Metallica

____no5 said:
*Just checked. Hardwired was released as a double album.. Though The Final Frontier will roughly the same duration as a single one.
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Well, on the other hand, since the bands are producing longer albums, I rather appreciate the division among the two CDs, even if the medium could host more. I find it much more pleasing to put on 2x40 minutes than 1x80. We're kinda returning to the vinyl era this way, but I don't particularly mind this.
Although it's not very economical and ecological, I guess. But from the artistic standpoint, I like it.
 
____no5 said:
In case of vinyl. But 77 minutes is a single CD isn't it? Thus the many seagulls in Darkest Hour + eternal fade out in Hell on Earth :D
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Dityn DJ James said:
New album is going to be 77+ minutes long. Can anyone write a 45 minute album anymore? They need a third party in there to trim the fat.

Some will make the argument too that I don't have to listen to the full thing. I can just go back to the songs I like. I do that with every album, and I don't listen to a full album everyday, but it's the principle. A good album should be able to be sat down and enjoyed in one sitting, and there certainly are long (70+ minute) albums I enjoy, but 77+ minutes of new Metallica sounds like a nightmare in one sitting.
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I agree that 77 minutes long is too much for Metallica, but the songs are usually 6 to 8 minutes long, not 10+ minutes. The 45 minutes long albums for some bands were in the 80's, methinks. I also won't like an album with only long songs, one album need to have a good balance (like TBOS, Senjutsu could also have another short song). And not because those long songs won't be good, but because you need to have a variety, like you need fast, slow, mid-tempo, ballads, short and long songs. Plus tempo changes.

I can like an album with only 7+ minutes long songs, but it depends on the band.
Ruflux said:
Thing is though, that's 12 tracks. If they cut it down to 8 like they used to in the record days, I think the overall length would also come around to being more or less the same. Take HTSD. If you did what I'd do and excise all of disc two other than Confusion and Spit Out the Bone, you'd end up with a 50-minute album, so perfectly in line with Metallica's 80s efforts.

It's not that the songs have gotten super long, it's just that bands prefer to get closer to filling a CD so they end up doing more tracks than they used to.
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Spot on about the number of the tracks and HTSD.

Is it just me or most of the bands these days release albums with (at least) 12+ songs on them, only Maiden are usually with 10 songs - thus the other bands have more fillers (no matter if the songs are short or long), while Maiden have more long songs but the quality is much better.
Edington said:
It's a two-way street, I guess. Nothing wrong with a band finding their sound and sticking to it, but I also don't mind if a band wants to push the boat out a bit and try something different. Plus, personally I tend to prefer Metallica more mid-paced and riffy, so this song aping Kill 'em All doesn't do much for me. But..
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I agree.
Edington said:
Although it depends on how far they take the concept, if this album's supposed to represent/be inspired by the first eighteen years of their lives, is the whole thing gonna be a "homage" to their early sound and influences? Then I start to wonder, where does "homage" end and "rehash" begin?
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I doubt that all or most of the songs will sound like their ''early days sound''.
MrKnickerbocker said:
I agree about bands making longer and longer albums, it's simply too much. I don't mind when prog bands do it because that's literally the conceit of the genre, but with bands like Maiden and Metallica it's so clearly a way to "sell more" records due to outdated sales count methods and a way to add more and more material to streaming services.
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This is not true for Maiden - they've always preferred to write longer songs (5+ minutes long), especially Steve who is the main songwriter. And Maiden are a prog metal band since 2000. :p
JudasMyGuide said:
Also, since the output frequency has significantly slowed recently, at least for the bigger bands, it might be the inherent fear of releasing "too little", if the fans waited so long.
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See above. As I've always said, the most important thing is the songs to be great.
Detective Beauregard said:
That said, there are several Metallica albums that desperately needed to trim the fat. The black album could have cut a few, and the Loads should have been a double album with at least 7 or 8 tracks cut. With Hardwired, the first half is flawless - but the back half's only standouts are its bookends. Revenge and Murder One border on filler, with ManUnkind and Savage being flat-out bad songs. The album should have been 8-10 tracks, tops. Death Magnetic, on the other hand, had no filler tracks - but the songs were too long for being relatively non-progressive.

I start to lose interest when albums are relatively short (under an hour) and contain ~12 tracks of decent quality, but with very little to distinguish them. I can only handle the verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc. thing for so long, so I'd take an album of the same length with 6-8 tracks which weave through various sceneries (key, time signature, and tempo changes) any day of the week.
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Your first statement about some of Metallica's albums is the truth.

I also don't like albums that are 40 minutes long with not enough variation in the songs.
 
You can fit at least 78:59 on a CD without worry of it skipping, although better CD technology expands this little by little (Tool’s Fear Inoculum is one CD and it’s just over 79 minutes in length). That’s why Load is 78:59 because they crammed that CD full to the max. It’s pretty well agreed that the only reason Hardwired… is two CDs despite being shorter than Load is because “Lords of Summer” was supposed to be on it but got cut at the eleventh hour when production was already in session. So I doubt that 72 Seasons will be a double album since it’s only 77 minutes long. I feel like if it was a double then that would’ve been a major selling point in the announcement.

