Can Metallica ever return to their pre Black Album badness?

[panther_king]

And.... maybe, in being greedy little "I like you better being the people I want you to be" bastards, we forget to bother asking ourselves "What does Metallica want to do?"

 

Maybe, since they are pushing 50, they don't want to sound like 21 year old alcoholic anti- 'the man' bro's in tight black jeans. You'd figure they'd grow out of it when they would hit about 30 like most people do. Wait.... the Black Album came out about then? Ge... who would have thought.

[chuck1016]

This is like asking if a retired athlete can run as fast or hit as hard as he did when he was 20. No, they can't.

 

The first albums of any rock/metal/punk band capture the energy and intensity of angry young men (or women) with guitars and drums and rebellion in their hearts. That's what makes them great rock/metal/punk albums.

 

But people grow up and their styles and abilities change. Some times they consistently put out great stuff, but it's got to change over time.

[metal0822]

metallica has been one of my favorite bands for years and years. they were my first real concert in 2003, and ive seen them 3 times now. i love their first 4 albums, i like black album and death magnetic. everything else is decent besides st. anger. the thing is, they arent drunken pissed off teenagers anymore. they shouldnt try to recreate what they made before, because they just arent those people anymore. i think they need to stop coming out with new albums, but not stop playing shows. they are and always have been a live show kinda band, and the purpose behind their albums was always to recreate the energy that they put out in their live performance. now that i have seen them 3 times, and last time we were up front and gave them all high fives before and after the show, i still would like to go see them again, which at their prices many people would find ridiculous but i just cant get enough.

[Inspector 71]

They should just switch to asshole coffee shop rock

[ElectricEye]

 

I liked Death Magnetic a lot. I listened to it a TON. I'd be happy with something along those lines again. It might not be Master of Puppets, but I'm ok with that.

 

 

Agreed. DM was a shockingly good old school Metallica album. I love it (after having written them off for the past 10 years).

 

Will they ever match MOP? No. No one ever will. It's one of the greatest metal albums ever created. And Cliff Burton is also gone, who was one of the driving forces of the success of the band early on.

[american_analog]

 

Cliff is dead .No one can replace him so,there is no way they can regain the"old days" they can only move forward.Even if that forward movement is straight down the toilet.

 

 

This

 

There is your answer. Cliff was the heart, soul & mastermind of Metallica, he was their creative center.

 

(He also wrote much of what you hear on Justice)

[ashasha]

 

No. They can't. There is too much water under the bridge and too much success. Too much money in the pockets. Piles of money - just like water on the creative fire of desire.

 

 

This.

 

It's not 1985 anymore and those guys aren't a bunch of 20-somethings living beer to beer and pissed off about not making it. What made Metallica what they were back in the day was integrity in their music. They played music that was about how they felt at the time. DM sounded contrived to me (although I appreciate the effort) and it was the worst produced album I've heard not withstanding St Anger) because it's so compressed that it's distorted in a lot of parts. I just can't listen to it because it sounds so bad to me.

 

But I would absolutely hate to think that they would have used the same exact formula throughout their career and never took any chances or did anything different. I love the Black Album almost as much as I love Master of Puppets. Two different albums, different vibes, different songs. If I want to hear old Metallica I have 4 albums worth of great songs to choose from. And conversely I have several after that where there are some pretty damn good songs in there as well.

 

Not to compare them to the Beatles because it was a different thing all together, but imagine 13 albums of Love Me Do. It would have gotten really frickin old.

[lincoln40]

 

This. It's not 1985 anymore and those guys aren't a bunch of 20-somethings living beer to beer and pissed off about not making it. What made Metallica what they were back in the day was integrity in their music. They played music that was about how they felt at the time. DM sounded contrived to me (although I appreciate the effort) and it was the worst produced album I've heard not withstanding St Anger) because it's so compressed that it's distorted in a lot of parts. I just can't listen to it because it sounds so bad to me. But I would absolutely hate to think that they would have used the same exact formula throughout their career and never took any chances or did anything different. I love the Black Album almost as much as I love Master of Puppets. Two different albums, different vibes, different songs. If I want to hear old Metallica I have 4 albums worth of great songs to choose from. And conversely I have several after that where there are some pretty damn good songs in there as well. Not to compare them to the Beatles because it was a different thing all together, but imagine 13 albums of Love Me Do. It would have gotten really frickin old.

