METALLICA SURVIVOR 2016: Results - Fade to Black wins again

Are you satisfied with the results?


  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
With Puppets and Justice the bar is set higher. Even the "misses" on those albums resonate with me more than the debut because they were pushing themselves to a higher standard.
 
Agreed. The bar is set very low on Kill 'Em All, so the highs feel very high. Youth and attitude make up for a lack of maturity in songwriting. I know that a lot of Metallica fans adore Kill 'Em All, but it's a thrash record without tons of interesting things happening (how I generally feel about most thrash records).

Whereas with Puppets and Justice, the bar is set so high that the lesser songs are still far superior to most of the stuff on Kill 'Em All.
 
Kill Em All is a good thrash album though. If Metallica didn't go on to be the behemoth that they are now, I think it would have a cult status but only with punk/thrash metal fans.
 
I love Kill 'Em All. Not as much as Ride, Puppets and Justice, but it's a clear 5/5 album in my book.
 
I actually find Kill 'Em All sounds fresher than some of their other work after they settled into a routine and stuck with that.
 
Pretty much Ride the Lighting, Puppets and Justice. :D They all merge into one to me. I did say I'm on the fence about Metallica.
 
What do you consider the weak moments on Puppets and Justice to be?
My thoughts from previous years, but I'll play the albums soon again for this edition:
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On Master of Puppets: I find that a big part of it lacks some inspiration and it sounds tame. The previous albums have so much more energy.

Ride The Lightning sets itself apart because of some really nice melodies, solos and harmonies (the Maidenish ending harmony in Fade To Black still sends shivers down my spine!). Also this album contains a lot of variety.

Master of Puppets is the more successful/popular album but apart from a few tracks I miss the melodic/catchy-aspects from its predecessor. My favourite tracks are the title track and Welcome Home (Sanitarium). Of course there are some amazing riffs but some tracks tend to bore more me sooner. There’s also less variety, especially the mood feels the same most of the time. I don't care much for the whole b-side of Puppets.

One is one of my favourite Metallica songs but most of the And Justice for All album bores me to tears. To Live Is To Die is quite a good instrumental. My only "complaint" is that that the pieces don't flow that well into each other, as if the connections sound a bit forced (various recording sessions pasted together). But it has enough strong melodies and variation to to be liked well! AJFA suffers from the Puppets syndrome, although One is a clear exception in the melodical department and I also thought Blackened was a very strong opener. Unfortunately most other songs are quite repetitive and monotone.
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@MrKnickerbocker I am also not a big fan of thrash in general. I do like some Slayer though, especially the South of Heaven album. Incidentally It was the first album for which the band prepared their songs well. I also dig some Metal Church albums. I like some Exodus. ... And I dig Kill'Em All. Those riffs are very infectious and the vocals are bearable compared to many Thrash vocalists imo. Whatever the genre, I find it a very enjoyable collection of songs with an own identity.
 
Pretty much Ride the Lighting, Puppets and Justice
OK, Ride and Master are similar, but still pretty groundbreaking for their time
Justice is pretty different in my opinion. It's got a unique kind of atmosphere and sound. I think of it as pretty experimental (for them at least). If Ride is their POM and Master is their Powerslave, then Justice is definitely their SIT
 
Pretty much Ride the Lighting, Puppets and Justice. :D They all merge into one to me. I did say I'm on the fence about Metallica.
I just gave you the differences between these albums. :)

Some more praise for Ride the Lightning:

In contrary of Puppets, Ride the Lightning is as great as its reputation. Creeping Death is an impressive and anthemic in your face riff fest headbanger and the other songs have variation, some of them with melodic brilliance. Also: the best guitar leads (harmony and end-solo) are on the Ride the Lightning album, namely Fade to Black. I can't stress it enough: That harmony might be in my top 3 of all time, by any band.
 
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Like Brig, I like Metallica, but I'm not a "fan" if that makes sense.
Really looking forward to reviewing their career in this context.

