucks this week too.
So I bought it today and I'm loving it! Headphones help if you want to hear the bass, and I do, so therefore..........yes. And it's a lot of fun, which I can't say about a lot of albums I've bought recently, certainly not a Metallica album in the last fifteen years (except for some of the cover material on the second disc of Garage Inc.,), and I love hearing them rip into these songs, however inferior they might be to the material from the eighties in some ways.
Having said that, there's nothing inferior about Kirk killing these guitar leads, and the moments when you can hear Robert's 5-string shine underneath the soloing..................yeah, they have a musical identity independent of their celebrity that I'm finally fond of again. I can almost pretend this is someone besides Metallica and still enjoy most of these songs for what they are, and that's saying something! It's too bad that Lars' drums are a little overpowering in the mix when they don't need to be (there are some sonic similarities between this album and the last Pumpkins' full-length as far as that goes), but he plays some nice stuff WITH the bass player instead of just with James - another sign of growth in this band that once seemed incapable of playing to it's true strengths ever again. Also, James is a fantastic singer, as of this album. Just wanted to say that.
Don't know how to rate it on a 1-10 scale just yet, but I think I'll be listening to this one a lot in the next month, maybe even longer, and I have a feeling that will be it's own reward.
"Broken, Beat and Scarred", "All Nightmare Long", "The Judas Kiss" are the highlights so far, and I can tell the opening track will grown on me a little more the next time I listen.
Every once in a blue while, the time comes upon us at which we must ask
ourselves, "Metallica: Band or Brand?" An intriguing question, at once
both fascinating and interesting, the query of "Metallica: Band or Brand?"
may be second only to the perhaps even more mesmerizing "Metallica: Band or
Bland?" Fans of early Metallica (or 'Metallicats,' as they've recently
deemed themselves in today's media landscape) may opt for the latter! This
controversial point will be addressed at a later date in the preceding
article.
But the point is this: "Metallica: Band or Brand?" is a question that one
may and mayhap should ask oneself or a field group of advisory committees,
lest the unexpected concern "Metallica: Band or Sand?" rear its ugly head.
I think we can all agree that Metallica is not a collection of naturally
occurring granular material, but what of the sister question "Metallica:
Band or Gland?" Is it possible that the combination of James "Jim"
Hetfield, Lars "Larry" Ulrich, The Other Guy and Robert Novello somehow
merges via unilateral convergence into a sweaty sloshy milkshake of
hormones and breast milk? Probably.
Those in the 'know,' as we call it here in the 'business,' realize full
stop that the question "Metallica: Band or Wand?" is irrelevant due to its
lack of verbal rhyme. But what about "Metallica: Group or Poop?" Any
unfortunate souls luckless enough to encounter St. Anger on a cold
and dusty eve might well ask just such an item! And honestly, if you take
that angle, why not go the whole hog and ask "Metallica: Combo or Mambo"?
Considering that the band now features two Latinos (Robert Mozillo and The
Other Guy), this assertion is more valuable than ever.
But our question for today is, of course, "Metallica's Six Feet Down
Under Part II: Good or Food"? This Australia/New Zealand-only release
kicks the tar and feathers out of its predecessor, featuring powerful and
well-recorded monster truck performances culled from the band's
September-October 2010 tour of Kangarooville,
Putanothershrimponthebarbyland. Messrs Hetfield, Ulrich, Bonilla and Other
Guy wisely stick to their classic first four albums, performing three
Baster of Muppets tracks, one Kill A Mall number, and two
songs each from Lighten The Riding and ...And Justice For All,
justice for all who have followed this band since Day A. My conclusion:
Vitamin Great!
However, errors and troubles are also ripe on the horizon, and not far from
the eye to see. James "Jib" Hetfield's macho adult voice doesn't suit this
material anywhere near as well as his earlier raspy yell. This is
particularly evident in album-closer "I Damaged My Incorporated," which
finds his voice overpowering its musical accompaniment by a percentage of
several thousand degrees. Further hence, his decision to farm out most of
the "Master of Puppies" vocals to tone deaf audience members feels like a
violent kick in the ribs to those of us listening at home. Still, with a
collection of songs this exciting and hooky, how badly could they fuck it
up the ass? The answer is not even badly enough to cause fecal incontinence.
In conclusion, "Metallica's Six Feet Down Under Part II: Food." I
downloaded it and then ate my modem, a zesty blend of Appenzeller cheese
and inedible plastic.
