Metallica - St. Anger review
| Band: | Metallica |
| Album: | St. Anger |
| Style: | Alternative metal |
| Release date: | June 2003 |
Disc I
01. Frantic
02. St. Anger
03. Some Kind Of Monster
04. Dirty Window
05. Invisible Kid
06. My World
07. Shoot Me Again
08. Sweet Amber
09. The Unnamed Feeling
10. Purify
11. All Within My Hands
Disc II [Live in the studio at Metallica HQ DVD - digipack bonus]
01. Frantic
02. St. Anger
03. Some Kind Of Monster
04. Dirty Window
05. Invisible Kid
06. My World
07. Shoot Me Again
08. Sweet Amber
09. The Unnamed Feeling
10. Purify
11. All Within My Hands
Six long years after the release of ReLoad, Metallica come back on the scene to show their 8th studio album, St. Anger. Many of you have almost lost all the respect for this band since the release of the black album, many others hate them because of Load and ReLoad and some others have now lost every interest in their music. Actually, what can you all expect from the band who left its early amazing style to get fame and glory on MTV?
They got the MTV Icon 2003 nomination [did we all see Avril Lavigne?]. They released several commercial operations such as 'I Disappear'; they have a new bass player with a terrible funky look; they have an awful new logo; better leave out this ugly cover artwork by Pushead. The Four Horsemen seem now so far from what they were the 80's...
Are we angry enough? Well, Metallica seem to be angry too! Probably, they've never been so angry before. All the patience they had, all the critics they beared, all the rage they had inside and all the anger have now exploded.
They thought: "Metallica cannot end this way, so we've got to return to our early feelings". This is right: they made a new album, returning to heavy sounds but producing it with all the experience they acquired in these last 20 years. Now it's easy to understand the album's title and the scream in the title track: "I need to set my anger free"!
The Four Horsemen want to regain the fans' trust and to reassure them. For this reason they included a bonus DVD featuring live rehearsal recordings of all eleven songs played with Rob Trujillo. So it is also a way to show us Rob's skill, since he doesn't play on the cd: we must remember that Rob joined Metallica when St. Anger was almost finished and that producer Bob Rock played all the bass lines during the recording sessions.
But what is St. Anger like? Is it "just another Metallica joke"? Is it expensive because of the DVD? Shall you buy it? Don't worry: I bought it for you, the same day as the release, DVD included, it cost me 21,75 Euros: regular Italian price.
I've been waiting for this album since I was 12, since I pushed play and heard Metallica for the first time: "Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire!". Then began a strong passion that will not end until they'll record rap songs.
I've never lost my Metallifaith [maybe because ReLoad was my first Metal cd] but I must admit that I wasn't expecting all this. I could type a dozen pages about St. Anger but I'll try to describe it in a few lines.
Look at the package: awful design. Look at the tracklist: hmmm, track #2 is a title track, just as in the first albums. Interesting... Now push play!
'Frantic' is heavy fast thrash metal! Aggressive vocals, heavy riffs, terrible drums and a catchy riff coming up sometimes from all that mess! You might think: "The opening tracks are always heavy". You may be right. You may...
Let's skip to the second track. Now your tongue has frozen! You begin to understand that the whole album is pure anger. In the title track there is just a slow clean part during the chorus: it is one of the few soft parts you will find here.
In this album Lars proves that he can still play drums at full blast! I think that we can compare his work on this album to that of ...And Justice For All: ultracomplex and massive. This seems to be a natural evolution, just as St. Anger was Metallica's 6th album. It is just unbelievable: Metallica seems to have buried every trail of Load, ReLoad and maybe of the black album too! You all remember that tiring title track in ...And Justice For All and its complex structure. Now forget it: songs like 'Some Kind Of Monster' and 'All Within My Hands' are here to drive you crazy. I never heard any Metallisong so complex! Just undescribable. Go further, skip all the tracks: the more you hear the less you believe. Are these the same guys who played 'Nothing Else Matters' with an orchestra? Hard to believe. This is not Metallica.
St. Anger is a brutal Thrash metal work, without any kind of structure, totally different from what we heard before. There are no bridges, no verses, no chorus. The guitars are fat. There are no solos: where is Kirk Hammett?
The drums are simply excellent, for their raw sound and above all for the great double bassdrums parts: well done, Lars! But the drums volume is really too loud. The vocal parts are absurd: no melodic lines, too much speech and screams. Total absence of melodic parts: there isn't any heavy ballad, just brutal pieces. It's not a problem: I like Pantera.
