Stop
bitching! Yes, you. I've heard your dim-witted denigrations
which you let spew so freely. Well after hearing St. Anger,
no more should the crap roll out your mouth again. With Load
and Re-Load hardcore Metallica fans united and cried sell
out in unison. Napster, made Metallica, once again, an easy
target to defile with criticism. Yet through all this time,
Metallica said "fuck you", we'll do as we feel, which if I
am not mistaken has been their modus operandi through their
whole career just as it had been when they recorded Master
of Puppets and Ride The Lightening. But no, the strong idealism
which once Metallica fans celebrated they began to censure.
Well
here it is, the return to blast beats and open e string chugging.
St. Anger is the most primal, raw and seminal sounding release
of their career, rawer than a cow fresh off the butcher's
chopping block. Anger opens with the familiar synchronized
start stop rhythms at break neck speed that Metallica has
harnessed since their inception (contrary to popular belief
System of a Down did not invent that). Frantic turns from
a potent pummeling force into a quite poignant look inside
singer James Hetfields' troubled and formerly drug addled
head, "My lifestyle/determines my deathstyle." Other songs
speak of adolescent alienation, Invisible Kid, and familiar
battles of within a la Sad But True in Some Kind of Monster
"This is the face that you hide from/This is the mask that
comes undone…I'm in us."
The
whole album is full of surprises some for the better others,
well, are puzzling. The album while clocking in over 75 minutes
has nary a second of guitar solo and not much more of production
time. Lars' drums sound as if they were recorded in a basement
with one Casio keyboard microphone. The flat pings and dull
thud of his bass drum are a far cry from the snapping thunder
claps of and the booming bass of the Bob Rock produced Metallica
(The Black album). The departure from polish was either ingenious
or insane but either way it is what Metallica wanted despite
conventional wisdom. Once again Metallica puts out the album
they wanted to do. St. Anger puts the metal back in Metallica
for all those willing to give it a listen. While not a musical
masterpiece it is idealistically constant and a perfect fuck
you for all those who wrote Metallica off.
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