 

 

 

I could tolerate the black album. I didnt like load and reload and all that junk, it was Metallica with blues added in there. And then they did St. Anger which was an attempt to sound like bands like System of Down but it ended up sucking. I like Death Magnetic but it still has hints of the blues in it but very little, I prefer them full on metal with no blues.

[zantor9]

Lol, indeed. Like I said: Haters gonna hate.:poke: IMO alot of the folks who go strait to "hate it, sucks" about Death Magnetic either never actually listened to Metallica back in the day (but say thay did, cause liking the first 4 albums is still "cool") or never actually listened to Death Magnetic. There is no question it's on par with their late pre-Black Album work. Erase all the Black Album Era new casual fans, napster hatred and their own whining self-indulgent rock-star bit over the last decade, and simply insert D.M. as the release after Justice, and EVERY Metallica Fan loves it. Of that, my friend, I have no doubt whatsoever. To each their own of course. If this were a talk on Country Music, I'd be the hater, so I suppose I can't really talk. Closed minds are closed, and as I said, Metallica brought all of that hate on themselves with their silly antics.

 

This.

 

Death Magnetic was very well done. I don't see how it could have been a better album. I think they are already back to their old ways. They just had to record an awful rehab album before making a great one

[lp_junkie]

No, Cliff's dead so they'll never sound like that again.

 

I've been a Metallica fan since 1983 and got Kill Em All, Ride and Puppets when they came out, I also like Justice, but the Black Album, Load, and Reload took years to grow on me.

 

St. Asswhipe was horrible, and Death Magnetic is just so so, I got it day of release and still have only listened to it 3-4 times. It's better than St Asswhipe but not anywhere near as good as Black Album, Justice and can't compare with the first 3.

[ubernerd]

Metallica would start sounding a lot more like "Metallica" if Hetfield would stop doing the bad Chris Isaak vocal stylings and stop trying to "sing" properly.

[lincoln40]

 

Metallica would start sounding a lot more like "Metallica" if Hetfield would stop doing the bad Chris Isaak vocal stylings and stop trying to "sing" properly.

 

 

I noticed that in concert, he croons instead of growls

[Pizza Combo]

Wut???

 

Death Crapstastic waz their return to badness!!!!

[Warfish]

Haters gonna hate? Thats a lousy Hip Hop term!

 

Started that way, aye. Become something of an internet message board meme now. Seemed especially apt here.

 

Metallica has done more to create "haters" than any other band I know. The criticisms are ALL legit:

 

--Lost their Fire, due to age and money and ego (common in Rock tbh). Could be said about almost every great long-time band ever tbh. Tell me the last Stones album was full of the same greta piss and vingar their early work had. Lol, no.

 

--Became assholes (in truth, personally, they were probably always assholes....we just tolerated it better back in the pre-napster days, and their assholeness was one od drunken druga abuse).

 

--Got Soft. Most bands do, those that don't often sound like a broken record (new album = same album they've been releasing for 30 years). At least in Metallicas case they have an excuse, the southern rock/country influences of Hetfield.

 

--Their biggest sin......they were against the THEFT (and make no mistake, napster and other file sharing sites are theft) of their work. It's so easy to scream "greedy bastards", except there is NO other media/work/service/product the internet and file sharing ripped off and killed more than music. No one would expect any other thing to be free, but music, the easiest to share online, because expected to be free. Honestly, I am to this day sickened by those who thought they had some inherant right to free music, and the artists be damned.

 

--Cliff died. Sucks, but what the hell you gonna do? Bonham died too, lots of greats did. Most were never replaced, only a small few were. But the bands (in almost every case) were never the same. Metallica was and is no exception, they lost that crazy classical-influenced, brilliant-artists basist who was a huge factor in their early brilliance. Replacing that was bound to be impossible.

 

--Metal Fans are often the most hater-filled cliques around. Love Megadeth, hate Metallica. Love Slayer, hate Metallica. Love X, hate Y. It's sometimes laughable tbh, like watching fans re-enact a WWF skit over their favorite bands. Love Scandanavian Black Metal, hate "soft" Thrash. Love Pantera Vocals, hate wimpy Maiden/Metallica vocals.

