Sell outs.

/Weeners

"I've lived and breathed Metallica all my life," said Buck, 42,...

In recent years, he got his wife hooked, too; 24-year-old Ashley Buck...

Say what you will about the man's taste in music, but he's doing something right.

subby: "and marry nubile maidens to the wedding march of "Nothing Else Matters"

Ha, I did exactly that, with Apocalyptica's version of the song...

Wasn't Nothing Else Matters released in the 90's?

pag1107: Wasn't Nothing Else Matters released in the 90's?

Yep. Why get married to music you supposedly loathe?

This seems like an appropriate place to ask - how is FAIL measured? What are the units? The best my buddy and I could do last night is "Munson" (from Kingpin).

I give Metallica's newest work a 7-Munson FAIL.

// don't hate on Load/Re-Load

There really is nothing new to talk about here. Just copy and paste your comments from previous Metallica threads and no one will be able to tell the difference.

I first started paying attention to Metallica shortly after Cliff died, and I've been a fan ever since. Death Magnetic is easily their best work since the black album.

Some might disagree with me, but they're morons anyway.

Metallica, is there anything they won't ruin?

Is it sad that I like the black album?

Wendy's Chili: "I've lived and breathed Metallica all my life," said Buck, 42,...

In recent years, he got his wife hooked, too; 24-year-old Ashley Buck...

Say what you will about the man's taste in music, but he's doing something right.

Not necessarily. I want to see pictures or I'm going to assume she is in the lower 1/5 percentile for her age, which is going to be really bad in 5-10 years.

my wife hasn't even been born yet, that's how cool I am

Well, "Nothing Else Matters" was only out for a few weeks when we played it at our wedding, so that makes me WAY more cool than these guys.

Yup, that's what I'm going with.

There really is nothing new to talk about here. Just copy and paste your comments from previous Metallica threads and no one will be able to tell the difference.

This. We can do the same for Chinese Democracy.

Fuggin Bizzy: I first started paying attention to Metallica shortly after Cliff died, and I've been a fan ever since. Death Magnetic is easily their best work since the black album.

Some might disagree with me, but they're morons anyway.

Better than St. Anger? Better than a lazy covers album? Better than Unforgiven II: Electric Boogaloo?

Impossible! I shall have no more of your outlandish claims, good sir.

Attention Customers:

Metallica Sucks.

That is All.

bulsd: Attention Customers:

Metallica Sucks.

That is All.

And now little Daniel will tell us what he likes to to listen to.


Go ahead, little guy...oh, yeah, here, let me get the zipper on your mask...

I'm taking my 11 year old son to the Metallica concert on the 2nd. Front row seats and back stage passes. Passing on the torch.

Oddly enough they are very popular with the younguns. I am now according to him the coolest mum on the planet.

Once again, the musings of my friend Chris on this matter:

I'd say Metallica really jumped the shark in the long period between "Metallica" and "Load".

Although many hardcore metalheads hated Metallica Metallica (the black album), I think it remains today the single best example of metal crossing over to a wider audience; and that isn't a bad thing. Metallica was still hard and heavy, but made the music somewhat more accessible to those who were not into the hardcore classical music based speedmetal, or punk based thrashmetal that Metallica had blended so well in previous albums.

I would say that they peaked with "Master of Puppets", which I still consider the greatest metal album of all time. Other than Damage Inc. every single track on that album is brilliant; a perfect example of Metallicas thrash/speed metal fusion (Damage inc. isn't a bad song, but it is more appropriate to an earlier era of Metallicas music. It's a throwaway almost garageband thrash track, and the album would have been better closing with "Orion").

Metallica then plateaued with "And Justice for All" and "Metallica". They were both musically and artistically excellent, but they did not quite reach the height of "Master...", nor were they an artistic stretch for the band. Both were exercises in refining their sound, and their technical abilities rather than reaching for new heights or breaking new ground.

You may attribute this change to the loss of Cliff Burton, but I think it was simply that the band found the peak of their possible achievements in "Master" and simply could do no better. Every band finds their peak, and declines (or breaks up, or both) it's the nature of the beast.

Now that I've said that, I'm going to almost contradict myself, by saying that it WAS Cliffs death that changed the band irrevocably.

The first major consequence was that Cliffs loss initiated a MAJOR change in James Hetfield... simply put, he lost his art. He had his anger and his pain, but Cliffs death seemed to have take the artistic passion out of him, and replaced it with a towering resentment for Lars, who to this day seems oddly false when discussing how Cliffs death effected him.

In fact, if you look at everything since, it seems clear that Hetfield is happiest, when he's reliving the early days of the band, as in Garage Inc.

You have to remember that Metallica is essentially two bands. James Hetfield and then later Jason Newsted, are thrashmetal punks to their core; whereas Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett are quintessentially speed metal.

This tension between artistic elements is what made their music great, and Cliff Burton who was a punk at heart, but was also a great lover of Jazz and Classical music (and speedmetal, which grew out of classical influences); acted as the bridge between these two elements in tension (This can be best heard in "To live is to die" and "(Anastehsia) pulling teeth").

