New Metallica

[mr4stringz]

 

It’s short, mercifully.

 

Metallica ain’t been my bag for many, many years. But they still are to millions, so good for them. Except Lars.
 

The cover for the forthcoming album looks like someone gave up part way through building something from random Lego pieces. 
 

 

 

[SteveXFR]

When was the last time they released something really exceptional? The sort of quality you'd expect of legends?

[AndyTravis]

59 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

When was the last time they released something really exceptional? The sort of quality you'd expect of legends?

1998 

 

“No Leaf Clover” and “Minus Human” - oh and  “I Disappear” was pretty cool.

 

But…1991…erm.

[thodrik]

if I am being honest, I expected much worse. 
 

Not so much Hit the Lights but reassuringly nudge and Reload the lights. 
 

Bass is buried in the mix but to be honest it is kinda there just about. Drums overpower everything else. 
 

Kinda forgettable and lacks that ‘so disastrously bad it requires repeated listens’ quality that St Anger had. 

[lemmywinks]

3 minutes ago, thodrik said:

Kinda forgettable and lacks that ‘so disastrously bad it requires repeated listens’ quality that St Anger had. 

 

There's been a bit of St Anger revisionism knocking around the darker corners of internet comments sections, folk saying after multiple listens they "get it" like they've been listening to Atom Heart Mother or something. Seen that opinion expressed a few times, baffling stuff.

[thodrik]

14 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

There's been a bit of St Anger revisionism knocking around the darker corners of internet comments sections, folk saying after multiple listens they "get it" like they've been listening to Atom Heart Mother or something. Seen that opinion expressed a few times, baffling stuff.

Like I listen to it every 18 months just to check that I wasn’t missing something that the 9/10 2003 Metal Hammer review and 4/5 Kerrang reviews heard. I still can’t find much to like or even tolerate. 
 

However, I do actually like Load and bits of Reload more than most. 

[Doctor J]

Crime pays. It pays big.

 

https://www.wearesuper.co/metallica#ee-section

[Bolo]

12 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Crime pays. It pays big.

 

https://www.wearesuper.co/metallica#ee-section

I threw up in my mouth a little. That is the worst sh1te I've read this month.

[Doctor J]

On a semi-related note, this is an interesting read

 

https://loudwire.com/avenged-sevenfold-m-shadows-insight-ticketmaster-pricing-controversy/

[SteveXFR]

13 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Crime pays. It pays big.

 

https://www.wearesuper.co/metallica#ee-section

 

Holy crap! For nearly $600 you get a general admission ticket, one item of merchandise and one drink. Even Ticketmaster would think that's a bit much.

[bartelby]

going back to the song.
I think it's a pretty good effort. Metallica's lyrics have been rubbish for decades. But at least they've figured out how to do sub 5 minute songs again.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

3 minutes ago, bartelby said:

going back to the song.
I think it's a pretty good effort. Metallica's lyrics have been rubbish for decades. But at least they've figured out how to do sub 5 minute songs again.

But can they figure out how to make sub-75 minute albums?

[bartelby]

3 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

But can they figure out how to make sub-75 minute albums?

 

 

I'd rather have an 13 track 75 minute album than an 8 track one.

[Barking Spiders]

13 hours ago, thodrik said:

However, I do actually like Load and bits of Reload more than most. 

 

I'm no Metallica fan but TBH I don't get all the noise about them 'selling out' when the black album came out. In fact I'd say they got better, moving way from the tune-free first 5  albums etc to writing actual songs, you know the stuff that people can actually hum/sing along to. Load and Reload both have some good tunes and if they'd been combined on one album, this would by some way have been their best effort.

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

you know the stuff that people can actually hum/sing along to. 

 

Heavy metal isn't really about nice tunes you can hum along to. Heavy metal is supposed to be challenging to listen to, it shouldn't be easy listening background music. 

I've been a metal fan for a very long time and I have never listened to some Crowbar or Suicidal Tendencies and thought "if only this had a more catch tune and maybe a major key to cheer it up a bit". If I ever have those thoughts then I'll trade in my record collection for Michael Buble's greatest hits.

 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

2 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Heavy metal isn't really about nice tunes you can hum along to. Heavy metal is supposed to be challenging to listen to, it shouldn't be easy listening background music. 

