Metallica

Reload is mostly crappy album in my books. I feel that the songs that are good are great such as Fuel or The Unforgiven 2 but the rest is just crap unessecary filler, Low Man's Lyric is one of the worst things I've ever heard
Low Man's lyric is interesting song, you either love or hate it. I'm a fan.
 
Brilliant intro. The rest took a while to grow on me but it's a pretty good song

On reflection, I also don't think Reload is as bad as I just said, but its not brilliant either
 
I agree about Judas and Cyanide they are very delicious riff songs. I also agree that All Nightmare Long is long (but The End of the Line is the too long one maybe you got confused),

But The Day That Never Comes is for sure just the right length and it rocks, I'll be the first to say Day's solo views One's out of the water.

I don't actually know "End of the Line", so I wasn't confused. ;) "All Nightmare Long" is great and obviously I'm not opposed to long songs, I just think there's too little variation in it and it's longer than it needs to be. I think "Day That Never Comes" is great up to the instrumental ending, but that part feels tacked-on and, again, is longer than it needs to be. I never rated any part of "One" that highly, so I'd probably agree there, too.

(Apologies for deviating from the Load/ReLoad discussion :ok:)
 
Low Man's lyric is interesting song, you either love or hate it. I'm a fan.
I like the demo version far more than the final take. A lot of the Load/Reload demos are like that for me honestly, things ended up getting changed for the worse like Wasting My Hate's neat little solo section being completely cut out for time or Low Man's Lyric turning into a weird folksy song and losing the groove it used to have.
 
Reload (1997)

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1. Fuel - GIMME FUEL GIMME FIRE GIMME THAT WHICH I DESIRE! God I love this opening. If there's one thing the band did 100% right with this album, it's choosing this song as the opener. We launch right into a really cool riff that I like a lot, it's pummeling, it's pounding, it's awesome. The verse feels kinda messy and yet it works because of the enthusiasm James puts into singing it. I love the way the song goes into the chorus, it's awesome. The slower pace, the vocals are fantastic, it's great. And then we come back to the opening lyrics before launching back for another round of the action. We get a nice chugging riff in the instrumental section and even a pretty cool solo. Things slow down and we build up back to the chorus, which is still so fucking good. "Ooooooh, on I burn!....Quench my thirst with gasoline!" Yes! The song comes to a triumphant close and I love it. Reload isn't as good as its predecessor, but "Fuel" is the best song from the two Loads, just edging out over "Until It Sleeps". I love this song, it's hard rock played with a metal soul and I simply feel great listening to it. Absolutely fantastic song and one of their best openers to boot. 10/10

2. The Memory Remains - The intro here would be solid if James didn't sound like he was vomiting up the word "remains". The riff here is solid enough, as is the verse, with James trying out a different sort of singing style. Chorus - which is the same as the intro - sounds fine but not outstanding. James still fucks up the word "remains". The lyrics here are pretty decent, cool idea of tackling a falling star. Another round through and we come to that absolutely "wtf" part where Marianne Faithfull just says "na da da da" over and over again. It sounds terrible and yet... I kinda like it? We go through a bridge and chorus and end up back with her for the outro. The music dropping out really showcases how random the whole thing is. But again, it's so bad it's good. I dunno, this song is a weird choice for a single and a weird song overall. Parts of it grow on me, but as a whole I mean... I dunno. I'll say it's slightly above average for now, but it could rise or fall in future. 6/10

3. Devil's Dance - Cool plodding bass intro kicks off this song and may actually be the best part of the entire thing. The riff kicks in and it's... okay, I guess. Nothing special. It starts getting a little more sinister as it goes along, but nothing really captures my attention. The verse is... okay. The chorus is kinda bland. The "let's dance" bit is... fine, I guess. The song just seems to drone on. We go another round through and get a pretty decent solo thing. We come to the end of the chorus again and instead of "let's dance" we get an interesting storm sort of feel. Oh, okay, let's go through the verse again. Thought we could just end earlier but I guess not. My bad. There's nothing really "wrong" with this song, it's just... boring. That's all I can say. The song is Metallica just going through the motion. Technically everything's fine, but it's not a pleasant experience. It does more things right than "The Memory Remains" does, but at least that song was interesting. This... not so much. 4/10

4. The Unforgiven II - Identical horn intro thing from the first "Unforgiven" song, but instead of an acoustic thing we hit right into heaviness. Then things actually do drop out and we go into some clean guitar stuff. But god, why the hell did they go for the twangy country shit to back this verse? It's bleh. The verse itself is pretty solid, luckily, but still, they should never have used country influences to write this song. We launch into the chorus which is a lot better. James doesn't sound too good on the first two lines - pretty wonky - but I do like the double-tracked vocals for the second two, and the "are you unforgiven too?" line is pretty cool. Genius way of actually fitting the song's title into the lyrics... or at least when you're listening. Back to the stupid country shit in the verse. Fuck. I do like the pre-chorus-y bit at the end before launching back into the chorus. Decent instrumental section before we come back to the damn. verse. again. Two rounds through the chorus - with some stupid "never free, never me" things intertwined to remind you that yes, they did this all once before - and we come to a slow close. This song has some things going for it, but the performance is weak and there's too much bugging me to give it a higher grade than above average. It could've been one of the best songs on the album if they'd only tightened things up. Side note, and an obvious one at that: no way in hell is it better than the original. That only leaves the third song in the trilogy to be heard, but we'll get around to that soon enough. As for this one... 6/10

