Guest Memphis Report post Posted May 28, 2003 The debut video for Metallica's debut single 'St. Anger' off their upcoming album of the same name was shown here in Australia just last night. I was wondering what everyone's opinions are on the song? Personally I am totally disappointed in Metallica. I didn't WANT to believe half the shit being said about them conforming etc., however after listening to this it is fairly obvious that they are trying too hard to be 'cool' and by doing so they are neglecting what made them famous. No blistering Kirk Hammet solo... No deep, engrossing lyrics... No masterful drumming from Mr. Ulrich... James' voice has gone to hell since he last performed.. What a crock of shit. M Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Youth N Asia Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I've never been a huge Metallica fan. I've just thought they were ok...but the new song is nothing special...seems like they're trying too hard to be the same band they were 10 years ago. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest redbaron51 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 i like it when record companies pick your singles. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Deebo Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I heard it on the radio today, and I would have thought it was just any ordinary radio band today if it wasn't for him saying "St. Anger" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Nevermortal Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I had hope, and my hope was quickly squashed for the few minutes that I listened to that piece of fucking garbage song. Man, and Frantic sounded so good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Your Paragon of Virtue 0 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 Whoa, whoa, whoa.... when the flying fuck did Lars FUCKING Ulrich perform masterful drumming? Bullshit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Memphis Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I've never been a huge Metallica fan. I've just thought they were ok...but the new song is nothing special...seems like they're trying too hard to be the same band they were 10 years ago. I just read an interview with James Hetfeild over at EncycMet.com and he stated that 'St. Anger is most like ...And Justice For All! when comparing it to their entire back catalog. Funny how ...And Justice For All! is a technical masterpiece whereas St.Anger is a bland attempt at becoming mainstream. Eh, at least Manson still delivers. His new shit is ace. M Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Memphis Report post Posted May 28, 2003 Whoa, whoa, whoa.... when the flying fuck did Lars FUCKING Ulrich perform masterful drumming? Bullshit. Best example would be ...And Justice For All. He was a very talented drummer and added a lot to Metallica's music. It was masterful in my opinion, whether you agree with that or not is up to you. M Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Your Paragon of Virtue 0 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 When discussing the technical aspect of one's play, I'm sorry but it's not opinion. He was decent with the double bass, but that's about it. Ask any drummer, and they'll tell you that he's never had anything but a remedial beat in any song, except for maybe blackened. I left this window open for so long, I forgot about it. I was just checking to confirm it, but yeah, school is closed till next Tuesday due to SARS. Someone might as well take some joy in this whole situation, don't see why it can't be me... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Mindless_Aggression Report post Posted May 28, 2003 Horrible horrible song, although Hetfield trying to sound angry is always good for a laugh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest justsoyouknow Report post Posted May 28, 2003 Thank God I'm not the only one who thought that this song was absolute shit. I sat there and just kinda stared at the TV, wondering what the hell was going on....it didn't sound anything like Metallica. All that shit about the new album being "ferocious" and "going back to the roots" was absolute bullshit. And Lars looked like a tool the entire video. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Heavy As Hell Report post Posted May 28, 2003 The only way this album sounds like ...Justice is that the songs are on average about 6-8 minutes on the album. It's an interesting idea they had on this one it seems. Take Load and make the songs a little longer more simplistic. kinda like trying to meld some of the old with the new but it doesn't work because (at least in the case of St. Anger it sounds like they are leaning also towards a Nu metal type of guitar riffing. I don't like it and they wont be getting my money for this one either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoCalMike Report post Posted May 28, 2003 well considering Metallica has stated they are going back to their roots ever since 1998, and each time it is the biggest dissapointment and suckfest ever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I haven't heard it yet, but if YOU are all saying it sucks...then I suppose I have to love it by default. Finally, they've put out a trifecta of albums that pretty much everyone with some sense can recognize as being CRAP..soon those thoughts will apply to their older stuff too. Realization is coming, just give it time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Damn You Helmsley Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I think I saw Nathan Jones in the video somewhere. Awful, awful song. Worse than I expected. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Your Paragon of Virtue 0 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 AoO, what specific reasons do you dislike the older stuff? I personally think that anything before the Black Album is listenable... