New Metallica Album: St. Anger

Metallica is readying their next studio album, St. Anger, for release on June 10th (their first in five years). I haven’t cared for Metallica much since the Black Album days (though …And Justice For All may be my favorite), but they claim that they may be selling-in this time around:

The release of St. Anger on June 10th will bring fans the old Metallica from the early days before the Black Album. The album is said to have the same thrash metal vibe that gained them underground popularity in the mid ’80s. […]

I remain skeptical about that, but hopeful all the same. I’m sure that their songs will get airplay through their usual bribes to radio stations (as all major record labels do). So, I suppose I’ll at least have a chance to hear a few tracks before buying it.

182 thoughts on “New Metallica Album: St. Anger

  1. When will people stop bitching about Metallica? What did you people want? For them to keep churning out the same 80s thrash or to move on? I have all there albums from day one and think they are all amazing! I’m a fan of noisy thrashy stuff so if the new album is heavy as hell then all the better but aslong as the songs are af the usual top quality and as long as this album, like all the others, has its own unique sound and feel (no two albums alike) then I’ll be a happy puppy!

  2. The new Metallica is just a new trend for them to fail at. Christ…it isn’t great, the songwriting sucks, it isn’t all that heavy (not that I wanted it to be brutal in the first place. I’m always skeptical of bands who solely focus on aesthetics when they talk to the media. If I want br00tal, I’ll listen to Cryptopsy or Carcass.), and James still sounds awful.

    all this is is a hype machine for idiots.

  3. Why I which the Metallica of old times:

    – Their old work is more complex, and great combination of hard rock and beauty, than any song of any of the albums since the black one.

    – If St. Anger doesn’t have any guitar solos as some rumors I’m hearing, that is disgraceful, how many metal songs doesn’t have any guitar solos? Do Metallica deserves the word ‘metal’ in their band name at this moment?

    – I hate every time the word ‘fuck’ comes out of the mouth of Jimmy. Every time he does that he ruins some of the songs. If the song is just one from the loads of from garbage inc. and that type of bad albums is OK, But why when he sings deep songs like One and Sanitarium (plus other ones) does he has to ruin the songs that way?

    The only thing I which is that Metallica at least could make one more album that sounds like the pre- blak album era. But if the band is going to evolve which is totally OK (if the after-black album era is evolution, then my definition of evolution hs been dramatically shcnged)they should do it in the right direction, not backwards.

  4. “Tallica rules all music!!! Just try to find another band or artest that has as many GREAT songs. Its not possibile! Later DIX

  5. You thought Slayer, Anthrax, Slipknot, Sepultra make the heaviest bands ever??? You COMPLETELY WRONG…cuz the album St. Anger, according to metal journalists, is FIVE TIMES HEAVIER THAT THE HEAVIEST SLAYER SONG, PREVISIONS OF PAIN…On June 10th the world will face the revolution in Metal Timeline…

    Watchout..

  6. Been a fan since the beginning…they’ve grown weak over the last few years. They have musical talent, yes, but a lot of people don’t realize how far they have their tounges up the MPAA’s ass – and for what? They’ve gotten greedy, and since sales of load and reload weren’t up to par, hey why not blame napster on those two filler albums? Let’s not blame our own experimentation…oh no…lets not blame ourselves…it’s the fault of our FANS.

    Unfortunately I bought load and reload and only liked one or two songs off of each album. Does that mean they’ll give me a refund on the other shitty songs I don’t want? No? Then I’ll download to take it for a test drive before I buy it. If I like more than half of the album, I’ll buy it…otherwise, it hits the trash bin.

    I’m not a huge fan of Aerosmith, but in comparison they’ve changed slightly as time has moved forward. Keyword: SLIGHTLY. They didn’t wake up one day and just change shit all around and piss off their long-time fans. I liked “the black” album, but I could see what was starting with this album and was hoping that I was wrong. Unfortunately I was right because out came load and re-load. Only someone who just started listening to Metallica when Metallica/Metallica came out would actually think that there wasn’t much of a change when load and re-load came out. It’s not really your fault, you just don’t really know any better. Maybe that’s just the type of music you like and that’s fine. Either way, they have become corporate so I’m going to treat them like a business – I made two mistakes by buying load and reload and won’t buy their albums again unless *I* like it. I wouldn’t buy a service from someone who decided to change their service to not bother satisfying the customer. Yes, I will download this album and listen, and again, I will buy it IF I like over half the songs. That’s my personal rule. If Metallica doesn’t like it, perhaps they should stop the experimenting and get back to the performance level most people know they’re capable of. I don’t want to pay for their “experimentation”.

    Good luck, guys. I hope for your sake that this album is as good as has been stated…because if the album doesn’t live up to the hype, your career’s are over.

  7. New Metallica, old Metallica…. Bullshit.
    Ive been listening to Metallica as far back as I remember. Screw evolution. I like the new shit as much as the old. Load and Reload are every bit as good as the pre black stuff… a little different, but just as good. And to those of you who think Metallica sold out, shame on you. You turned your back on them just because they matured a little and changed their style to suit themselves. That’s what rock and roll has always been about. Doing your shit, your way and if no one else likes it, Fuck them! So get over yourselves, listen to the music and enjoy it. They sure do.

