Has anyone else heard the new Metallica album?

Am I way off or does it really suck? (Keep in mind that I thought the black album was passable and all the stuff past that was pretty bad; the first four were much better.)

It sounds to me like a gradeschool attempt at a parody of thrash with the bizarre addition of semi-crooning lyrics. Oh, and the lyrics are ... silly, which would be fine, except he's trying to be profound, I think.

And Lars is obviously too old to drum like he once did, which is fine, except that they try to cover that up by giving him 10-second solo/fills after which he goes back to regular rock drumming. And his snare sounds like he forgot to tighten the head; it rings at every hit; it's actively tiring to listen to it.

It's just dull when it's not unintentionally funny.

Oh, and to close:

Lunatic tick tick
tick tick tick tock

Wow, are those actual lyrics?

What you've said is pretty much everything I've heard from people I know who are really into them, and from what I've heard. I've also heard that they forgot to put any guitar solos in.

Anyway, if it sucks, I wouldn't expect any more from a band with someone like Lars in it. And weren't they saying that this album was going to show metal which direction it should go in? Yeah, right. They should lose the attitude and make better music.

I've given up on Metallica since the black album. They're one of those acts I've already filed in my "used to rock, but will never rock again" category. That's the good thing about records, in my empeg, Metallica always rocks, because I don't have any of their newer stuff on it.

I found it out on usenet a few weeks ago to see if I wanted to get it. I am glad I didn't waste my money, the downloaded version only lasted the day before I deleted the darn thing.
I got driven mad by that stupid drum sound. It really does sound like Lars has forgotten to tune his kit.
It doesn't seem to appeal to either the pre or post black album fans.

Most peculiar.
Even Garage Inc was better than this rubbish.

Those are actual lyrics from the track ``Lunatic''. In fact, they're the chorus, and variations are worked into the verses at least once.

I'd like to qualify that I didn't actually buy this album. I borrowed it from a coworker. Honestly, I considered making copies and handing them out on the streets. Maybe just leave some labelled at free newspaper stands. But I don't have the time or energy to do that, so I thought I'd just anti-promote it.

Not that I'm lying about how bad it is. (Honestly, I've only gotten about halfway through it. I can only take about two or three songs at a time. I suppose the latter half of the album could redeem itself somehow, but I doubt it.)

I heard it because a friend actually traded real US dollars for it! In my opinion, worst... transaction... ever.

That's enough to make you reconsider the appelation ``friend''. Maybe he should now just be an ``acquaintance''.

Even the usenet posts are saying don't bother even downloading it, its not worth it.

Pretty bad if free is too high a price to pay.

Thankfully, he actually admits it sucks.

But, because he actually paid for it, he is listening to it more than normal. He's doing that just incase he is missing something and it starts to sound good after the 20th time around.

You know, I've had a couple ablums like that. This isn't going to be one of them, but I've had a couple albums that turned around once I ``got it''.

Even the usenet posts are saying don't bother even downloading it, its not worth it.

Hey, they finally won their campaign against illegal downloads!

LOL

I can see why, then people like me would DL it, find out that it sucks, then delete the files and never by the CD.

The weird thing is, I like the albums prior to black as well as post black, but I still hate this one.

t sounds to me like a gradeschool attempt at a parody of thrash with the bizarre addition of semi-crooning lyrics

That's almost exactly what i told my buds after i downloaded it, then quickly deleted it. I SERIOUSLY thought that some kid had renamed MP3's of his garage death metal/thrash band to Metallica so people would download it. I kid you not.

Thats what I thought !
I DLed it twice from two sources to be sure. It didn't stop me cleaning that junk off my drive though.

Apparently Rolling Stone is on Metallica's record company's payroll...

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=2046700

Apparently Allmusic guide (though without those hideous Army adverts), isn't much better.

However, I've never read a review by that guy before. I don't know, maybe he is their metal person, but I expected a review from that Stephen Thomas Erlewine guy.

Haha, and according to AllMusic, there are 22 tracks, 11 of which have track times, and 11 of which are, apparently, infinitely long. I knew that new CD formats were being worked on, but I didn't know the technology had gotten that far.

I seldom agree with AMG reviews anyway. Even in bands I like, albums are often ranked in the opposite order I would rank them.

Actually, the one thing that I dislike about AMG is that there is an obvious and definite disconnect between their reviews and their star ratings. Sometimes they even change the star ratings! In fact, I myself got them to change one:

If you look at the reviews of the two Blind Melon albums, you'll see they are written by the same person. In the past, the debut album was rated 4 stars, and Soup was rated 3 (which upset me in its self). This is despite these two lines in the Soup review:
"While it did not match the commercial success of the debut, Soup proved to be a challenging, gripping record that is just as strong and perhaps even more rewarding"
and
"Soup is one of the most underrated and overlooked great rock albums of the '90s"
I wrote to them and about a week later I noticed that both albums were magically rated 4 stars.

I still love the web site, though

Oh, it's a wonderful source for raw information. It's just the reviews and ratings that bother me.

Has anyone else heard the new Metallica album?


