monkey

Kill 'Em All - 9/10
Ride The Lightning - 9/10
Master Of Puppets - 10/10
And Justice For All - 9/10
Black Album - 8/10
Load - 7/10
Reload - 7/10
St. Anger - 5/10
Death Magnetic - 8/10

MACD23

Well 95% or so think its either ok or amazing, so thats an improvement. A strong 69%-70% think its amazing. I've seen similar response elsewhere on the web, I think its safe to say overall the band will do very well with this release.

Looking forward to seeing their show in Boston in January!

Abe.

Didn't really like it the first few times, but now I can't put it down!

nodeerforamonth

Easily.

If you listen to everything in order, the Black Album is so out of place after "And Justice...", it's not even funny. And if you did what I did, buy all the albums on release date and trade for every single bootleg via snail mail as they became available over the years (i.e. meaning did a TON of listening to Metallica from '83-'89), the change in pace and song structure of the Black Album is WAY out of place. Like every album since "Ride...", I bought the Black Album the day it came out (was a month or two late on "Kill 'Em All"). Except for "Enter Sandman" which I think was great, I thought the album sucked and returned it the next day to get my money back.

St. Anger WAS a "return to their roots" (well... minus the guitar solos). It was a return to 8 minute songs with tempo changes and song structures. It's just that that damn snare drum and HORRIBLE production killed that album. (All my ratings were based on song quality, not production)

cdollaz

You return music you don't like?

nodeerforamonth

Huh? Me? I'm open minded. One bad album (or in Metallica's case, IMO, 4 bad albums in a row) does not negate everything else a band has ever done. And in Metallica's case, even though they had some really bad albums (Black Album, Load, Reload, S&M, etc...), they always had enough there to keep me interested (b-sides, live shows, "Garage Inc", etc...) and coming back in hopes for another good album. And they did so with "Death Magnetic".

bunkaroo

The Black Album was a very jarring change for them.

I spent 1988-1991 learning and playing every Metallica song I could at home and with my band. After investing myself that much into the band it was pretty tough to swallow a song like "Enter Sandman".

The Black Album is a good record IMO and it definitely comes across better in hindsight given what came after, but at the time most serious Metallica fans were pretty put off, at least the ones I knew. Hell I remember when the "One" video came out people already suspected a "sellout", and the Black album seemed to confirm it in spades. All of a sudden everyone and their cousin was a casual Metallica fan.

I still think St. Anger is a steaming pile though, and don't think it has much of anything in common with the 80's stuff.

nodeerforamonth

SO many people, in fact, that when they release the "One" video on VHS, Lars put a big announcement on it defending their change on their stance of putting out videos!

Carcaridon

I have to agree. I actually like most of the songs on St. Anger. There's some good song writing going on there. It's just more of a demo. If they would have polished it up by re-recording and mixing it correctly, it wouldn't have had such a backlash like it did.

Abe.

I actually liked St. Anger from the beginning. I was actually really shocked when I read so much negative reviews about it. I guess it was just a welcomed change to me, but not for others. The odd production value made the record unique to me.

Death Magnetic gets better after every listen.

Spiderbite

There is kinda: www.allmusic.com

Jason

Sooner or later, a metal band is going to cover something from St. Anger, and show that they are good songs, just poorly recorded.

chino77

everyone knows the black album was different and a jarring experience to older fans (including myself) it doesnt mean load and reload are better though. load and reload are a bit softer than TBA. so why didnt those jar you even further?

as for st anger...so return to form is good even though the songs were awful? no it wasnt just the snare and production the cd sucked major ass.

nodeerforamonth

I like one song off The Black Album ("Enter Sandman"; and I've heard it enough times, I don't care if I ever hear it again.) I like about 4 songs off "Load" and 3 off "Reload".

Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. And they all stink. What may be "awful" songs to you, may be "ok" to "pretty good" to me. Sorry your tastes are different than mine.

nodeerforamonth

Actually, Metallica did it on the rehearsal on the DVD that came with the CD, but I guess most people who hate St Anger just downloaded the actual CD and didn't bother to get or listen to that DVD.

And the remix of "Some Kind Of Monster" (i.e. the edit version) that Bob Rock actually produced in the style of his previous work was pretty great! I wish he would just redo the whole album like that.

Rypro 525

i think the remix of 'some kind of monster was recorded pre James in rehab, since in the movie of the same name, they are seen recording that.

MACD23

I just watched Some Kind of Monster for the first time....Bob Rock says "The idea behind this new album (St Anger) is to sound like a band coming together in a garage for the first time...except that band is Metallica"...........What a dumbass.

Thankfully Death Magnetic, even with its production issues is light years better than the sound they went for in St Anger.

nodeerforamonth

No shit. The "No Life Til Leather" demo, when they were REALLY a garage band, sounds light years better than "St Anger".

boc4ever

Death Magnetic is really growing on me. I liked it when I first put it on, but now I'm listening to it about every other day.

I am sure there will be many that vehemently disagree, but the Black album really was the beginning of the period where they lost me.

The first three Metallica albums were hands down, classics that defined a genre. They were hungry musicians with something to prove. This hunger showed in their music. They were angry, aggressive and laid the foundation for a slew of copycat bands through the 80's.

After the success of And Justice For All, they lost their edge imho. Yes, there are some great songs on the Black album, but they are mostly mid tempo, slow and lyrically unimaginative. The "crunch" is what I loved about them.

I completely lost interest in them for Load and enjoyed Fuel from Re-load. I loved the garage album and thought St. Anger was a disaster.

The new album really strikes me as the next step after Justice. Improved vocals, some speed tunes, some epic songs and overall, something to prove.

chino77

at least you apologized!

OldBoy

this album sounds like it was made for one thing... "Guitar Hero III".

the lyrics are hardly evident and i am one for good lyrics that i can cling to. the black album is probably one of my favs of all time and this doesn't come close. i was really looking forward to "Unforgiven III" after loving the first two, but this one was very forgetable.

it is deftly made however, just not my cup.

wishbone

I have had a chance to listen to the album several times and it has grown on me. The riffs do have a late '90s thrash feel to them so the album would seem to fit between Justice and the Black Album. I have heard the Guitar Hero 3 versions and they are way better. I will vote "amazing" in the poll but it is a sad realization that this is probably as good as gets for Metallica.

BTW, I have heard several riffs being used for background music in sports highlight clips.

freshticles

Kill'em All - 9/10
Ride the Lightning - 10/10
Master of Puppets - 10/10
...And Justice for All - 9/10
Metallica - 4/10
Load - 3/10
ReLoad - 2/10
St Anger - -0/10
Death Magnetic - 6/10