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I’ve warming up to the album in the last three days. I guess you can never dismiss Metallica.

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Check out the Jimmy Kimmel performances. They’re all online. I think they sound fantastic.

3610

My relationship with Metallica is complicated.

In the 80s, as a musician, hands down they, James in particular, was one of the biggest influencers for me. Even now. my guitar style has his influence. Those albums, Kill-em, all, Ride the Lighting and Master are complete classics.

Then Cliff died .It felt like with him, their metal cred died. And Justice was largely written while he was still alive, but they buried poor Jason in the mix.

The Black Album, while a decent album actually, was not a Metallica album. It’s also the last Metallic album I have any fond memories of.

In the way life brings you places, I was a roadie in the mid-90s and did some set work with Metallica on their Summer Sheds tour (93, or 94,). Jason was a complete lunatic in an amusing way. James was one of the kindest people I met in the business. Lar’s reputation is well-earned.

Live, they still feel like Metallica. But, they are the only band I listened to in the 90s that just went in a different direction. Iron MAiden, Megadeth, etc., all still have a logical progression to their sound today.

That picture of James with the Armani bag and plaid shorts is probably the most telling influence of the band they became.

3611

Eh… I don’t feel like that at all. I listened from start up through Lux Aeterna tonight on the drive home from work and I love this record! It’s a combination of two of their biggest influences IMO, Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath with their trademark thrash sound on top. There’s some SERIOUS riffs on this record and they keep on surprising throughout their songs.

Lux Aeterna is brilliant. There’s so much to love for me in that song. They’ve just totally grown up and make adult thrash metal now. Sleepwalk My Life Away is amazing. This is a properly written and timed and calculated record for me so far and yet there’s a jamming edge quality to all of Kirk and James’ playing while James also totally delivers with his vocal performance. Lars sounds great and Trujillo keeps pace as he has from the start.

There’s so much great music coming from rock/metal acts these days. It feels like a new era is starting where musicianship and song writing matters again. I posted the two new Extreme songs in the New Music thread and I’m blown away by what those guys are doing in 2023.

These are good days.

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Here’s a really good debut from Greek epic power metal trio Triumpher, with their album Storming the Walls.

They’re playing on the more high-energy side of the power spectrum, kind of like Satan’s Host. Some great catchy driving songs all round, the vocalist even reminds me of Harry ‘The Tyrant’ Conklin (high praise).


Now back to your regularly scheduled Metallica talk. :)

3613

New album on May.

3614

Apparently this is part of a five song EP of covers. Man, this Genesis song was so dead on the money.

3615

That’s an interesting viewpoint. I didn’t really get into metal back in the heyday, but I was born at the right time to do so. I picked it up later and Metallica hits me right at all the points, but my points are probably pretty pedestrian and ignorant. I suspect they might be the pop music version of metal, but that also comes with a bunch of good stuff, such as their riffs and beats and solos etc. being very accessible. The bands that always seem to come up when I hear serious metal fans, like Slayer?! don’t do a thing for me. I guess it’s also like how I really appreciate guitar work but the outer bounds are just lost on me, like Steve Vai. I get it, I appreciate he’s great, but it doesn’t taste that good to me.

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Dunking on Metallica is an important part of every headbangers upbringing. They’re big, they’re successful, they went popular. Just too right for the cut!

First of all I don’t think you should ever feel guilty for liking something. If listening to something makes you feel good, the most metal thing you could do is rock the hell out to it and not care what anyone says.

You have to consider the fact that metal isn’t just a style of music, it’s also a culture, and it’s one that’s fiercely protective of itself.

No one has to be part of that culture to listen to metal, but when some people criticize Metallica, it’s often coming from a point of view of someone who is a member of that tribe.

When a band like Metallica thrills a bunch of headbangers in the Bay by playing genuinely good thrash metal, and then use that success to launch a career as regular old celebrities playing more popular music, that will provoke a reaction from that tribe.

The loss of Cliff, who was the musical brain along with James Hetfield just sort of adds to the indictment and makes them easier to disown.

I suppose it’s somewhat political, in a way.

You can argue purely on the musical merits, but then I also think we could debate for hours about how difficult it is for an old timey metal band to stay awesome over a career spanning 40 plus years. Suffice it to say that I don’t think there are a lot of those bands that haven’t put out dumb records.

I’m a Motörhead fan, I have to live with everything that came after Iron Fist.

But again, that doesn’t mean you can’t like that junk. There’s just different standards to weigh things by, and we have different baggage, and in the case of heavy metal, it’s tied into a culture that is pretty warped and wild and often quite antagonistic. The anger keeps us alive!

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I have my own hot takes with Metallica. St. Anger sounds like a tin can yes, but I actually like it a lot.

3619

Personally I liked everything Metallica did up through the Black Album.

Load and Reload was alright. After that I stopped caring at all because I actively disliked it.

At this point my tastes have sort of changed so even if did bust out another And Justice For All, I might not be that into it.

And some stuff just isn’t for some people, no matter what anyone says. If you don’t like Lorna Shore, it doesn’t mean you “don’t like metal” or some other nonsense. Metal has a ton of genres and flavors at the end of the day. Very few metalheads like all of them.

Edit: And with Metallica in particular you have a sort of hatred conflux:
Changed styles, Lars is a cunt, Litigation shit.
Add “sold out” to taste if one is so inclined, but that’s usually wrapped up with the style change.

3620

I never listened much to Metallica, so there was never really anything for them to betray as far as I’m concerned.

I also never listened to St Anger the album, but I did listen to the song and I didn’t think it was very offensive either way. I feel like it borrows from System of a Down with the quiet parts and the chorus dubs.

I think some of the response was probably kneejerk from the tribe - “Ha ha, Metallica” - but I think it genuinely pissed people off that James Hetfield said that they were going back to their roots making thrash metal.

For one thing, you can’t. You can’t just go away and become a celebrity, and change your sound, and then walk back in when you feel like it. Credibility is earned.

Second of all, I think it’s a foolish statement for any old band to make, “We’re gonna do some of our best old school material yet, just watch you guys!”.

That’s something you generally want the public to declare to you, not the other way around.

3621

I can still hear those terrible drums in my head and I don’t think I’ve listened to it since it came out.
And I’m not a drummer or a drum guy really, but the ones I knew wanted to set things on fire.

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