Kill 'Em is a refreshing slap in the face, especially in the context of its time, but it's pretty monochromatic with a bunch of 6-8/10 songs that individually are fine, but get pretty samey when stacked together.
Lightning is a great album, period.
 
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Pretty much Ride the Lighting, Puppets and Justice. :D They all merge into one to me. I did say I'm on the fence about Metallica.

Ride and Puppets yes, but Justice no. That's definitely a different formula, regardless of the quality of the music. Ride and Puppets have almost identical sequencing, songs on the same track number written in a similar manner. Justice follows that sequencing thing to some extent, but it's way more technical than its predecessors. The sound is drastically different on Justice as well, dry and percussive.
 
Justice is very much following the same trajectory as the previous two albums. It breaks away from the formula a little bit but songs like Blackened, One, and Harvester of Sorrow are par for the course for what they were doing at the time.
 
I have also never been all that enamoured with Kill. I respect it from the historical point of view and it's definitely enjoyable, I won't deny that. But I don't like it anyway. Hetfield's vocals are very annoying (yeah, I even prefer nuJaymz) and the album, while influential, is very so-so as far as the quality of the songs is concerned. I love Horsemen, Motorbreath, Whiplash, Seek and Militia and more or less disregard all else, with the rest of the songs ranging from meh (Jump in the Fire) to downright annoying (Hit the Lights - the combination of the teenage lyrics and the histrionic and inane chorus makes it one of the worst songs in Tullica catalogue to me, probably worse than anything on Anger).

The songs are also not very melodic and that's a big mistake, since Metallica IMHO has that as one of their most important qualities (out of the Big 4, they are definitely the "melodic/catchy" one, with Slayer being "brutal", Anthrax "punkish/tongue-in-cheek" and Megadave "technical/experimental", though I thought this up right now and as such it might be completely wrong).

To put it bluntly, they sound like a bunch of angry teenagers here. For better or worse.

On the other hand, Ride along with Justice is probably my favourite Metallica record. I even like Escape, though I voted against it in the end.
 
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The songs are also not very melodic and that's a big mistake, since Metallica IMHO has that as one of their most important qualities (out of the Big 4, they are definitely the "melodic/catchy" one, with Slayer being "brutal", Anthrax "punkish/tongue-in-cheek" and Megadave "technical/experimental", though I thought this up right now and as such it might be completely wrong).
I agree about Slayer and Anthrah, but not about the other two. Metallica's most important qualities are epics, whereas for Megadeth I would say a combo between technical prowess and catchy short songs. Countdown To Extinction and Youthanasia are easily the catchiest albums when it comes to Big 4, only Black Album can compete. Also Metallica was always more about the riffs than melodies.
 
I agree about Slayer and Anthrah, but not about the other two. Metallica's most important qualities are epics, whereas for Megadeth I would say a combo between technical prowess and catchy short songs. Countdown To Extinction and Youthanasia are easily the catchiest albums when it comes to Big 4, only Black Album can compete. Also Metallica was always more about the riffs than melodies.

Like I said, it was a spur-of-the-moment categorisation, you're probably right about that, but I still insist that a very strong melodic presence is noticeable on pretty much every Metallica album and they're also the band with the biggest crossover appeal.

I might have a million-and-a-one problem with St. Anger, but it was never the melodies and the catchiness.


It's enjoyable, but still a bit dull, if you know what I mean. I don't hate it, far from that, but the raw ingredients there would be downright amazing when baked and cooked on RTL. That's where the maturity sets in.
 
It's enjoyable, but still a bit dull, if you know what I mean.
Err, not . Perhaps to
I don't hate it, far from that, but the raw ingredients there would be downright amazing when baked and cooked on RTL. That's where the maturity sets in.
That's fine but there's a clear difference between "a bit dull" and "I don't like it". I mean, yeah, one (self masochist ;-) ) could enjoy a bit dull music, but not liking it while still enjoying or the other way around, that goes a little far. :)

I see these albums as different products. Ride travels different paths. Better perhaps. Still, I enjoy the debut a lot and would rate it as their second best.
 
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