St. Anger - Like or Dislike?
By williamnc
@williamnc (10)
United States
May 5, 2007 12:31am CST
When Metallica shifted from their long-time sound to the style presented in their Load album, they took a lot of flak. Their response? Reload! I love it. Even if you don't like the change, you've got to respect that they are true to themselves and don't go with the flow. As a result, they aren't just aging music pioneers, but continue to rock on with new material.
That brings us to St. Anger. Once again, as with the release of Load, Metallica caught a lot of flak for St. Anger. The purposeful under-production, the dramatic change in Lars' drum sound, etc. combined to make a raw, fierce album - but one that was widely panned by critics and fans.
It pained me for the longest time to hear Lars' booming drum-kit reduced to a high-hat and snare. I really wanted to like St. Anger, but did not for a long time. Once I listened enough, I got past the fact that this album was different, and that they had tampered with that sound I loved so much, and I began to love St. Anger, one song at a time.
From St. Anger to Shoot Me Again to Some Kind of Monster to Invisible Kid... this album really rocks. Is it landmark like Master Of Puppets or The Black Album? No. Does it have awesome melodies and multiple time-changes with clever hooks like Load and Reload. No. What does it have then?
Fire. Intensity. Raw emotion.
St. Anger is a departure, even for Metallica; and considering that many fans were looking to this album to be a return of the "old" sound, St. Anger takes a while to grow on you. But, once it does, I think most fans will come to love it and even consider some of its songs among the greats from Metallica.
1 person likes this
9 responses
@raptorbyt (105)
• India
8 May 07
st. anger the album wasn't great.frantic and st.anger were gud.but lukn at them with the standards of metallica they weren't great.i definitely prefer the old songs.i didnt take out time to listen to all the songs of st. anger/
@Gemmygirl1 (2867)
• Australia
5 May 07
Load was kind lousy with the acception of the song 'Until it sleeps'.
The album you called 'the black album' is actually self titled! That was where they started going a little too commercial so that's when there were a lot more metallica fans.
St Anger isn't a bad album though, my other half bought the album coz he's a die hard metallica fan from way back & he wanted to see if that album lived up to their old stuff or not. He enjoyed it so i guess that means it's a pretty good album :)
You cant compare Metallica/Metallica to Master of Puppets - they're so not the same. Load & reload were a little on the sissy side - there was even a song on reload that had a country sound to it - that's so not the old metallica.
True Metallica fans would have stopped around And Justice For All :)
1 person likes this
@Metallideth (572)
• United States
17 Jul 07
Like you said, Metallica got a lot of crap from people about Load, and understandably so, since the style changed so much. I agree with you though, about how Metallica is true to themselves, not what other people want, and I respect that. Personally, I think Load (and especially Reload) are pretty good, but I wouldn't rank them as highly as the old stuff.
St. Anger is different for me, though. I can't even like it as much as Load. There are parts of songs that I really like, say for example, the riff from Frantic - great, and the drum sound doesn't bother me as much as other people, since I listen to a lot of old stuff with bad production anyway, but there's just something "un-likeable" about the song as a whole, and the title track is the same for me. The rest of the album is pretty much like that as well. Some of the songs start out well, and then just go downhill. The lack of soloing doesn't help either, but even without considering that, I just don't like the song structures and the overall sound of the album.
@kp_azbycx (10)
•
7 May 07
who can beat the god himself?the song was made with perfection.....i loved the song....hope every1 did.and cant help it if some rappers hate..it..we hate them..anyways....this song was 1 awesome song..a major hit......a real good video..and i loved it loads.....metallica rox.!!!
@babyangie27 (5176)
• United States
6 May 07
My husband got St.Anger from his brother a die hard fan like my hubby but the brother hated it. My husband likes most of the songs but still misses the true hardness they used to have.
I respect everything they do and everything they have gone through. They changed yes,they grew up yes. But I loved St.Anger, when I'm really mad and want to vent I just pop it into my cd player and blast it!
I can't wait to see what they are going to put out next.
@Mamabear84 (69)
• United States
20 May 07
Cannot stand that album, my favorite is the black album and it probably always will be!
@lokeshgarg (25)
• India
21 May 07
metallica has done some truly amazing work and contributed alot to music...especially the rock,hard rock and metal genres....st.anger like other albums is a class apart...but...it lacks the very fundamental and trademark metallica melodies and solos....