But first, a bit of background: Lulu is a terrible theatrical piece that tone-deaf Down's Syndrome sufferer Lou Reed based on a pair of very old plays by some guy I've never heard of. Fuck you and fuck your background.
As most reviews have pointed out, Lou sounds strikingly like a senile old man shouting impotently at the kids next door to turn down their fist-pounding rock metal. Seriously, his vocals are so unbelievably awful - and turned WAY up in the mix. I realize the man has never hit a correct note in his life, but he's never sounded quite THIS clueless. And old!? Christ, the old! You know Neil Young, right? That guy's a billion six but he still sounds 22. Lou, on the other hand, sounds like THIS:
Furthermore, his lyrics are literally a paper bag with vomit leaking from it, featuring such genitalia-shriveling turns of idiocy as:
- "I would cut my legs and tits off/When I think of Boris Karloff"
And what a waste of the world's leading thrash combo! Why on Earth did the face-pulverizing geniuses responsible for "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Whiplash" lower themselves to backing Lou on his boring goodtime John Mellencamp simplistic three-chord crap ("Brandenburg Gate"), awkward under-rehearsed prog rock ("Cheat On Me") amateurish acoustic melodrama ("Little Dog") and ugly slabs of hardened cow dung that I guess pass as 'heavy metal' to old people ("Pumping Blood," "The View")? I can only assume Lars was too worn out from his 100% justified fight against Napster to bother arguing with Lou Reed, professional Crapster.
It's truly to the credit of the metal-fucking cock-punchers in Metallica that Lou "Pile of Shit In Sunglasses" Reed wasn't able to flush the entire 87-minute release down the toilet of his talentlessness. No, not even this crusty little guy who used to be married to a guy and now denies that he was ever married to a guy could ruin the spine-shredding speed metal "Mistress Dread," heart-weeping Killing Joke arpeggiator "Iced Honey," hypnotic worried pounder "Dragon" or 20-minute country-rock drone beauty "Junior Dad." Plus, what the hell? Metallica's throwing out drones all left and right! Or maybe it's whoever's playing the viola. Either way, it was Metallica! And they were kicking your teeth down your throat, then ripping a hole into your guts to retrieve them and glue them back into your mouth upside-down so the pointy parts stick into your gums and hurt really bad!
In conclusion, Metallica rules and Lou Reed died five years ago.
Just wanted to say I've been reading your page since I was sixteen (ten years or so) and I genuinely believe that the two Lulu reviews are, combined, probably your best review ever.
Right lets get the first thing first metallica are the best band in the
world and they still kick more ass than any living band today. The review is
totaly wrong because old people do enjoy " Ride the Lightening ". Every
single metallica album is amazing and deserves an award. I think everyone
who has ever said anything negative about metallica should be shot in the
face with a canon.
It was a Grim dey indeed when Metallica held an in-store
performance at a Nashville record shop the day before their appearance at
the 2008 Bonaroo Festival. Were they trying to regain some of the
credibility they'd lost over the previous decade? Or was this their
punishment for shoplifting an Elton John CD? Either way, somebody recorded
it and here it is.
Ride The Lightning - 1
Master of Puppets - 2
.And Justice For All - 1.5
Metallica - 1
Load - 0, strangely
Reload - 1
St. Anger - 0, wisely
- Kirk (I think): "You guys have supported us for a long time, but listen..
There are a couple people here from Warner Brothers Records, and if we do a
good job, maybe they'll sign us and we can finally get out of the
basement!" James: "You want to keep us here, don't you? You greedy,
selfish bastards."
- (when the main "Seek and Destroy" riff comes in) James: "Oh, mighty
riff!"
- (following the first two-harmonic bit at the beginning of "Sanitarium")
James: "Someone's at the door." (following the second): Somebody else:
"Land Shark!" (note: Saturday Night Live reference!)
- James: "So what's this thing going on tomorrow? Just a show?" Somebody
else: "Puppet show." James: "The Puppet Show, then Chris Rock, then us."
(note: Spinal Tap reference!)
- (during "Motorbreath" intro) Somebody: "THA RIPPAAAAAH!" (note: Judas
Priest reference!)
A: It's pronounced Load, chink!
A: Who's there?
Q: The Black Album!
A: The Black Album who?
