Metallica (1 Viewer)

[KrisM]

Count me in as a fan of the first four. I got into them when Ride The Lightning came out. I thought the Black album was o.k. when it came out, but it lost its appeal to me over time. I can't remember the last time I listened to it.
I think the death of Cliff Burton was a bigger factor in the direction the band has taken than most people realize. I get the feeling that Metallica would be a different band today if Cliff was still on bass.

Regards
KrisM

 

[Trenton McNeil]

I'm a fan of the first....FIVE.

The Black Album seems an Opus to me. Culmination.

Load and Reload seem like attempts to be creative which fell on their nose. I like some of the new covers on Garage, Inc., and absolutely hated S&M (Although a Studio Version would be interesting).

 

[Mike Broadman]

I am reviving this thread to make an announcement:

*ahem*

I have now officially given up on Metallica.

I defended Load and Reload (sorta). I was buying into the whole "trying new directions" thing. I gave St. Anger every possible chance, listening to it many times and trying to understand where they were coming from.

They're maturing, I said. They don't want to be locked into one thing, I said.

Now I say this- they, in my ever so humble little opinion, now, as cliche as this sounds- SUCK.

I still dig the black album, as it was my first exposure and consider it to full of great tunes. I even like it more than Kill 'Em All.

Kudos to folks enjoying anything they did after, though, because I can't anymore.

I recently tried giving St. Anger one more chance after deciding to let the album "grow on me." I think the whole "low-fi" thing is phony, contrived, and awful. There's something a bit insulting about one of the biggest bands in the world making crappy sounding music on purpose and calling it art.

Anyone want to buy my copies of Load, Reload, and St. Anger from me? I have no more use for them.

I generally maintain an extremely high sense of loyalty to a band I like. I've even made peace with 80s era Yes and Genesis. But Metallica- pff, thank God for my copies of Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning.

 

[Travis Olson]

I'm one of the few who actually prefers 90's Metallica, it probably has to do with my age and because of the fact that it was the music I listened to in High School. Anyway, I never really bothered, for some reason, to listen to a lot of their earlier stuff until recently and I have to say that I still prefer 90's Metallica.

I like a lot of 80's songs they did like Fade to Black, Sanitarium and One. But most of the thrash speed metal songs don't really appeal to me. Why I don't know because I lot a lot of other metal bands like Pantera.

That brings me to St.Anger. I don't really like this album. It has a couple good songs in the title track and Frantic, but other then that it has nothing that really stays with you. I think in Jason Newsted leaving they lost a majority of the talent.

 

[Robert Ma]

Metallica to me is:

1. Master of Puppets
2. Ride the Lightning
3. And Justice for all
4. Kill em All

As for the rest, to quote a Metallica song, "nothing else matters"!

They had one hell of a run there before they fired their producer (Flemming I think his name was??) and hired Bob "Sell-Out" Rock.

Im waiting to hear Iron Maidens new album when it comes out. I didn't like the last Brave new world album but am hoping that things get reserected with the next.

Speaking of Reserection, if you are a fan of mid 80s heavy metal, check out Rob Halfords solo album Reserection. Halford may be gay (LOL) but damn that album is awesome. And Priest is horrible without him.

 

[Camp]

Metallica has four good albums: Kill -Em All, Ride the Lightening, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice For All. Everything else is crap IMHO.

I can't agree more. These guys got no attention when they were good and get all the attention once they get bad.

I have only heard the first single from St. Anger and it's the most laughable, disjointed single by an established band I've heard in a long while.

 

[Cagri]

For me, Metallica albums are;
Kill'em All, RTL,MOP -----> Great Metal Albums
AJFA,Black -----> Fine Metal Albums
Load, Reload -----> Fine "Light" Metal Albums, where the group reached the peak of their technical perfection.

I don't know if there's anyone else who thinks AJFA wasn't as good as their first 3 albums.

St. Anger -----> This is crap. Every time I try to listen to this album, I find myself jumping track to track. I couldn't complete listening to any track except Frantic, they are so boring. Not that Frantic is any different but it is the first track and I somehow was patient.

 

[John-Miles]

I agree, i dont think justice was all that great, and i also dont think kill em all was that great, id put justice on par with load and reload myself..... but then i really liked most of load and all of reload.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I just finished listening to St. Anger for the first time.

