I still love AJFA -- probably for nostalgiac reasons, though I can't really tell b/c its influence as one of my formative musical experiences makes it very difficult to reexamine objectively, in the context of the rest of their catalog and all. I got it in sixth grade and listened to it just about every day (alongside Appetite for Destruction) on my walkman while delivering newspapers. The tinny, no-bass production thing probably never occurred to me (A) because I was 11; and (B) b/c the album was almost exclusively taken in through stock headphones.
FWIW I still like the "black album" too, warts and all. It's at least 50% classic to my ears, mostly due those gigantic fucking riffs & a soft spot for Kirk's wah-wah fetish.
The Load/Reload thing was such WTF disappointment that I really, really wanted to accept St. Anger as the take-no-prisoners return to form it was initially trumpeted as in many (the majority?) of its early reviews - kind of like when The Phantom Menace came out and, for a while, no one wanted to admit what a colossal dud it really was. But the album really is almost unlistenable, completely sacrificing memorable songcraft in favor of "kicking ass" in a really pathetic, middle-age-crisis kind of way.
As far as what to expect from new material, I believe that the band are incapable of recapturing the vitality of their best work. Based on their portrayal in Some Kind of Monster, they don't seem conscious of what "it" actually was to begin with. Even if Rick Rubin were able penetrate the Hetfield/Ulrich ego fortress (impossible, I say), all the back-to-basics production in the world won't matter if the tunes simply are not there. And they haven't been, for a very long time.
― Pillbox, Sunday, 6 July 2008 04:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Some Kind of Monster > The Phantom Menace > The Black Album
― Nate Carson, Sunday, 6 July 2008 09:23 (fifteen years ago) link
The Phantom Menace has nothing on The Black Album. Actually, "The Phantom Menace," had it not already been copyrighted etc., would make a fine Metallica album/song title.
― Pillbox, Sunday, 6 July 2008 09:30 (fifteen years ago) link
At no point on the Black Album does a Jedi jam his lightsaber into the heart of a giant metal door until it superheats and blows open.
― Nate Carson, Sunday, 6 July 2008 09:45 (fifteen years ago) link
>Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium
When I interviewed these guys, Cedric said he can't even listen to that record anymore. He hates what Rubin did to it/them. I don't agree with him; I'm just reporting.
― unperson, Sunday, 6 July 2008 13:20 (fifteen years ago) link
haha yeah mars volta could have made an even worse record if rubin would have just let the dogs off the chain
― M@tt He1ges0n, Sunday, 6 July 2008 13:54 (fifteen years ago) link
although sometimes i fall for their bullshit santana meets mr bungle with an emo singer bullshit!
you know what i just thought of for the first time in a long time...how WEIRD AS FUCK it was that marianne faithful did a cameo appearance on a METALLICA record. you can't make this shit up!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Sunday, 6 July 2008 13:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Metallica, hey, if they're enjoying the music they're making now, so be it. I'm not. But to John D's original point, the first four albums were classic (and hell, I still enjoy the Black Album from a
But Metallica seems to be more interested now in putting on a facade of "being heavy" and "returning to roots" that for a lot of their sheep-ish fanbase, it doesn't matter that they actually aren't.
I'll give it a fair listen, just as I did St. Anger, but I hated that album. I could ignore the cringe-inducing lyrics ("My lifestyle determines my deathstyle"), but the music was just bad, other than the title track and "Dirty Window".
Part of me thinks that, lame or not, they probably enjoyed making the Loads more than what they're making now.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 6 July 2008 15:36 (fifteen years ago) link
OTM
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 6 July 2008 16:34 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.metallica.com/images/extras/DM_cover_600.jpg
― Bee OK, Friday, 18 July 2008 03:38 (fifteen years ago) link
vagina grave
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 18 July 2008 04:23 (fifteen years ago) link
how WEIRD AS FUCK it was that marianne faithful did a cameo appearance on a METALLICA record. you can't make this shit up!
I dunno, I mean Marianna Faithfull did an appearance on an Oxbow record too...she seems available for fucked up shit of all stripes.
Metallica not making Black Album-style pop metal is pretty useless these days.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 18 July 2008 04:24 (fifteen years ago) link
WOW that cover is vag city.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 18 July 2008 04:25 (fifteen years ago) link
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000DR70.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
― Pillbox, Friday, 18 July 2008 04:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I just hope they deleted everything Torben didn't like.
― moley, Friday, 18 July 2008 05:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Metallica should take it one further and make the new album ONLY available on Guitar Hero....
if you fuck up a few notes here and there, it'll sound the way its supposed to
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:12 (fifteen years ago) link
http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/jezebel/2008/07/hetfield072508.jpg
― latebloomer, Sunday, 3 August 2008 11:50 (fifteen years ago) link
looks like ulrich and hammett decided to really embrace their feminine side for this album
― latebloomer, Sunday, 3 August 2008 11:54 (fifteen years ago) link
! Cloven hooves! Maybe this will be alright after all.
― Øystein, Sunday, 3 August 2008 11:57 (fifteen years ago) link
I went on Youtube yesterday and watched the live clip where they play "their new song".
it was hideous. I hope it's not really going on the new album. sounded like St. Anger redux.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 3 August 2008 13:59 (fifteen years ago) link
oh yeah, what did you expect? master of puppets redux?
