Meh, it's not great, I didn't mind a fee songs off St anger when that came out, but evedy song they do nowadays just seems like "fuel" which was never a great song anyway. Shame, they were a great band. Still are, just appealing to a different audience now I suppose.
Music Metallica
- Thread starter Werewolf
- Start date
This is brilliant 
I've lost count of the amount of times I've told the same story but Metallica were the first band I obsessed over, buying guitar books and learning by playing their riffs etc. I love the Black Album and even Load/Re-Load have their merits.
But St Anger is probably the most disappointing album I've ever heard and it's so awful - time has not improved it at all. Death Magnetic was OK but pretty middle of the road - the new album is probably slightly better but it still sounds like something they could have knocked out in hours - ultimately they are a band, who's best days were decades ago.
As a musician and amateur producer, I read a lot about techniques and all that stuff - it's interesting to see how the way they made albums changed over the years. In the early years, Hetfield wrote pretty much everything, coming in with finished songs and Lars is said to be a good arranger of songs, who would refine the structures. Hammett didn't record any rhythm guitars (only solos) for anything until Load, where they abandoned the 'wall' of Hetfield-tracked rhythm guitars and embraced each guitarist having a side (panning both) to give it a more loose sound.
By the time they hit St Anger, they were writing in the studio (usually a bad idea) and from watching Some Kind of Monster, it's obvious this is why it turned out so bad. No real direction, recording songs in random sections to piece together into an incoherent mess...with all providing lyrics and music, which is obviously something Hetfield hated.. The best moment is when writing lyrics, Hammett comes out with the immortal line "my lifestyle determines my deathstyle", where they all piss themselves laughing at how shit it is...yet they LEFT IT IN!!
The funny thing is that throughout, Lars refers to a lot of riffs as "stock" - i.e. not inspired and middle-of-the-road but that's what they have now become...although better, Death Magnetic and perhaps to a lesser extent Hardwired (which has had 8 years of development) are full of of them - they are just a band that for me, have lost all inspiration and are throwing out songs that wouldn't be B-sides in their better days. I'd say the same of their live shows - the songs are great but they are quite sloppy and the aforementioned 'wall' cannot be recreated...they also look like they're going through the motions. You can argue average Metallica is better than most but they should just give it up IMO.
But St Anger is probably the most disappointing album I've ever heard and it's so awful - time has not improved it at all. Death Magnetic was OK but pretty middle of the road - the new album is probably slightly better but it still sounds like something they could have knocked out in hours - ultimately they are a band, who's best days were decades ago.
As a musician and amateur producer, I read a lot about techniques and all that stuff - it's interesting to see how the way they made albums changed over the years. In the early years, Hetfield wrote pretty much everything, coming in with finished songs and Lars is said to be a good arranger of songs, who would refine the structures. Hammett didn't record any rhythm guitars (only solos) for anything until Load, where they abandoned the 'wall' of Hetfield-tracked rhythm guitars and embraced each guitarist having a side (panning both) to give it a more loose sound.
By the time they hit St Anger, they were writing in the studio (usually a bad idea) and from watching Some Kind of Monster, it's obvious this is why it turned out so bad. No real direction, recording songs in random sections to piece together into an incoherent mess...with all providing lyrics and music, which is obviously something Hetfield hated.. The best moment is when writing lyrics, Hammett comes out with the immortal line "my lifestyle determines my deathstyle", where they all piss themselves laughing at how shit it is...yet they LEFT IT IN!!
The funny thing is that throughout, Lars refers to a lot of riffs as "stock" - i.e. not inspired and middle-of-the-road but that's what they have now become...although better, Death Magnetic and perhaps to a lesser extent Hardwired (which has had 8 years of development) are full of of them - they are just a band that for me, have lost all inspiration and are throwing out songs that wouldn't be B-sides in their better days. I'd say the same of their live shows - the songs are great but they are quite sloppy and the aforementioned 'wall' cannot be recreated...they also look like they're going through the motions. You can argue average Metallica is better than most but they should just give it up IMO.
Maybe I was wrong to write their newest album off before actually listening to all of it, actually does remind me of the old Metallica in parts 
just came on on YouTube earlier while I was playing on the Xbox and left the album play. Some of my favourites:
Quite a few other good ones, those 3 probably stood out most, Lemmy song probably isn't the greatest but it's about Lemmy so feck it! Think I've enjoyed most of the songs apart from hardwired tbh
Need to buy myself a new tallica shirt.
just came on on YouTube earlier while I was playing on the Xbox and left the album play. Some of my favourites:Quite a few other good ones, those 3 probably stood out most, Lemmy song probably isn't the greatest but it's about Lemmy so feck it! Think I've enjoyed most of the songs apart from hardwired tbh
Need to buy myself a new tallica shirt.
Timely bump seeing as I finally caught 'Some Kind of Monster' on Netflix last night.
My God what a bunch of fannies. How cringey was the scene where they were trying to tell therapist to do one. Hammet is the only that came out of that with some dignity intact.
My God what a bunch of fannies. How cringey was the scene where they were trying to tell therapist to do one. Hammet is the only that came out of that with some dignity intact.Timely bump seeing as I finally caught 'Some Kind of Monster' on Netflix last night.
