Metallica

You think one day some fucker's gonna tell you, 'You have a number one record in America,' and the whole world will ejaculate. I stood there in my hotel room, and there was this fax that said, 'You're number one.' And it was, like, 'Well, okay.' It was just another fucking fax from the office.
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Black didn't come out the way it is, because of their wish to become popular. They were already popular, while not even wanting fame. The album came out more polished because they wanted album of short(er) songs and they had $ and they could afford the production and the producer that is top for that kind of things.

And that has got nothing to do with my subjective opinion - the bulk of the album's material sucks. I can't 3/5 singles. If they come on shuffle I'll skip. The rest of the album is quite fine.

The waning of HM popularity in 1990s is an extremely slippery subject. I hold the opinion that nothing of the sort happened. A lot of my favourites are in essence 90s bands...Death, Pantera, Bruce Dickinson.
 
Zare said:
Black didn't come out the way it is, because of their wish to become popular. They were already popular, while not even wanting fame. The album came out more polished because they wanted album of short(er) songs and they had $ and they could afford the production and the producer that is top for that kind of things.
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I've always thought of it as a mix between the two views. They wanted more popularity, exposure and money (of course as any band would, no matter what they say) and at the same time they acknowledged the new direction they wanted to take with the shorter songs would naturally give them this, so they capitalised on it by giving the album a simple name and cover, releasing lots of singles etc. I think that is where the real commercial aspect was, rather than in the actual music being written
 
Zare said:
The waning of HM popularity in 1990s is an extremely slippery subject. I hold the opinion that nothing of the sort happened. A lot of my favourites are in essence 90s bands...Death, Pantera, Bruce Dickinson.
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It's about the sales though, not the quality of the material produced. Heavy metal sales certainly declined in the 90s and it was a messy period for most of the genre's giants.

Also important that heavy metal went through a period of demonization by mainstream media in the 90s, due to the acts of Norwegian black metal bands early in the era. That doesn't affect the people who are already familiar with metal, but does prevent the genre from expanding to mainstream audiences - or at least has a negative effect.
 
Zare said:
The waning of HM popularity in 1990s is an extremely slippery subject. I hold the opinion that nothing of the sort happened. A lot of my favourites are in essence 90s bands...Death, Pantera, Bruce Dickinson.
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I remember Killing Floor being mocked in either Kerrang or Metal Hammer. It was one of those features where a guest band review the singles, and I can't remember if it was Agnostic Front or One Minute Silence* doing the review. But either way, one of those pissant bands was in a position that they could openly mock the single from Heavy Metal's best frontman's best solo album. If you were old school heavy metal it didn't matter how good what you were producing was, as far as the taste makers in the metal press were concerned, the likes of The Prodigy and Eminem were much more "relevant" than Bruce Dickinson.

* one of them mocked Bruce and the other mocked Maiden in a different article, I can't remember which was which. Also, it may not have been Agnostic Front but a similar band.
 
Zare said:
The waning of HM popularity in 1990s is an extremely slippery subject. I hold the opinion that nothing of the sort happened. A lot of my favourites are in essence 90s bands...Death, Pantera, Bruce Dickinson.
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Maybe it depends where you come from? When I look at the peak chart positions for some Metal bands I see top 10s in Germany and Scandinavia but often much lower positions in the UK, but I'm not specifically talking about 90s Metal albums though. In the UK Metal bands have had a hard time making inroads since the 80s with only American bands and Rammstein gaining and maintaining any popularity past the turn of the century. Metal seemed to continue growing in Europe in the 90s though but it's only in the last 5 years that Nightwish and Within Temptation have each played at (a sold out) Wembley Arena and had albums encroaching on the UK top 10. I think the UK music industry looks down on Metal as something from the past and it's no longer taken seriously, hence the difficulty British Metal bands have had since the early 90s. Even Saxon, who were one of the NWOBHM forerunners in the early 80s, all but disappeared from the UK Metal scene in the 90s and didn't have an album register in the charts between 1988 and 2007. Recently they've been making something of a comeback though.

There are a lot of Metal albums from the 90s which are among my favourites too. Specifically from Blind Guardian, Dream Theater, Iced Earth and In Flames. While the commercial popularity of Metal may have declined I think the overall quality developed - perhaps since bands were less constricted by mainstream expectations.

