All things Metallica

I found Beyond Magnetic to be terrible. James's vocals are amazingly bad. Lars's drumming is pathetic and the lyrical content is a joke. Some nice riffs here and there but they even rip themselves off by "quoting" the riff from "Fuel." Ugh.

Eyesore wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Spyder Jonez wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Quote :

I instead came to the realization that Metallica is actually pretty lazy and the second most overrated band in history, second only to The Beatles.

I stopped reading after this statement...sheesh.

How can anyone "overrate" decades of impact, influence and sustainability.

It was in the part you supposedly didn't read: "good God, the way people go on about this band... The way *I* used to go on about this band you'd think they were pumping out all this killer material for the last 30 years instead of for the last 20 spending their time attempting to hop from trend to trend while pumping out filler in between."

While i'm sure that is somehow James Hetfield's fathers fault the point still stands.

"Filler" and "trend hopping" being in the (clearly jaded) ear of the listener not withstanding, that doesn't negate the impact that Metallica's first 10 years have had and continue to have on Metal fans/Metal musicians.

And what trends were they hopping onto? Sure, the black album was clearly a shift toward the mainstream. Musically, though, it set the trend; it didn't copy anything. Load and Reload deviated from that so much, it again set the trend. They weren't copying anything with those albums. The St. Anger came along...and again, it wasn't following a trend at all. It's a crap album, of course, but it was no copy-cat, bandwagon-jumping album. Nor was Death Magnetic.

I don't get where people insist Metallica followed trends and sold out and all that. It doesn't make sense.

That's what I'm saying...I agree. "Selling out" means doing something don't want to do simply to make more money. Metallica (James & Lars, at least) has never, ever done anything they did not want to do. They certainly never followed "trends"...that's just silly.

They sort of did follow some trends. I've read interviews on St. Anger where they claimed they "wanted" to include guitar solos but it was suggested that guitar solos weren't cool anymore so they were left off. I've also read interviews about Load where the band were purposely trying to stay relevant. They obviously succeeded.

I like Metallica. I'm not one of the haters, but I think it's fairly obvious that they followed a trend or two in their history.

Witchfinder wrote:

I found Beyond Magnetic to be terrible. James's vocals are amazingly bad. Lars's drumming is pathetic and the lyrical content is a joke. Some nice riffs here and there but they even rip themselves off by "quoting" the riff from "Fuel." Ugh.

Its funny how we all process music differently, I bought the EP and loved it, I cannot speak about the lyrics since I did not pay attention to them, the music IMO was great.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Spyder Jonez wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Quote :

I instead came to the realization that Metallica is actually pretty lazy and the second most overrated band in history, second only to The Beatles.

I stopped reading after this statement...sheesh.

How can anyone "overrate" decades of impact, influence and sustainability.

It was in the part you supposedly didn't read: "good God, the way people go on about this band... The way *I* used to go on about this band you'd think they were pumping out all this killer material for the last 30 years instead of for the last 20 spending their time attempting to hop from trend to trend while pumping out filler in between."

While i'm sure that is somehow James Hetfield's fathers fault the point still stands.

"Filler" and "trend hopping" being in the (clearly jaded) ear of the listener not withstanding, that doesn't negate the impact that Metallica's first 10 years have had and continue to have on Metal fans/Metal musicians.

And what trends were they hopping onto? Sure, the black album was clearly a shift toward the mainstream. Musically, though, it set the trend; it didn't copy anything. Load and Reload deviated from that so much, it again set the trend. They weren't copying anything with those albums. The St. Anger came along...and again, it wasn't following a trend at all. It's a crap album, of course, but it was no copy-cat, bandwagon-jumping album. Nor was Death Magnetic.

I don't get where people insist Metallica followed trends and sold out and all that. It doesn't make sense.

That's what I'm saying...I agree. "Selling out" means doing something don't want to do simply to make more money. Metallica (James & Lars, at least) has never, ever done anything they did not want to do. They certainly never followed "trends"...that's just silly.

