I'll believe it when I see it, but it sounds promising at least: MTV NEWS —Jon Wiederhorn On their upcoming St. Anger, Metallica have settled for living in the past — and odds are fans are going to be perfectly happy with that. Gone are the radio ballads, straightforward rock anthems, string-laden exorcisms and alternative experiments that many fans felt bogged down the band's music in recent years. On St. Anger, the band resurrects the primal power, musical self-indulgence, whiplash-inducing tempos and red-eyed rage of their first three albums, 1983's Kill 'Em All, 1984's Ride the Lightning and 1986's Master of Puppets (see "Metallica To Give Rock And Roll A Good Thrashing"). The band's last two studio LPs — Load (1996) and Reload (1997) — were written at a time when alternative and grunge were still prevalent, and both were laced with Southern boogie groove, country-rock textures, bluesy experimentation and melodic ballads, abandoning the trademark force that made Metallica the world's preeminent metal band. Since then, the bandmembers haven't exactly been prolific. They've toured, released the B-sides and covers album Garage Inc. and a live double disc with the backing of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, S&M. But there's been little new material, as Metallica spent more time in the courtroom than the studio, filing lawsuits against companies that infringed their trademark, including file-sharing service Napster, Victoria Secret, a tuxedo company and a wheel company. Metallica may have won their legal battles, but their vehemence made them appear greedy to some. Top that off with the January 2001 departure of bassist Jason Newsted (see "Bassist Jason Newsted Leaves Metallica") and frontman James Hetfield's stint in rehab (see "Metallica's James Hetfield Speaks From Rehab"), and it looked like the masters of metal had slipped off the rails. With St. Anger, Metallica have firmly re-established their footing and recaptured the heavy metal throne at a time when bone-crunching rock is becoming stagnant. All 11 songs on St. Anger are brutal and uncompromising, featuring double-bass drumming and hardcore blast beats, roaring blowtorch guitars and multiple rhythm and tempo shifts. Most are at least seven minutes long; right when you think the guys are building up to a climax, they shift into a completely new rhythm. Not one track features a guitar solo, yet there's no lack of dizzying sonic firepower. At the same time, Metallica incorporate numerous flowing melodies and engaging vocal harmonies between crushing grooves and chugging, staccato rhythms. "Shoot Me Again" blends Alice in Chains-style atmospherics with savage, percussive grind, and "Dirty Window" seesaws between another speedy firestorm rhythm and a textural, undistorted passage that sounds a little like Tom Waits. Throughout the disc, Hetfield sounds consumed by fury and on the verge of insanity as he rails about the horror of denial, the pain of self-doubt and his need for control. Many of the lyrics seem to address his battles with the bottle and drugs. On the tornado-swirl opener, "Frantic," he screams, "My lifestyle determines my death style," and on "Sweet Amber," a track fueled by stop-start rhythms and sludgy guitars, he howls, "She deals in habits/ Deals in pain/ Run away, then I'm back again." Bob Rock's production on St. Anger matches the album's desperate, intense vibe. The man who gave the group such a commercial sheen on their best selling disc, 1991's Metallica, keeps things dirty and raw. Not only does the disc capture the urgency of St. Anger's creation, it sometimes sounds like it was recorded during a colossal jam session in a garage. The drums have a tinny ring, the guitars a vicious echo and sometimes Hetfield's voice sounds a tad unpolished. As Metallica were working on St. Anger, they clearly felt like they had something to prove. "I hurt inside/ I hide inside, but I'll show you," Hetfield sings on "Invisible." That conviction provided incentive to — as Hetfield so eloquently puts it on "All Within My Hands" — "Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill."
Strange...I was just talking to my roommate last night about old Metallica and how awesome they during their thrash days. I'm not going to hold my breath on this cd being a throwback to the good ol' days, but it would certainly be awesome if they pulled it off.
i'll be as excited as anyone if they've returned to their roots but i have to admit that i really, really like both load and reload. sure master of puppets pisses on both of them but there's nothing wrong with a little change of pace even if it was for what 15 years? can't wait for the new album.
Dammit, I just wrote a long ass post covering some of the songs(about 6 in all) I heard, but the page errored out and I don't feel like writing it again. Let's just put it this way, I liked one song alot and a couple were ok. All in all, I think it will be a decent album, but still not on the level of the old stuff. There was still alot of Load/Reload in there, primarily on the lyrical end.
They should take a cue from the Smashing Pumpkins and break up before they make any more ****ty records.
AMEN! It's better to burn out than fade away guys, so one of you needs to get back on the dope and break up the band.
Amen!...even thought I feel it's too late for them. They have already diminished their legacy with their crappy albums and greediness. I would hope that they could go back to what made them, but like others, I'll believe it when I hear it. I have Kill Em All in the CD player right now, and it was sweet to be able to still enjoy them when they were still young and angry and knew how to really rock. Family members kept buying me Metallica albums even when they sucked because that was the only metal band they had heard of, I had to give away S&M and Load to my boy...and even he doesn't enjoy those records that much. He, like I, prefer the first 4 albums...everything else is just a pale comparison to what they could have been.
