I remember getting an advance copy of the MI soundtrack mailed to our office. The press release that came with it made a big deal that Metallica wrote a new song just for this movie, which was probably bull-schmitt. It was probably a throw-away track from the Load sessions that they spit-shined for this cd. Eh, whatever. A co-worker made me a cdr copy of it that I still have.

That's about all I remember about that song.

As far as the Napster controvery, at the time I just thought the guys (Lars especially) were being cry-babies. I've since changed my opinion and realize they were on to something much bigger than them.

Cool inclusion there! I used to own the single, but have later on traded it away. i like the song, and love the video!

It's a good song, not one of my favourites from the LOAD-era, though. I have always stuck up for Metallica on the whole napster thing - It's all about principle, which is what most people forgot, 'cause, you know, it kinda' gets in the way of their irrational Metallica hating.

(SIGH) OK folks...might as well get this one over with...



2003's ST. ANGER was the product of even more turmoil than usual in the Metallica camp. Recording sessions for the new album were supposed to begin in early 2001 but were postponed several times, first due to the departure of Jason Newsted from the band, then again when James Hetfield entered a rehab facility for his alcohol problem. Recording continued in bits and pieces over the next year or so while James recovered and finally rejoined the band. Since they were in no shape to search for a new bassist at this time, producer Bob Rock handled the bass duties during the recording sessions. Additionally, inter-personal relationships within the band had deteriorated to such a low point that when Hetfield returned from rehab, he brought a therapist with him to help them finish the album through a series of interventions and "sit down sessions" where they hashed out their problems with one another. The resulting album, which was hyped as a "return to form" prior to its release, turned out to be a godawful, whiny, tinny-sounding, scattershot mess.

I'll be honest with you guys, there's not a lot I can say about this album because I haven't heard it since 2003. I'll admit, I got suckered in by the pre-release hype leading up to this album. Blabbermouth was full of breathless comments from "journalists" who'd supposedly sat in on the recording sessions, saying that Metallica was "back and thrashing harder than ever" and that they were sounding "more vital than they had in years," so my inner fanboy was hopeful for the first time in quite awhile. When the video for the title track premiered a week or two before the album release (I forget if it was on MTV or FUSE) I watched and thought to myself "OK, that wasn't too bad. Maybe they're finally on the right track again," and I went out and bought the CD on the first day of release.

I then spent a week or so listening to the CD and trying... and I mean REALLY trying... to find something about this P.O.S. that I could say I liked. And I couldn't. It was like sandpaper in my ears. The "songs" were drawn-out, seemingly endless jams with no direction, the lyrics were pure drivel, there were no guitar solos, Hetfield's voice had been reduced to a cracked, out of tune croak, and of course there was that infamous, hella annoying PING PING PING PING snare-drum sound that runs throughout the album. Finally I realized I was beating a dead horse and declared myself finished with Metallica once and for all. "That is IT, they ain't never getting another nickel out of me!" was my mantra. One of my friends was waiting for my opinion on the CD before he bought his own copy, and when I told him it absolutely sucked, he asked if I could just burn it for him. I told him "Y'know what? F*ck it, I'll send you my copy, I am never going to listen to this again," and shipped it off to him in Texas. (By the way, when he heard it, my buddy hated it too. Haha.) So that was the end of my ST. ANGER experience. I haven't heard the album since, nor do I ever want to. I wrote an absolutely scathing column about the album for Detritus e-zine (which I will post here when I get a chance to dig it out of the archives; it's lengthy but if I do say so myself it's one of my finest rants) and washed my hands of the whole thing.

The album debuted at #1 and went double platinum in the U.S. despite mixed reviews and the title track eventually won a Grammy for "Best Metal Performance," so obviously some people must've liked this album. I just wasn't one of them.

When the album was first released, it contained a bonus DVD of the band (including new bassist Robert Trujillo, who'd been recruited after the recording sessions were completed) playing all of the new songs live in their studio/jam room. I'll admit it was a nice touch, but the DVD didn't help me appreciate the new songs any better.

So that's all I got for this album. Release the hounds....