Yeah, the consensus from anyone with a brain is this is the worst album yet. It makes Load and ReLoad look good. I just keep thinking that Cliff Burton is rolling over in his grave. I could not see him playing the "new" Metallica stuff. When I heard St. Anger had already gone multi-platinum, I was worried that the state of music for our dumbed-down society is just going to continue. Thankfully, it's nice to see some of the bands haven't forgotten their metal roots. The new albums from Anthrax, Black Label Society (Zakk Wylde), and Type O Negative make me easily forget about Lars' 3-ring circus.

Plus, I go watch these if my St. Anger rises.

Well, I am a die hard Metallica fan - loved everything up to 'Black' and really enjoyed the S&M album but this just sucks so badly.

I had asked my wife to get it for me for my birthday, but thought I'd check out some tracks first as the reviews were so bad.

I deleted them. I have no interest in wasting my empeg space with this trash!

<sigh>

Luckily there are various bands carrying on the torch Metallica lit

Luckily there are various bands carrying on the torch Metallica lit

Like who?

There is some true metal stuff out there. Not death metal, nu-metal, rap metal or any of that. Iced Earth comes to mind, as well as the bands I mentioned above. It does seem that some of the bands are falling apart. Pantera broke up, Megadeth, Fear Factory, etc...

I saw Iced Earth once. Great show. They're on Century Media Records. Most bands on the label are 80s-style metal. Nevermore is probably my favorite band on that label. They put on a killer show too.

Luckily for me, Motorhead are still going

Damn, I had a chance to see Lemmy, but stupid final exams got in the way. Damn school...

"Lemmy is God"

Speaking of Pantera breaking up, anyone hear of Phil Anselmo's new band Down? Actually its not a new band per se, but after pantera Phil joined up with a band called corrosion of conformity in the mid 90s and they've put two albums out since. kind of southern blues rock if such as genre exists. pretty good stuff though.

CoC is from Raleigh! Woo! Woody's folks own one of the local jewelry stores.

Down isn't really CoC, though. It's only got Pepper on it from there. Sure doesn't sound like any of the bands they came from, either.

I just listened to the album and have to agree... it kinda sux.

With Lars' beating on the trash can sound and James' catch phrases like "...some kind of Monster" and "I'm madly in ANGER with you" I would have to think that Cliff was rolling in his grave right now.

Bob Rock did a horrible job at producing this thing; a very pathetic attempt at trying to get their fans back. This album is a joke....er uh...no it's "SOME KIND OF MONSTER!"

If your an old fan and want a good laugh buy it otherwise don't waste your money.

"madly in ANGER"

I don't use it much, but: WTF?

For the record, it's apparently Tama's Bell Brass snare. Someone on another board commented that it sounded like crap (which it does) and someone else responded something to the effect of ``yeah, but they're f'n loud!''

I could have sworn that's why we had mikes and amplifiers, but what do I know?

I liked some of the new album. I think they are still a good band with alot of what new bands lack. A past or future. Naysay all you want but record sales say more today than they ever have and that's a fact. I bet they can rock a party better than anyone in my city or yours. Humbug.

I don't know, Fugazi is in my city.

Remind me never to accept your advice about music purchases.

<ducks>

Let the flamewar commence!!

Naysay all you want but record sales say more today than they ever have and that's a fact

I agree, record sales say a lot about how well the record was marketed, and how much money was spent paying radio stations to play certain songs.

Oh, wait, that's probably not what you were saying. You were probably trying to make the point that record sales and QUALITY of music are more related than ever... If that's the case, would you care to provide any evdence to support this "fact?" Or shall we just accept this as gospel? Because the last time I checked, how "good" an artist, album, or song is can't be expressed as fact.

Just check out the "quality" songs and bands that get to number one in any chart.

If quality was ever an issue we wouldn't have the likes of the manufactured bands, which is about were I class St Anger. Sales due to marketing and the fact that in order to listen to it you have to pay for it.

The sad part is that the only "fact' in the current music distribution model is that forced airplay, marketing and mega-hype are the arbiters of success and record sales, not actual talent.

Naysay all you want but record sales say more today than they ever have and that's a fact.

Actually, I think the record sales on this album being particularly high are a number of reasons:

1. Fan base is already in place.
2. Marketing. Metallica themselves hyped this one very well.
3. The CD was marketed at a very reasonable price point. Borders Books and music was selling it about a month ago for less then $13.00 and it even includes a DVD. Very attractive.

I actually *tried* listening to it a little more yesterday but that damn snare is absolutely annoying. They'll probably remaster it again just to double sales. Sort of like when Coke came out with the "new" Coke then quickly repackaged the original flavor as "classic". It's just a scam to sell the same album twice I say.

Nevermore is probably my favorite band on that label.

Yes! Their new album, Enemies Of Reality is gonna be excellent. It was produced by Queensryche guy Kelly Gray. Century Media has a lot of cool bands. The Gathering, Lacuna Coil Iced Earth, etc.

Funny sidenote: The way I heard about Century Media was when a store was giving away Centruy Media sampler CDs at the record release party for Metallica's Load. So, I guess I have to thank them for that!


Down isn't really CoC, though. It's only got Pepper on it from there.

Actually, it's two parts CoC now, since Jimmy Bower is the drummer because Reed Mullin left. CoC is cool, though. When I was in Raleigh, I remember Pep and Woodroe being nice, approachable people. I really like Down as well, but I think Phil is concentrating his efforts with his Superjoint Ritual band since Pantera broke up. I also heard Dimebag and Vinnie will be starting up a new band....