Q: Sorry, I meant "The Black Bum Al," here to rob you at knifepoint because
I'm black.
A: At least 3, because 2 of them are Mexicans, which means they just sit
around on their asses all day.
It's been said that every cloud has a silver lining, and - as evidenced
by the latest releases by Slayer and REM - apparently this applies to
clouds of SHIT too. Both bands responded to diminishing fan
interest by unexpectedly (and delightfully!) working to recapture their
original style -- the sound that had earned them a fan base to begin
with before they started FUCKIN' AROUND with it! However, with the
absolutely hideous St. Anger far outstinking the simply mediocre
God Hates Us All and Around The Sun, many former fans had
to wonder (some not for the first time), "Could Metallica rediscover
their original spark even if they wanted to?" The answer is
finally here: Jesus Christ is this a good album!
Track Four: Sorrowful ballad that slowly builds into metal (good GOD
does this song KICK ASS when it finally gets going!)
Second To Last Track: Lengthy instrumental
Last Track: Speedtastic thrasher
I like the new Metallica ablum! WHen I heard Rick Rubin had tricked them into thinking they would play an actual battle of the bands against actual high-school kids, I thought that was brilliant! But the weird thing is, parts of it didn't seem all that different from St. Anger. Then again, I didn't see what was so awful about St. Anger, there are some catchy tunes on there. Then again, before I listened to St Anger I heard it was going to suck. And first I watched the Monster movie and while entertaining, it was pretty much the antithesis of everything Metal-licker stood for back in the Reagan era (the "salad days"), with them being disgracefully aging rich whiny rock stars (though not as whiny as Dave Musty-smelling-stain!) and hanging out with Mr. Creepy Liver Spots (the guy reminded me of a child molester). After having seen the movie, what with that goofy argument about guitar solos vs no guitar solos, and the bass player ended up being the fat wanker who ruined the band to begin with (WTF kind of a name is "bob rock" gawd!) I guess my expectations were low to begin with! Then again, the last Metallica album I listened to was In Justice For All, back in 1989 before I started listening to the Melvins instead. I have never even heard the Black Album or anything Metallica did in the 90s (except the odd song on the radio, yawn), so not hearing anything else from them in all these years has probably made me easy to please. Kind of like your wife!
Hurrah!
Eggbert's comment was the first time i've laughed at something new in i dont know how long. Been seriously bummed lately, you see. Thank you eggbert, whoever you are.
It's okay. The intro to "The Day That Never Comes" is ripped directly
from Queen's "Back Chat" (from the "Hot Space" LP). Maybe next album
they'll give us their take on "Body Language".
Jesus Christ! What are the odds of Metallica making an album this strong 20 years after ...And Justice For All? Of ANY band? This kind of shit just isn't supposed to happen in popular music. It's like if Aerosmith unexpectedly put out an album that wasn't filled with future prom theme ballads, or if the Rolling Stones wrote a new song that didn't make you wince in embarrassment and pray for state-enforced euthanasia. I saw Metallica a few times in the late Eighties but lost interest after the eponymous Black Album (listened to it a few times, wasn't impressed, moved on quickly and never looked back), so to hear an album by them that can stand up to Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets is a fucking miracle. Forget the arguments about selling out, haircuts, and the sperm-drinking rumors and just buy this thing already! (But don't buy it on Amazon through one of Prindle's links - why should we support his marijuana habit!)
I have to admit it - your enthusiastic review was the sole reason I did anything besides laugh at the new Metallica album. Not because I needed the verification that it wasn't a total piece of crap, but that I didn't expect it to be the kind of album that warranted praise from an old-school metalhead like yourself.
I like it a lot, but there's something keeping me from loving it, and I think I've got an idea of what it is. They're repeating themselves. I actually like Load and Reload a little more, simply because Load and Reload are very good albums (there's no way in Hell either of those albums would have gotten such venom and hatred from fans had they been released under a different band name) that sound new and different, while Death Magnetic is a very good album that sounds like stuff Metallica was putting out 20 goddamned years ago. It's the same sort of problem I had with Ministry's Houses of the Stupid Album Title. It's a very good Ministry album, but Al already made Psalm 69, 12 years before. I don't want Metallica in 2008 to sound like Metallica in 1989; I want them to sound like Metallica in 2008.
