Metallica

James voice on Fade To Black is actually not all that impressive, he stays in the same tone of voice mostly throughout, that being the case for most of 80s Metallica. Nothing Else Matters is a simpler song yes, but you can tell how much his voice has grown and developed.
 
I think Flash has hit closest to my views here.
I think the notion of Metallica's sellout has more to do with the unwillingness of their intensely conservative fanbase to accept change than any conscious " fuck artistic integrity, give me that brass ring" grab on behalf of the band.

Thats it yeah. You have to remember Metallica had a thrash fan base, who upon purchasing The Black Album and putting it on was expecting to hear a new Battery or Fight Fire With Fire or Damage Inc and instead they got Nothing Else Matters and Enter Sandman. That is what we have to remember :D
 
James voice on Fade To Black is actually not all that impressive, he stays in the same tone of voice mostly throughout, that being the case for most of 80s Metallica. Nothing Else Matters is a simpler song yes, but you can tell how much his voice has grown and developed.


Which happens to all singers eventually, after a few years of extensive practice. I don't question the fact that James' voice has developed over the years, I'm just not sure Bob Rock should take the credit for that, that's all. :)
 
Well, no. Ultimately James himself should get the credit of course, since he was the one doing the singing :p I'm pretty sure Bob Rock could be credited indirectly with making him work more with his vocals than previously. If I find a good source I will put it here :)
 
They never fell off to the path every single thrash metal band has fallen : Repetitiveness. Megadeth started to sound same, Anthrax started to sound same, Slayer did, Testament did, all of them did.
While every Slayer album is essentially the same you really can't say the same about Testament. Their first four albums do all sound similar but since then they have evolved, more so than any other Thrash band has actually. Their style on the previous three albums is different to that of their first four with 'The Ritual' and 'Low' sounding different themselves.
 
While every Slayer album is essentially the same you really can't say the same about Testament. Their first four albums do all sound similar but since then they have evolved, more so than any other Thrash band has actually. Their style on the previous three albums is different to that of their first four with 'The Ritual' and 'Low' sounding different themselves.

Testament is one of my favorite bands, but apart from their death metal (ish) works, other stuff are really similar in sound. Especially the last album was just what I expected and it wasn't special. Same happened to me with Megadeth, also one of my favorites. Don't really care for Anthrax and Slayer, to be honest. Just to make my point more clear, I'm incredibly excited about the next Metallica album, because they're surprising. Can't say the same about other thrash bands around.
 
Thanks, Sixes. :)

I've always felt so sorry for Jason and the way he was treated.
 
Same here! I hope his EP fairs well. Newsted never really lost his credibility and I think he should do reasonable well with the circle of fans he still has, he still has a lot of respect among older ' Tallica fans :)
 
Flash makes decent points, but there really can't be any serious dispute that they wanted a more radio-friendly mainstream sound on the Black Album than they had before. Maybe calling that "selling out" is a bit harsh, but that's undeniably what they were trying to do. As is evident from the Classic Albums TV special on the making of the Black Album, they were even skeptical of what Bob Rock was having them do, but they had decided they wanted an album that had the sound of Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood, a big commercial hit, which Rock had just previously produced, so they let Rock have his way. Much of what they did on that album was NOT what they wanted to do "for themselves," as Flash argues,it was what Rock wanted them to do. So in that sense I think Flash has that part of his argument wrong. But I agree with Flash in this sense: To Rock's credit, he did a good job, and they were no doubt pleased by how much better the sound on the album was than it had been on Justice. I don't begrudge them wanting them to make a better living as musicians, but they definitely did change their sound with a conscious desire to have broader mainstream appeal. Plus, they did true power ballads for the first time. Consequently, they have spent their entire careers since then having to defend their choice to be more mainstream and let Bob Rock change who they were as a band. I also think success turned them a little douchey.

Having said all that, I actually like the Black Album. "Enter Sandman" is amazing, and the album does indeed SOUND worlds better than Justice (they added back bass, for one thing). But, as others have noted, Metallica's true genius was on display in the first four albums. I think they were and are talented enough to have continued innovating and producing great music that was NOT repetitive yet stayed true to the spirit of the Cliff Burton albums, while at the same time getting better-sounding production (you know, like Maiden did). Instead the Black Album was a point of departure to make Load, Re-Load, and St. Anger, which affirmatively suck. Death Magnetic was a deliberate attempt to get back to that spirit, Rick Rubin has said as much. And it would have been an awesome comeback were it not for the godawful mastering on the album, which Lars evidently approved. (See my prior posts/thread on the importance of good mastering.). I think the mastering was bad because Lars wanted the music to be LOUD and appeal to the iPod-toting masses -- perhaps yet another example of them "selling out" to the disadvantage of the music and their credibility with their core fan base.
 
I think the Black Album is good as well, their last great album for me (so far, new album coming this year, yes?). Things really started going bad when they started playing country and western music on the Load/Reload albums. That said, if Load/Reload had been one album it could have been a VERY good 8-10 song album.
 
New album will be out in 2014. From Wiki : In a July 2012 interview with Canadian radio station 99.3 Fox, Lars Ulrich revealed that Metallica would not release their new album until at least early 2014.
 
Well, in their defense, they do quite a bit of touring.

But really, they are VERY slow on new material. Compare to Megadeth, who released Th1rt3en in 2011; and are in the studio currently recording their fourteenth album. Oh well. EVENTUALLY, we'll have a new Metallica album.
 
Compare it to Maiden. Since 1983, when Metallica made Kill 'Em All, Maiden have made 12 studio albums, while Metallica have nine. I'd also say that Maiden have toured more than Metallica, so that's how slow they are. If they took their time and then came up with a killer album, I'd be inclined to forgive them the length of time they take to record a new album, but recently that has not been the case.
 
Well, I figured I would be unfair to compare gods like Maiden to mortals like Metallica. :p
 
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