5. Better Than You - Weird opening but okay, it works. Pretty decent riff leads to a pretty decent verse. I'm liking the pacing here. It leads up to a slow verse with some Jason floating between James's "better than you!" Another round through and it's honestly still pretty decent. Decent bridge leads to a pretty decent wah solo. Bridge comes back and leads to the chorus again and we fade to black.... SIKE! No, we start the fucking thing up again and at this point I'm just... fffffffffffff. If Metallica could just rein themselves in for once and actually cut a song right we'd have ended simply on a pretty high note, because most of this song was honestly pretty good. But no, gotta fuckin' go through it all again. They even pull another fake ending on us at the very end. It just really pisses me off. Everything before the last minute and a half was pretty good, but that final stuff is really just the band circle-jerking each other. They've done this sort of thing before, but never so stupidly and never so pointlessly. Ugh. I'm rounding up for the good bits but man... 6/10

6. Slither - Incredibly weird James comes in with the opening and I really can't say that it works. He sounds pretty bad on the verse and pre-chorus too. A little better on the chorus, but man, the whole thing is just boring. Another bloody round through and we get an inoffensive but not outstanding instrumental section. Through the chorus again and we get a drawn-out outro that should've ended about ten times earlier. This song is just... ugh. It's not the worst thing they've done but god, it just bores me to tears. This album had one great opener and then we get all this shit... 4/10

7. Carpe Diem Baby - Interesting fade-up. Plodding riff. Decent slow verse. The pre-chorus is meh. "Then make me miss you!" sounds pretty bad the way James sings it. The chorus is better, right up until the "come squeeze and suck the day" line. Seriously, who in hell thought that that sounded good? Given what they've already said ("piss wine"??) I thought he said "cheat on dick" instead of "death" in the second verse. The "yeah, yeah, suck it!" after the second chorus is horrendously bad. This song would honestly be better than "Devil's Dance" and "Slither" if it weren't for the atrocious lyrics. They're just... fucking bad. For a song whose title means "seize the day", they sure do a great job of dripping all the life out of the thought. Metallica seizing the day on this album is like Iron Maiden playing "Alexander the Great" live. Never gonna fucking happen. 4/10

8. Bad Seed - What the fuck was that coughing thing there? The Alice In Chains-esque riff here is interesting, though I think AIC could've done it even better. Verse is just... there. Pre-chorus is silly. Chorus is... fine, I guess. No it isn't, I lied. "Chokin' on the bad seed" is one of the dumbest lines on this entire album. I'd make a joke about sex here if I was in the mood, but I'm not. This is the shortest song on the album and also the most pointless. It isn't memorable in any way. I seriously forget it's on here every time I listen to this album, and then it comes on and I go "oh fuck". It's just one more spoke on an already bloated affair. Miss me with this shit. 3/10

9. Where The Wild Things Are - Interesting tranquil opening to this song that's pretty nice. James singing "wake up sleepy one" is weird but it doesn't not work. Cool little drum build-up here before we head into a pretty solid riff. The verse is quite solid too. The pre-chorus is awesome. I like the chorus, too, particularly "toy soldiers off to war". This whole song is a pretty cool way of taking a children's book and turning it into a rock song. Another round through verse, fantastic pre-chorus, and great chorus. Pretty cool instrumental section too. Interesting AIC-esque bridge there. A longer pre-chorus before we come back to the chorus and head towards the door with a pretty strong outro. As a whole, this is the best thing since "Fuel". It's just a really good song, though it isn't perfect per se. Honestly, I wouldn't mind it if they just cut out all the song in between and made this an EP or something. Since they didn't, I guess this song is one of the few that make the album worth the price of admission. 8/10

10. Prince Charming - Pretty cool opening that leads into a pretty fucking awesome riff. The verse features spoken word mixed with singing and somehow it works pretty well! The music here feels like a throwback to Kill 'Em All days, and it works pretty well. Then that chorus comes in and holy shit is it good! The chord progression is literally the same as "The Four Horsemen", but it's the kind of self-plagiarism that actually works. I really like it here. James sounds pretty great on this song throughout. The instrumental section is pretty great too, and the slower bridge is pretty infectious. We run on through the end and this whole damn song is just awesome. Maybe not quite perfect (I think "The Four Horsemen" itself is a little stronger) but it's easily the best thing on this entire album after "Fuel". 9/10

