I heard the song on the radio the other day, the single – it took me awhile to realize who it was, even. I liked old Metallica and new-old Metallica (like the Black album), but whatever it was I heard a few nights ago was absolutely painful. I turned it off before it was over. 
It’s so funny listening to people who expect an artist to fit into a certain mold.
Metallica as a rule has made a living breaking the mold they set for themselves. The fans treat them as though they have a responsibility to re-make Master of Puppets over and over again. Yet they continue to <gasp> make music how they want to make it.
I like the new song. I like it a lot… it’s definately a lot different from Load and Re-Load. Ironically, also albums where people accused Metallica of trying to sound more like “alternative” bands.
I really want to love the new album, so I may be looking at this with rose colored glasses. But those same shades wore off with the Load album pretty quickly. (Load=crap) So I’m sure I can get this into perspective after a few listens.
I’ll definately go buy it on Tuesday! That much is guaranteed!
Ah, hadn’t heard that.
I’m disappointed.
I love their old stuff. Master of Puppets is definitely one of the best heavy metal albums ever. Ride the Lightning is equally good.
I also like some of the newer stuff, though not all of it by a long shot. Load had a few good songs (Hero of the Day and King Nothing spring to mind) and a lot of duds; Reload had more good songs but equally crappy filler. I Disappear was uninspired, to say the least, but not bad.
St. Anger I do not like. Hetfield sounds silly, and the instrumentation is forgettable.
I had no problem with Metallica experimenting; I didn’t decry Load and Reload as blasphemy, and I liked some of the more unusual stuff on there (FiXXXer, in my opinion, is unjustly overlooked). However, new or different does not always equal good. St. Anger is a new direction, but in my opinion, not a good one.
That’s what I meant – Metallica or not, I thought it sucked.
Howyadoin,
What was up with the shout-out to the cons at San Quentin in the St. Anger video? Kinda reminded me of Sheila Koslovski from South Park…
“Horrific deplorable violence is OK… as long as you don’t share MP3s!”
-Rav
P.S. It was all over when they cut their hair…
I heard enough of it yesterday to get a sense of what people mean with the comments here. I was pretty surprised when I realized who it was. It was interesting to hear James really sing, but I was really turned off by how much they were borrowing from the Limp Bizkit dynamic (echo-y verses, screaming and grunting in the chorus). And that’s how it sounded to me: it’s a little weird to hear Metallica trying to sound like someone else [not changing or updating the sound, I mean just trying to sound like other bands], and the choruses sounded kinda comical to me.
The thing to me is that with their earlier stuff, Metallica was doing things that nobody had done before - or at least, they were expanding and doing them better. That would be called leading. For a long while now, they’ve been doing stuff that everybody else is doing - that is, following. And since they did the alternative thing with the last two albums and now seem to be doing a nu-metal thing now, it DOES strike me as trend-surfing. I think this will seem pretty dated in a few years. I was never a huge fan, but to be honest, they lost me years ago.
Bingo!!
I love the older stuff… Welcome Home, One, Master, even 2x4, but this new album, which I heard most of already, doesn`t have the catchy vocals or any really memorable instrumentals.
They needed to isolate the guitars and drums more and showcase their talents with some solos rather than have all the sounds just shoved together.
It sounded alright, just not what I have expected from them.
I hope they save their best for last.