I get the feeling there's a new album by a different band that I should really get to listening to, but I'll do that some other time.
I've been listening to The Black Album for a few weeks now, and I've only recently started listening to Load.
I enjoy TBA a lot; it's around #5 in my album rankings overall so far, it's still a very good album. There's a pretty dramatic shift in their sound here, but I think it works. There's also much more variety in this album than any of the first four. "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters" are obvious highlights in that regard, but all the heavier and energetic songs sound very distinct from one another. I'm not sure what my favorite song on this album is yet, and I don't know if any of them would make my Top 10 Metallica songs, but this album's consistently enjoyable all around (although the last three songs are the weakest part of the album to me). As someone who probably hasn't ever heard "Enter Sandman" until a couple years ago, I'm enjoying it a lot. "Sad But True" and "Holier Than Thou" have some of Hetfield's most memorable performances. 3:02 on "Don't Tread on Me" is so bizarre but also really funny. This is a very fun album, and I think Metallica deciding to take their music in a somewhat different direction really paid off.
Load seems to take inspiration from TBA in that regard, as the sound is similar to TBA in some ways, but significantly different in other ways. I think it sounds good, though this is easily my least favorite Metallica album so far. There's some pretty enjoyable songs on here, mainly in the first half, like "Until It Sleeps" and "Hero of the Day". There are two problems I have with the album, at least as of right now. One, I feel like it's too long; I don't usually have a problem with how short or long an album is, but I feel like it starts to drag somewhere in the middle. "The Outlaw Torn" is a great song, though. My other problem is that it kind of feels like this was made by a different band, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It just feels a little
too different from how Metallica has sounded in the past. Having said that, my thoughts on the different direction this album took besides that are generally positive. Not every song is a hit, but when it's good, it's pretty good. And who knows, maybe I'll enjoy more of the album as I give it more listens.
(Unrelated, but this is my 1,000th post. I'm so glad I joined this site; among many other reasons, I most likely would never have gotten into Metallica had I not.
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Topic: What album are you listening to v.8 (Read 185531 times)