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest redbaron51 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I haven't heard it yet, but if YOU are all saying it sucks...then I suppose I have to love it by default. Finally, they've put out a trifecta of albums that pretty much everyone with some sense can recognize as being CRAP..soon those thoughts will apply to their older stuff too. Realization is coming, just give it time. if AoO likes Metallica then I have to like Dillenger Escape Plan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Vitamin X Report post Posted May 28, 2003 But that's the thing I don't think AoO likes Metallica... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest redbaron51 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 I don't like DEP. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted May 28, 2003 Vitamin X needs to wisen up to sarcasm... I'll buy the album regardless. I bought ReLoad, and I found the diamonds in the rough (the first four tracks, "Low Man's Lyric," and "Fixxer"...and there was A LOT of rough). I like Load, even if it isn't a Metallica album. I'll buy St. Anger, but I'm not expecting anything. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Black Lushus Report post Posted May 28, 2003 Vitamin X needs to wisen up to sarcasm... I'll buy the album regardless. I bought ReLoad, and I found the diamonds in the rough (the first four tracks, "Low Man's Lyric," and "Fixxer"...and there was A LOT of rough). I like Load, even if it isn't a Metallica album. I'll buy St. Anger, but I'm not expecting anything. Best post in this whole thread...took the words right outta my mouth...errr fingers... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted May 29, 2003 AoO, what specific reasons do you dislike the older stuff? I personally think that anything before the Black Album is listenable... Wow, I'm glad someone asked. Metallica doesn't do ONE thing better than any of their contemporaries. By their contemporaries, I mean Slayer, Megadeth, and Maiden, primarily. Same style of music? NO, so don't bring that up when you disagree with me. However, all four bands (counting Metallica), came out relatively around the same time, and play a fairly accessable style of metal. Maiden representing the British stylings, Slayer being straight up thrash, and Metallica and Megadeth trying to fall somewhere in between. Those two draw a closer comparison which I'll elaborate on later. Let's examine the talent of the individuals involved. First and foremost, I can't stand James Hetfield's voice. Part of that is a purely subjective matter of taste, but more importantly..what the hell kind of range does he have? Singing poorly and weak metal grunts. His voice has just gone further and further downhill as the years have went on, and his lyrics have always struck me as pedestrian. Could Master of Puppets BE any more of a thinly-veiled reference to cocaine addiction? If that's what he meant to sing about, get into it, dammit. Don't just use tired metaphors about control (like puppets). Kirk Hammett is average at best. His solos get killed by the leads in almost every metal band ranging from Black Sabbath to Nile. Can he play a guitar? Sure, I guess, but you can ask any mediocre garage band metalhead who can play Harvester of Sorrow or the solo from One the same question. When any kid in a black t-shirt can pick up a Strat and start chugging out your riffs..perhaps it's not because they're popular..but because they're easy. Cliff Burton was goddamn good, but gets too much credit, IMO, when guys like the dork of all dorks, Geddy Lee, and his bastard stepson, Les Claypool, can just take him to school. Jason Newstead went with the flow and never added anything to the band. Feel free to dispute this with all the awesome songs he's written..oh wait. And then there's Lars...oh poor lars. The guy that literally gets SKUNKED by any other metal drummer. Go ahead, pick one. Chances are, Lars is worse. Dave Mustaine-The only truly talented guy they've ever had and they fucking blew it. He cuts Kirk's hair with his riffage and solo skill. They do "Metallica" better than Metallica. Heavier, faster, more talented, better ballads, and they haven't put out three straight albums even their core fans call shitty. They did have Risk, but these things happen. Whew. Ok, now the music. Like I said in another thread, they borrow quite a bit from their influences. Listen to Paranoid and Seek and Destroy, for instance. Palm-muted chugging and a catchy hook, ala Tony Iommi, over ten years prior. They're repetitive as hell, and drag songs out WAY longer than they need to be. Do songs like Damage, Inc. and Blackened REALLY need to have that same fucking riff played THAT many times? Seriously. Just change it up a little bit. I'm not saying they have to go buck wild like Dream Theater with the technicality..but when songs start running together, that says something about the talent of the people involved. Then there's the biggest reason I can't stand their music. The fucking ballads. Every album has the same ballad on it, switched up a bit. They all seem like they're an hour long, use the same guitar effects, and go Intro, verse, chorus, verse, solo, chorus, drag drag drag drag..The point was made by the first solo of say..Fade to Black. Everything after that was just them milking a hit. They're overplayed. Every rock station, from "classic rock that really rocks," to "classic hits," to "new rock hits" etc..plays them ad nauseum, dedicates hours per week JUST to solid blocks of Metallica. WHY???? They don't transcend genres. They're a slightly heavier than average rock band. Get over it. Of course, all of this is due to their promotional machine, which even I'll admit was brilliant, but has now just turned into "We're going back to our old stuff. Our roots." ... I'd like to see ONE fan, casual or die-hard..agree with that statement with a straight face. SO, in conclusion.. Slayer was faster, angrier, and heavier. Maiden was more technical and had better solos, with better vocals and better ballads. Megadeth does everything Metallica does better, in general. Why settle for a second rate band when there's so much better stuff from the same period of time, let alone the same genre? Hell, if you're a Metallica fanatic 'til doomsday, bully for you, but don't say I didn't warn you when the fifth album promising "Old" metallica delivers exactly that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
