METALLICA

This may seem an unpopular opinion, but I'm going to go ahead and give this record four stars.

I feel the biggest problem regarding this album is that it generally has such a bad reputation that most peoples opinion of it gets swayed by what everyone else is saying. I'm not saying everyone is a sheep just following the trend, but I feel that most people listen to this record with their minds set that it is terrible because there are few good things said about it.

Well, I'm going to try (in vain) to defend it, because after a number of listens, 'Reload' has really grown on me, and I've come to realise there are a lot of very underrated moments here.

Okay, so these may be songs that didn't quite make it onto 'Load', but that doesn't mean they're terrible. 'Fuel' is a great opening track, which is as heavy and rocking as anything else Metallica have done. And then there's 'The Memory Remains' and 'The Unforgiven II' which are probably the only other songs most people are familiar with on this record. But with a bit of patience there are some true gems on offer here. For example, 'Attitude', 'Bad Seed' and 'Where the Wild Things Are' are all amazingly well put together songs that are great to headbang to, though of course because they're not 'Enter Sandman' or 'Battery' I doubt many 'Tallica fans have even given them the time of day.

As usual the playing is all pretty tight. Kirk is becoming more comfortable with his wah pedal, Hetfield has his growl nailed to perfection, and Lars is, well... Lars.

I'm not saying this album is perfect, just that it is a lot better than people make it out to be. If it had been released by another band nobody would have a problem with it. But hey, I'll be the first to admit one thing, 'Low Man's Lyric' is indeed a pretty awful song.

But that aside, this is a great rock album. Give it a chance, and then give it a few more. I did, and I don't regret it.

... I have to make them justice... they were good indeed!!!

Putting aside the controversy about Metallica been a prog-related band, back in the 80's they really push out the revolution of metal to mainstream, and was progress to a time when only pop-metal hairy band can be on the top of all lists and charts. And they came with pure adrenaline and attitude and bring again the pure rock feeling back there, until the 90's. But before they came complete commercial and mediocre they brought out this impressive masterpiece of metal, and an excellent addition to any rock music lover. OK, maybe it's too heavy for some, but comm'n, Rock is about attitude and strength, and Metallica understand it very well.

I don't like to go checking song by song so lets say they put everything good in there: heavy and wonderful riffing, aggressive and fasts guitar solos, great drumming, swift in time signatures, dramatic introduction and melancholic soft parts matched by a complete "in your face" metal that is ideal to lift your body and feel OK. Another great thing is the improve on the sound quality. Over the end of the 80's, Metallica really brought out a great achievement in songwriting and sound quality together. Just great.

The bads: a very selfish one, Hetfield voice do not appeal too much to me, but the music worth it, it really makes everything sound nice or at least bearable. The inclusion of Newsted is bad for the band, this guy is really not a flexible bass player and is not even a shadow from the great Cliff Burton.

I believe their truly masterpiece was Master of Puppets, but this one is really there for the matches. Only for the inclusion of "One", one of my favorites songs from them, it worth the listen. If you are a metal fan and you don't have this album, you are wasting your time. If you don't really enjoy Metallica from the 90's, you should check this out. There are really prog elements there. An excellent inclusion indeed. 4 stars.

The best comeback of the decade.

I have never been fan of Metallica in general and during all my teen years I grow hearing the boring albums of them in the 90's. After St. Anger I really wished they split because was enough road downhill... but a friend showed me this album and I didn't expect it. Right from the start you know they really were back. Incredible how they spent more than 10 years doing bad music and suddenly decided that they really wanted to do music again? so, let's see about the album:

The album has everything Metallica is known of. Heavy and creative riffing courtesy of the best riff guitar player of metal, mr. Hetfield, tight and fast solos by Hammet at top form, even Ulrich sound like he is a great drummer (he is the most overrated average drummer, but he really plays loud on this) and a lot of instrumental sections, switching time signatures and the best Trash metal you can get as well as moody melancholic songs. All in all, this album has everything you want if you are a Metallica or are Metal fan in general.

Highlights of the album: Broken, Beat & Scarred, The End of the Line, All Nightmare Long and Unforgiven III (with a nice piano that is always welcome between a too metal mix) but in general all the songs are heavy, tight and somewhat creative, for a metal measure, of course.