But even the early works featured some quiet moments. All the clean guitars we heard in 'One' have disappeared! And what is the result? A chaotic mass of riffs and exuberant drums: Metallica can still shock us! But in my opinion all this mess is not the right way to regain the fans? trust. These are not The Four Horsemen. These are four mad guys.
I'd leave this review without a rating. How would you rate a Metal record that doesn't feature any guitar solo? Can you all hear me? I bet that their next album will include once again fantastic melodies: I swear it! Hehehee...
I know that while I'm typing this on June 6, 2003 [yeah, the same day as the release], thousands of people don't even imagine how they're gonna be shocked! So it is hard to foretell now, but I believe that St. Anger can potentially become an important turning point for Metallica but also for the fans who abandoned them soon after Load. This work shall prove to the world that they're not done yet: like the phoenix, Metallica seems to have risen from its ashes. At the moment, I personally don't like this record. I'd like to see some other review [even on this website].
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
7.2
7.2
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Rating: 7.2 |
Metallica's 2003 release, St. Anger, will most likely always be considered the low point of the bands discography. I'm not sure if I can completely agree with this. I personally believe Load and Reload are worse albums. Mind you, St. Anger is absolutely not a fantastic release. It rambles, has some bad tracks, and sometimes you wonder "what are they doing?" (listen to Hetfield's moans in Invisible Kid). But the album does have energy, something the band has had on about 3 tracks on the last 2 studio discs. Read more ›› |
Comments page 4 / 5
Comments: 145
Visited by: 569 users
| RavenLord Posts: 651 From: Ireland  |
The fact that the band joke about 'There are guitar solos this time!' and 'We remembered to tune Lars' snare drums!' in interviews speaks volumes about how shit even they think the album is. When the people who write the album think it's a bad joke, you know it can never rise above complete and utter mediocrity. Hell, if St. Anger was mediocre, it'd be halfway enjoyable!
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| Arian Totalis The Philosopher Posts: 3351 From: USA  |
Written by RavenLord on 12.06.2007 at 13:08 Well said my friend, well said.
---- "For the Coward there is no Life For the hero there is No Death" -Kakita Toshimoko "The Philosopher, you know so much about nothing at all." _Chuck Schuldiner.
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695 From: Sweden  |
Well I consider this to be a good album, and I also love the singles. So now everybody will quote me and say WTF... let me then explain: I was 13 years old when this album came. I didn't even own an album, I listened to some downloaded Iron Maiden and Metallica (Enter Sandman, Sad but True)... and that's like it! I considered Enter Sandman to be one of the heaviest songs ever. Then St. Anger turned up on MTV, and it was even heavier. As a 13-year old with a Metal taste that hadn't developed a bit, I couldn't resist St. Anger. I've grown up with St. Anger as a Metalhead. And for that it will always have my respect! 
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| Insineratehymn Account deleted |
Insineratehymn
Account deleted Written by Warman on 20.06.2007 at 15:32 If you think that "St.
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695 From: Sweden |
Written by Guest on 20.06.2007 at 22:46 Huh? Yeah, I love bands such as Emperor, Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Death, Burzum, Dimmu Borgir, Celtic Frost, Satyricon, Immortal etc. and of course I think St. Anger is the heaviest I've ever heard!!! C'mon, please... read what I wrote. I was 13 (4 years ago) years old and hadn't heard that much Metal, and I thought BACK THEN that it was the heaviest stuff ever...
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| Insineratehymn Account deleted |
Insineratehymn
Account deleted Written by Warman on 21.06.2007 at 14:47 I know. But after a few years of listening to metal you will soon come to hate "St. Anger" just like everyone else.
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695 From: Sweden |
Written by Guest on 21.06.2007 at 23:15 No, I'm pretty sure I will not. Metallica is the most important band for me... and I LOVE many songs on the album. I know that I'll never hate it. And BTW, you think it has to do with age or something? "After a few years of listening..."? You're younger than me, I don't know how long you've listened to Metal but I've listened since I was 11 and before that I listened to Rock my whole life.
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| Insineratehymn Account deleted |
Insineratehymn
Account deleted Written by Warman on 21.06.2007 at 23:20 I used to think like you. I used to think that "St. Anger" was the heaviest album ever, but after just one month of listening to it, I finally came to the conclusion "Wow! This is the worst album in existence!" It may not come today, it may not come tomorrow, but someday you will realize that "St. Anger" is the most piss poor album in metal history just like everyone else.
