Metallica Thread

[MirrorMask]

It's all about Low Man's Lyric and The Unforgiven II on Reload.

I quite like The Unforgiven II, but I’ve noticed that both sequels are pretty polarizing on these forums.

The Unforgiven II is a masterpiece and it's really an impossible toss wether which song is better, even though II owes a bit to the original so it gains points standing on the shoulder of the Black album song. III is a fine song on its own but the title is absolutely gratuitous, at least put the same intro on the song, come on.

[KevShmev]

Load is more consistent but I think Reload’s high points are better. Where the Wild Things Are, Low Man’s Lyric, and Fixxxer are especially amazing.

Hmmm, I always thought it was the opposite.  I was a huge fan of Load when it came out, as I had just gotten into the band the prior month, but even then I knew that there were a handful of songs that should have been chucked in the garbage can.  While having some really good songs, it doesn't feel like ReLoad's highs are as high, but it's a pretty consistent listen outside of a couple of throwaways near the end (Prince Charming and Attitude).

[DoctorAction]

Weirdly, as a big Load fan, I've never heard Reload all the way through, nor could I hum a single thing from it. Might give it a spin soon

[fadetoblackdude7]

Weirdly, as a big Load fan, I've never heard Reload all the way through, nor could I hum a single thing from it. Might give it a spin soon

Reload is a seriously underrated album.

[Stadler]

Weirdly, as a big Load fan, I've never heard Reload all the way through, nor could I hum a single thing from it. Might give it a spin soon

Reload is a seriously underrated album.

I was just listening to it this afternoon; my god I forgot how much I LOVE Low Man's Lyric.  You can have Marianne Faithful, and I don't care for Fuel that much, but this is a solid record.   

[TAC]

Fuel is the only decent song on the album.

[Zantera]

Fuel is like a meme song at this point. I think as a song its fine but the vocal delivery of the chorus is what makes it ridiculous.

Reload does tend to get overlooked as an album. I never thought it was as good as Load but I would say it's better than any album they have done since.

[DTA]

Reload feels a lot more experimental than Load, which I really appreciate. None of their experiments since have given me any sort of positive reaction, but Reload is one I enjoy very much. There's a really cool vibe that runs through it that feels almost like some kind of (monster) journey, which is a feeling I don't get from any of their other albums. Unforgiven 2 is a top 10 Metallica song easily and Wild Things, Fixxer, and Low Man are up there too. Prince Charming gets some shit from fans but I think that's one of the catchiest songs from that entire era.

[Stadler]

It's an impossible thing to actually measure, but I'd be curious if "ReLoad"  was released with a whole new marketing scheme - instead of following the artwork and vibe of "Load" - if there would be a different (better?) reaction.   I kind of think back that so many bands released records that could have been "re-" versions, but they didn't, and they're viewed today as stand alone records and we treat them as such.

[TAC]

I think it would've sucked just as much.

[KevShmev]

I was just listening to it this afternoon; my god I forgot how much I LOVE Low Man's Lyric.  You can have Marianne Faithful, and I don't care for Fuel that much, but this is a solid record.

The only time I saw Metallica was on the tour for that album, where they actually played Low Man's Lyric, so that was pretty sweet.  We also got Bleeding Me from Load! 

Fuel is like a meme song at this point. I think as a song its fine but the vocal delivery of the chorus is what makes it ridiculous.

Reload does tend to get overlooked as an album. I never thought it was as good as Load but I would say it's better than any album they have done since.

Absolutely.

[DoctorAction]

Listened to Reload today. After the first four songs I skipped to Low Man's Lyric (which I enjoyed) and stopped there.

It does feel like Load, and I appreciate the variety. The band sounds natural. But the songs feel like leftovers from Load to me and there was some serious wincing in the Action house. (James' vox on Fuel, Faithful on TMR - how the fuck did THAT get released?! )

So not a complete atrocity but I doubt I'll be back to it again.

[dparrott]

No love for Devil's Dance???  Really???  It's the best song on the album for me.

Yea the Faithful part on TMR is unnecessary, but I like the song.  The rest meh.

[DoctorAction]

Ah, yeah. I quite liked DD. Had some jaminess.

[nobloodyname]

(James' vox on Fuel, Faithful on TMR - how the fuck did THAT get released?! )

Oh crikey. Not looking forward to hearing your thoughts on St Anger

[DoctorAction]

  The wtf was for Marianne Faithful. James wasn't that bad.

I know St Anger well. Bought it on the day of release, for my sins. It's just Reload I missed for some reason. 

[Zook]

What's with Lars and always crashing on the down beat? It makes it difficult to follow, and I'm just tapping along with my hands.

