Metallica

According to Lars, Metallica was jokingly calling themselves “Rocktallica” in the studio before the album ever came out. This, then, is without a doubt Metallica’s sellout album. However, it doesn’t sound like “Modern Rocktallica” or “Altallica” or even “AC/tallica”.
If I had to put this in a genre, I would call it grove/doom metal. Nearly every song has a monster riff that gets driven into the ground, and then underground through the earth’s crust by the groove part of the equation. Musically, it’s no Permanent Waves or Images and Words. Hell, it’s not even on the level of Powerage. Then again, I am a COMPLETE Bon Scott fanboy, so that’s probably not a good comparison.

…okay, the individual performances. Musically, Lars “FUCK!” Ulrich should have stuck to tennis. He is, and has always been, a crap drummer, even on Justice. Hell, my thirteen- year-old brother can do that. Then again, my thirteen-year-old brother can play Dream Theater’s “Home” with one bass drum and one pedal. Go figure. On the other hand, Jason is a good bass player, not quite up to Cliff’s level, but good nonetheless. It does feel like the others in the band are still relegating him to a supporting role, but when he is given a chance to play, (“My Friend of Misery”) he’s not bad at all. James’ voice has certainly changed, and I don’t know whether I like that or not. His enjoyable metalhead yelling on the first three albums has degenerated into a cowboy growl, and it works well for some songs, badly for others. Kirk’s solos are okay, but they are mostly soulless and strangely “bluesy”. He also overuses his wah-wah pedal. A lot.

Still there are plenty of good songs on here, including “Enter Sandman”. It might be because I have stopped listening to radio (“We’ll play the song over and over and over again until people get sick of it, and then we’ll keep playing it, mwahahaha.”), but I like the song. It has an absolutely evil riff, a nicely done creepy bridge, and, oh yeah, it’s also catchy as hell, so much that I’ve heard less catchy Bachman Turner Overdrive songs. The problem is that to get to the next good song, you have to skip all the way to track 9, “Of Wolf and Man”. Why this song wasn’t a huge hit is beyond me, but it demonstrates that the kind of metal that ‘Tallica was aiming to create on this album wasn’t inherently flawed. It’s a mid-paced, stomping, chest-thumping anthem, no less, and a great riff, too. The lyrics about being a werewolf are crap, but James could be singing anything, and the song would still be solid. The third and last great song on the album is “The God That Failed”. It’s not a great song because of its music, which is slow and doomy, but rather because of the pure venom and anger that James projects in his lyrics. It’s a great song simply because it has all the raw emotion of a man questioning why his mother had to die.

Two other songs on the album are definitely worth listening to. “Don’t Tread On Me” works because it has patriotic lyrics that aren’t blind flag-waving drivel (*coughIcedEarthcough*), along with a military march-like groove and (gasp) another cool riff. “Through the Never” is also a good song, with lyrics far better than anything on the first four albums. It’s somewhat up-tempo, but midpaced compared to anything on the albums that came before it. I don’t mind that a lot, but it does take away some of the frantic, pounding majesty that songs like “Battery”, “Phantom Lord”, and “Fight Fire With Fire” had.

There are a few more songs worth mentioning, and not in a good way. “Sad But True” is one of the most pointless songs Metallica has ever written. There is nothing about this song that doesn’t annoy me. It starts out with a cool intro riff, which promptly disappears. Then it lurches into a boring riff that sounds like “Symphony of Destruction” caught in quicksand. Then James starts near-rapping the lyrics, which suck. Kirk’s annoying drone during the chorus tops it off. Ugh. Too bad it became a “classic” that Metallica play every concert, because it’s crap. “The Unforgiven” made me cry the first time I heard it. It still makes me cry, but now I cry with boredom. Half-ballads with boring chugging verses and “emotional” choruses (akoustic guitars r teh emo!!!11) are not what Metallica should be known for. And “Nothing Else Matters”, well, imagine the acoustic chorus of “The Unforgiven” stretched out into a whole song. It’s crap, except for Kirk’s solo, which owns any other solo Kirk has done after Kill’Em All.

There’s some good stuff on this album. It’s not an essential album to have, but it’s OK nonetheless. Historically, however, it marked the end of Metallica’s rule of metal. Don’t expect a masterpiece like Ride the Lightning.