    Snave

  8. A comment for Snave and all Metallica fans who are defending them:

    Load and reload doesn’t come even close to the quality of rock of the ‘pre-black albums’. That is a fact!, and most Metallica fans since ‘Kill them All’ knows it!! One thing you are right Snave, Metallica is doing their thing as they want, and they doesn’t care what other people think, including most of their most loyals fans (the fans since they start playing). In other words, what Metallica is saying is: To hell with our most loyals fans since the 80s, WE DONT CARE ABOUT THEM!!!. Is that their attitude, we don’t care to criticize them as most as we want, they deserve it, and you know what?, we don’t care what Metallica thinks of what we say. If they like it , good, if they don’t, they can go to the same place they have sent most of their fans when they released their load and reload crap(and probably St. Anger will join this list, I hope not).

  9. I strongly agree with the opinions of Matt and Colin posted on may 6, they really captured the feeling of probably most of the true Metallica fans.

  10. Afternoon friends, a mate of mine heard St. Anger the other day at an advanced hearing party organised by MTV…and he wrote this review. I hope you all like it, he did a fine job i think!
    kudos to you adam u rule dude \m/
    matt

    review commences here—-
    After 5pm everyone started entering the room in single file as we were all scaned with a metal detector. No mobile phones or bags were allowed in either, due to the fact so no recording would be possible. Sian Thomas, the head of UK Mercury Records gave a small speech about how long she’s worked with the boys[she said 15 years] and other such things. A small video clip was played with tidbits from various times of recording St.Anger, few of them were on the Jump In The Studio Website. Things flashing across the screen like ’85 million albums sold’. Sian notified everyone after the movie that 2.1million of those sales were from australia and there was a big cheer from everyone!

    Just a few other bits and pieces she told everyone, the first single is of course going to be the title track, St.Anger[which will be edited from 7 minutes to 5] – that will be released on the 23rd of June. The album is 77 minutes long and the DVD is 80 minutes long.
    After all the talking, she announced the cd was about to be played so the talking cut to a minimum. Following is 6 of the songs i heard.

    *********************************************

    * Song 1 – Frantic *
    Everyone’s pretty common with the sound of this track now, the vocals in it were really clear. The ping from lars’ snare is gone…from the songs i heard. It does sound different to the mtv icon clip which has been circulated on the internet. Just has a cleaner sound, rough churning guitars and an overall angry feel to it. It’s a fast paced song with a bit of double bass kickage in it :)

    * Song 2 – St.Anger *
    When this started i nearly shit my pants. The intro is badass. The song has a variety of tempo changes, one thing i liked of it was going from rough fast bits quickly into tight mellow string sessions. Not many of the people in the room seemed interested in listening to the cd either. Alot of the talking pissed me off because i was trying to write down lyrics…so it was hard to hear them. The song has a fair bit of overlapping lyrics which gave it an insane feel. The guitars are fast and chunky. No real solo in this song, or any of the others i heard. It didn’t take away from the feel of the music though. Some of the lyrics i heard were “St.anger round my neck” and “I need to set my anger free”. The song has heavy double kick and bass lines. It was a fairly long song at about 7 and a half minutes. Can’t wait to hear it again.

    * Song 3 – Dirty Window *
    Out of the 6 tracks we got to listen to, this was my least favourite. I think it was the main riff in it that i didn’t like. Some of the lyrics heard in it were “Projector, rejector, dejector” which was repeated over and over again. “Objection of jury”, “I drink from the cup of denial”. With the mixing of the album being raw and tight, this song made me think of …And justice for all, with bass :). The lead out riff on it was nice aswell.

    * Song 4 – Invisible Kid *
    This was one hard angry song. I think the tuning of the guitars was open B, not too sure though[perhaps the Grynch was used on this? \m/]. This was my second favourite track heard. The main riff of the song was slipknot-ish…i thought. Some of the lyrics i got down are “Open your heart…”, “Please don’t stray too far”, “Open your eyes”, “Invisible kid”, I hide inside but i’ll show you all”. There was alot of hard fast double bass kickage in this track aswell. The guitar blended well with the lyrics and it had a nice raw feeling to it.

    * Song 5 – My World *
    When this song started i wanted to go and fuck the speaker. This was my favourite track from the six we all heard. Soon as it kicked in, I immediately thought of master of puppets. This was such a good song! Everything in it was perfect. Some of the lyrics i got down were, “It’s my world”, “It’s my world, you can’t have it”, “YEAH YEAHHHH[a very famous thing by our loved papa het]”, “It’s my time”, “look out fuckers, here i come!”, “I don’t even know what the question is![this is where that clip of james came from we all saw him yelling on Jump In The Studio]”. I loved this song and can’t wait for the album.

    * Song 6 – Shoot Me Again *
    This song contained alot of silent pauses where all instruments were muted only for you to be punched in the face again with their furious roar. The intro to this song is mean. Throughout the song there are a few melodic more quiet pieces between chunky fat guitar riffs. Some of the lyrics I got down were, “Shoot me again, I ain’t dead yet”, “All the shots I take”. This song reminded me of the cure, from load. Not guitar wise…Just james’ voice had that sort of gruffness to it just like some parts from the cure. Also mixed into this track were a few pickscrapes which sounded neat. The verses in the song are quite mellow and fit nice.