Without that bridge, the balance was lost, and it was simply a tug of war between James and Lars.

"Master..." was the last album where those elements of speed metal and thrash metal were truly blended properly. "Justice..." was an exploration of the excesses of speed metal; complicated by the gigantic ego of Lars Ulrich (and corresponding anger of Hetfield) making the production of the album a sloppy, poorly mixed nightmare.

Bringing in Bob Rock on "Metallica" was really an attempt by the band to put that bridge back in place, and restore some of that "mix" lost when Cliff died; and to an extent it worked. Combined with the far more professional production that Rock provided, and his ability to mediate between Hetfield and Ulrich (mostly by making them hate him wore than each other), "Metallica" was the most balanced production the band had yet made.

Of course, that's the problem with it.

Metallica wasn't great because they BALANCED thrash and speed metal, they were great because they wildly rollercoastered around the entirety of thrash and speedmetal, even within the same song.

Bob Rock gave them a better produced, better packaged, GOOD album, but he also muted the excesses.... the ups and downs that make great art. There was no more rollercoaster... more like a freight train, running down a straight line at 90mph.

Make no mistake "Metallica" is a very good album, and has a couple of really GREAT songs on it... but it is... unmagical? I don't want to say uninspired, because the very personal lyrical content that Hetfield included is in many ways beautiful, painful, and entirely revealing... but it just doesn't have the spark that the first three albums did.

"Metallica" also marks the last significant artistic contributions that Kirk Hammett or Lars Ulrich would make to the music of the band.

The entire post "Metallica" discography is essentially Hetfields artistic choice, fueled mostly by his anger, resentment, and disillusionment. It has also moved deeper and deeper into a grunge and groove metal mode, without the classical speedmetal influences; and only occasionally breaking out into the hardcore thrash that Hetfields artistry and passion is rooted in.

Honestly, I think the last time Metallica did something great, it was on "Garage Inc." where for a few minutes James clearly felt like he was expressing himself fully, even though it was through other peoples music; and he and Lars were able to actually ENJOY playing with each other again.

Load... well, there is some excellent songwriting in load, and a few quite good songs, but overall it's missing inspiration. There's a lot of anger there, but no genius, no life to it. In Load, Metallica essentially abandoned their roots in punk, thrash, and speedmetal; and moved into a more hard rock, blues oriented structure. It's a simpler, more accessible, easier to play, write, produce, and sell music... but it just isn't as good.

It isn't really Metallica, it's almost numetallica.

St. Anger is just more of the same, only... angrier.

I've heard death magnetic, and I agree it's heavier than Metallica has been in years, but again there's no feeling to it other than anger and resentment.

Honestly, I think Hetfield should break up the band and either form a new thrashmetal band, or do some solo work; because this stuff is obviously not satisfying him...

...though really Metallicas artistic output since 1991 can best be thought of as James Hetfield with the support of Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich, rather than as Metallica (Newsted was ignored entirely for Load, and Trujillo has very little artistic input at all, though he is certainly a very strong bassist, and writes his own parts).

browntimmy: There really is nothing new to talk about here. Just copy and paste your comments from previous Metallica threads and no one will be able to tell the difference.

Everything exactly the same? Wouldn't that make this an AC/DC thread?

Metallica regained my respect 2 months ago. Love the new album, just re-discovered Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.

"Nothing Else Matters" still sucks, though. And Lars is still a megadouche.

I saw Metallica live this past weekend. They really put on a fun show.

84Charlie:

tl;dr.

Metallica sucks. Metal is gay.

sleeps in trees: I'm taking my 11 year old son to the Metallica concert on the 2nd. Front row seats and back stage passes. Passing on the torch.

Oddly enough they are very popular with the younguns. I am now according to him the coolest mum on the planet.

Shark, meet Metallica. Metallica, meet shark.

thetoucher: Is it sad that I like the black album?

Is it sad that I like St. Anger?

/Except for the snare

browntimmy: There really is nothing new to talk about here. Just copy and paste your comments from previous Metallica threads and no one will be able to tell the difference.

I will go one better. You could copy/paste any of your previous comments from any of the metallica, guns and roses, marilyn manson or rush threads that litter these forums like pabst cans in a trailer park. There is nothing new to say about bands whose best work happened back when you were young and mattered.

/cant get enuff of middle aged knobs rehashing old stuff
//prince or michael jackson?
///prince fer shur

The new Metallica album is real good.

The last good album was Justice. They were a handful of good songs in the 90's and the Garage reissue was good.

Everything else in the 90's until the new record is garbage.

So yeah, those of us that were there in the beginning saw the cool stuff. That's the way it usually works for any band, though.

Wanted to buy this yesterday but just didn't have 35k to spend.

Metallica is by far my favorite band but it blows my mind how people can go on and on about how bad St. Anger was and then go on about how great Death Magnetic is and how it is soooo different that St. Anger.

I actually liked St. Anger. I agree that it is Metallica's worst album but the worst Metallica is better than most bands' best stuff.