The bads: a totally subjective for me, Hetfield's voice is not that great and I don't like it too much and sometimes it really bores me but the music was good enough to keep me interested. The instrumental song (Suicide and Redemption) is a little too metal and is not that great as the rest of the album but it's still good, especially for metalheads. The lyrics are stupid, but they have never been known by their brilliance in the lyric themes, but is not that bad to not appreciate the music.

Maybe is not essential to a prog collection but it's a metal most have without doubt. 4 stars because of the contribution of Metallica to the genre and it's a great album which could matches well with some of the heaviest prog-metal highlights (I feel like this album is a human Train of Thought, not as crazy as DT but in the same vibe). Especially recommended to those who have loose faith in the masters? Metallica is certainly back.

...And Justice for All part II. The unexpected return to form.

Congratulations to Metallica, again! Again, but twenty years later. It's incredibly how they returned from trash to thrash. I think the most important about this record is Metallica is back. It's the same old band. Metallica are again creating music in the genre they are able to: thrash metal. And this is wonderful! They are made for thrash metal, not for country, blues, alternative music or noise. It's popular they failed when they try to create different kind of music. Just look at Load, Reload and especially St. Anger... But not it's all in the past and Metallica are going to save their honour. In fact, they have already saved it - with Death Magnetic!

In my opinion Death Magnetic is direct successor to the best Metallica album - ...And Justice for All in terms of everything. It has been made with the philosophy and the tradition of 80's Metallica, without being repulsively commercial as Metallica have been the last twenty years. It's again based on complex sutructures and ideas, and nicely-heavy tunes in thrash manner. There is demo version of the album, before the release as it has been until ...And Justice for All album. Death Magnetic have been recorded in E tuning, as they did on their first five studio album. The band had previously played in E flat during the recordings of Load and ReLoad, and dropped C on St. Anger. That's indicative of the return to old days, too! All that helps Death Megnetic to become a new reason of pride for the band. But the return to old style is not the only necessary element for a pleasant album. There are more...

The previous paragraph in my review shows one thing - This album is the missing link, between ...And Justice for All and Metallica. Moreover, directly, it's the best Metallica album in twenty years. It's the logical sequel to ...And Justice for All. They continue from where they have stopped in the late 80s. Death Magnetic is very close to ...And Justice for All in terms of style, so the title of my review is ...And Justice for All part II. If we look back to Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, they are little different type of thrash metal, than ...And Justice for All and Death Magnetic. As whole, each of them is a logical sequel to the previous one.

I thought whether to review all songs one by one or not. At the end I decided not to review them one by one, because they all carry the spirit of the album as a hole. The impression is as an album just like it should be! This doesn't mean the songs aren't memorable, contrary. There aren't weak songs here. All of them are catchy and interesting, complex and full of surprises (this wasn't happening for about fifteen years), as well as very long. The drumming style of Lars Ulrich is highly addictive, the solos by Kirk Hammett are very fast and completed, the vocals by James Hetfield are charming. The album is full of rhythm guitars which took partly the role of bass player - Robert Trujillo, who appears as a debutant on a Metallica studio album. Bass guitar is very low tuned and often sits at the background of the performance, but it's usual for Metallica.

As whole Death Magnetic is very dynamic and energetic album with superb musicianship and ingenious songwriting with little number of non-thrash metal elements. There is one exception and it is The Unforgiven III. It's a sequel ballad to The Unforgiven series (I and II), which I consider as perfect song. It shows high level of human maturity, in my opinion. It's the best Unforgiven song I think. The Unforgiven III is one of the two dramatical pieces on the album; it contains fresh dramatical balance between ballad and heavy rocking song. The other dramatical piece on Death Magnetic is the first single of the album - The Day That Never Comes. Its structure reminds directly to One, the breakthrough single by Metallica from ...And Justice for All album. It begins as a ballad and gradually convert to more and more dramatical piece until its culmination like thrash monster. The other resemblance is their number on their respective albums - 4. This makes The Day That Never Comes direct reference to One and Death Magnetic direct reference to ...And Justice for All.

Highly addictive, the most progressive album by Metallica , Death Magnetic - 3 3/4 stars!!!

The worst album I've ever heard

Wow... I must admit to Metallica their ability to create something abnormally disgusting. And I admit it every single time, when I listen to St. Anger (they are not much: 2 times when it was released and 1 now because of writing a review). It's noise, it,s not music. There's not any logic and songwriting here. It's just experimental noise here. Probably it's an achievement, too. It's an achievement, because it's very difficult to create so awful piece of art. There are a lot of comic moments on St. Anger. Wow... It's extraterrestrial. There aren't fresh or whatever ideas. The most important thing I can say about this album is: St. Anger is a common noun of noise, incompetence, foolishness and misunderstanding (of nature). 1,00000000000000000000000000(0) stars!!!