You are so high. Death Magnetic does NOT deserve 8 out of 10 stars. Hell, I'm not even sure it deserves 6. The drums are probably the worst. They have power, but the production seems to erase the impact. The terrible production(some say demo, but ) is very probably also responsible for the drums sounding more perfect than they should. I've heard that Lars has become shitty, but I had absolutely NO idea just how his skill had declined and subsequently had to be spruced up with studio tricks. While they granted deserve much on this album just for energy's sake, James age-weakened vocals help to drag it down still further(though not as much as someone else might have, I suppose). The whole thing overall represents an half-hearted attempt to go back to 80s thrash metal while incorporating some more general(maybe slightly modernish?) heavy metal influences.
I have to say Mark, I agree with your comments on Death Magnetic as long as we're talking about the Guitar Hero version which isn't all overmixed to hell. They basically overproduced the album and sludged all of the instruments together, taking the easy path for the sake of FM radio and ignorant douchebags. I had thought that I hated the record, but after hearing the version with actual dynamics (and therefore more intensity) I've concluded that the band's heart was in the right place, but their brains are as out of whack as ever. They took the easy way out and released good music in a terrible way.
I haven't listened to this album enough to rate it as a rock album in
general, but as far as the "going back to the thrash roots" thing, I really
can't hear what everyone is talking about. In my opinion it's FAR from
being a follow-up to what Metallica was doing last time they left thrash
metal. From that perspective I really find this hard to get excited about.
It's just average heavy music. Plus there's James Hetfield. He's been
finished as a metal vocalist since the early 90s. His voice nowadays just
works for country-ish ballads and such. You only need to compare with the
classics. The songs on MOP and AJFA grabbed you instantly. They weren't
just heavy. They had the riffs, the precision, the sharpness, and a decent
vocalist. DM though is just what you'd expect: a band trying to be badass.
Well, again, maybe as a whole it has some points, but if we're talking
strictly the thrash and all, this is pretty lame. In comparison, Megadeth's
Endgame actually does give you instant retro thrash vibes. It has the edge
and some riffs that are actually sharp and meaty just like the good old
days.
By Mike Chapstick
Editor, Adweek
Wonderful. Great. Perfect. Just seconds after redeeming themselves with the ass-kicklin' Death Magnetic, the world's thrashiest balls-to-the-wall nutrockers shatter the dreams of long-hairs nationwide by recording an album with doddering 900-year-old imbecile Lou Reed from the Velveteen Underground. Make no mistake: James, Lars, the gay-looking one and the new guy hit the studio READY TO ROCK SOME ASS!!!! Unfortunately, the 39-pound wheezing retard gave them nothing but human shit and garbage to work with.
- "If I waggle my ass like a dark prostitute/Would you think less of me?"
- "I will swallow your sharpest cutter/Like a colored man's dick"
- "I open the sticks, sticky legs I bear/And then insert a fist, an arm"
- "I'd drop to my knees in a second/To salivate in your thighs"
- "To be dry and spermless like a girl!"
- "As long as you can raise that little doggie face/To a cold hearted pussy, you could have a taste"
- "The smell of your armpit/The taste of your vulva and everything on it"
Hey Mark,
HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT LOU REED LIKE THAT?! THE MAN'S A VISIONARY, AN AMAZING POET AND ONE OF THE BIGGEST ROCK ICONS OF THE LAST CENTURY!!!! HE WAS THE FOUNDER OF 'THE VELVET UNDERGROUND', HE WROTE 'WALK ON THE WILD SIDE' AND HE PLAYED FOR THE POPE!!! THE FUCKING POPE JOHN PAUL II!!!! IF THIS RECORD HAS ANY FAULTS IT IS FOR SURE THE BACKING BAND THAT HE CHOSE, BECAUSE METALLICA ARE A BUNCH OF SELLOUT LOSERS NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WORSHIP THEM!!! LOU REED INVENTED HEAVY METAL WHEN HE PUT OUT 'METAL MACHINE MUSIC' AND EVERY OTHER METAL ALBUM IN THE WORLD IS JUST A RIPOFF ANYWAYS!
Yeh, you topped yourself with those, pal. Probably even ol Lester Bangs read it with much amusement.
THANK YOU! The second I heard about this project I was instantly angered. I had full faith that Metallica would stop jumping the shark, but they continue to do so yet again. I was a big fan of Velvet Underground and Metallica, but combining the two is like dunking Oreo's in sauerkraut. This is truly the most insincere album since Pat Boon went metal.