    *********************************************

    The reason i didn’t get as many lyrics down as i thought was due to some of the people there talking about their weekends and what-not. It was sort of annoying but on the same note, nothing could’ve beaten being there. Other than getting to keep the album =p

    After the six tracks were played through, Sian did a bit more talking and everyone seemed really pumped. A few people from MTV were there and they just showed that MTV advert which will air here in australia quite soon. A few other people got up and said their piece, saying thanks to the metallica.com(which was us i assume) people who came along. Sian spoke about trying to get the boys locked in and confirmed for a january/february tour spot in australia but it wasn’t 100%.

    The DVD was spoken about and how 5 cameras were used to shoot them at HQ in rehersal, then they played frantic from the DVD. James had his gibson gothic with emg’s and gold/silver-ish scratch plate from MTV Icon. Kirk was using his sunburst custom les paul, lars was on his green double kick kit and rob was playing a black bass. His stance throughout the clip was awesome haha. He’s like some kind of ape or something. Looked neat.

  11. I’m the biggest Metallica fan you will find anywhere and I think this album f-ing blows. It’s a cheap, half-hearted attempt to capture the old sound, before they were trying to be nirvana.

    If you’re a sheep who will swallow anything with the Metallica name taped to it, then I’m sure you’ll like it. If you’re a Load/Reload kid, then I’m sure you’ll simply adjust your taste so you think it’s great. If you think the black album is Metallica’s best album (read: if you’re a brain donor), then you probably will like this dreck too. But if you are like me, and think ride/justice/puppets are great but the rest of their records have not been very good, this record is more of the same.

    Basically it’s a big jerk off. It’s like they are imitating themselves from the glory days, but just being hard for the sake of hard. It doesn’t mean anything, doesn’t say anything, doesn’t feel like there is any feeling behind anything, except that they feel like selling some records.

    I don’t know, maybe my opinion isn’t going to mean anything to all of you. Maybe I’m just pissed that Metallica used to be a great band, before they were trying to be Nirvana. Maybe I just wish for the good old days, when they weren’t so worried about [i]being Metallica[/i] and were more worried about making great music.

    Seems like the only thing they are worried about nowadays is lining their pockets and not straining themselves. I wanted St. Anger to be a great record, I wanted it to be great and sound like the old days so badly, but it just doesn’t. It only drives home the point that Metallica is dead, they have been dead for 10 years and they aren’t coming back.

  12. I heard the new track, St. Anger, the video of which, by the way, is on the metallica site….sigh…I was disappointed. Let me start by saying that I have only been a metallica fan since last summer (I know, I’m a heathen), but since then I have been as hardcore metallica as you can get. As a guitar player, I tend to respect complexity, but it wasn’t only complexity that led me to find my favorite albums of all time in the Holy Trinity of Ride the Lightning, …And Justice For All, and Master of Puppets. Each of those three albums is simply dripping with musical talent, emotion, and simple headbangingness. (and, for a bit of trivia, each of these three albums’ track 2 songs are the name of the album [as it seems will be with StAnger], and each has an instrumental as either the last or the second to last track).

    As I began listening to St. Anger, I was mildly excited. The intro is fast, kind of thrashy, but it seemed to be holding back. It seemed really low, almost as if played on a seven-string (gack!), and seemed more like the intro to a System of a Down song, specifically Shimmy, for those who know it. As I listened further, the song went into a slower, softer feel…that was OK, although I was dissapointed that I wouldn’t be hearing any thrash singing. James’ singing during this part was melodic, and kind of creepy. But when the chorus started I just started to cry. That’s when it got bad. In come the boom-boom-crash slow, rhythmic bass drum/cymbals and, yes, RAP metal. I was devastated. There was Kirk Hammet, yelling into the mike “you flush it out, you flush it out” over James’ singing of “saint anger round my neck.” It was like it was straight out of a goddamn Linkin Park song. I was mortified. Once I got past the chorus, things got a little better, but it still felt like Metallica was another band that was imitating Metallica.

    The whole thing mostly repeated from there. As the song neared the end, I realized a horrible fact: there was NO SOLO. My good god, if there is one thing in this world that I would say defines Metallica, its Kirk Hammet shredding the ol’ Minor Pentatonic. What happened? This song could have been made an order of magnitude better if they had simply stuck in a solo. I guess Kirk Hammet has been reduced to a backup rap singer who happens to play guitar. Hey, isn’t this also the case in another band?

    St. Anger impression in one word: Disappointment. Why, Metallica, why? Why can’t you write another Creeping Death, another Leper Messiah? Why must the Metallica of yesteryear remain a cherished collection of old records? Has your voice gotten too deep, James? Have your fingers gotten tired, Kirk? Or have you guys just gotten too much MONEY?

    Yes, I will probably buy St. Anger, if only to search it for gems of the old Metallica I know and love. Maybe St. Anger (the song) will not be representative of St. Anger (the album). And if I never hear Metallica doing Rap-metal again, it will be too soon.

  13. hah. this goes out to mark. your such a f**kin idiot.. the first single from st anger so aint like anything they have done before. its like they took a left turn and i think its great. if u think this is just heavy for the sake of being heavy then u may as well dis dream theater being fast for the sake of being fast, or slayer being thrash for the sake of being thrash. these are some of the greatest genre defining bands in rock man!
    i mean your a bit of a clueless nut arent u dude.
    the only thing i would complain about is the raw production, but i think thats something in five years from now i learn to appreciate and im sure future guitar players will still be trying to hack it 20 years from now..
    the way u should see it is that metallica have had enough money (and fame) to have never recorded a single note (or toured relentlessly) since black, but they choose to do it cuz they love the music and if u cant respect that then u are not a true tallica fan. i dont think anyone but yourself appreciated your non constructive criticism.