11. Low Man's Lyric - I swear when I heard the "one, two, three, one" the first time I could've shot myself. They're doing "Mama Said" over again? Actually, this is a much better song than "Mama Said". It opens with some nice cool clean guitar stuff and some cool vocals from James. It leads up through a pretty cool chorus before drums come in. We go through another round of the song and even get a cool bridge out of the affair that also seems to be inspired by AIC. We go through the chorus again and then back through the bridge to a softer bit that has some nice humming from James. From there it's just a step outside and the song closes. Honestly, while serving the same purpose on the album as "Mama Said", it's far, far better. This experiment paid off and left a moody and pretty dang good song. It's pretty strong. 8/10

12. Attitude - Bluesy guitar opening launches into a pretty heavy riff. The verse is kinda stupid. The chorus is outright stupid. It's the kinda thing that could probably end up in some sort of Pantera song, and given their style, they'd probably do a much better job with this... stuff. There's really not much else I can say about this song. It's another pointless affair that's bloating up the runtime. Maybe not as bad as the appropriately-titled "Bad Seed", but it's really meh. 4/10

13. Fixxxer - A pretty cool guitar fade-up opens up this track. It feels like waking up at a crime scene as cops are swarming around your body. Great bass stuff here when it kicks in. This whole build-up piece is fantastic and when the drums really kick in it takes everything to the next level. Love this opening. The verse here is pretty good, as is the pre-chorus, and I quite like the chorus melody as well. Sounds like more of James's bitterness toward his parents. We go through another round before we come to the instrumental section, which is pretty great. I like the guitar work throughout, it's very good, and I love the way it all seems to drift down until the bass becomes the focal point. It holds itself with some guitar stuff on top before we get to a pretty watery bridge that leads us back to the chorus for one last time. I think this song is pretty awesome, one of the best of the Load era. Not quite perfect, and I still think "Fuel" and "Prince Charming" are a little better, but it's a fantastic way to close the album on a high note. For all the album's sins, this song is worth the price of admission. 9/10

This album is a real doozy. It's not even in the same ballpark as its predecessor, let alone the same level. It's easily got the worst bulk of material any Metallica album has had up to this point, and most of it is just a worthless waste of time you could spend doing something enjoyable. "Bad Seed" is probably the worst single song the band has released yet. That said, its high notes are pretty good, and the album gets a bit better with its last string of songs. In the end, it manages to beat Kill 'Em All by a few points, but I'd much rather just have the five great songs on here released as an EP or something and we dispense altogether with the rest of this shit.

Rating: 62%
 
Welcome to the Fuel Fanclub, Diesel. But the best thing about this review is...Prince Charming 9/10. I could've never guessed that.
 
I mostly disagree though, since I gave this album the magnificent average song score of 8.8. But Bad Seed really is Metallica's worst ever song.
 
But the best thing about this review is...Prince Charming 9/10. I could've never guessed that.
You're welcome. :D

But Bad Seed really is Metallica's worst ever song.
It's not even that it's the most terrible song ever, it just feels like the most pointless waste of disc space that isn't St. Anger. The entire song should've just been canned and the runtime would have worked my better.
 
1999 - 2000: Rarities

1. I Disappear - Pretty cool building riff here. Quite like this opening. That drum kick into the real thing is pretty cool. Drums here sound like how they'll be used fully on St. Anger, but here they work fairly well. Might be because the production is pretty strong on this track and the entire thing is pretty solid, I dunno. Anyway, the verse is pretty typical Metallica stuff, but James sounds pretty great here. The chorus is quite nice, I like how it gets quiet before building back up, and again, James sounds pretty great. This is a pretty strong song that I think is honestly really cool as a stand-alone piece. The music video is pretty cool too, with the classic film parodies and stuff. (Random note that it features the sexiest James Hetfield I've ever seen... but that's not the point.) I really like this song, not necessarily perfect but it's a great listen. 9/10

2. No Leaf Clover - Orchestra is probably the last thing I think of when I think of Metallica, so that's weird already. This opening is fairly solid as an orchestral piece, but I think it loses a tad when the guitars kick in, certainly when James starts singing. The verse isn't too outstanding, but I do like the chorus (those lyrics are pretty great). The orchestration in the instrumental is pretty great, but the wah soloing on top of it isn't. The plodding riff section there is pretty solid though. Another round through the chorus and it all winds down. This is a solid enough song but maybe not the best thing ever. Good but not great. 7/10

3. −Human - Pretty cool intro here. The riff is solid as well. Solid verse. "Breathe, man, breathe" is a fun line. There isn't much else I can say. This is a solid track and I think it's a little better than "No Leaf Clover", but I doubt it'll ever become a favorite. 7/10
 
No Leaf Clover is easily one of Metallica's most underrated tracks.
I disagree, isit only "underrated" because it's only from a live album so less known. This track is universally loved by those who know it, it's certainly one of the most overrated tracks.

--Human and Hate Train are the underrated tracks! Maybe also Hell and Back.
 
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