[Mladen]

That's been confusing me for years as well.

[Zook]

That's been confusing me for years as well.

Trapped Under Ice is a pretty straightforward metal song, but I can never follow it because of Lars. Maybe it's the riff and I can't place where it ends or it's just Lars crashing at the wrong time. Disposable Heroes is another one with constant downbeat crashes. That one is a little easier to follow though.

[Adami]

The two metallica songs I always struggle with are Battery and Blackened. I KNOW what the main Battery riff is supposed to sound like, and once the vocals come in, it's easy to follow, but when it's just the riff by itself, I always switch the on/off beats in my head. I do the same with blackened, mostly because the first time the drums come in without kick, it's confusing because the snare isn't on the downbeat even though it really sounds like it is.

[DTA]

Lars frequently jumps onto upbeats and downbeats at random on the 80's albums and his cymbal placement has always been a bit odd, but he's managed to develop a style that is most definitely unique to him, so that's the most important thing. I love the turnaround that he creates in the riff after the solo in Blackened by switching the beat placement and I feel like many other drummers would not have done that.

His tendency to accent the snare hits on his hi-hat and excessive fills really grate on my ears whenever I hear him live nowadays though.

[jammindude]

Those are the things that made me fall in love with Metallica from the very beginning.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by odd rhythms, strange patterns, anything that was outside a normal, straight forward beat.

Early on in my love of music, I begin to realize that songs that kept a very even straightforward rhythm could be very catchy, but they would get old very quickly. The more a song kept me guessing, the longer I had to take to try to figure out what on earth they were doing, the harder it was to tap out on the steering wheel...the more I adore it.

Sometimes I think Lars was doing it just to mess with the listener. And that’s exactly what I loved about it.

[DoctorAction]

I like that he (used to) make interesting choices. Battery and Blackened are good examples. The over-use of just blatting the snare grates on me these days.

[Adami]

I like that he (used to) make interesting choices. Battery and Blackened are good examples. The over-use of just blatting the snare grates on me these days.

I agree that he used to make interesting choices, but I think there are much better examples. Though, as Jammin pointed out, him changing the on/off beats in the middle of Blackened was very cool. I do wonder how much of this is James though. If you watch the behind the scenes stuff, you see Lars, sometimes, trying to be experimental (for better or worse) but James always saying he just wants a strong beat. I know Lars is rather creatively lazy live, but I do wonder how much more interesting his studio parts would be if he were given free reign. Maybe not so much these days, I dunno. But I feel like there's some creativity in there that is often pushed down.

[TAC]

The thing that I always took from Lars' drumming, especially back in the day, was that you could feel his enjoyment through his playing. It was endearing to hear him play drums.

[Revenge319]

Just finished listening to Reload. It wasn't bad, but as a whole, I didn't necessarily find it to be good, either. There were a couple tracks I kinda liked ("The Unforgiven II" and "Where the Wild Things Are") but the rest I found to be decent at best and very mediocre at worst. There were some really weird moments, mainly in the first two songs. And by "weird", I don't mean that in a good way... Despite its length, the album didn't feel as long as Load did,  which is something. Yeah, I came away from this one not really caring much. I wouldn't call it bad, but it's easily my least favorite so far. I'm keeping an open mind, but I will admit that I am beginning to get just a little bit concerned regarding the albums coming up. Looks like I'll just have to find out how I feel about those when I get to them.

[MirrorMask]

Word to the wise: if you listen to St. Anger and you'll find it sucks, don't bother with further listenings. It really does suck. There are no hidden gems, stuff to pay attention to.... nothing like that. You listen to it and you like it? fine, that's cool! you have a very unusual album to enjoy. You listen to it the first time and your impression is "My ears are bleeding and this is a steaming pile of crap"? don't bother with second or third chances, it will only make your ears bleed more.

[fadetoblackdude7]

Yeah St. Anger is the definite low point, but the albums after that improve with each one.

[Volante99]

Word to the wise: if you listen to St. Anger and you'll find it sucks, don't bother with further listenings. It really does suck. There are no hidden gems, stuff to pay attention to.... nothing like that. You listen to it and you like it? fine, that's cool! you have a very unusual album to enjoy. You listen to it the first time and your impression is "My ears are bleeding and this is a steaming pile of crap"? don't bother with second or third chances, it will only make your ears bleed more.

I vividly remember listening to the CD for the first time and was like “...the fuck is this? Awful”, then 6 months later throwing on the “rehearsal” DVD (not knowing what the content really was) and actually enjoyed it.

At its core St Anger is just a musical stream of consciousness from a (at that time) broken and beaten down Hetfield. It is, indeed, an unusual album.

