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2/21/2009 6:15:49 PM

Quote :

"I'm not a metal guy at all, and the first four Metallica albums are all great. The black album is not. In fact, the only song on it that I still care for is "Sad but True." "

Yeah, I like some metal, but I'm definitely not at all a "metal guy". I'm more of a Rolling Stones/Grateful Dead/Guns 'N Roses/Black Crowes sort of guy (the hardest bands that I really, really like besides Metallica are Alice in Chains and Tool...and a few Pantera songs)...

but I'm with you--the Black album is a pretty good album, but not even close to Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, or ...And Justice For All. At this point, though, Metallica has made a whole lot more mediocre music than great stuff. What they did in their heyday, though, is the yardstick by which metal is measured, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, they wrote the book.

2/21/2009 6:17:47 PM

i'd argue that while most metallica cds have ~3 or 4 really good songs and the rest just good, black has 7 really good songs and the rest still good.

2/21/2009 7:07:40 PM

And I'd argue that you have no idea what you're talking about.

2/21/2009 7:08:44 PM

while i definitely dont think black is in the top 3, he's right that it is the most consistent throughout the CD at least. id say most are consistently decent (not great though). few really good ones.

albums like ride the lightning have some really great tracks, but a few that i could live without as well. even master of puppets (my fav by far) has a couple that im not always dying to listen to.

that said, death magnetic was a pretty good album. i rather like my apocalypse and day that never comes. others i have heard are decent, but ive only heard them a couple of times.

2/21/2009 7:36:25 PM

Quote :

"And I'd argue that you have no idea what you're talking about."

2/21/2009 8:09:40 PM

meh, this seems to be a matter of elitist Metallica fans vs. casual Metallica fans

of course the elitists are gonna prefer something other than their most mainstream, accessible album
of course the casual fans are gonna prefer that album

I'm a casual fan myself...I don't deny that early Metallica might be great, but that doesn't mean that the Black album isn't the shit.

2/21/2009 8:15:39 PM

i think i'm anything but a metal elitist, and i like the "hard" albums better.

2/22/2009 10:18:10 AM

Its still cool to hate Metallica? I thought that fad was over a few years ago.

2/22/2009 10:19:57 AM

^^
I'm not talking about metal elitists, I'm talking about Metallica elitists

my point is that the Black album is more accessible, and less conventional metal-ly, than most of their earlier stuff

which is probably the reason why casual Metallica fans prefer it, and why serious Metallica fans prefer their earlier stuff.

2/22/2009 10:43:49 AM

What you're saying is that the black album is the beginning of the pussification of Metallica.

2/22/2009 10:56:24 AM

i havent read this thread but i will agree with the title

2/22/2009 10:58:00 AM

^^ that's one way to look at it...but pussified Metallica (as you would have it) still amounted to damn good music

2/22/2009 10:59:12 AM

Except not.

It sounds like sludge, and that only ever worked for the Melvins.

2/22/2009 11:08:30 AM

meh...agree to disagree

2/22/2009 11:08:52 AM

there are plenty of good bands that sound like sludge.

metallica is not one of them and that new video is the dumbest shit ive ever seen.

2/22/2009 11:15:41 AM

Lightning Bolt?

2/22/2009 11:17:38 AM

you guys are forgetting that vinylbandit is the self appointed music guru and everyone else has no idea what they are talking about

2/22/2009 11:53:00 AM

Quote :

"of course the elitists are gonna prefer something other than their most mainstream, accessible album"

so it's "elitist" to recognize good music now?

Listen to the way songs are put together on the early albums--the harmonies, the raging basslines, incredible leads...then go compare that to Black and everything they've done since (minus S&M). It's not even close.

2/22/2009 11:58:49 AM

So, did the guys in metallica stop doing drugs?.... ("no junk, no soul")

2/22/2009 12:02:05 PM

I actually heard Load first and didn't like it at all (was like 12 or something). Then the same friend played the s/t album for me and I didn't really get into it either and pretty much decided that I didn't like Metallica at all.

But eventually upon people's suggestions in early HS I checked out the early Metallica stuff and was pleasantly surprised. As I stated before, I'm still not a huge metallica fan either way but as a general metal fan I don't even think their later stuff comes close to touching those first 4.

And, on a side note, Id love to find out how many bands have been influenced by early metallica's first 4 albums vs. how many bands were influenced by the rest. I'd be willing to bet its near 5:1 in favor of the first set

[Edited on February 22, 2009 at 12:16 PM. Reason : ]

2/22/2009 12:08:23 PM

"Battery" fucking rules.

That is all.

2/22/2009 12:39:45 PM

Metallica died under that bus with Cliff Burton

...And Justice For All was pretty good...but a slight step down from the previous 3. Everything after that was garbarge.

2/22/2009 2:46:25 PM

Quote :

"It sounds like sludge, and that only ever worked for the Melvins. "

Alice in Chains.

______________________________


It's not that everything after the "Black" album was awful (other than maybe St. Anger--I can see how you could really dislike that)...it's that it isn't really anything special. It's radio friendly hard rock, and not really anything that a bunch of other bands haven't done just as well or better. I mean, it's not quite Nickelback, but it's not all that far removed.

The first four albums will melt your face, and they some some musically amazing (both from composition and technical proficiency standpoints) things going on, particularly in the 2nd through 4th albums.

The "Black" album bridges the divide--it's enough like "old" Metallica that I still enjoy listening to it, but it's not quite as good (although more "accessible", as someone put it. It has a "comfort food" aspect without becoming boring like everything after it). The "Black" album gets scorned sometimes, though, because after seeing what happened in the albums that followed it, you can definitely see that the "Black" album was the beginning of the end.

2/22/2009 3:29:11 PM