  14. “u dont no cuz u r not a troo tellica fan!!!!!!11111”

    I mean, seriously, is this AOL teen chat? I’ll listen to your opinion when you grow your first pube. Now log off the computer right now, TRL is on!

  15. people who like metallica probably think sean penn is cool to. they have sucked for over ten years. get over it and try some inflames

  16. funny very funny.
    seriously tho, i love inflames and guardenian and all those obscure sweedish metal bands,… i know whats good and what is timeless music
    i dont respect your opinion cuz that song rocks and your a fag.. i mean where else do u expect metallica to go too they have already conquered the world.
    do u really want another mop or rtl ?
    i mean seriously the boys wouldnt exactly be musicians if thats all they played. if u want speed why dont u listen to racer x.
    PUNK
    also if i was a 13 year old aol user i would speak like this…
    MARK IS A W3ANEIR HA CAN SUK IT AL DAY LONG?!?!? OMG LOL

    and i would STILL be smarter than u hahahhaha. sucker
    .
    out.

  17. First off, I’m going to talk a little out of my ass here for 2 good reasons, I work better with pure logic and also everyone else here seems to do the same.

    So here’s what I think. My music collection can be broken into 3 categories as follows. Derivative, backwards progressive, and forwards progressive.

    Group/step 1 (derivative) sounds good immediately and eventually grows old on you, even if it is masterfullys conceived. Memory of the derived music triggers as soon as you hear it. Turn on the radio to a pop station and you understand the general idea here. Any genre has its derivers, some are suberb (take Darkane for example). The general goal here is to amplify successful patterns in past works.

    Group/step 2 (backwards progressive) is progressive music that merely adds elements of the past together to form a new element. Depending on how derivative this is, this style of progressive music can be extremely catchy, but it also carries the efforts of the particular artist as well, thus it is more likely to last much longer than straight derivative music.

    Group/step 3 (forwards progressive) is the least accessible type of music. Well written music of this type usually comes off as either irritating (some elements conflict with developed idealogies of the listener) or just uninteresting. Repeated listens are required to form the framework necessary to connect to the music.

    OK. thats the breakdown. if your still with me then your probably wondering first why you should care and second my motive for placing such an assumption. The reason is to support my theory on metallica and their history.

    In short I break Metallica into two bands. OldMetallica consists of the classic lineup with Burton. NewMetallica consists of the classic lineup minus Burton (RIP). Old Metallica will _NEVER_ exist again. Please honor the late Cliff Burton and do not think they will come back without him…

    Back to my music style breakdown, I believe almost all successful musicians (someone other than the band members listens to the music) go through similiar evolutions. Derivative/cover -> backward prog -> forward prog.

    Steps 1-2-3 above…

    [if you believe my 3 step theory skip to the next set of dotted lines]

    Most bands start out covering other bands so the first step just makes sense. I don’t think there is any question about this one. Making practical music without this step is like inventing electricity without knowledge of physics.

    Now I’ll break several bands into the 3 step to show you how they fit.

    1. Led Zepplin at first was heavily derivative of blues and jazz. The entire CD of Led Zepplin and parts of Led Zepplin II were hardily altered beyond the blues->rock formula that became a process to the band. After Led Zepplin III the band got the hang of the music and brilliant backwards progressive songs like Stairway to Heaven were written. In my opinion, the band never achieved fully independent work (don’t get mad at me here, im not really a zepplin fan and I really didn’t listen to anything after Physical Graffiti.

    2. Opeth. Here’s a tough one. I’ve never heard opeth cover any other works than they’re own, and I’ve never heard anyone cover them. Either way, opeth has always focused on themselves. I think that Orchid didn’t quite feel right to the band. You can kind of tell. For this reason, I think this was on the derivitave side. Morningrise, My Arms Your hearse and Still Life fit much better. But if you get down to the nitty gritty, any person that has heard both death metal and 70s metal can easily pull the elements into their respective categories and little is left but clutter. It is not until Blackwater park that things come together just that little bit more. What matters on this album, Deliverance and Damnation is what is left if you take all the elements derived from other music away. This is the singularity that makes opeth so good. This is what takes listeners so long to get into. What I called clutter above was just the developing opeth as its own beast. To remark on my earlier theory, it is only reasonable to assume that in the course of their albums from orchid to damnation, Opeth has shifted from backward progressiveness to forward progressiveness.

    3. Fill in almost any band here. They make a cd (or two) which wonderfully fits a genre and receiveds almost immediate praise. Bands like creed, korn, death, _metallica_,… the list goes on. It doesn’t matter because from the end-user perspective the first cd that lands the shelves is bound to be largely derivative. If your band is more than 10 years old and they are still around and kicking, and they are not AC/DC. Then they probably hit some sort of band identity crisis of some nature. This is the turning point that breaks musicians of type 2 to type 3. This is where the band forms its own opinions and messages (forward progression). Most bands never make it to this step and still land cds that make it to your local dealer.