 

--Hetfield lost his voice. Unquestionable truth and legit criticism.

 

--Bob Rock. Nuff said.

 

--Theres more, but you get the point. Trouble is, all these non-music factors make fans (especially glancingly causal or utterly obsessed fans) judge the music based on these other issues. Nothing they could put out would please everyone anyway, but with all these stuff not int heir favor, anything they put out will get hated by most now.

 

Like I said, they (in many cases) have no one but themselves to blame. And St. Anger was a real killer, it was so bad.

 

But sadly, that means alot of folks never gate D.M. a real shot, and thats a shame. It really is good, a return to form, and a worthy part of their discography.

[islesdon]

I see good music ahead for Metallica. I will say it again, I think Robert Trujillo was an excellent addition to the band.

 

I'm hoping for another album in vein of the Black album honestly.

I honestly did not care for Death Magnetic at all.

 

My favorite album is probably the Black album as far as production goes.

As far as the songs, then it would have to be Master of Puppets.

 

My least favorite would be St. Anger (Holy crap, what were they thinking?)

Honestly though, I look at Metallica like I look at the original Star Wars Trilogy.

What Metallica is doing now is more like the Star Wars prequels. I'm not sure who is the Jar Jar Binks of Metallica though?

[lp_junkie]

I see good music ahead for Metallica. I'm not sure who is the Jar Jar Binks of Metallica though?

 

Kirk Hamster........... 4 notes and a wah pedal, over used for 20+ years.

[Nephilim-777]

No! Group therapy anyone?

[islesdon]

Kirk Hamster........... 4 notes and a wah pedal, over used for 20+ years.

 

It's surprising it took so long for that Dunlop Wah signature pedal to come about!

[lincoln40]

I see good music ahead for Metallica. I will say it again, I think Robert Trujillo was an excellent addition to the band. I'm hoping for another album in vein of the Black album honestly. I honestly did not care for Death Magnetic at all. My favorite album is probably the Black album as far as production goes. As far as the songs, then it would have to be Master of Puppets. My least favorite would be St. Anger (Holy crap, what were they thinking?) Honestly though, I look at Metallica like I look at the original Star Wars Trilogy. What Metallica is doing now is more like the Star Wars prequels. I'm not sure who is the Jar Jar Binks of Metallica though?

 

 

 

Jason Newkid, the man many people blame for Metallica's crap era

[craigny]

MetallicA rulz!

[ashasha]

Jason Newkid, the man many people blame for Metallica's crap era

Most people are idiots too so that should tell you something.

 

 

Newstead came into the band and was pretty much abused and ignored and just played the bass for them for a long time. He was never treated as an equal in that band and they ALL admitted to it being the root cause of the breakup.

 

Musical direction after Cliff died was always James and Lars...then Kirk's opinion and input and anything left over in the sonic spectrum was given to Jason. But between Lars' and James' overbearing buttheadedness do you think that anyone is going to tell them 'no' about something?

[paulojcduarte]

Never cared too much about Metallica, but I think Death Magnetic is a good album. Kirk Hammet on the other hand.

 

Respect for James tho, great player.

[islesdon]

Most people are idiots too so that should tell you something. Newstead came into the band and was pretty much abused and ignored and just played the bass for them for a long time. He was never treated as an equal in that band and they ALL admitted to it being the root cause of the breakup. Musical direction after Cliff died was always James and Lars...then Kirk's opinion and input and anything left over in the sonic spectrum was given to Jason. But between Lars' and James' overbearing buttheadedness do you think that anyone is going to tell them 'no' about something?

 

I remember watching the video for the making of the Black album back in the day.

They had Kirk doing a solo take over the Unforgiven I think. I never knew if it was a joke, but his first take was awful (That was being kind!)

 

I think Newsted was pretty much like a puppet, with the Masters being James and Lars!

One thing I will say about Newsted though is, I remember his energy during the live shows. When they came out on stage, he truely seemed to be having fun, and enjoying the crowd.

 

I do think Trujillo is way better obviously. However, what is up with him spinning on stage, and the crouched walking? I'm waiting for him to do the spin and fall down from being dizzy!

[wimpy77]

why do people want artists to back and repeat themselves?

[diceman1000]

NO!!!