This is like the third time we've had this thread, but this post hadn't been made (on
Blabbermouth (not by me) back when the last two were still current, so here goes:
----
a discussion between metallica albums
posted by: Blackenistheyend
7/9/2003 3:07:48 AM
St. Anger: Hey, what's up guys? I'm the new album. I'm really heavy and a return to roots.
Master of Puppets: Sounds pretty sweet
...And Justice for All: Yeah, let's hear it
*they listen to St. Anger*
Ride the Lightning: ... what the fuck?
Master of Puppets: That was a joke, right?
St. Anger: Uh.. nope, no joke guys. It's pretty sweet, isn't it?
The Black Album: No.
St. Anger: Aww, come on.. that's some heavy shit! You gotta love it
The Black Album: Ok... "The Unnamed Feeling" was pretty good I guess.
...And Justice for All: Umm... well, I kinda like "Some Kind of Monster" and "Dirty Window", but the rest sound like they were randomly thrown together
Master of Puppets: Yeah man, and the lyrics are shit. "I'm madly in anger with you"??
Ride the Lightning: What happened to stuff like "For Whom The Bell Tolls"?
Kill 'Em All: I am seriously considering kicking your ass right now, St. Anger.
St. Anger: Woah guys, hold on. Have another listen, maybe you'll like it more.
*they listen to it again*
Kill 'Em All: That's it, I'm kicking your ass for making me listen to that crap twice. NO LIFE TILL LEATHER, BEOTCH
*they all kick St. Anger's ass*
oh and by the way, Load and Reload couldn't make an appearance because the first 5 Metallica albums have restraining orders on them
----
This being said, this album is very uneven. Everyone has a favorite track or two (the ones which suck the least), but none of them are the same. I think "Frantic" and "Dirty Window" come the closest to good songs.
The DVD is better, but even a live performance can't save "Invisible Kid". I swear, Bob Rock screwed up and stuck two copies of the track together in ProTools by mistake; there's only enough material in there for about a four-minute song, and just about every phrase is used at least twice.
If the boosters and bashers had not started screaming ROCKS! SUCKS! at one another the second it was put out, there are probably a lot of other old fans who would have said to the band in essence, "Okay, nice demo, we'll wait six months while you go in a real studio and record the CD." The sound on _St. Anger_ is not far removed from that on the demos that have B-sided Metallica singles in the past. And yes, there are a bunch of good riffs on the CD. It's just that the arrangements are crap, most instruments are poorly recorded (the infamous soup-can drums come to mind), and there's not a hugely evident attempt at production.
Megadeth's _So Far, So Good, So What!_ sounds better than this, and 90% of the recording budget for that disc was spent buying drugs. Who knows what percentage of the _St. Anger_ budget got eaten up by group therapy costs. Hopefully, Metallica has gotten this out of their system and will in a year or two put out something akin to Anthrax's _We've Come For You All_, which sounds classic and consistent with the band's catalog without sounding old and dated.
--K