Metallica absolutely follow trends. Currently they are following the trend of nostalgia. Load/Reload followed the grunge trend. The Black Album was trying to emulate the sound of The Cult (I am not kidding, Lars was obsessed with their drum sound.) St. Anger was such a mess because they had no trend to really emulate. Don't believe me - read this: http://www.amazon.com/Enter-Night-Biography-Mick-Wall/dp/0312649894/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328816087&sr=1-1

Load and Reload sound nothing like grunge. The black album sounds nothing like The Cult. And right, St. Anger was just a mess because they couldn't copy something? Come on, dude.

Calling Load/Reload "grunge" is incredibly convenient and shortsighted...those albums don't even come close to "grunge"...in any way. Those albums are blues based, heavy rock/metal albums with catchy songs.

I can't comment on the drum sound (other than it sounding amazing) but the black album sounding like The Cult?? It sounds NOTHING like The Cult...

The only thing they have in common with the Cult is they both were produced by Bob Rock, and Lars was obsessed with an album right before the recording of the black metal, Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood, and the reason they hired Bob Rock to produce the self titled album.

manny wrote:

The only thing they have in common with the Cult is they both were produced by Bob Rock, and Lars was obsessed with an album right before the recording of the black metal, Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood, and the reason they hired Bob Rock to produce the self titled album.

Exactly - Lars wanted that big drum sound and James wanted that big sounds the Rock brought to Dr Feelgood

I never thought that 'Load' sounded grunge, that album stylistically is all over the place, modern rock, pop type tunes, a Southern fried type song, and of course a bit of metal.

Whatever you want to call Load & Re Load stylistically,in my opinion they're very poorly done and are Metallica's worst releases. I bought Load on the day of release and was very disappointed. I traded it in not long after and never gave it another chance. All the songs I've heard from Reload on the radio and where ever else just did nothing for me so I never even bothered with it.

I never heard a song off St. Anger but just from about everyone's opinion I'm not going to waste my money on it. I did give Death Magnetic a chance and did like it. Way better than the aforementioned releases. I may be getting the EP. I didn't even know anything about it til I read about it here.

I don't like the Load albums at all... Currently Metallica's worst album ever is St Anger. Because as far as I know, Lulu is considered a Lou Reed album.

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

Eyesore wrote:

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

I think they could've made a decent EP with some of the Load/Reload songs...

Eyesore wrote:

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

Though Lars thinks St. Anger will be revered like that of Born Again: Interview Circa '08

We played in Germany the other day, we played a song from "St. Anger". You've got to give "St. Anger" some love. A guy was doing an interview from a couple of weeks ago said, "You know that album? You know an album called 'Born Again'? Of course I do. BLACK SABBATH, "Zero the Hero", one of the best BLACK SABBATH albums. He goes, "Exactly, that's exactly my point. Twenty years from now, 'St Anger' will be BLACK SABBATH's 'Born Again', 'cause when 'Born Again' came out, everybody hated it, and now it's one of the most revered BLACK SABBATH albums. You wait and see, 'St. Anger' will be 'Born Again'."

metalinmyveins wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

Though Lars thinks St. Anger will be revered like that of Born Again: Interview Circa '08

We played in Germany the other day, we played a song from "St. Anger". You've got to give "St. Anger" some love. A guy was doing an interview from a couple of weeks ago said, "You know that album? You know an album called 'Born Again'? Of course I do. BLACK SABBATH, "Zero the Hero", one of the best BLACK SABBATH albums. He goes, "Exactly, that's exactly my point. Twenty years from now, 'St Anger' will be BLACK SABBATH's 'Born Again', 'cause when 'Born Again' came out, everybody hated it, and now it's one of the most revered BLACK SABBATH albums. You wait and see, 'St. Anger' will be 'Born Again'."

You laugh, but that's entirely possible...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

metalinmyveins wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

Though Lars thinks St. Anger will be revered like that of Born Again: Interview Circa '08

We played in Germany the other day, we played a song from "St. Anger". You've got to give "St. Anger" some love. A guy was doing an interview from a couple of weeks ago said, "You know that album? You know an album called 'Born Again'? Of course I do. BLACK SABBATH, "Zero the Hero", one of the best BLACK SABBATH albums. He goes, "Exactly, that's exactly my point. Twenty years from now, 'St Anger' will be BLACK SABBATH's 'Born Again', 'cause when 'Born Again' came out, everybody hated it, and now it's one of the most revered BLACK SABBATH albums. You wait and see, 'St. Anger' will be 'Born Again'."