Well, like you Freddy, I bought into the hype and got all excited about this "return to form" album. And also like you, I ran out and got my copy on the 1st day of release back in '03. Since then, I've probably played it from beginning to end a grand total of 5 times. The ping-ping of the drums physically hurts my ears to listen to it. It hits a sonic nerve that causes irritation and pain when I listen to it.

It sits on the shelf as merely a space saver in my Metallica discography. For some odd reason, I can't seem to part with it, yet I don't know that I will listen to it ever again.

Bottom of the barrel for them. It doesn't even feel like they finished making it as even the two or three tracks that kind of work for me aren't tightened up at all into being proper, listenable songs. The whole album feels like something that should have been thrown in as a bonus disc in some far-future career retrospective box set, where you kind of listen to it once, think it sounds interesting in a rough, unpolished way, but never want to hear again.

I understand why it came out the way it did, seeing how the band was trying its hardest to break up at the time, but that doesn't make it any more of an enjoyable experience.

Like both MG and FF I bought the album on the first day of its release, I actually thought I had a defective copy and went to FYE and told them my copy was jacked up, and they replaced it with a brand new one. Much to my horror the album was meant to sound like this!!!! I could not believe that Metallica spent over a million dollars to record an album that sounds like a Venom demo. Hell a demo from Venom would sound like 'Dark Side of the Moon' in comparsion to 'St. Anger'. Bob Rock's production, or lack thereof may have killed some good songs in the process.

What I do admire about the album is the fact this is most uncommerical album released by a major band that I can think of. No obvious singles, no radio friendly tunes. I admire the fact they followed their own muse, and I do like the album a little more than FF and MG. I do think the album has some good songs.

But the production kills this album for me, and for me some of the lyrics on this album are inspid. I have always thought and still think Hetfield is a better lyricist then he is given credit for, but on this album the lyrics are just not that great.

What Metallica should have done is fired Bob Rock, they took that professional relationship as far as it could go. They should not have hung around that Dr. Phil wanna be, they should have dug out some of their old albums and get reinspired.

That being said, it is far from a great album but IMO it is interesting listen of a band sonically documenting their breakdown and angst.

Ok - St Anger....... I also picked it up the first day of release...... The lack of production sucks, the snare sound sounds like my kids banging on pots and pans, the lack of solos (when several of the songs clearly are crying for a solo!!!!!! That said, I understand and appreciate the album better than I did at first. I do like some of the songs - I think "Invisible Kid" could be a great song with some production! If the album had better production and solos, it would be so hated.... That said, it is not the worst album I have ever heard, just the worst snare sound ever released!

To be honest, St. Anger is the first Metallica (and Metal) album I never listened to. And that's what that brings to Metal. Today, I don't listen it like I was used to but still... I think St. Anger is a good album.

I don't hate St. Anger...but it's pretty bad. I will give it one thing though; it certainly accomplished what it intended, which was to make a raw, heavy record.

glad I was busy doing other stuff when this came out...seems I didn't miss nothing.

I listened to the studio version of the album once. Then I watched the DVD a few times because at least the drum sound was better...but it's still a damn poor album no matter how you slice it. A few cool riffs scattered about, but no songs to feature them in. Serious going through the motions album.

Of course, I was not surprised by this album (other than the production)...I EXPECTED it to suck really bad...because everything Metallica had touched since 1991 had turned to manure. So I wasn't disappointed.

It's actually a better album than Reload...which is a good indication of what a complete steaming turd that album is....

It took two years for me to buy St. Anger and I only bought it after watching S.K.O.M. I actually like a few of the songs if I'm in the right mood but I like what I've heard from the Presidio Tapes, also Sweet Amber had a cool non-conventional solo but was taken out...I hated this album when it first came out but now it takes me back to a great time in my life, that's probably why I can tolerate it at best.

I purchased St. Anger as a new release the week it was released. The music blared from my car speakers. I honestly thought it had to be a joke. There is no way a band this famous, this popular, with such a large budget and well known producer would release an album that sounds worse than some garage band's demo. Really, for the first 30 seconds I kept waiting for the joke to end and the real songs to begin. It never ended. Deliverance released an album called What A Joke. With St. Anger, Metallica released an album that should was a joke.