    Back to metallica. My quick assumptive ability tells me that Kill ’em All worked so well as a pure thrash cd because the band added (and subtracted!) very little from the thrash formula. Sure it was one of the first cds of its type, but the idea was pretty straight-forward, and plenty of other bay-area groups had the same goal in mind (exodus for one…). Don’t get me wrong here, Kill em all is WAY up there when it comes to thrash music. But By my logic it is almost entirely backwards in its progression. It takes the speed of old punk and the riffs of NWOBHM and fuses them in the best way possible.

    Then comes Ride the Lightning. Something happened here. You can tell as soon as the first song fully develops. Think about it and it should make sense. Consider Kill Em All and all of its components (minus the bass solo by burton) and remove the punk speed aspect and the riff aspect gotten from all of the NWOBHM cds that ulrich brought to the band. What do you have left. Little if anything. Ride the lightning is different. Remove the blast beats and rhythm riffs and soloes and listen to the feel of the music. Remove the same elements that everyone knows warranted thrash metal and what you have left is pure metallica. In short RIDE through JUSTICE were Forward Progressive style music. How can you tell? Usually you can tell by how quickly the music appreciation takes to get to the professional critic. Kill Em All was an instant classic, but it took years for the next three albums to set in. Most critics still consider this work in one big clump and fail to recognize the evolution of the band.

    Again I consider oldMetallica and newMetallica to be different animals and heres my final conclusion. If you listen to Load and Reload, the only assumption you can make is that Metallica somehow started the evolution process over!!!

    Anyway I’m getting tired and this ranting is taking too long.

    Here are my conclusions from the logic compiled above:
    1. Load and Reload don’t suck, theyre just not metallica at their fullest. look at it like they are somewhere between pop music (derivative/step 1) and retro (backward progressive/step 2). But you probably already knew this.

    2. Based on number 1 and the fact that Metallica is touring with LIMP BISKIT and LINKIN PARK, I HIGHLY hypothesize that ST. Anger is going to be a backwards progressive, or a culmination of styles between nu-metal and old metallica (probably nothing pre-black album because cliff can’t contribute much in his present condition RIP).

    3. I’m going to break from my metallica rant and branch to other bands for a brief second here. If you like metallica’s 3 freaking awesome releases and you know what I’m referring two, take the time to realize that the 4 people pictured in the pamphlets are human beings, and realize that there are many more human beings with the same goal. Some Bands besides metallica that I believe have reached their peak and discovered themselves (withing metal of course) are DEATH, ICED EARTH, SEPULTURA, OPETH etc. All of these bands have been heavily influenced by metal and you can feel metal in their songs, even when they are in full swing. Metallica produced probably the only 80’s music and this list produced the only 90’s music that is timeless to me. Timeless in that they will stay with me until the day i die, even if that is 400 years from today after my 6th heart dies while traveling through hyperspace in my mostly cyborg body turned spacecraft.

    Do yourself a favor and listen to these other bands’ songs, because the message they give is their own. In particular Death and Opeth have reached a sort of loft that rivals the metallica era (IMO). Trust me. These aren’t just bands that i’m all excited about because Kazaa let me download them without paying. The stuff I have been listening to recently is Living Sacrifice, Dark Tranquillity, The Haunted, American Head Charge, Arch Enemy, Ebony Tears, Dimmu Borgir, Thrice, Shadows Fall….

    You may like it the four bands in caps above, or you might not. But if you do they wont just fade away like too many modern bands.

  18. looking back i feel like the 3rd grader who brags about his long turd in the toilet to his friends but DAAAAAAMMNNN that was long!!

  19. Good analysis, DarkumSirgotem.

    It’s obvious what is going on here, people who have liked Metallica for a long time are bent up that they are moving backward now instead of forward. Johnny-come-latelys want them to either keep putting out shi…er, I mean stuff like Load/Reload, or turn into Limp Bizkit, which unfortunately seems to be where they are heading.

  20. Very nicely put DarkumSirgotem…. and i think your right about how metallica are just trying to incorporate linkin park sounds into their music. But i dont think this was motivated by some deliberate marketing campain (i think i spelt that wrong but anwyay).

    Being that i love nu-metal, death-metal, speed-metal, thrash-metal and i love Ratm rapping i guess im biased. But i really like what metallica have done here, obviously they have lost some fans on this record and also gained some. Even though i could listen to and justice… and all the pre newsted albums all day long, i dont think it would be either contemporary or logical to reproduce such albums again. It would be fake if they tried to do so because they don’t feel those same emotions that led them to create those amazing sounds back then. That i think would be selling out.
    So i complement Metallica.
    Regarding st. anger tho, i really wish the guitars could be louder!

    (My appologises go out to Mark. I was acting like an ass, he deserved his opinion, Sorry :p )

  21. I Love Metallica, every album, from Kill em All to Reload. Each one is a musical Gem.

    If you don’t like metallica, then don’t buy the albums. You are more than welcome to listen to a whole CD store of music. If you don’t like something, get over it and move on. Some of you people need to get a life seriously, why go to metallica boards all over the web just to bitch about them.

    Those who love metalliica are in for treat with St.Anger,

  22. Mark and Allen are talking straight to the point, and I totally agree with their obvious conclusions of Metallica’s downfall. What a great band they were, is a shame what they have become.