Metallica were, of course, at their commercial peak in the 90s and were the biggest concert draw in North America I think. Whatever Metallica have done since the 80s has never really affected their popularity. People will still buy their albums and their overpriced concert tickets. Napster lawsuits, 'St. Anger' and 'Lulu' haven't stopped the Metallica juggernaut rolling on into 2019.
 
It does depend on where you're from. I agree that Metal got better in the 90s but most bands from the 90s had no commercial success here and continue to play in small clubs while legacy acts from the 70s and 80s can still at least play amphitheaters. Metallica was able to adjust to the changing tastes of the American market that allowed them to survive the 90s when many other bands did not.
 
Metallica's changes in style pretty much mirror the heavy rock trends of their time. Load and ReLoad are both clearly inspired by the grunge scene, Alice in Chains in particular, while St. Anger is clearly inspired by the alternative metal/nu metal scene of the time, System of a Down in particular.

Whether it was a financially motivated attempt to stay relevant, an artistically motivated attempt to stay relevant, or simply them wanting to do their own take on the music of the times is open to interpretation. They've made tributes to AiC multiple times, while Lars has stated SoaD is one of his favorite bands and has called Toxicity one of his favorite albums, so it may not be financially motivated at all - I personally don't think so.
 
This song is so much better live now than when they first debuted it a year ago, it's much tighter and played for better, plus Kirk puts the lead parts in during the second verse now. The only thing missing is Lar's double bass

 
Former famously-alcoholic band now has a beer, too. Created by a brewery known for being run by assholes and having some questionable marketing practices.


Why do all these metal bands keep making weak-ass, lighter beers? Why is a beer called "Enter Night" not a stout (or at least a brown ale)?
 
phantomoftheicarus said:
This song is so much better live now than when they first debuted it a year ago, it's much tighter and played for better, plus Kirk puts the lead parts in during the second verse now. The only thing missing is Lar's double bass

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This is making me start reconsidering my initial rejection to attending Metallica's gig in London...
 
phantomoftheicarus said:
This song is so much better live now than when they first debuted it a year ago, it's much tighter and played for better, plus Kirk puts the lead parts in during the second verse now. The only thing missing is Lar's double bass

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''Spit Out The Bone'' is the fans favorite from the new (well, not so new by now, but they keep touring for it) album.

But the best song for me from this album is ''Moth Into Flame'' - already a classic, I love it and I even will include it in my top 10 of Metallica.
 
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In an interview in 2017 (http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/me...ris-is-a-super-down-to-earth-really-cool-guy/) James has said that about Steve:

''It's really cool when other musicians are hanging out, watching you do what you do. It takes to another level. You've gotta kind of go to Olympic mode — you step it up. Our setlist was at least five minutes faster, the set time. Lars was so nervous: 'Oh, my God! Steve Harris is watching me!' [I was even a bit], 'Does this part sound too much like IRON MAIDEN.''

The melody riff in the song ''Atlas, Rise!'' is the same like the one in HBTN.
 
This isn't meant to be a slight, but why was Miley at that Cornell tribute show? Is she that big a fan or had she worked with Chris before? I'm not questioning that she's into Soundgarden or rock music - most pop artists seem to be nowadays - but she seems like an odd choice to play there. By all accounts she was great though, so whatever.
 
Edington said:
This isn't meant to be a slight, but why was Miley at that Cornell tribute show? Is she that big a fan or had she worked with Chris before? I'm not questioning that she's into Soundgarden or rock music - most pop artists seem to be nowadays - but she seems like an odd choice to play there. By all accounts she was great though, so whatever.
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I know I'm a cynic when saying this but I'm just so weary of Hollywood "tribute shows" like this. I'm happy that they got a lot of fundraising money but the rest of it just reeks of Hollywood and celebrities padding themselves on the back.
 
I see where yer comin from but if you died I'd get up an play a riff in yer honour, just for the cod.
For some of them it may well be just a Celebrity Reach-Around but Id say, for the most part, its a genuine desire to have the craic in his memory, not about the fans or the cameras but just a bunch of musicians bein musicians. And as a side note, Miley Ray can sing, she does a crackin version of Jolene.
 
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