Metallica

Cornfed Hick said:
(though "Fight Fire With Fire" is an affirmatively weak opener)
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I've never understood any of the "Fight Fire" hate. It is easily my favorite Metallica opener. The main riff is just so evocative of the subject matter, and James' lyrics and vocals are just fantastic. Nothing against any of the other openers; Metallica knows how to begin an album, but "Fight Fire" is unquestionably my personal favorite.
 
I'll do a Ride vs. Master vs. Justice comparison in this post. I've done the same thing so many times before, so I'll probably keep this short. (at least shorter than the ones I did before :p)

Openers (Fight Fire with Fire vs. Battery vs. Blackened)

Metallica sure knows how open up the gate. All three classic album openers are truly powerful. My favorite of the bunch is Blackened, because it has a better structure as a song, it has more creativity to it, it has the best vocals out of the bunch and also the best lyrics. Astonishing work, Blackened had been my favorite Metallica song for years, now it's my third favorite. My second would be Battery. It has a beautifully arranged intro, a moving riff and strong performance. I especially love the basic powerful riff that ends the song, can't help but go nuts on that part. Fight Fire is my least favorite out of the three but I'm a big fan of the song and I also don't get the hate about it. The main riff is incredibly deep and the two guitar harmony in the mid-section is just glorious. All three songs are in my Top 15, easily.

Title Tracks (Ride the Lightning vs. Master of Puppets vs. ...And Justice for All)

Title tracks are meant to tell a story and send a message for Metallica. All of them stand for something and are ultimate thrash lyrics. Ride is against death penalty, Master is against drugs and Justice is against injustice in justice courts. Master is the best of the three in terms of lyrics but my favorite has to be Ride the Lightning. It has an amazing middle section that is enough to pull ahead in this match by far Kirk Hammett's best work. It's much more melodic than the other two. Master has great riffs but they're wasted by a lack of atmosphere. I don't personally care for that slow mid-section solo, it doesn't fit the mood of the song even though it's pretty good sounding. ...And Justice for All has great work on it but is a bit too repetitive, especially at the end. Ride is a Top 5, Master is a Top 20, Justice is a Top 30 song for me.

Deep Ones (For Whom the Bell Tolls vs. The Thing That Should Not Be vs. Eye of the Beholder)

The third tracks are deep ones. All of them require a great atmosphere because of the compositions, sadly the only one that excels on that department is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Bellz is ultimate compact, basic, atmospheric heavy metal song. Even though the riffs are so simple, even though it doesn't feature a solo, it's just amazing. Bass intro is top notch, the feel is top notch, the way power chords hit you is top notch. Eye of the Beholder would be my second favorite, it has fantastic lyrics, great drumming, a cool rhythmic intro and a beautiful yet short solo passage by Hammett but is a bit repetitive and lacks in melodic department. The Thing That Should Not Be is simply worsened by repetitiveness. The main riff is incredibly powerful, verses are fantastic, chaotic solo fits the work of H.P. Lovecraft and the song screams heaviness. What a shame it wasn't used well. Bellz is Top 10, Beholder is Top 25, TTTSNB is Top 40-45.

Semi-Ballads (Fade to Black vs. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) vs. One)

This, for me, is the place where Metallica set themselves apart from any other thrash band : Emotional work. The same band that pulls of deeply intense, fast paced and powerful work manages to do stuff like these. I love all three songs. I used to find both Fade to Black and One a bit overrated, because I didn't like the ballad parts as much as other people did and it annoyed be that they were so popular. I preferred Sanitarium in those days. Nowadays, Fade is my favorite, One is my second favorite and Sanitarium is my third. Fade is just an incredible, incredible song. The intro is deep and powerful, Kirk's lead is nice, verses are beautiful. Of course, the main moments of the song is the ending. Believe it or not, Fade to Black is the only song to make me shed a tear. (it was a rough day and the ending just stroke me) Kirk's solo is amazing but the thing that stands out is that amazing backing track. I used to be bored to death by One's first parts and I'd just skip to the heavy parts. I still do that sometimes but that's only because I can't wait for the heavy part to start, it's wonderful. Sanitarium is filled with beautiful leads and harmonies, great song. All songs are Top 10 (Fade is Top 5).

Fast Paced Thrash (Trapped Under Ice vs. Disposable Heroes vs. The Shortest Straw)

Many consider these three the weakest ones off their albums. I disagree. Disposable Heroes is my favorite song on Master of Puppets, why ? Because it's too damn powerful. Fabulous rhythm work by James Hetfield, fantastic lyrics and a great solo by Kirk Hammett. Would be better with a better production but yeah. The Shortest Straw is one of the most underrated tracks of the band. It features Lars' most complicated drumming and Kirk's most complicated solo in a composition filled with heavy ass riffs. Trapped Under Ice resembles the work on Kill'em All, the same energy and feel. Nice riffs and performance, it gets over shadowed by masterpieces on Ride the Lightning, though. DH is Top 10, Shortest Straw is Top 20, Trapped Under Ice is Top 35.