― stephen, Sunday, 3 August 2008 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Trujillo looks like an action figure in that shot.
― chap, Sunday, 3 August 2008 18:57 (fifteen years ago) link
It has to happen some time right? I mean, every ageing band goes through the phase at least once. That moment where they all sit down and decide to 'go back to basics'. Proper speed metal. Six minute songs. Acoustic guitars in the intro, heavy opening riff, launch into the first verse with another palm-muted stomper. Epic twin leads. Badass, larger than life lyrics about death, fuck your personal issues.
We know you've grown as a band as well as individually, you're not sixteen anymore, it's all fine we won't think anything worse of you.
― Siegbran, Sunday, 3 August 2008 19:46 (fifteen years ago) link
No, but that's never been what I wanted. Hell, they couldn't even pull it off competently if they wanted to now, with the way James sings.
But it feels to me like the St. Anger type stuff is not the music they wanted to make, but that they made it in order to sell their more gullible fans that they'd gone back to basics and are making 'harder' music again.
Load and Reload may both suck, but at least they sounded somewhat enthused about it.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 3 August 2008 20:53 (fifteen years ago) link
I think the enthusiasm you're looking for was mostly gone after Cliff died, to be honest.
― J0hn D., Monday, 4 August 2008 00:27 (fifteen years ago) link
I just want something that's listenable! Megadeth's recent output might be generic, boring, and not something I want to listen to more than once, but it's at least listenable! :)
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Monday, 4 August 2008 00:54 (fifteen years ago) link
I would buy instrumental versions of every Metallica album since Justice... if they were available.
The Apocalyptica covers Metallica for 4 cellos is very good, in my opinion. Check it out!
― res, Monday, 4 August 2008 01:07 (fifteen years ago) link
The band you love is dead! Stop trying to dig them up!
― Nate Carson, Monday, 4 August 2008 03:09 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tattoos/metallica_back.jpg
― stephen, Monday, 4 August 2008 03:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I have. I don't plan on buying this monstrosity at all.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Monday, 4 August 2008 03:21 (fifteen years ago) link
i bet that tattoo looked better before that dude got lovehandles
― res, Monday, 4 August 2008 16:28 (fifteen years ago) link
humanizing James Hetfield interview on NPR's Fresh Air:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=14023112&m=14023108
― res, Monday, 4 August 2008 17:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Crummy footage of "Cyanide" played tonight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rFjCR9NeI
Too garbled to make much of it, but there are some promising moments, like Lars stepping out of the lazy groove he's been doing for the past decade, and some welcome dual harmonies, nawobbum style.
― A. Begrand, Sunday, 10 August 2008 08:23 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post The reason Rubin wanted to work with Cash in the first place was to rescue a living legend from the dinner theater circuit. Mission accomplished. I do agree that had it stopped after "Unchained" (the rare sequel better than the original) there'd be less debate, but I just can't argue with the presence of more Cash rather than less.
As for Metallica, the best route would have been a reality series after the movie. Or a sitcom, a la "The Monkees." But too late for that, I guess.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 10 August 2008 13:05 (fifteen years ago) link
an animated series with Hetfield and company masquerading as costumed superheroes after nightfall....
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 10 August 2008 20:17 (fifteen years ago) link
New song posted here:
http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=601119
It's pretty good!
― Jeff Treppel, Friday, 22 August 2008 23:11 (fifteen years ago) link
I think the new song's awful. A weak rehashing of the classic era with zero passion.
― chap, Saturday, 23 August 2008 14:52 (fifteen years ago) link
drums are mixed way too high
― i, grey, Saturday, 23 August 2008 18:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Song's not perfect, there's a little "One" rip-off that sticks out, but other than that I kind of like it.
― A. Begrand, Saturday, 23 August 2008 19:01 (fifteen years ago) link
It's all right, but the vocals are terrible. This kind of can't be fixed; the only way to make Hetfield's singing sound good is to under-record it, and dude's been around long enough now to not stand for that.
― J0hn D., Saturday, 23 August 2008 19:30 (fifteen years ago) link
I wonder what song was in Lars' headphones when he recorded this one?
― Nate Carson, Saturday, 23 August 2008 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link
another new song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAT_Tt_EZM0
― M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, 29 August 2008 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link
damn this is kinda fuckin' hot!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, 29 August 2008 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link
more bark, less "singing"!
thrashiest thing they've done since..jeez...blackened?
lyrics have some lo_Ol moments but hell it's a new metallica song.
hard to tell from shitty youtube but sounds like rubin records on fuckin' macbook with the cheap protools or something.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, 29 August 2008 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Ok, that one's surprisingly unshit.
― chap, Friday, 29 August 2008 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
wow @ fake metallicas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX04ktKI9SY
― Jordan, Friday, 29 August 2008 17:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Maditory (sic) actually do a better 80s Metallica impression than 00s Metallica do from the sound of that.
― chap, Friday, 29 August 2008 17:09 (fifteen years ago) link
anyone else think My Apocalypse sounds really Slayer-ish at times?
NYT write-up on it.
― rockapads, Sunday, 31 August 2008 17:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I would like a "My Apocolypse" ringtone.
― Eazy, Sunday, 31 August 2008 18:10 (fifteen years ago) link
not half-bad. okay, maybe a quarter bad.
― latebloomer, Sunday, 31 August 2008 18:58 (fifteen years ago) link