Metallica

I actually like 'radio friendly' songs on this better than the 'other type'
But those numbers are crazy :confused:
I always found that album very balanced, in that there are as many good songs as really bad ones. I'd go something like

Sandman - very catchy, but still great energy, composition, riffs and playing 9/10
Sad but true - also great, a bit less energy 8/10
Holier - a filler if I ever saw one, didn't know it was considered as a single let alone first one, 4/10
Unforgiven - this is IT. Nobody does this better than them. 10/10
Wherever I may roam - I love this one, 10/10
Don't tread on me - utter shite, 2/10. Would have been 1, but there are even worse songs :confused:
Through the Never - fillerish and just... unnecessary 5/10
Nothing else matters - cool and VERY radio friendly :D 9/10
Of wolf and man - used to love this one, actually one of the few 'middle of the road' songs 6/10
My friend of misery - good 8/10
God that failed - the song also failed, boring, plodding, irritating 2/10
Struggle within - this is as bad as the Apparition, 1/10
 
frus said:
I actually like 'radio friendly' songs on this better than the 'other type'
But those numbers are crazy :confused:
I always found that album very balanced, in that there are as many good songs as really bad ones. I'd go something like

God that failed - the song also failed, boring, plodding, irritating 2/10
Struggle within - this is as bad as the Apparition, 1/10
Click to expand...
What the fuck
 
Number 6 said:
About this, people go around saying that sort of thing because this is where their sound took a shift into more commercial, and to some degree radio-oriented territory, which consequently broke them into the mainstream and caused many people (mostly die-hard fans of their first four albums) to start hating on them for "selling out" (which I think is ridiculous, btw).
Click to expand...
Look at it this way — the standard bearers of complex, melodic thrash metal had been finding success on their own terms, playing music that wasn’t really structured for the radio at all, and they had still built up enough of a following to be headlining arena shows. Then they do their first-ever music video and it gets a surprising amount of attention. Good for them.

Now fast forward a couple of years and what happens? The band known for complex song structures, lots of riffs per song, varied tempos, epic harmonized sections, and fairly technical drumming puts out an intentionally radio-friendly album with simplistic song structures, one riff per song, everything pretty close to 120 bpm, wanky solos with too much wah pedal, and simplistic, boring drumming, then churns out the music videos left and right, after saying over and over again back in the day that they’d never do such a thing. They explode on radio and MTV, sell a ridiculous number of albums, and become the darlings of frat houses everywhere. How does that not come off as a sellout?

Then you follow them down the rabbit hole with Load and Reload where they abandon their previous image entirely (logo, physical appearance, etc.), give interviews where they say they’re not a metal band anymore and joke that they should be called “Rockatallica”, put out 160 minutes of music that probably only had about 40-50 minutes of worthwhile material across both albums, and do things like blatantly rehash “Enter Sandman” in the form of “King Nothing”, and do “The Unforgiven II” which rehashes the original song and has Hetfield literally singing “now you’re unforgiven too” in it. Is this ironic performance art? Do they not give a shit? Are they just trolling their casual fans to see what happens? Whatever the interpretation, it sure didn’t look like a creatively inspired band at that point. It looked like they were phoning it in for a payday.

And don’t get me started on St. Anger. That was a bridge too far for most of their fans, including me.

I get that the black album has its fans. It has some really good pop metal songs on it. But if you were already a Metallica fan at that time, it felt like “Metallica For Dummies” — and guess what, a lot of dumb-ass frat boys immediately fell in love with it. Mission accomplished...?
 
Jer said:
Look at it this way — the standard bearers of complex, melodic thrash metal had been finding success on their own terms, playing music that wasn’t really structured for the radio at all, and they had still built up enough of a following to be headlining arena shows.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure were you talking about Met all the time, I just want to drop that no thrash band apart from them could headline arena tour in 1990. Only if 2/3/4 of them team up.
 
Jer said:
wanky solos with too much wah pedal
Click to expand...
Too much wah, yeah, but as solos most of these are better than the speedy stuff they’ve been doing on the previous albums. A lot of that was noodly because they wanted something speedy, but a lot of these really fit the songs and are quite important to them.
 
Zare said:
I'm not sure were you talking about Met all the time, I just want to drop that no thrash band apart from them could headline arena tour in 1990. Only if 2/3/4 of them team up.
Click to expand...
I was just talking about Metallica, who were headlining arenas in the U.S. in 1988 all by themselves.
 
Diesel 11 said:
Too much wah, yeah, but as solos most of these are better than the speedy stuff they’ve been doing on the previous albums. A lot of that was noodly because they wanted something speedy, but a lot of these really fit the songs and are quite important to them.
Click to expand...
Couldn’t disagree more. The solos on most of Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets are excellent and fit the songs to a T. The solos on the black album are very hit and miss to me, and some that might have otherwise been fine are drowning in so much wah that it’s difficult to enjoy them.
 
I like the solos on those two albums, but you could take them out and put them on another song and if it doesn’t work as well, it’ll work close to that.
 