B. Brian Brunzell 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2003 No masterful drumming from Mr. Ulrich... That's the funniest thing I've read all week. Masterful drumming by Lars, man, that's funny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Your Paragon of Virtue 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2003 Notice how he hasn't come back into the thread to actually explain WHY he was so masterful... Thanks AoO, personally, I prefer the Prog metal bands like Tool, mainly Dream Theater, to blow these guys away, in terms of better written songs and technical ability. Except for that hack Portnoy, he's got nothing on Lars man, nothing... *Points to sig* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Your Paragon of Virtue 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2003 Oh and by the way, is this the first time that you've actually expressed your hatred for Metallica? That's the impression I got with your "I'm glad someone asked", since I had assumed that throughout all this time, everyone just accepted that fact... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted May 29, 2003 This is the first time he's ever explained why, yes. However, in my honest and stern opinion, I feel Metallica simply wrote better SONGS and created better ALBUMS overall than their contemporaries (Slayer and Megadeth, mainly). I mean, if you listen to Raining Blood or Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?, neither album seems to flow as smoothly as Master Of Puppets (all were released '86/'87, hence why I chose these three). What AoO says is mostly true, from a pure technical standpoint. Metallica's songs are only complicated for beginners, but I feel that technical ability can only get you so far. John Petrucci of Dream Theater is an outstanding technical guitarist, no doubt. However, I don't feel much "soul" in his music, which I do feel with a riff by James and Kirk. And, as I've pointed out in the past, Metallica's music is much more classical-oriented (if you were to hear a classical-style cover of most of the songs off of Lightning and Puppets, it would be rather easy to forget that they're Metallica songs) than most of their contemporaries, another reason I highly like it. In the end, good tunes is good tunes, to each their own, etc. There plenty of bands AoO loves that I can't stand, plenty of bands some people love that others can't stand, blah blah blah. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Your Paragon of Virtue 0 Report post Posted May 29, 2003 Hell, I know technique isn't all that important. I got flamed to hell for it in a thread about Linkin Park's Meteora, although they never really came up with a concrete argument. Instead, they reverted to calling me names and whining about I spelled Theater like TheatRe. Anyways, I can understand how you feel about Petrucci, but I don't agree. In fact, what I love about his songs are that they're excellent technically, but every note counts and that they all fall into place. Technique can hurt a song, like in the case of Eddie Van Halen(whom is probably one of the worst guitarists in terms of originality, and he's the guy you go to for lack of soul), but Petrucci only makes it better. Not to mention, all of Metallica's songs have solos that seem to be just mindless showboating. The breaking point is the fact that Portnoy is about 100x better than Lars with no exaggeration, and that Labrie is just so much better than Hetfield. With all that said however, "soul" isn't exactly a quantative measurement... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted May 30, 2003 The thing is though, Slayer and Megadeth continued to put out kickass cd after kickass cd, while Metallica twiddled their thumbs and sucked. Even up into the mid 90's when other bands were falling apart, Slayer put out a blow-away album like Divine Intervention. The fact that they both CONTINUE to rule, (minor speedbumps like Diabolus in Musica which I find average, and Risk, which sucks, aside.) puts them on a whole different level than Metallica. Agreed 100% on technicality only being worth so much, which is why I think DT's excellent, yet find them annoying at the same time. I think you've got the classical thing kind of backwards though, if anything, DT is THE classical-oriented metal band. As an aside, do you like Nile? You really should. In their Darkened Shrines is one of the most sick, intense, heavy, brutally magnificent albums I've ever heard. Sick riffs abound, solos that give me wood, blast beats like machine gun fire, perfect growling, and awesome songwriting. At least download some of it, even if you think the whole Egyptian thing is ghey. The Blessed Dead Execration Text Unas, Slayer of the Gods All three of which kick righteous ass, particularly the last track, which has the most evil riff ever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest benoitrulz4life Report post Posted May 30, 2003 If Metallica doesn't play the same style of music as said bands (Slayer, Megadeth, Maiden), is it really fair to compare their respective musical talents to those bands? IMHO, if everyone in the band had died in a bus crash after Justice or even the black album, most metal fans would probably have nothing but glowing words for them. It's just that their new shit has been so horribly bad compared to what we heard from them in the past, that it has tarnished their image and killed off all sentiment that the more cynical fan may have had for them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest nl5xsk1 Report post Posted May 30, 2003 I'll probably catch an earful of shit for saying this, but the song did remind me of ...AJFA. I found ...AJFA to be filled with unnecessary tempo changes, and random thrash sections, and cheesy lyrics and singing, and even though St Anger is the only new song that I've heard so far, I found it to be cluttered with the same things that I didn't like about ...AJFA. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