I've been a metal fan for a very long time and I have never listened to some Crowbar or Suicidal Tendencies and thought "if only this had a more catch tune and maybe a major key to cheer it up a bit". If I ever have those thoughts then I'll trade in my record collection for Michael Buble's greatest hits.

 

Metal is a very broad spectrum. Judas Priest and Immortal are both metal but are nothing alike. A lot of Priest - and Maiden - is nice tunes you can hum along to. 

 

I don't think metal is necessarily designed to be challenging, although some of it certainly can be, particularly to non-believers 😄

I'd imagine a lot of musical genres have extremes than can prove difficult.

[lemmywinks]

A Load/ReLoad single album with the fat trimmed off would have been great back in the day, although I quite liked Load as an album in its own right. Still think that era is the best they've ever sounded in the studio and live.

[thodrik]

Just now, lemmywinks said:

A Load/ReLoad single album with the fat trimmed off would have been great back in the day, although I quite liked Load as an album in its own right. Still think that era is the best they've ever sounded in the studio and live.

I agree. In terms of production I think that Load and Reload are the best Metallica albums. Really should be one album though. Neither of them are Metal albums, but rather a mix of 90s alt-rock and 70s classic rock. Sometimes it works brilliantly and sometimes it is pretty derivative.

 

 

[Russ]

30 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

A Load/ReLoad single album with the fat trimmed off would have been great back in the day, although I quite liked Load as an album in its own right. Still think that era is the best they've ever sounded in the studio and live.

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say. I've seen reviews saying they've gone "old school" with this song - "old school" must refer to the 90s now then!

 

Between Load and Reload, there was maybe one full album's worth of decent material. 

[asingardenof]

1 minute ago, Russ said:

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say. I've seen reviews saying they've gone "old school" with this song - "old school" must refer to the 90s now then!

 

Between Load and Reload, there was maybe one full album's worth of decent material. 

Even Metallica would agree with that, based on James's comment that they whipped some meh songs into shape on those albums.

[fretmeister]

16 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

 

There's been a bit of St Anger revisionism knocking around the darker corners of internet comments sections, folk saying after multiple listens they "get it" like they've been listening to Atom Heart Mother or something. Seen that opinion expressed a few times, baffling stuff.

 

The rehearsal DVD that came with St Anger was far better.

 

It's still not great, but that snare drum is a big issue on the sound of that album, as well as the rest of the mix. When the songs are played live they are much better.

[asingardenof]

39 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

A Load/ReLoad single album with the fat trimmed off would have been great back in the day, although I quite liked Load as an album in its own right. Still think that era is the best they've ever sounded in the studio and live.

Agreed, Bob Rock definitely nailed the best Metallica studio sound with those two albums and the newer tracks on Garage, Inc.

Edited November 29, 2022 by asingardenof

[SteveXFR]

A photo of Lars reading reviews of the song has been leaked

[Bassassin]

Didn't expect much, didn't get much. I'm broadly of the opinion they've not done anything worth getting excited over since Justice For All, and Metallica were always at their best when they sounded bleak, hostile or both. This is just safe, tame and a bit dated, and probably the best thing I can say is it sounds quite sprightly for a band in their late 50s/60s.

 

Better than the turgid Load/Reload era (I remember a pal who'd been a fan since Kill 'Em All commenting "They should change their name to Licker, 'cos they're not f**ing metal any more!") but I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy the album.

[Barking Spiders]

6 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Heavy metal isn't really about nice tunes you can hum along to. Heavy metal is supposed to be challenging to listen to, it shouldn't be easy listening background music. 

I've been a metal fan for a very long time and I have never listened to some Crowbar or Suicidal Tendencies and thought "if only this had a more catch tune and maybe a major key to cheer it up a bit". If I ever have those thoughts then I'll trade in my record collection for Michael Buble's greatest hits.

 

Back in the 80s-90s there were quite a lot of metal singles hitting the UK and or Billboard top 20; Living After Midnight, Breaking the Law, Run to the Hills, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Number of the Beast, Ace of Spades , Dr Feelgood, Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Enter Sandman.... And they all had pretty memorable catchy sing-along choruses!

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Barking Spiders