  23. Instead of complaining about Metallica lets enjoy whats left of a great ride? So often we see hard rock become mainstream in the publics eye. Metallica opened the flood gates for certain talent to come about. If your not happy with there current direction that’s great but, remember what Metallica has done for over 20 years. Everyone goes through changes. Personally I couldn’t listen to the last two albums all the way through like there previous albums. At least half the songs on both albums were good. Yeah a different beat but, the same thing over and over gets boring after awhile and stale in the publics eye. Metallica has proved all they need to prove. I believe this will go back to there roots and may not have the same lyric quality but, should have the crazy drum beats and killer riffs but will sound like metallica. Enjoy them because a band of this caliper doesn’t come along very often! It’s very true the glory days may be in the past but, lets enjoy what we got?

  24. Ok, I’ve heard a lot of shit on this board about wether metallica sold out and which albums sucked etc etc. It’s like this, I myself, am a musician, and what does any good musician want? To have their story told, their opinion heard, and most importantly, to produce the music THEY WANT, not what everyone else wants. As time goes on, peoples tastes change, and so have Metallica’s, so what if their newer stuff has a different type of heavy to it. It may be slow, but it’s still heavy. I guess it helps that I like all sorts of music, one being Gothic, and there is definately that same dark heavy as there is in type o and life of agony, which I though Metallica mixed in very well with their music. To look at the evolving issue… sure, riding a horse is fun, but would you rather still be using horses to this day for all transportation?? Times must change, or they go stagnant like a puddle of water.

  25. METALLICA SUCK.. They sold out long, long ago!! Anyone who buys this CD is giving the green light for Metallica to continue in their woefully Old Age!! GET A LIFE GUYS! If Ozzy can admit he’s too old to rock these guys should quit while they are far far behind…

  26. The only time a band ever sells out, is when they start producing music that the masses want to hear, rather than what they want to play. And from what I’ve seen, the masses want the old metallica, so how could they possably have sold out? They just changed.

  27. kaotbliss said: “To look at the evolving issue… sure, riding a horse is fun, but would you rather still be using horses to this day for all transportation?? Times must change, or they go stagnant like a puddle of water.”

    I agree with what you are saying, but there is a problem in your analogy. Metallica doesn’t fall in this analogy. What Metallica really has done is stop using horses as transportation and began to walk instead as there new way of transportation. There is a big difference in evolving and going backwards!!!!

  28. were have you been they have been pleasing the masses i repeat the suck now they have no more left. really who makes a part 2 to a song. cliff was the master behind it all. for the people who say do you want them to keep making the same music no i dont and they never did kill em, lighting, puppets and justice were all different. lets face it they are nothing but a average rock band not metal. iff some other band made load and reload no one would pay attention to them. they live off there name and what they did in the past. you sheep follow them like your all wasted. THEY SUCK AND BANG EACH OTHER

  29. must say i used to love them. when you grow up with a band and there personality you think you know what there about. then bob rock came along and $$$$$$$$$$$$$. they dont care about music anymore they have nothing to be pissed at because there loaded thats why they went after napster. lets face it metal is based on anger at things in the world not give me fuel give fire lets go make a song about cars because we have nothing else to say. i would not mind them if they changed there name to oasia.

  30. Man….

    Lets just say that I am disappointed. I downloaded the new St Anger. and um well….it sucks.

    The music itself, the riffs, the drum fills etc were ok. But the singing and the lyrics. WOW

    What total crap.

    I have listened to St Anger 3 times all the way through. And I can honestly say that I will probably never listen to it again. Its that bad..

    Over the past year I hae been watching the Real Media posts that Metallica put on their website all the way through the recording process, and I have to say I was getting excited. Thinking that they were returning to their roots. But this is such a huge letdown.

    I was not a fan of the black album, load or reload. But there were a few songs that you could see a spark of the old Metallica in them. Unfortunately all of that is now gone. Its kind of worse than selling out.

    They “return to their roots” on this album, but they can’t find them. It sounds like unoriginal Ride The Lightning throwaway riffs.

    This will be Metallica’s Swan Song as far as I can tell. The “Black Album” era people will think its too hard. And the “kill em all ” era people will think its just sad.

    Metallica
    1981-2003
    R.I.P.

  31. i downloaded the album to get a sneak preview of it. I am quite sad to say metallica have perhaps tried too hard to capture what once was. Maybe it was the exclusion of jason in the band during the recording process, but i still expected a bit more. A guitar solo or 2 would have been nice, and some continuity in the song structures too. Its like a bunch of heavy fucking riffs which rock by themselves, but when added together just form one giant lump of hard rock.
    It reminded me of a skidrow album..subterrainian human i think it was called, back in the mid 90’s. Without the guitar solos of course.

    i am and i always will be a tallica fan, i can only hope this album grows on me and the next album the boys find there “niche” with rob at the controls of the bass.

    “THEY SUCK AND BANG EACH OTHER”
    mike

    i also wanna add that mike is a full tosser, cuz only tossers use profanity when they cant express themselves,
    i mean man thats a pretty immature thing to say about a band that influenced generations ( yes thats right plural not singular ) of musicians.
    out.

  32. This album sucks butt.

    It sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom. I think some of the songs would rock if the producer didn’t suck this time around.

    Not impressed.

