[LSU_Tiger]

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not, but "Stuff" magazine gave St. Anger 5/5 stars and said, "Old school Metallica fans will love this album. It is full of blazing guitar solos and the songs are much longer."

Humm.

 

[miroslav]

I picked the copy of St. Anger yesterday and I really, really, really, really expected to dislike it as most of you do and find my comfortable place in this growing Metallica haters club, but I just couldn`t. Honestly, I love this album.

There is something very strange about this record. Soundwise, it is obviously butt ugly when compared to the perfection of the studio work on their previous releases. This one sounds just like a bootleg of a killer session recorded prior to the start of a serious postproducing an remastering work. Yet, I just can`t get this smile off my face while listening to it. The songs are just banging one after another, totally out of control and almost against common sense. When I compare this one to demo recordings of any of their previous albums, it is my impression that they actually never sounded this hard. Hetfield`s voice is, IMO, more powerful than ever, but this time there are no those triple vocals and effects to mask those tricky places where his voice usually breaks. This album is just going its own way and for me it was impossible to pick anything other to listen to after it. Everything else sounded too normal and tame. So I just replayed St. Anger for at least seven times since last night.

My favorites are "Shoot Me Again" and "All Within My Hands", but all these new tunes are great.

I saw the first half of that 30 min interview with the band members which can be found on the net and my impressions are that:

Hetfield is, generally, happy to be alive in the year 2003 and impatient to spread the news.

Ulrich is very much aware of the fact that the planet Earth will hate him because of the Napster thing for the rest of his life and he has a hard time dealing with it, regardless of what he says.

Hammet is simply glad to play some new stuff with his buddies again and he is enjoying it.

All three of them and the producer Bob Rock are absolutely sick of Plant studio where they recorded their last four studio albums. I get a feel that they used to work in a rather tense atmosphere while being there before and wanted to avoid it at any cost.

So, keeping in mind the fact that this album comes form bunch of people hitting their 40s, I am really impressed with St. Anger. In a weird way, but still impressed. It actually might be the very first Metallica CD I will buy in order to replace this CDR copy I have right now.

cheers

 

[johnny sack]

glad that someone isn't afraid to admit he likes it

 

[KR...]

Metal Judgment has reviewed this album, fun read

check it out here : http://www.metaljudgment.com/albums/...er_frames.html

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Link does not work for me....

 

[KR...]

Quote:

Originally posted by Matthew-Spaltro Link does not work for me....

Go to http://www.metaljudgment.com

And click on the new review icon and click on the link

 

[DarkAngel]

LOL, what a flame job those reviews were. I really like the 1st paragraph where reviewer says METALLICA are genius for finding a fool proof way to stop downloading of new album........make music so bad no one will want it

BTW new Metallica is #1 album on billboard charts.......sick, this will encourage them to more of the same thing

 

[Cherokee Mist]

Here is a review of the latest Metallica album by my friend Ray who knows a thing or two about hard music:

METALLICA - "St. Anger" CD '03 (Elektra, US) - I go way back with METALLICA. That's not anything egotistical on my part, just the facts of the matter, the facts of age, having been way into the underground metal scene in the early '80's. Ron Quintana's glorious SF Bay Area metal rag was the Bible, and through it I learned of an utterly kick-ass local band from that area who were regularly destroying clubs like The Stone, The Mab Gardens, The Old Waldorf, etc. When METALLICA showed up on the east coast prior to the release of "Kill 'Em All," first to open for Venom in NYC and then to rip the Seagull Inn in Maryland a new @sshole on a memorable Sunday night in front of maybe 15 people, my friends & I were there, soaking up the volatile pure-metal fury of this amazing band. To see them raise their profile & the flag of metal through their next few monumental releases, especially the scorching "Master Of Puppets" and "...And Justice For All" was a revelation. Here was a band who combined the alchohol-dragster power of vintage Motorhead, the shredding lead guitar of UFO and the complex songwriting of heavy prog bands....And, amazingly, they got popular...way popular, against all the odds of no hit singles, they sat at the top of the heap, giving the corporate music world a torn-denim clad metalized middle finger up-your-@ss. This was what we all had hoped for in the underground. Then, strange things began to happen. First came the horrible death of bass God (and the best musician in the band) Cliff Burton, which actually occurred between the "Master" & "Justice" records. Then, after "Justice," came word of an alliance with producer Bob Rock for the next to-be-self-titled record & a promise from the band that the album would be almost punk-like in it's intensity. Well, it wasn't. It was slow, which was not a problem, but the songwriting was painfully thin past the first 4 songs and sure enough, Mr. Rock had ascribed to this once leering, uncommercial rip-machine a glossy studio production that cut off a good bit of their balls. Then came the utter disappointments of "Load" & "Re-Load." With these, the band lost their hair, made statements that they were no longer a metal band (leading to old fans calling them ALTERNICA) and songs that ranged from mediocre southern rock to things much more infinitely boring. A long period passed after that, accompanied by albums with orchestras, cover records, etc. until finally here we are with a new album. Again, the band promised a rip-roaring return to the devastating metal power & destructiveness that made us love 'em so much in the past. What we have been given, however, with this...this "St. Anger" thing is probably one of the most hideously bad, insanely poorly done abortions of any kind of decent heavy metal, rock or music in general that the world has ever seen. This is a series of 7-minute or longer belches of inconceivable riffs that make no sense, time-changes for the sake of time-changes and utterly stupid lyrics with spaces every so often during it's interminable length to serve as breaks in the...ahem...."songs." To call the wretched-up, hookless and insipid riff-junk-yards present here songs would be to insult every person who has ever sat down with the integrity of a patched-together dime-store guitar and tried to hammer out their thoughts. These are no more songs than a pathetic, flaccid excuse by a bunch of has-been wanna-be's who can no longer think of anything original and think they can fool the world with a plethora of half-assed fake complexity. Here's a word on that, guys....leave the complexity to System of A Down. They actually know how to write songs and introduce interesting musical ideas. Listen to "Steal This Album" and learn where you should have gone after "Justice." And let's speak about Mr. Kirk Hammett in particular, shall we? Lead guitar. This guy was once considered a "lead guitarist." What the f*$k is he now?!??!?!! There is NOT ONE SINGLE ******* LEAD ON THIS ENTIRE RECORD!!! What kind of stinking crock of bull is that?!?!?!?! This guy is supposed to be some kind of a lead guitarist and he can't even do one freaking solo in 70-plus minutes?! Hey, Alex Lifeson pulled this stunt on the last Rush album, but at least they had some songs to go with it! This is an hour plus of no songs and no guitar solos!!! It's bad nu-metal with a castrated lead guitar player!! Just what I wanted from a band I've followed from the very beginning. Thanks guys...for absolutely nothing. Metallica sucks.