Only truly great solo on the black album is in "The Unforgiven". Everything else is, as Jer said, very hit and miss.
 
The God That Failed has my favorite Metallica solo in it and there are several other fantastic solos on the album. I agree with Diesel.
 
Jer said:
Look at it this way — the standard bearers of complex, melodic thrash metal had been finding success on their own terms, playing music that wasn’t really structured for the radio at all, and they had still built up enough of a following to be headlining arena shows. Then they do their first-ever music video and it gets a surprising amount of attention. Good for them.

Now fast forward a couple of years and what happens? The band known for complex song structures, lots of riffs per song, varied tempos, epic harmonized sections, and fairly technical drumming puts out an intentionally radio-friendly album with simplistic song structures, one riff per song, everything pretty close to 120 bpm, wanky solos with too much wah pedal, and simplistic, boring drumming, then churns out the music videos left and right, after saying over and over again back in the day that they’d never do such a thing. They explode on radio and MTV, sell a ridiculous number of albums, and become the darlings of frat houses everywhere. How does that not come off as a sellout?

Then you follow them down the rabbit hole with Load and Reload where they abandon their previous image entirely (logo, physical appearance, etc.), give interviews where they say they’re not a metal band anymore and joke that they should be called “Rockatallica”, put out 160 minutes of music that probably only had about 40-50 minutes of worthwhile material across both albums, and do things like blatantly rehash “Enter Sandman” in the form of “King Nothing”, and do “The Unforgiven II” which rehashes the original song and has Hetfield literally singing “now you’re unforgiven too” in it. Is this ironic performance art? Do they not give a shit? Are they just trolling their casual fans to see what happens? Whatever the interpretation, it sure didn’t look like a creatively inspired band at that point. It looked like they were phoning it in for a payday.

And don’t get me started on St. Anger. That was a bridge too far for most of their fans, including me.

I get that the black album has its fans. It has some really good pop metal songs on it. But if you were already a Metallica fan at that time, it felt like “Metallica For Dummies” — and guess what, a lot of dumb-ass frat boys immediately fell in love with it. Mission accomplished...?
Click to expand...

:notworthy::notworthy::notworthy::notworthy:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jer
Jer said:
Look at it this way — the standard bearers of complex, melodic thrash metal had been finding success on their own terms, playing music that wasn’t really structured for the radio at all, and they had still built up enough of a following to be headlining arena shows. Then they do their first-ever music video and it gets a surprising amount of attention. Good for them.

Now fast forward a couple of years and what happens? The band known for complex song structures, lots of riffs per song, varied tempos, epic harmonized sections, and fairly technical drumming puts out an intentionally radio-friendly album with simplistic song structures, one riff per song, everything pretty close to 120 bpm, wanky solos with too much wah pedal, and simplistic, boring drumming, then churns out the music videos left and right, after saying over and over again back in the day that they’d never do such a thing. They explode on radio and MTV, sell a ridiculous number of albums, and become the darlings of frat houses everywhere. How does that not come off as a sellout?

Then you follow them down the rabbit hole with Load and Reload where they abandon their previous image entirely (logo, physical appearance, etc.), give interviews where they say they’re not a metal band anymore and joke that they should be called “Rockatallica”, put out 160 minutes of music that probably only had about 40-50 minutes of worthwhile material across both albums, and do things like blatantly rehash “Enter Sandman” in the form of “King Nothing”, and do “The Unforgiven II” which rehashes the original song and has Hetfield literally singing “now you’re unforgiven too” in it. Is this ironic performance art? Do they not give a shit? Are they just trolling their casual fans to see what happens? Whatever the interpretation, it sure didn’t look like a creatively inspired band at that point. It looked like they were phoning it in for a payday.

And don’t get me started on St. Anger. That was a bridge too far for most of their fans, including me.

I get that the black album has its fans. It has some really good pop metal songs on it. But if you were already a Metallica fan at that time, it felt like “Metallica For Dummies” — and guess what, a lot of dumb-ass frat boys immediately fell in love with it. Mission accomplished...?
Click to expand...

That's near enough to my opinions as well, although I have warmed to that period since then. At the time that I was getting into music the black album had just came out, I thought it was great until I discovered Master of Puppets and got real sick of constantly hearing the singles off it. I hated The Black Album by the time Load came out and as soon as I seen them looking like a Robert Smith abortion in the Until it Sleeps video I knew I was finished with them and never even bought or listened to Load at the time.

I came back to Metallica about maybe 10 years ago now, I re-evaluated The Black Album, the unforgiven is the best track on it, and the singles are all good pop metal singles (even if Sandman has the absolute nadir of metal subject matter, which is saying something), the other half of the album is weak though and it doesn't cut the muster compared to earlier Metallica albums nevermind other classic metal albums. I bought Load and Reload as well. Reload is pretty bad, and there's some bad stuff on Load, but there's a lot of real good stuff too, and I like for the first time ever there's actual interplay between the guitarists like on Bleeding Me rather than Hetfield playing practically everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top