  33. holy crap this should turn into a fucken metallica hate page.
    you are all shit heads why bother listen to the album if you didnt like it the first itme around. just fucken give it up.
    i bet if metallica came to your house tonight you would just be kissing their asses the whole time. think about that before you condemn them to hell you ungreatful hypocritical looserrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

  34. i admit i didn’t like 90s metallica and i doubt i’m buying st.anger. but what’s with all the hate? i don’t get it.

    kea influenced as many metalheads as paranoid in the early 70s and sad wings of destiny. why then would metallica then turn around and imitate their own imitators 20 years later? that’s not progressive.

    they’re trying something new for them so naturally they’ll make mistakes. remember the first time you rode a bike? drove a car? had sex? i very seriously doubt you were a master of it the very first time. similary, james and lars are making this band more democratic. and they’re trying to find a way to rock with a level of maturity befitting of 40 year old men. this is new to them and they are going to make many mistakes along the way. jimi and kurt got around this by dying. the stones and ac/dc got around it by repeating themselves. metallica are trying to go the U2 route: change and update themselves. they may not be good at it at least they’re trying.

    i think ‘old’ metallica fans are disappointed that tallica haven’t made a death metal, grindcore, or black metal album. but metallica were never a death metal, grindcore, or black metal band to begin with so to expect them to become one all of a sudden is pointless.

    metallica sounded like KEA in 83 because that’s what was going on back then. they sound like SA now because that’s what is going on now. each time period has its own fashion and its own music and metallica records gauge what’s going on at the time it is created. they are products of their environment.

    there are plenty of bands that do whatever type of past metal you care to listen to: power speed thrash black death grindcore sdm goregrind sludge experimental ambient industrial dhc nyhc/metal crossover prog whatever. if metallica is no longer for you then find someone that is. sometimes you don’t see eye to eye with people and you must go your separate ways. that’s life.

    i admit metallica could do metal a great service by inviting the underground bands to tour with them but why? metal fans don’t pay to see those bands on their own so why would you go and see them if they toured with metallica, a band many of you swear up and down has turned to crap?

    limp bizkit have 1 million fans. staind have 1 million fans. why don’t 1 million of you go out and buy the haunted’s record? or opeth’s? or zyklon’s? or entombed, meshuggah, in flames, voivod, lamb of god, stratovarius, devin townshend, voivod, corporation 187, deride, nile, marduk, or anyone else you care to name? your dollars tell the music business who you really support. that is how the suits measure popularity, by units sold. i’m not a believer in obscure metal bands. i was sad when sepultura, kyuss, and at the gates split up without going platinum. we need more popular bands who are full out metal. ppl if you really care about the future of metal go out and support the bands that give it to you raw and uncut.

    as for the phrase ‘metallica sold out’ you are right. EVERY metallica album is in billboard’s multiplatinum range except for NLTL. and you should be glad for it because their ‘old’ records sell BETTER than their ‘new’ ones save for the black album so people like them for their thrash. frankly i wish more underground metal bands would ‘sell out’ (i define selling out as going platinum) they work hard enough and deserve the success.

    finally, if you really hate new metallica and think you can do better, by all means buy a guitar and start your own band. it’s so easy to sit back and boo. you’ll see things differently if you start a band of your own.

  35. Hello all Metallica haters & lovers. Notice how pretty much it is all the so called old school metallica fans who are bashing everything. I can piture it: OLD TOOTHLESS FAGS, WHO STILL LIVE IN THEIR TRAILOR PARK’S DRINKING A 40-OZ OLD MILWALKEE WRAPPED IN A PAPER BAG. Even Kirk bashed you guys by saying :” METALLICA WAS THIS SMALL BAND THAT THEY COULD FIT IN YOUR BACK POCKET, AND THEY GOT SO BIG YOU COULDNT FIT IN YOUR BACK POCKET ANYMORE”. That is by far the truest line I have heard thru out all of the B.S. for the past years. Everybody wants that next (FADE TO BLACK OR MASTER OF PUPPETS OR ONE) ETC,ETC….. Think of it like this in my opinion I love all the Metallica albums, but lets start at Kill Em All thru the Black album. Just about every song on all these albums is what we compare any new Metallica too. I be the first to say Those albums were just about perfection. For those who cant count, that is five straight albums of Kick your ass music. Be honest with yourself can you find anotyher band who you can say put that much music out in a time period that was that good? As for me I can go from Kill em All to St. Anger and love every second of it. I dont remember which looser said it but you can go back and read it somwhere. He said “when they lost Cliff they were done”. Cliff was brilliant but he didnt make Metallica. Even James has joked about it before you cant hear the bass all that much. Take away all the “I HAVE BEEN A METALLICA FAN FROM DAY ONE, “FAGS” and there woulndt be all these stupid message boards. Those of you that share my thoughts see you at the show(s).
    By the way ST. ANGER & SOME KIND OF MONSTER & MY WORLD, are the best tracks off of St. Anger.

    Metallica rules the world!
    J.R.

  36. Just heard the new song “St. Anger” on the radio.

    When is Metallica going to put out something that kicks ass? Everything after …And Justice For All sucks preppie cock.