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly!

BTW, Ray's website which has reviews of really great releases can be found here:

hxxp://hometown.aol.com/raysrealm/myhomepage/index.html

 

[sephka]

I have mixed feelings on St. Anger. In general, it's disappointing - I'm a proud fan of all of their previous work, INCLUDING Load and ReLoad, and I’d have to say St. Anger really wasn't what I was expecting from them. The crap production was especially surprising - I thought they had attained perfection with the production on Load and ReLoad. Here, the instruments kind of blend together and grate - the guitar especially. That's another thing - where did Kirk go? It feels like he was kidnapped, and they threw in a nu-metal studio musician. No solos? Uninteresting riffs? That can't be the Kirk I know! And, of course, I thought the constant pings from Lar's snares were kind of odd and annoying. Then there's Hettfield's singing: Too experimental, in a bad way, and not as refined as they were on most of Metallica's previous outings. And the lyrics, of course, were not up to his standard. Generally speaking, I think with better production, more distinguished guitar work, and better edited songs, Metallica could have had a pretty decent record. As it stands, well, I’m just hoping the next one is better. And that it isn't coming out in 2010.

 

[gloco]

I think it's time for the band to call it a day, adios fellas.

 

[Beagle]

Metallica is making tons of money, and y'all are having conniptions over their new record.

This is hilarious.

If ya don't like it, DON"T BUY IT!

Who cares what we think anyway?

Metallica must be laughing their asses off. They don't care a hoot what we think. They are rich anyway.

If you do not like the new album, then just leave it alone, let it pass, and wait for the next one. You are fans so you can always go back to the earlier records. Stop getting so upset. Your health comes first. If you cause yourself to have a heart attack, Metallica will become a lesser priority, believe me. Just say "I don't care for the new album" and move on. What were people really expecting anyway? Shame on you if you were expecting more than what you knew you were going to get. If you got less, you were waiting for the wrong thing. It was the element of surprise. The next album will be Metallica Machine Music and will be a double CD of noise. Or it might sound like the first Boston album. Who knows? It's not our call. Surely there is enough good music to listen to without having to get so upset about one damn group and one damn record? So what if it gives "much anticipated" a bad name?

Now that I've got that out of the way, the clarity and focus on St. Anger is amazing. It's a great headphone album. You can hear the sticks bounce off the drums. Try it on your Grados. It's killer. You can hear the studio setup as heard from behind the drum kit.

The songs are not very good. Not compared to Led Zeppelin IV. It's just heavy and plodding, revving up and down for it's own sake, like some kid with a hot rod, racing it all over the school parking lot, using up fuel and making a lot of noise but not going anywhere.

 

[MERTON]

Quote:

Originally posted by Magic77 I agree. This seems like the direction that "Popular" Music (or what is called Music) is taking. True creativity and Talent has definitely dwindled. It's too bad about Metallica. I was hoping they could bring back the substance that Rock Music so desparately needs today.

is it all whiney sounding like stained? i hate stained. >:[

 

[Ebonyks]

I dunno, i've never been a big metallica fan, but i find this to be amusingly bad. It seems to be directionless overelaborate rock instrumentals that doesn't even aspire beyond being mere musical masturbation.

Just my .02 cents though, feel free to disagree with me

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Beagle If ya don't like it, DON"T BUY IT!

Who says anyone in this thread bought it? I certainly didn't. There are other ways of hearing a record (and some of them legal even).
Quote:

Originally posted by Beagle Metallica must be laughing their asses off. They don't care a hoot what we think. They are rich anyway.

Uh, no, actually, they have not necessarily spent all their money wisely. In the interview (posted in a link in this thread, I think), they mention that they spent most of it on booze. Of course, if they never make another record, they could probably continue to get money off of all their good albums, and, if invested wisely, be rich again without too much effort, just having to lay off their liquor.

 

[sephka]

Well, my theory on St. Anger is, Lars got his drum set stolen and used some garbage cans in place of his original kit. The same person also kidnapped Kirk Hammet and they had to use a studio musician to replace him... and it was recorded in a shed.