I don't know if I will listen to it a second time. I don't hate it, but I didn't find any of the songs "accessible". None of them had any kind of hook to draw me in. No great riff, no great melody, no great lyric, nothing to hook me on it. To get an idea of where I stand on Metallica, I'll say that I like Black Album most of all. I consider it their breakthrough album, their "Dark Side of the Moon", which is something I wouldn't say that if I didn't have prior experience with their earlier albums. Most of the songs on Black Album had great big meatlocker hooks, in my opinion. I think a few of the songs on Load and Reload had hooks too, maybe not as big as on Black Album but they were there. I think Load and Reload would have been better if they had cut out half the songs and released 12 of the fittest survivors on just one album. I liked S&M from start to finish, I enjoyed it far beyond the novelty of a 200 piece orchestra banging their heads with Metallica. Garage Inc. I enjoyed mostly for the novelty.

In this category that I call "accessibility", I put St. Anger in a group along with the albums before Black Album. Most of the songs on the early albums didn't have hooks either, in my opinion. There are exceptions, easily identifiable as the old songs that you can still expect to hear at a Metallica concert. They are the "survivors", songs that have withstood the test of time. But at least the early albums had some survivors. I don't hear any future survivors on St. Anger.

I know some of you are going to be mad as hell at me for suggesting it, but I think St. Anger was an attempt by Metallica to go "retro", to rewind the clock 15 years and reach for the riffs and rhythms and lyrics of 25-ish angry young Metallica. It sounds like they were tired of hearing Old School Metallica fans bitching and moaning and shouting "Sellout!" for the past 12 years and tried to give the fans what they thought they wanted to hear. I guess they didn't succeed. I don't think they would have been allowed to succeed. I think a lot of people have made hating Metallica into a pastime.

 

[Jeff Kohn]

All this hype about St Anger being "back to their roots" is just so much hogwash. The album is laughably bad, most noticeably because of the vocals. Good grief, half the time it sounds like he's singing out of key, and his attempts at "agression" sound comical. Musically, the guitars a bit a bit crunchier, but it is still uninspired songwriting and performances. Where are the freaking guitar solos? It's just so sad to see a band fall so far...

 

[JohanD]

The guitar solo's are one of the best parts IMO..
take a look at all the classic metallica songs.. there is always a good solo somewhere in the middle.. Like the one in the middle of master of puppets... or to the extreme.. a song like orion or call of the ktulu..

I have not heard st. Anger.. but it has been a while since they released a pure instrumental song.. I wonder why they removed such a wunderbar element from their songs?

Overall I think they are trying too hard.. trying to make it sound like this or that... just stick to the basics and go from there..

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yeah, I don't understand this hatred for solos. I know a lot of punk/grunge bands hate them, and I think that's a shame. Sure a lot of solos are just scales played really fast, but it can also be used for expression. Lyrics aren't absolutely necessary all the time. Especially with lyrics like on St. Anger.
"Shoot me again, I ain't dead yet."
Ugh.

St. Anger seems more like a statement of some sort than an actual attempt to create music. If I want to hear a bunch of meaningless statements I'll watch C-SPAN.

 

[TedT]

I don't think that's true. I think they just can't play them. I did an interview with Tony Adolescent once and asked him why all the big punk bands in the early days (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Misfits, Discharge, GBH, English Dogs, DYS, etc... even Brian Baker from Minor Threat was in the metal band Junkyard!) ended up turning metal towards the end of their careers. He said that "it's because that's what they've always wanted to play. They just couldn't at the time." I believe him.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I think Kurt Cobain did say that solos were pretty much useless. Yes, he's only one musician, but he was pretty influencial to 90s rock music.