  37. I’ve been a fan of MetaLLica all the way till the Re-Load album 100%, I heard the St-Anger album, & to be honest muscially Speaking…its SHIT!
    Why? I’ll tell U why in Detail so then no one would think im Biased…
    the Band is tryin so hard to coupe with the new generation of new Rock…how?…simple…:-

    1)Lars adjusted his Snare, cutting out the old fahioned trademark Metallica Reverb, makin it a dry sound Snare similar to Korn, Limp Bizkit…erc (Dont blv me? check it out for urselves & lstn to both)
    2)James changed his Distortion type on the Gutar, muffing it, creating a guitar sound similar to Korn,Limp…etc…U’ll fin that the mid & bass is up & treble down
    3)Lstly the Bass is sharper & thin than the pervious metallica recording

    Final Conclusion??, the production of the album sucks because they were tryin to immitate the new Generations of rock Production, therefore with their style of music cannot be the same since their recording Production setting is made specially for HardCore rock, not Hard Rock or Metal or watever they’re doin in this boring meaningless album.

    In terms of Originality, its ZERO, why? not a single catchy vocal line, the only song that had something was maye Frantic, other than that the others were too damn boring, Crap & non original by all means.

    Pitty though, I was so excited wen I bought the ALbum, but this band is so desperate to hit the charts, it would be good & admirable if they did it by their own way, but not by virtually tryin to be like other bands in terms of sound, this was cheap, desperate & really Low.

  38. I dont understand why people selfcalled old metallica fan hate so much the black album…how can´t they appreciate songs like Sad But true, the unforgiven, my friend of mysery and nothing else matters…they´re great songs not equal to master or ride songs but they are definitively great, instead i Think that…”and justice” is bad except for One, dyers eve and harvester…the other songs are boring…ride and master are
    master pieces of heavy music and black album is
    a master piece of heavy combined with melodics…”Load” big sin was that the band made too much pop/punk/rock sounds…but they were not bad at all except fo Hero of the day, King nothing and some other…Reload is crap, almost no personality, nothing to remember..BORING!except MAYBE Unforgiven 2, but not too much…even the video was not like the first…(together with “one” the best videos in the history of music)

    I hope this new album sound more like the black album and that woul be good for me…I think they can do it again…I dont think they will be able to do something like master or ride NEVER AGAIN..because they ´re not 20 anymore…they don´t have that rage and I don´t blame them for that…

  39. I DISAGREE WITH ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT THIS ALBUM IS ATTEMPTING TO SELL.
    It seems obvious to me that they did several things like modernizing the guitar sounds, changing the whole writing style and production level, removing all guitar solos, and changing drumming sounds and styles. None of the songs sound like top 40 stuff. We all know that James, Lars, and Bob can write top 40 all day long, so what are they trying to do?
    I truly think, they are searching for the raw, real, modern Metallica – with a middle finger firmly extended to whoever doesn’t like it. They’ve reached a point in their career that allows them to do what they want – they couldn’t possibly need money. I think they truly want to create somethng unique – I’m interested to hear the next album. I am impressed with St Anger as an effort, but I’m still building my opinion as far as how much I like it.

  40. I think that no matter that they´re doing “good stuff” or “technically well performed music”…what people complain about is that they don´t play the music that make people adore them.
    yes, they evolved but their music is just “good” nothing else…they can´t make people feel like they did in 80´s…

    I don´t think that SOMEBODY in the world who just has listened to the post black album stuff could say that Metallica is the best band in the world…LOT OF people who listened to the other albums know that metallica for us was more than music, was a cult…now they´re just good musicians…but if I want to listen to well performed music I´d rather Mozart or Bethoven…

    I realy tried to like the music they play now but it is impossible…makes me want to dance with some of them…and maybe that means that is not so bad..but that is not metal…the name should evolve to another thing but “Metallica” is not for them anymore.

    Sad but true…

  41. I think that no matter that they´re doing “good stuff” or “technically well performed music”…what people complain about is that they don´t play the music that make people adore them.
    yes, they evolved but their music is just “good” nothing else…they can´t make people feel like they did in 80´s…

    I don´t think that SOMEBODY in the world who just has listened to the post black album stuff could say that Metallica is the best band in the world…LOT OF people who listened to the other albums know that metallica for us was more than music, was a cult…now they´re just good musicians…but if I want to listen to well performed music I´d rather Mozart or Bethoven…

    I realy tried to like the music they play now but it is impossible…makes me want to dance with some of them…and maybe that means that is not so bad..but that is not metal…the name should evolve to another thing but “Metallica” is not for them anymore.

    Sad but true…

  42. wow. im speechless, st. anger is the best thing metallica has done in 10 years!
    its fucking amazing and i dont care what the rest of you say, metallica dont need me to convince you to tell u how cool they are.
    they just fucking kick ass. fullstop. exclamation mark! end of statement.
    if the rest of u cant listen to your heart instead of listening to each other and letting that decide your opinion album then u blow goats my friend. haha!
    the album definately grows on you, so if after one or two listens u gave up. try again.
    laters

  43. Sounds like Kain is lumping St Anger in with Load and Reload – that just doesn’t fly. St Anger is unique and should be judged on its own – if it is to be judged fairly.
    It doesn’t matter anyway – Metallican has been villainized because they didn’t let everyone steal their music. Oh, yeah – they’re also bad because they wanted to be successful.

  44. Sounds like Kain is lumping St Anger in with Load and Reload – that just doesn’t fly. St Anger is unique and should be judged on its own – if it is to be judged fairly.
    It doesn’t matter anyway – Metallica has been villainized because they didn’t let everyone steal their music. Oh, yeah – they’re also hated because they wanted to be successful.

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