You laugh, but that's entirely possible...

Highly unlikely, but possible... Considering the lame brains of modern times.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

metalinmyveins wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

Though Lars thinks St. Anger will be revered like that of Born Again: Interview Circa '08

We played in Germany the other day, we played a song from "St. Anger". You've got to give "St. Anger" some love. A guy was doing an interview from a couple of weeks ago said, "You know that album? You know an album called 'Born Again'? Of course I do. BLACK SABBATH, "Zero the Hero", one of the best BLACK SABBATH albums. He goes, "Exactly, that's exactly my point. Twenty years from now, 'St Anger' will be BLACK SABBATH's 'Born Again', 'cause when 'Born Again' came out, everybody hated it, and now it's one of the most revered BLACK SABBATH albums. You wait and see, 'St. Anger' will be 'Born Again'."

You laugh, but that's entirely possible...

What can I say, I don't believe that album will ever reach that status, and this comes from a fan boy of Metallica. Granted, "Born Again" had it's production issues, but "St. Anger" was beyond a production nightmare, plus no guitar solos on that record will not help that album age at all...

25 pages of BITCHING! YAY! It must be a Metallica thread!

I find it bizarre that someone would honestly argue that Load/Reload were not an attempt by Metallica to cash in on the "alternative rock" scene of the day. They changed their imagine, artwork, logo, sound etc... to reflect what THEY thought would sell. St. Anger is an album written by a band that is adrift, without any sense of the type of sound they wanted. The Black Album was clearly an attempt to go commercial. Can anyone honestly argue that ANY of those albums is ground-breaking???? Get real here. I like the Black Album but it's a very conventional hard rock/metal album. Load is about half okay and Reload is terrible. St. Anger is best not spoken about.

Even the band members have recently expressed their distaste for St. Anger, and they almost never play any of those songs live("Frantic" sometimes shows up once in a blue moon)

Vexer6 wrote:

Even the band members have recently expressed their distaste for St. Anger, and they almost never play any of those songs live("Frantic" sometimes shows up once in a blue moon)

That's odd... Lars always defends that piece of crap.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

metalinmyveins wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

I think Load and Reload are great albums. Sure, the best songs from each could have made one outstanding album, but no song in my opinion is an outright stinker. They're all at least good, so I enjoy them quite a bit.

St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever.

Though Lars thinks St. Anger will be revered like that of Born Again: Interview Circa '08

We played in Germany the other day, we played a song from "St. Anger". You've got to give "St. Anger" some love. A guy was doing an interview from a couple of weeks ago said, "You know that album? You know an album called 'Born Again'? Of course I do. BLACK SABBATH, "Zero the Hero", one of the best BLACK SABBATH albums. He goes, "Exactly, that's exactly my point. Twenty years from now, 'St Anger' will be BLACK SABBATH's 'Born Again', 'cause when 'Born Again' came out, everybody hated it, and now it's one of the most revered BLACK SABBATH albums. You wait and see, 'St. Anger' will be 'Born Again'."

You laugh, but that's entirely possible...

But the reaction to Born Again, I'm assuming, was due to line-up changes and whatnot. The problem with St. Anger is that it's virtually unlistenable. It assaults the senses, and not in a good way. Born Again isn't like that.

But sure, someday that album might become a classic. Somewhere down the line, the kids might really enjoy horrible-horrible noise, and St. Anger will be held aloft as a classic.

And hopefully I'm dead when it happens.

Quote :

Somewhere down the line, the kids might really enjoy horrible-horrible noise, and St. Anger will be held aloft as a classic.

I see it happening now. "Screamo" is proof.

Born Again had great tunes, Ian Gillan working at the top of his game, Iommi dropping legendary riffs like Zero The Hero...

St. Anger has that tin can snare drum...and that's about it.