Death Magnetic to me is what St. Anger was meant to be. I think that there is more St. Anger hidden beneath the surface of DM than any other Metallica album.

Sergent D: Metallica is by far my favorite band but it blows my mind how people can go on and on about how bad St. Anger was and then go on about how great Death Magnetic is and how it is soooo different that St. Anger.

I actually liked St. Anger. I agree that it is Metallica's worst album but the worst Metallica is better than most bands' best stuff.

Death Magnetic to me is what St. Anger was meant to be. I think that there is more St. Anger hidden beneath the surface of DM than any other Metallica album.

There are guitar solos on Death Magnetic and the snare drum doesn't go "pang! pang! pang! pang! pang!"

Stopped paying attention to them as of the horrible ...And Justice For All. Heard a couple tracks from St. Anger and bought it. It would have been better with a better mix. Different problem with Death Magnetic, but still a bad mix. Somewhat related, Megadave has put out his best material ever in the last few years.

My Third Testicle: Stopped paying attention to them as of the horrible ...And Justice For All. Heard a couple tracks from St. Anger and bought it. It would have been better with a better mix. Different problem with Death Magnetic, but still a bad mix. Somewhat related, Megadave has put out his best material ever in the last few years.

...And Justice For All was an awesome album that just happened to be mixed like shiat. Death Magnetic is basically Justice Part Deux.

I agree about Megadeth, though I don't like how Dave went all right-wing-psycho, "let's nuke the Middle East" on the last album. This is the same guy who spent all of So Far... and Rust in Peace singing about how much nuclear war scared the shiat out of him. It does not compute.

Musically, though, yes, the last album is awesome.

Fuggin Bizzy: I first started paying attention to Metallica shortly after Cliff died, and I've been a fan ever since. Death Magnetic is easily their best work since the black album.

Some might disagree with me, but they're morons anyway.

hey, that's kinda funny since that's about when I stared ignoring them

no Cliff Burton = sucky Metallica

Lars is a terrible drummer! Hetfield can still riff with the best of them, but his voice is sounding pretty rough after 30 years of grunting and screaming. It would be nice to hear what Hetfield could do with a world class drummer.

kingflower: Lars is a terrible drummer! Hetfield can still riff with the best of them, but his voice is sounding pretty rough after 30 years of grunting and screaming. It would be nice to hear what Hetfield could do with a world class drummer.

Lars and Cliff should have switched bunks.

sleeps in trees: I am now according to him me the coolest mum on the planet evar.

You *RAWK*, lady.

\m/ \m/

Subby

argh. my cousin walked the aisle to Nothing Else Matters. It was her now-husband's idea. nice dude. so-so musical taste. He's only like 35 or whatever.

84Charlie: Once again, the musings of my friend Chris on this matter:

I'd say Metallica really jumped the shark in the long period between "Metallica" and "Load".

I have to speak! the expression "jumped the shark" is completely farking over. its stupid now. stop using it. I refuse to use the expression to describe how its now a tired cliche.

Nice effort at a headline subby - you described me nearly perfectly, and I'm not the least bit ashamed of it. But you picked the wrong wedding song - "Nothing Else Matters" is part of that loathsome 90s output I hate, and in the 1980s, Metallica didn't release any song that could even remotely be considered a wedding song. That's what made them so cool. The fact that they released such material in the 90s is what makes them such sell-outs.

That is all.

Fuggin Bizzy: I first started paying attention to Metallica shortly after Cliff died, and I've been a fan ever since. Death Magnetic is easily their best work since the black album.

Some might disagree with me, but they're morons anyway.

That explains how you can be so charmingly unaware of when they put out their best material, and why you'd think anyone who disagrees is a moron, youngster. It's kind of like how little kids think Hannah Montana is the best singer in the world and you're a fool not to agree...you'll grow up someday and realize how wrong you had it.

Kill 'Em All...Ride The Lightning...Master of Puppets. Listen and learn, young grasshopper.

I'll stick to European countries for my metal fix, thanks. Metallica deserves to be relegated to the box full of has-beens. Those choads should have gotten ZERO airplay after the napster fiasco; after all someone might have been RECORDING them off the radio!

Mark me in the column of people who gave up on Metallica after their Napster adventure.

St. Anger is possibly the worst album I've ever listened to. 80 minutes of recorded diarrhea.

Saw the Metallica concert in Salt Lake with my 16 year old son. Was very, very awesome. The opening act, the Pantera guys, sucked, but the show that Metallica put on more than made up for it. Still hate Lars, or as we call him, monkey boy. But the show was spectacular. Laser light shows, fog, giant freaking flames!!! Good stuff. They threw tons of junk into the crowd as well and did three encores. Show was fantastic and I downloaded it two days later. All good.

Death Magnetic, besides the first song (not much into rap) was very good. The producers compressed the hell out of it so it doesn't sound very rich. Pulled it down for guitar hero world tour and it is the bomb.

Regardless of Napster and "losing their roots" crap, it is very good music and beats the hell out of 90% of the "music" out there now. My #1 Tool. My #2 METALLICA.

//slashies just to piss off the haters.
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