Metallica - Metallica
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Free Music Notes for Metallica
Free Music Review: The Greatest Album of All Time, Hands Down
Hit: 5 Stars
Without a doubt the greatest album of all time, no matter what music type or time frame we're talkin about here. It took some thought to come to this conclusion though. The only album in my opinion to give The Black Album competition in this discussion is GNR's Appetite For Destruction, which still wasn't as influential or timeless as this flat-out masterpiece. With the release of The Black Album, Metallica recreated music as we know it. Their dominance is unmatched to this day...very few bands have ever even touched the level of mastery that the kings of rock/metal have CONSISTENTLY maintained for 25 years counting. I'll repeat that...25 years at the top. Unbelievable. GNR had it for 5 years max. Its difficult to grasp this feat considering the different eras of music Metallica has steam-rolled through. Grunge? Glam Rock? Those are forgotten. You get my point. Bow down to the kings- there's no need for me to go through all the songs and explain their greatness. You know them already.Free Music Review: 17+ years
Hit: 5 Stars
Sales don't mean much in terms of measuring an album's quality. Shania Twain and countless boy-bands have stumbled upon the secret of selling ten million albums. That doesn't mean the music is decent.
But I think there is something to be said for an album that hasn't left Billboard's pop catalog in 17+ years.
According to most Metallica / heavy metal fans, this is not the band's best album. Some consider it the "beginning of the end" of the band, but that's a wee bit ridiculous. While the later albums like Reload and St. Anger haven't duplicated the raw energy (and arguable brilliance) of the band's earlier material, they all have high points ("Bleeding Me", "Fixxxer", "No Leaf Clover", "All Within My Hands") that should at least clear them of some of the obnoxious damnation aimed their way.
The "black album" is the bridge between Metallica's two entirely different eras. Some of the material here ("Holier Than Thou", "The Struggle Within", "Through the Never") is reminiscent of the band's thrash days. And some of it foreshadowed the slower, more groove-oriented sounds of the nineties and twenty-first century Metallica (despite some claims, their nineties material sounds more like Zeppelin and Sabbath than anything alternative). Curiously, it's these slower songs that I think have best stood the test of time.
This album is a living reminder of when Metallica aligned with the sun and took over the world. Because of this, some claim this record is flawed and too commercial. Maybe so, but Metallica's dominance began with Ride the Lightning and broke the surface with the release of "One", and the "groove" sounds found here were first demonstrated on "mainstream" songs like "Escape" and "Leper Messiah".
Commercial or not, this album is what a Metallica album should be: heavy. And there is not a better Metallica album in existence to demonstrate James Hetfield's vocal capabilities-- he sounds raw, angry, and somehow right on key. The whole band does.
Buy this. Old Metallica, new Metallica... I think time will show that Metallica is Metallica. And "My Friend of Misery" alone is worth the price you'll pay for this piece of history.
Free Music Review: If you can't drink caffiene and have a long road trip...
Hit: 5 Stars
I listened to this while pregnant with my first child all the time. I had a long commute, and there weren't any bathroom stops along the busy interstate I drove on. I had to be in the car for at least an hour, with a good 20-30 minutes after parking until I could find a restroom. Hence, no soda, coffee, etc. (I was also paranoid - this was my first baby, after all) Turns out the fetus loved the music too, and even at the age of 5, all I have to do is put this album on and he relaxes and dances, and sings along. Yup, I turned my child into a lover of heavy metal. Even as an infant, he'd relax and wriggle happily to Metallica's black album. hee hee hee.Free Music Review: Beginning of the End
Hit: 2 Stars
This started the downfall for Metallica, one of my favorite bands until this piece of donkey-hair came out.
The songs were so overplayed you didn't need to buy the album (and I played it several times myself, gotta point the finger at me too).
This was the beginning where they really softened up, yet embraced the media like a crack addict. With touring for 3 years straight, pushing videos, documentaries, live albums, performances on Arsenio Hall, MTV, Metallica made enough money that they should have retired.
Load & Reload were better, and Garage, Inc. beat all three, but I gave this one 2 stars because it was at least better than their newest piece of garbage St. $#!T.
Free Music Review: The heavyweight champion of the world for 1991 - 4.5 stars
Hit: 4 Stars
Just before writing this review I tried to think of other watershed albums from 1991. And none of those that came to mind really struck me as likely to knock this album off it's perch. I mean, Megadeths awesome Rust in Peace is the better album but that was 1990. Some might argue for the same mobs Countdown to Extinction, but that was 1992. So nope, no contest from either. Ditto for Judas Priests' Painkiller (1990). There was the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Blood Sugar Sex Magic, but as funky and jumpy as that was, you just know that in a ring the black album would, by law of averages, land a few blows and the scrawny surfy metal album would hit the canvas. Panteras' Vulgar Display of Power wouldn't grace the shelves until 1992 and while Metal Churchs' 1991 opus The Human Factor could probably go the full 12 rounds, on audience appeal alone the black album would still win.
The reasons why aren't always so obvious. Obviously the bands time had come. A traditional build up of fortunes had positioned them nicely. After Hysteria went through the roof Joe Elliot once commented that Def Leppard could probably put out an album of bee farts and it would sell. And Metallica were probably in a similar position. So some of this albums appeal came from people being excited about whatever Metallica were going to do next.
But what also got people excited was the actual songs on the record. The excellent traditional metal fare of Enter Sandman, the done me wrong nastiness of Sad But True and Holier than Thou working their sweet charm and the bands paeon to displaced youth The Unforgiven. And really, once the listener got through those four tunes the deal was probably closed. The somewhat more cerebral/triumphant/defiant Wherever I May Roam and the slow burn stomper of Don't Tread On Me are also highly worthwhile in their own right and the bands ability to go up and down the gears in terms of time signatures is shown all throughout these numbers up to and including Through the Never, the latter replete with swirling, head bang inducing guitar histrionics. At which point the band really drop down several gears at once to Nothing Else Matters, which spiritually I always felt was the antidote to Fade to Black from the earlier Ride The Lightning album.
After that it probably doesn't matter that the rest of the album is basically filler, Metallica were always a band that could get away with a chunk of filler on a number of their albums and convince you the album was, in fact, all killer no filler anyway. Though My Friend Of Misery does indeed have an interesting and infectious groove even if the lyrical bent of the thing is a bit obtuse.
This album works because there are a number of styles here, and all work. As opposed to the later Load albums which had a few different styles, not any of which really worked to great effect. An album that in so many ways was just destined to do well, but you don't hate it for that. After all this is a band that paid their dues and put together an excellent raft of tunes, tacked a few also-rans to the end of it to make up the numbers and then had all their planets aligned. Good luck to them. A good album with some excellent tunes on it, as opposed to an excellent album full stop, but still probably required listening for anyone wanting to delve into the Metallica catalogue.