Heavy and Intense (Escape vs. Leper Messiah vs. Harvester of Sorrow)

Okay, Escape doesn't fit the title. But as we know, it was a forced song by the record company and James hated it. I'm sure if they were given the change they'd record an heavy song instead of it. Leper Messiah is my favorite of the three but really is a Top 25 song at best. Track six is the weakest spot overall. Leper Messiah features fantastic lyrics, great heavy riffs but struggles with boring production. Harvester of Sorrow is the ultimate headbang song, is like a trailer of Black Album. But I don't like it as much as the majority of the Metallica fans I know. Top 40 at best. Escape is by far the worst song of 80's Metallica, not even close.

Instrumentals (The Call of Ktulu vs. Orion vs. To Live is to Die)

All songs are in my Top 5, that probably explains what I think about Metallica instrumentals. Ktulu and Orion are tad repetitive but the repetitiveness on those songs are intentional and isn't a problem with me. Ktulu is in the way I just love, powerful, imaginery and atmospheric. Sometimes I go "I wish I had written that song" and I don't do that for every song I like, it's for the songs that I intend to write like, Ktulu is one of them. My favorite Metallica song at the moment. Check out Cliff Burton's bass on this one, too, just resembles the whole Cthulhu thing which I absolutely love. Orion filled with beautiful riffs and melodies (that mid-section is amazing) but again struggles with Master's boring production. Could even be at the top of my list if it had atmospheric feature to it. To Live is to Die is a song that rate higher than Orion, aside from Fade to Black it's the most emotionally loaded work Metallica has ever done. Can't say anything about the mid section other than "beautiful".

Closers (Creeping Death vs. Damage Inc., Dyers Eve)

Yeah, Creeping Death isn't a closer but is a 7th track. It's truly superior to other two. Of all the songs I've heard that had Egyptian themes to them (lyrically or musically), it's one of my two favorites along with Powerslave. Fantastic riffs. Just fantastic. The ending of this song is sometimes gets underrated, if it wasn't for that outro, I wouldn't rate it as high as I do. Damage, Inc. is a slap to the face, after that E-bow bass intro. Love the second riff and the way it builds up to the solo. Dyers Eve features fast paced great drumming and a powerful bass line but is too repetitive and lacks in melodic department.

I believe the final scores are :

Ride : 5
Master : 2
Justice : 1

Bonus Song (The Frayed Ends of Sanity)

It's the seventh track and doesn't have a song to compare it to. It's most progressive metal(ish) thing Metallica has ever done and it's BY FAR the most underrated song by them. Just an incredible incredible song. I give the final nod to Justice for this one.

Ride : 5
Master : 2
Justice : 2

Ride has better production and is better at melodic department, Master has fantastic riffs but has a terrible production, Justice has the most complex works, the best lyrics and the best instrumentalism but gets repetitive at times.

Nevertheless Ride the Lightning is one of my Top 5 albums of all time, ...And Justice for All is probably about Top 25 or so, Master of Puppets is probably about Top 50. All of them deserve 5 stars out of 5.
 
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Metallica to release their 3D film "Metallica Through The Never" on 9 August.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/metallica-through-the-never-movie/

The film stars actor Dane DeHaan who plays a crew member sent out on an urgent mission during a show. He “unexpectedly finds his word turned upside down.” Aug. 9 is the scheduled release date for the film, which was written and directed by Nimrod Antal (‘Predators’).

I watched the guy in Lawless. He may look like Leonardo DiCaprio, but he's good.
 
I'm just not sure how this ends well. Why exactly do we need a film with what sounds like a gimmicky story line set alongside a Metallica concert? What could possibly be the nature of an "urgent mission" during a Metallica concert that doesn't turn out cheesy? Of course, I could be wrong and it could oddly turn out good, but I'm not really seeing where they're going with this.

"Mission From 'Arry" would probably make a better film, but it would have to be rated R for indecent language because of the last line of the movie.
 
Honestly, what could an "urgent mission" related to Metallica be? Are they going to make Metallica out to be secret government agents? Or part of an extra-governmental black ops organization? Or what?
 
I was thinking something smaller-scale, in fact. Like something that would eventually ruin a concert for the 50,000 who are already at the venue. Or something like that... :huh:
 
That reminds me of a live show (from livemetallica.com, I believe it is Osaka in 1989) where the band was doing a jam and James said something to the effect of "Drum solo - Lars Ulrich - go!" And nothing happened.

I'm just not sure how saving a concert becomes a feature-length film. But I don't know.
 
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Listening to the "Marck III" remix/remaster of Death Magnetic (created by a couple of technically adept fans from ripped Guitar Hero Xbox music stems). Hey, I can finally enjoy this album! I'm late to the party, I realize, as people have been listening to this remix for a couple of years now, but better late than never. The CD release is perhaps the worst-sounding musical release I've ever heard, whereas "Marck III" has good dynamic range and eliminates all or nearly all of the distortion and "clipping" that made the retail release literally painful to hear. (Click here if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Won't link to the full remix because it may violate forum rules, but do yourself a favor and Google it. It sounds a LOT better, and you actually hear things you can't hear on the CD because the CD is too loud and compressed. The difference may be the greatest on "The Unforgiven Part III," which sounds fantastic on the remix. "Suicide & Redemption" is, for me, one of my five favorite Metallica songs ever, and it has never sounded better. If the band ever puts out an audiophile-quality (or even decent-quality) remix/remaster, I'll buy a copy, as the remix still has its imperfections, but for the time being I'm glad I have this.
 
Oh c'mon. Those trash can drums will never be beaten, unless Lars brings back Trashy the Trash Can for the next album.
 
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