Powerful, Fast, Dynamic, Different, Disappointing?
Review of Metallica's St. Anger
Review by 6(rob)6

Where to begin...hmmmm ah yes I know. Metallica, one of the best metal bands I have ever heard in my entire life. Listening to ...And Justice For All, Master Of Puppets and Ride the Lightning brings so much energy and joy to my ears. Wondering how it's possible for a band to write an 8-9 song album with multiple songs being over 6 minutes and having it be impossible to get bored. That's the magic of metallica. They just have that magical touch....wait, or should I say, had the magical touch. I watch Much Music for 40 minutes straight basically during Much on Demand because I was flipping and I heard, 'and make sure to come back after the break, because later on in the show we will be premiering the new metallica video' so that just gets me pumped up because I have downloaded many tracks off Kazaa just trying to find little clips of new metallica but I didn't trust any of it cause it just didn't sound like metallica. So I watch much on demand for the next 40 minutes (and we all know how painful that is) and the excitement is building. It finally comes on... the starting of St. Anger blows me away, I can't believe my ears and a big smile comes across my face seeing Lars ripping the shit of the drums like he did back in the 80's. But then I hear the verse come in; hmmm this is a little different. A different tempo, but not a big deal. I like this song. So I hear St. Anger 4-5 times and I’m not sure of what to think. I think to myself, 'it's fast again, its heavy, but something is wrong here, the song didn't really flow that well.... WHAT THE FUCK, where the fuck is the solo? Kirk is a god at the guitar, why on earth would metallica leave him out. This doesn't make sense. Ok calm down, maybe it’s just the song. So I call my cousin up, who runs this site and has like 50 metallica shirts and we discuss the song. Well I hear terrible disgusting news. 'Metallica cut out all solos' this pisses me off. Doesn’t make any fucking sense at all. How could these 80's thrashing metal gods do this? So after reading multiple reviews on the Internet and talking to my cousin, I decide not to buy it. But I come home the other day and my brother bought it for me as a late birthday present. He says I can return it for store credit but I’m like, what the fuck. Lets give it a try. I went in with an open mind and just let it rock. After listening to it about 3 times through now. I can say I’m disappointed...but there are pros to this album as well. The snare was really annoying, I really want to know what the fuck Lars was thinking, it just sounds bad. The whole solo thing, yes its a terrible idea and to go back to old metallica like they said they were, you need Kirk ripping solos. But growing up listening to korn, deftones and slipknot etc.. I don't need solos for good music. This album has a bunch of times where it gets you moving. They wrote some really hard thick riffs and it sounds awesome. But the major downside to this album, is that there is almost no flow at all. It seems really choppy and just like they tried to hard on this album to make the songs longer and it just didn't seem natural. I have no idea if this is even a possibility, but I know if they write another album, it will be a lot better. It was just such a long time since they put out an album; they tried really really hard, which is good. But it just didn't flow which was disappointing. But my opinion is go into it with an open mind. DON'T FUCKING EXPECT; kill em all, master of puppets, ...and justice for all, ride the lightning or even black album. Go in expecting a new sound. It’s not a bad sound. It’s different. Now currently, listening to favourite bands, in flames, soilwork, shadows fall, pantera, metallica, children of bodom, ebony tears, lamb of god. I need and love long killer solo's. So yes I’m disappointed with the no solo's but it’s not a terrible album. It still has some awesome heavy parts, some kick ass thrash riffs and just some great tunes. It’s a lot better than load and re-load. That’s for sure. Overall, I give this album a 6.5/10. It could have been so much better, but it is a huge improvement and its amazing to see the boys playing fast and hard music again, even though its not the metallica of old, its an improvement and that's why I pray for one more metallica album cause this was just shaking off the cobwebs, and I know just one more shot at it would be awesome.