I do like a few songs from this album. I sort of dig Frantic, though the garbage can drums and lack of guitar solos destroy the song. I think the song offers some of Jame's most honest vocal performances. I sort of dig the raw vocal approach on this song. Some Sort of Monster could have been a cool song too, but it just sounds unfinished here, like a rough demo. Other than that I can't remember anything else from this CD.

After the Load and Reload debacles I had given up on Metallica and never even heard one note from St. Anger. From what I've read I haven't missed anything. I did read Death Magnetic was quite the improvement so maybe I'll get that someday (I know ,I'm getting ahead of things here)

I joined in on the bandwagon hype about it's release.

Frantic is the only song I can tolerate, and the fast parts of title track. (before James sings . . . whines)

My conclusion is illustrated above.

After another 6 (!!) years since the last proper studio-album, Metallica's new silver-disc (and DVD) is here. And in true Metallica fashion, the reactions to the new stuff did not take long to emerge. The majority seem to be furious with the fact that the album does not have any guitar-solos. And even worse, Lars' drum-sound gets slaughtered. People claim it's sounds like he's hitting a bunch of garbage cans. And I must say that I did agree with them at first. I liked the first 2 songs, but could not get into the rest. It took me 5 or more listens to find anything worth the while here. The fact of the matter is that the 'tallica boys have once more reinvented themselves. Maybe not to the better, but still they have created a new metal sound, unlike anyone else's. I admit that this is by far the weakest album they have released, but it's not as bad as most people make it out to be. Lars drumming, while intentionally given a garage-band sound, is still stellar work! The man is way underrated, in my opinion. I think I was able to get into the whole feel of this record, somewhat getting to hear why they have gone for the muddy production. And when I got into that state of listening to this product, I find it quite enjoyable. I'm not sure if I'm going to put it on on a regular basis, but I'm sure going to crank it on every now and then. I just have to be in the mood for it. The DVD offers the whole album played live in the studio. The mix is a bit different there, but as a whole, I prefer the album versions. Kind of funny watching Robert squatting around with his bass though. Man, go take a dump, THEN come back and play! LOL

Killer tracks: Frantic, St. Anger, The Unnamed Feeling

I've always felt that this was Lars' best drum work, the ping is not so bad nowadays but nonetheless I've always seen him as an average drummer except on the St. Anger album where IMO is his peak.

I don't want to get into the discussion of the album that much - All I can say is, that this album is full of awesome idea's, and I can still enjoy Frantic, St. Anger and a coupla' other songs - The finished product just wasn't there. And like Akeldama said, Lars' actual drumming on this record is actually very good - Listen to the title track, the frantic double-bass going on is awesome - This album proves that Lars is a competent drummer, and is just as good as he's always been, although he needs a little more motivation these days. No, don't shoot me, but I would really like to hear this album re-recorded - Without the "ping" drum, solo's, crytal-clear production, cutting off some songs and some re-arranging. But that will never happen.



EDIT - Come on guys, the procution is bad, but it's not THAT bad! Seriously.....

i think the production gives it a charm and it certainly made a talking point for the album. tbh though metallica will get flamed whatver the production. i dont reall care for the death magnetic production much. too loud and compressed

I've had a chance to hear Load again after all these years due to downloading it (I paid for the downloading service) and have been able to re-evaluate my feelings on this album. Certainly the more mellow sound had an effect on my hearing of Load which is why I didn't like it back then. I now realize it's nowhere near as bad as I remembered it and some of the songs would have fit well on TBA even. That doesn't mean I think it's a great album though. While there are quite a few songs I like, there is way too much filler on it and by the thirteenth song I found myself thinking, "This album is still going on!?". If they trimmed some of the fat, thereby shortening the album, it would be a much better album. The ones I liked where Ain't My smurfette, Until It Sleeps (I even liked it back then but wish it had a heavy part), King Nothing, Hero Of The Day (probably my favorite), and Wasted My Hate. The rest of the songs range from decent but not memorable to . So I gave it another chance and actually enjoyed some of it but considering Re-Load contains leftover material from this album (and a crappy sequal to one of my favorite songs), I have no interest in checking it out.

.....next album....