Also, I kind of feel like some you guys have it backwards. I don’t think these bands are consciously going in with the mindset of “lemme fill this whole album with music” or “lemme smash it on two discs to sell more”. Sure, some record labels pushed for full CDs worth of content, but established bands like these don’t need to worry about that stuff. I think that when the main format changed from LP to CD, it gave bands the freedom not to hold back or edit down their content. Now when Metallica or Maiden enter the studio, their focus is on writing songs, and they allow themselves to take them as far as they want to. And when they finish writing songs, that’s when they go, oh hey 77 minutes. Or oh hey, double album time! I don’t think it’s as cynical as some make it out to be.
 
Diesel 11 said:
Also, I kind of feel like some you guys have it backwards. I don’t think these bands are consciously going in with the mindset of “lemme fill this whole album with music” or “lemme smash it on two discs to sell more”. Sure, some record labels pushed for full CDs worth of content, but established bands like these don’t need to worry about that stuff. I think that when the main format changed from LP to CD, it gave bands the freedom not to hold back or edit down their content. Now when Metallica or Maiden enter the studio, their focus is on writing songs, and they allow themselves to take them as far as they want to. And when they finish writing songs, that’s when they go, oh hey 77 minutes. Or oh hey, double album time! I don’t think it’s as cynical as some make it out to be.
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Yes, the lack of quality control is definitely also a factor.
 
Jer said:
Yep. "Confusion" and "Spit Out The Bone" are the gems, "ManUNkind" and "Here Come Revenge" are OK, and "Am I Savage?" and "Murder One" just tread water, IMO.
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The album could have been fantastic as a shorter one, with the whole of CD1 and a couple of songs from CD2.

Most recent Metallica albums would benefit from being more succinct (the same can be said about recent Maiden albums too!).
 
Waited through the lineup to buy tickets for Montreal. First thing I noticed: it's two day tickets. You can only buy tickets to both shows. Why would I want to go to Metallica twice? They're not Iron Maiden.

Once I got through, everything was sold out but the absolute nosebleeds (in a stadium where those are notoriously bad) and the $650 tickets close to the field.

The field itself is locked behind another presale code, and that's where I'd want to be.

So I said thanks, but no thanks.
 
GhostofCain said:
Exactly. That's why they are playing two completely different sets instead of the same songs both nights.
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Right, but the shows are three days apart, which means the expense is doubled. More, because if you're travelling, you'd want to stay in the city. Congratulations to Metallica for playing two different sets, that's really cool. I bet all the songs I'd want to hear are on the other one.
 
LooseCannon said:
Right, but the shows are three days apart, which means the expense is doubled. More, because if you're travelling, you'd want to stay in the city.
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Yes, the format they have chosen works if you make a holiday out of their short residence at the cities they are playing at (apparently the weekend will include other assorted Metallica-related activities), or you live nearby.

LooseCannon said:
Congratulations to Metallica for playing two different sets, that's really cool. I bet all the songs I'd want to hear are on the other one.
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Not sure it beats having had to wait more than 20 years to see one of my favourite Maiden tracks live (Flight of Icarus). :lol:
 
LooseCannon said:
I do live nearby, but it's not for me.
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Fair enough.

I am not a Metallica fan (I own their first four albums and Garage Inc.) and have only seen them live once (back in 1999), but would consider getting tickets for this if they bring it to London, which is within commutable distance for me.
 
GhostofCain said:
Most recent Metallica albums would benefit from being more succinct (the same can be said about recent Maiden albums too!).
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Only DOD imo. Thing is, they need the shorter songs (that sometimes are weaker than the epics) to have a good balance with the longer stuff they've been writing since 2000.
 
600$ to see them, 1500$ AirBnB + expenses for 3 days, 10000$ to greet the whole lot, 500$ round trip travelling & fuel. That's the price of a car in some countries.

That if you are single. Imagine having a wife and kids who also want to shake Metallica's hands, something to eat, something to buy, man we are talking apartment here! :D
 
____no5 said:
600$ to see them, 1500$ AirBnB + expenses for 3 days, 10000$ to greet the whole lot, 500$ round trip travelling & fuel. That's the price of a car in some countries.

That if you are single. Imagine having a wife and kids who also want to shake Metallica's hands, something to eat, something to buy, man we are talking apartment here! :D
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Do you REALLY need that swimming pool in your flat ? 1500 dollars ????
 
No what swimming pool, a decent flat x 3 days + living expenses in holiday mode (3 meals/day, drinks, sightseeing, some shopping) in Canada? You could down that to 1000$ maybe, but below that, you shouldn't do the 3-days stay in the first place.
 
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