Load part II

Reload continues the style of its predecessor - Load, but this time even worse than the first. Most of the songs are absolute irritating and illogical. They are much worse than a mainstreem radio songs. The Memory Remains, The Unforgiven II and Low Man's Lyric are exception. All of them are memorable and contain melody in contrast with the others. On Reload rules again blues, country and alternative music combined in inappropriate and unbalanced style. Because of the presence of less good songs than on Load and because of the presence of less good themes in the poor songs, Reload should be ranked lower than Load. The other reason for than wil be the less number of fresh and innovative ideas here. It could be considered as a lazy and boring release with using of universal chords that can be heard in 50% of radio rock songs. That's why they are lazy and boring: made without a will. 1,5 stars

The end

I like when a band takes different direction to explore some other types and genres of music. Not now, of course, because it has to be made with elegance and quality. The situation here is totally different. Metallica takes the commercial development and it looks like they will never get back. The genre in Load is absolutely different - mixture between country, blues and alternative music combined in mediocre way. No sign of thrash!!! The worst in Load is the length of the album - it's too long and because of that some more dull, boring and shapeless. At that moment of their career, they've lost the sense of making heavier music. But there is other aspect in here. They partially kept their sense of making ballads. These ballads save the album. Namely these ballads are the only good songs here, with Mama Said being the best one. The other songs deserving attention are: Until It Sleeps, The House Jack Built and Bleeding Me. Because of them - 1,75 stars!

The beginning of the end

When some great musicians made their magnum opus, they've always change the direction in wrong way. Or probably wrong is not the most appropriate word here. To be more precise I would say, then the musicians take non-musical way, but the commercial. The reason could be a relief from the great works of art they did or willingness of enrichment. Somehow or other, they sold their souls to... money!!! When they did it, it's impossible to make great music any more. That's the case with Genesis, that's the case with Metallica, too. After magnificent ,,,And Justice for All it is time for losing form, at the expense of earning money.

And yet the homonymous album by Metallica is not a bad album. It doesn't contain any thrash parts. There aren't weak songs, but also there aren't special, except perhaps Nothing Else Matters. It's full of mainstream and unbalanced rock songs. Direction is lost, the style, too. Obviously, the last remained trick, that save the album musically is momentum. Despite that, commercially Metallica is the most successful album by the band and one of the most successful in the history of rock music. The last one is not important for me, so 3 stars!

Metallica is not prog!Metallica is not prog!Metallica is noi prog!It's a true blasphemy to put Metallica on a progressive site!I am sorry,but definitelly,METALLICA don't have anything to do with prog music!Of course,I am not absurd to deny this band's obvious importance in the history of music!No way!I am not pretending they aren't important,because they made some essential and milestone albums!So,I won't say a word about this album,just the fact it's much better compared to the disaster called ST ANGER,but far...so far away compared to the masterpieces...MASTER OF PUPPETS...AND JUSTICE..and BLACK ALBUMMM.yes in this order!They have finished the fuel long time ago,they are living legends...icons...whatever...but THEY ARE NOT PROG!!!And this album is CRAP!Sorry,go and find your place,METELLICA in the metal PANTHEON...where you deserve your place! 2 STARS for a mediocre and weak album under all aspects!

Continues with excellence

Master of Puppets is the next step in the development of Metallica as one of the main bands in thrash metal. The genre of the album is pure thrash metal as the predecessor - Ride the Lightning. And yet both albums are different to each other, despite the same genre. In Master of Puppets the sound is more compact and homogeneous, while in Ride the Lightning it is more scattered. It's hard for me to judge which's better, but I suppose I slightly prefer Ride the Lightning.

There aren't weak songs here on Master of Puppets as in Ride the Lightning. Probably the musicianship here is in its peak for the band. Album is less progressive than its predecessor, but contains the instrumental Orion, which is a reminder of prog music. Because of its importance, Master of Puppets is slightly overrated in my opinion, because I don't think it's the best metal album, but yet landmark in metal music. After this album Cliff Burton passed away in accident and the other members have produced the real magnus opus of Metallica - ...And Justice for All! Master of Puppets - around 4 stars!