Who else is looking forward to Metallica’s 2008 release?

Songburst wrote:

I can't wait to hear Unforgiven III. Haha.

Beat me to it.

Not a huge Metallica fan, but I actually didn't mind stuff from load and reload. I actually find Metallica fans hilarious because they are so hardcore about the early stages of the bands career. Bands that keep making the same records over and over just suck. I have to give Metallica some credit for trying different things, despite the backlash from their "true" fans.

ii44 wrote:

Lightning, Puppets, Justice all basically have the same blueprint: Thrasher opener, long epic second song, big ballad on the fourth song, long instrumental at the end, the only real difference is that on Puppets and Justice they closed with a thrasher too. I think the first two are great records, but I think Justice is a bit weak. It has a thin, lifeless sound, the instrumental track is terrible, and most of the songs just aren't up to par from the previous records. It's a pale imitation of their previous two records. It's easy to see why they felt they needed to dramatically alter their sound.

but you should definitely see a progression among their first 4 albums that eventually culminated in And Justice For All. I think it would have been impossible for them to push the envelope further because several of the Justice songs were too difficult for them to even recreate live.

so they parred it down some and we got the Black album, which I liked as well. I started listening to them somewhere between the MOP and AJFA albums, but I was not one of the fans that disliked the Black album. I was in high school at the time and honestly, I didn't see a huge difference at the time (though I DO see a bigger difference now).

the 2 Load albums though, ugh. I think there's a difference between PROgressing into a different band and REgressing into a different band. I think that was a big sellout point. they were hanging out with the guys from Soundgarden and AIC at that point and I really think they thought they would lose all popularity if they didn't try to go "grunge". there WERE a handfull of songs on those 2 that were *decent*, and I agree with whoever said they should've took the best songs and put them into 1 GOOD album rather than 2 mediocre albums.

as for St Anger, I just flat can't listen to it. I applaud anyone who can. there may actually be some great songs on there, but the production and drums make it unlistenable for me. whoever "produced" that album should not be allowed to produce another album again. and if I'm not mistaken, it was Bob Rock. so I definitely think he may have had the band members (particularly Lars) fuck the production up too much. the drum sound in that album is awful. but I know production shouldn't be a problem with Rick Rubin involved.

PS. I understand the point, but I wouldn't classify "Fade to Black", "Sanitarium", and "One" as 'ballads'. yeah, they start off slower passed, but they are still very much METAL songs and are 100% heavier than what most bands ever put out. "Every Rose Has It's Thorns" was a ballad, those 3 Metallica songs were far from that.

I think they should've quit after Load, which in my opinion was the last listenable CD they put out. Everything from Reload on has been crap. Except for maybe the second disc on Garage, Inc. But even that turned to crap after "So What."

I'll actually give their new CD a chance when it comes out, though. If I'm not impressed, I'm through with the band. Period.

Brain Of E wrote:

Like most of you, I am a longtime Metallica listener and I think they've put out some great music. Unfortunately, I am very doubtful that Metallica will ever make a good album again and I believe that they should put themselves out of their misery and call it quits. Don't get me wrong, I think these guys are awesome musicians and artists but after listening to St.Anger and seeing SKOM, i really don't think that this group of musicians can put out a "listenable" album anymore. They should break up or maybe persue solo careers or start new bands. They need to at least take a break from each other and find other musicians to inspire some creativity in themselves. As I was watching SKOM, it really felt like Lars and James hate each other's guts and Kirk seems frustrated that things never get done. Actually it is Kirk who I am most interested in hearing music done without those guys. Did you ever hear that song he did on the Spawn soundtrack? I thought it was pretty cool, even though it had that techno stuff on it. It would be cool if he did some guitar solo stuff like Joe Satriani or maybe start another band.

That's an interesting thought. I'd like to hear Kirk play with other people too. As quiet as he is, I like him the best.