[Anguyen92]

Yeah, St. Anger will be the low point for them.  A lot of variables really worked against them (Jason leaving, Napster controversy, James going into rehab, etc.) when they made that album that makes it really hard for them to say, "We enjoyed making St. Anger and we hope fans do enjoy listening to it."

This album is basically their form of therapy after everything they went through in the early 2000s, a howl to try to persevere out of the dark atmosphere they were in.  I also heard from various outlets that this is their approach to Nu-Metal and honestly, in comparison to high points of other nu-metal bands at the time, I don't think they hit the mark well here from what I recall.

I guess I'll take a relisten and see what happens.

[Revenge319]

Well, I listened to St. Anger. And yeah, it wasn't exactly good... but I've heard far, far worse than this album. At the very least, I'd listen to this over Reload. I actually thought "Frantic" was pretty good. Well, musically it's good. The lyrics get so ridiculous that it's legitimately hilarious to me. Besides that, though, most of everything else ranged from decent to boring. I think there were a couple other tracks I sort of liked (I think "The Unnamed Feeling" was one), but it's still a big step down from mostly everything else I've heard from the band. Also, I'm not really one to notice production flaws in music (all of Dream Theater's albums sound fine to me), but with this album, the production does sound weird. There was one song near the end that sounded like it wasn't edited whatsoever. Also regarding the production, everyone was right; the snare does sound like a trash can. That seriously made me start laughing when I first turned on the album and heard it.

So yeah, kind of decent album with some comedic value but not much interesting besides Frantic. That's my first-impressions verdict. I can totally understand why people hate this one, though. But personally, when I compare any of these songs or even the album as a whole to songs I've heard that I would consider the worst I've ever heard... It's nowhere near that bad.

[nobloodyname]

Looks like there's going to be a super deluxe version of the black album released later this year. Given that the album, sonically-speaking, still sounds great, wonder if they'll do anything to it? Probably a remaster which will just result in some additional loudness leading to some brickwalling.

As for bonus material, I suppose it'll be a couple of live shows along with the demo tracks that made their way onto the singles. Might be a good time to remaster A Year and a Half and include that, too, although they could probably make a good amount of money by releasing that separately.

[KevShmev]

Looks like there's going to be a super deluxe version of the black album released later this year. Given that the album, sonically-speaking, still sounds great, wonder if they'll do anything to it? Probably a remaster which will just result in some additional loudness leading to some brickwalling.

As for bonus material, I suppose it'll be a couple of live shows along with the demo tracks that made their way onto the singles. Might be a good time to remaster A Year and a Half and include that, too, although they could probably make a good amount of money by releasing that separately.

Yep, this is why I never order new remasters or remixes of albums that sounded great in the first place until I read a lot of reviews by consumers first, as far too often nowadays the remaster or remix is a big step down in overall sound quality.  It boggles the mind, but I will digress and not go off on that tangent...

[Kotowboy]

But the last 4 Blackened Remasters all sound great. I bought all the basic digipacks of Kill Ride, Master and Justice so I could finally get rid of my tatty old plastic jewel case editions.  ***

Only problem is they are not all the same size so don't look uniform in a rack 

I'm not OCD but it does bug me a bit.

Anyway - looking forward to the Blackened remasters of Metallica Load Reload St Anger and DM to see if they use it as an excuse to finally sort out the quality of it.

I know they quietly put out a much cleaner version so it'll probably be that mix and remastered. We shall see !

Back when DM originally came out - I said they would definitely put out a cleaner version and not make a big deal out of it - which is kind of what they did.

They just one day announced there was a new Mastered for iTunes edition of the album ( because iTunes requires non clipping masters ). And it replaced *all* digital editions.

Even the official download on their website. The fans get a cleaned up version - and they save some face by not announcing it's a cleaner version - just that

" iTunes requirements for quality are yadda yadda ". Typical Lars speak






*** And a lot of people on the Metallica message board are certain ( I think so too ) that they ever so slightly upped the bass guitar. But this might just be that the rhythm

guitars are less "woofy" now and the bass can poke through a bit more. Either way I enjoyed AJFA for thie first time listening to the new Master.

[Revenge319]

I just finished listening to Death Magnetic. I don't know what happened between St. Anger and this one, but I think this album is pretty good. Definitely a step up from the last three, that's for sure. I don't mind at all when a band tries new things, but this album feels like they went back to making stuff like their first four albums, and I think the album benefits a lot from it. While there weren't any standout tracks I can think of, they were all good. It was quite refreshing after the relatively lower quality of the past three albums. Also, apparently this album is infamous for having bad production/compression, but it sounded just fine to me. I have mentioned before that I don't usually notice album production, though, so maybe that's just me.