Never seen it and never want to, heard it was cringey so it would only disappoint, that musical movie they did was pretty cool, just Metallica music and a kid running about for an hour and a half or summit
Their latest album isn't bad but it's very inconsistent in terms of musical direction and this makes it quite difficult for me to listen to it from start to finish. And it has a lot of hit and miss moments. For example, Now That We're Dead is built around an amazing heavy riff but it has one of the lamest choruses they've ever written too. All the songs on the second CD, bar Spit Out The Bone which is my favorite song on the album, sound good but they also seem to lack that special something that could turn them into great and memorable songs.
As for the Some Kind of Monster documentary, they deserve credit for having the guts to release it because it shows them at their lowest point as a band. And it seems that the fact that James and Lars don't have to pretend they like each other as personalities after the documentary (but they acknowledge each other's contribution to making Metallica the behemoth of a band it is) has helped them move forward.
As for the Some Kind of Monster documentary, they deserve credit for having the guts to release it because it shows them at their lowest point as a band. And it seems that the fact that James and Lars don't have to pretend they like each other as personalities after the documentary (but they acknowledge each other's contribution to making Metallica the behemoth of a band it is) has helped them move forward.
I don't think I could ever watch that as it might put me off them.Timely bump seeing as I finally caught 'Some Kind of Monster' on Netflix last night.
Listening some more and they clearly use a lot of old stuff, am I evil is in there somewhere at the start of a song (I know they covered that anyway). There's a few more which sound like they're about to start playing one of their old songs good stuff.
good stuff.Creeping death and dyers eve also in there.
Timely bump seeing as I finally caught 'Some Kind of Monster' on Netflix last night.
Really good film. The closest thing to a real life Spinal Tap as it gets.
James and Lars seem to be in competition with each other to see who can be the biggest wang, and they're both winning.
I agree on Kirk though. You just kind of feel sorry for him throughout. When they're discussing reeling in the solos, I love Kirk's "this is bullshit!" outburst. Guy just wants to surf and shred, man.
Then when Rob joins, after the first hour you've seen, you're just thinking "NO! DON'T DO IT. RUN. RUN FAR AWAY!" Hard to believe he's one year away from being in Metallica as long as Jason Newstead was. I still think of him as the new guy.
Seen them at slane castle yesterday. 75k people, class day out
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Not a huge fan but listened to a few tracks from Kill em all and it’s amazes me how it sounds like a more metal version Of GBH or to a lesser extent The Exploited . One of the songs sounded almost exactly like a GBH song . Good album.
If you like that then Master Of Puppets will sprain your mind.
Nice, I'm going in Copenhagen in a few weeks time.
Great gig, brought the young fella to his first concert, great fun.
I was standing right beside a father with a kid on his shoulders for virtually the whole set rocking away.
Such a diverse following!
Yeah was amazing we were right beside the sound engineer for most the show. Sound was great there, had to bring the lad to the toilets and couldn't get back so close, when we were back on the hill it was amazing to see the various groups belting out nothing else matters and enter sandman towards the end, everything from 7 year olds to 70 year olds.
I’m not actually into metal music that much and when I listened to Master of Puppets it goes more and more into territory I don’t personally like. I prefer Punk/hardcore punk and in Metallica’s first album you do see a little bit of that influence, especially with the rawness of the vocals.
Yeah it’s a lot more punk influenced, a bit like Motörhead really.
Master of Puppets is just borderline metal despite it being called a thrash classic. I honestly don't think Metallica are a pure metal/thrash band even in their heyday. Likes of Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Sepultura, Possessed, etc are "true thrash" in my opinion.
I can understand seeing Master of Puppets as going beyond classic thrash, but only borderline metal? First time I heard that, why do you think so?
I dunno, I discern more hard rock in their music I suppose. I always thought Metallica weren't "heavy" enough to be a thrash metal band. That includes albums like Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.
Maybe borderline thrash would be a more correct statement as opposed to borderline metal.
They’re definitely not thrash in the classic sense, agreed. KEA was the closest they came to that, then they immediately refined their sound with the second album. They’ve never been quick enough to be a thrash band, (Exhorder, Sepultura, Testament etc) yet they still get called it even now.
Yeah, I get what you mean. Perhaps a fusion of thrash elements with more melodic/progressive compositional stuff à la Maiden. Just a matter of definitions, I guess.
I'd have Metallica and Megadeth in like a melodic thrash section or something, they certainly don't fit in with other thrash bands. Its like Nirvana being lumped in with grunge bands just because they were from the same area and were loud.
Metallica kind of came to popularity and spent their time at the same shows etc.. as Exodus, Testament and Death Angel so just kind of got pushed in there.
AJFA is the closest thing Metallica have to a thrash album. They do tick all the boxes of how one would describe thrash in the 80s, tight palm muted riffs, downstrokes where possible, High tempo 16th notes but with so much more going on and less technique.
Metallica kind of came to popularity and spent their time at the same shows etc.. as Exodus, Testament and Death Angel so just kind of got pushed in there.
AJFA is the closest thing Metallica have to a thrash album. They do tick all the boxes of how one would describe thrash in the 80s, tight palm muted riffs, downstrokes where possible, High tempo 16th notes but with so much more going on and less technique.