 

[Miles M]

I've listened since ~'88. In college the Black album came out, got so sick of 'Enter Sandman'. Seems like once they went mainstream with that one, it just turned me off. Haven't listened to any of their new stuff since then. But I still like the first 5 albums.
Now, the Napster thing was another 'turn off'. Seeing Lars and his stupid a$$ up there preaching to us, give me a break! Yeah, it could lead to possible theft. But what about this: I had AJFA and the Black album stolen from my vehicle. Now, I have a right to those songs, I did purchase them. But no,I have to go out and pay FULL PRICE to get them again? The great thing about Napster is I could have just downloaded them again. But really, many times I want the ACTUAL CD, jacket and all. If these guys want to talk about theft, then offer honest consumers a way to get replacements at REPLACEMENT prices. Can't tell you how many CD's have been stolen, scratched,etc... Heck, now they are even making CD's with copy protection so if I buy it I can't make a back up copy. Remember when VCR's came out and the movie industry fought them, lost, then realized it was a great revenue stream. Record comapanies have to catch up with the times already.

 

[John-Miles]

You know Miles you are right, why dont record companies offer replacement cd's for those that are damaged or stolen. i mean damn its not like its your fault that you scratched cd's, and next time im in a car accident i will tell the dealershiop they should sell me a new one at a replacement cost.

my point is sarcasm aside is that downloading from napster is still theft. the few downloads that are legitimate are in the vast minority. and while you may still go out and buy cd's to get the jackets and such I personally knwo many people who just print off the jackets on color printers, and other people who dont care about the jacket so they have stopped buying cd's altogether. Slam Metallica's music all you like but it seems a little unfair to slam them because they stood up for their rights and the rights of other artists. If I am in a store and i see someone slipping a video game or cd into their jacket and trying to leave with it i will go tell a clerk, let them deal with it, so should i be singled out and blamed because i have tried to impede theft? who knows maybe that shoplifter had lost his copy of that cd so then i guess it wasent really stealing and im in the wrong huh?

 

[Scott Van Dyke]

If Metallica was standing up for harsher penalties for repeat rapists or murderers, I'd probably take the other side.

I'm convinced that Metallica is being held captive in a UFO somewhere. They disappeared sometime around 1988. These new imposters are a bunch of dipshits. They could only look goofier if they sported mullets.:rolleyes

 

[Miles M]

Hmmm, a little sarcasm. There's quite a bit of difference between the CD and car scenario, don't you think?
I am not necessarily asking for an exact replacement, but they could offer some type of database which would show my purchase of some given content. Thus, they could give me access to these files(via server or ??) in the future, should I ever need/request it. Try downloading a new car via computer, don't think it'll work.
My point is, artists say they are essentially licensing CONTENT. So, if I buy a song it should be mine forever. If a CD gets lost/stolen/scratched then why can't I download a free copy, I already paid for it. The whole problem is exactly what you said: "... the few downloads that are legitimate are in the minority." But they DO EXIST. Why then are legal downloads slammed with a broad brush because others are illegal?
--To use your example of snitching on a guy putting a CD in his jacket to steal, no you shouldn't be singled out for reporting it. But what if you tell the clerk that EVERYONE IN THE STORE with a CD in their hands is a thief? They will think you are crazy, yet that is what they have done with Napster and the like. ASSUMED all downloads are illegal.
I fully understand artists need to be paid for their services. But quite frankly, to squash user's rights without offering a viable alternative is not going to gain my respect. While the record companies have been complaining, companies like Mac have introduced viable MP3 buying venues. But even these are flawed, IMO.
When CD's first came out, there was no way a user could make a 'back up' copy, for the inevitable day the original got lost/scratched/etc.. But for tapes, there was(remember the dual tape decks?). Now fast forward to today, I can make a copy for use in my car(since I know it's likely to get stolen/scratched/etc..) and keep the original in the home. But now they are making the CD's with copy protection, so I can't even do this anymore either. So where, as a consumer, are my rights?
We could argue forever, but there will still always be 2 sides to this story.
-over-

 

[John-Miles]

Miles, you made some very good point, and simply i think the most reasonable solution to your problem is to not copy protect cd's. I will not buy any cd's that i cant put on my MP3 player because like you said ive bought the content, but having easy online access to these things just leads to most people stealing content.

and as far as pointing out if everyone is stealing cd's well that comes to a question of philosophy and ethics, some believe that what is right and wrong is dependant on what is accepted by the current society. of course others believe that what is right or wrong isn't dependant on how many people do it. theft is still theft, even if 20 million people do it.

 

[Adrian D]

I'm convinced that Metallica is being held captive in a UFO somewhere. They disappeared sometime around 1988. These new imposters are a bunch of dipshits.

Now that's some funny shit.