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695 From: Sweden |
Written by Guest on 22.06.2007 at 00:16 Well I've been listening to it A LOT for 4 years now, and still think it's good. You can't tell me what the fuck I like/dislike or will like/dislike! I respect if you think my opinion is crazy, but don't fucking think you know how I think and feel!
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| Insineratehymn Account deleted |
Insineratehymn
Account deleted Written by Warman on 23.06.2007 at 18:28 Calm down, man. You're using too many exclamation points. Furthermore, I can right now think of 20 albums that are far heavier and also better than "St. Anger". You listen to death metal and black metal bands who have albums that are far better than "St. Anger", so I have no idea how you can think that "St. Anger" is better than any of those albums.
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695 From: Sweden |
Written by Guest on 23.06.2007 at 23:44 You seriously haven't read a thing I wrote... I can think of over 100 albums that are heavier and much better than St. Anger, I consider it to be worth 7/10! I CONSIDERED ST. ANGER TO BE THE HEAVIEST ALBUM WHEN I WAS 13 YEARS OLD AND JUST LISTENED TO IRON MAIDEN AND METALLICA! It's a good album, nothing more or less. I never said it was one of the best and I certainly haven't considered it to be the heaviest album since 4 years ago...
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| Insineratehymn Account deleted |
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695 From: Sweden |
Written by Guest on 24.06.2007 at 14:14 Apparently...
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| +{Jonas}+ I R Serious Cat Posts: 4955 From: Colombia  |
Written by Warman on 24.06.2007 at 14:02 Son, don't argue with Insineratehymn. He will only make you piss off more with annoying arrogance. Anyway, I agree with you, it's a good album, it's enjoyable and has some cool songs. I don't hate it, nor love it. It's still Metallica, not so good, but Metallica anyway.
---- "Nobody wants to be the weird kid, you just end up being the weird kid. You don't know how you ended up getting there" - Rob Zombie http://jonas-bs.deviantart.com My dA, mainly photography, go check it out!
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| Iced Angel Posts: 24 From: USA |
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10084 From: Czech Republic  |
the award for most pointless debate ever goes to Insineratehymn!! wooo!!  people have different tastes, no-one can make you like or not like something. St. Anger to me is a very poor album, but to some people(regardless of age or stuff) it might be a delight. there are so many people who hate death metal but some find it artsy and beautiful and trying to prove the other side wrong is stupid and without logic.
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| Evil Chip Posts: 505 From: Chile  |
I personally like this album. I think is their best effort since the boring black album and load/reload. This album is full of feeling and anger. You can actually feel through the music and the lyrics the hard moment that Metallica was through. I give it an 8. I have faith that the next album will be more like their early days.
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| IconMaiden Posts: 52 From: USA |
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| IconMaiden Posts: 52 From: USA |
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| THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted |
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| IconMaiden Posts: 52 From: USA |
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| IconMaiden Posts: 52 From: USA |
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| In_tallica Posts: 151 From: Sweden  |
if there is one thing i dont understand, it is why is this considered a nu metal album? im not saying that it's good, but it's definetly not nu metal, i'd call it thrash metal mainly
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| Murder Posts: 255 From: Mexico  |
mmm... this album is a whole shit... that's all that i can say, and well... Could they repair their fault with Death Magnetic? I listen a streaming single but well... the song seems me really boring but I don't know... what can you say? Should I hear the album???
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| iMorphball Posts: 279 From: Canada  |
Overall, this album is the worst piece of shit to come out of Metallica's ass since the Black Album (not saying it was shit, everything between there and St. Anger has been shit). They had 2 shitty albums before St. Anger and they try to come back with this... Nice.
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| dash Posts: 3 From: USA  |
I feel I should comment on this as well. I liked the older Metallica stuff, back when they actually had decent music. I don't like this album. But I do with to disagree rather pointedly with one of the statements in this review. You are obviously not a drummer. The drums are not "excellent". I'm not even sure I'd say they are "good". They are pretty "meh" in my opinion. Very little creativity, hardly any cymbal work to speak of, just the same abrasive atonal banging throughout the entire album. It doesn't take any great skill/talent to do fast double kick, and most of the drumming on St. Anger is not even particularly fast. Long story short, if this album had been released under a pseudonym or by another band, it wouldn't have sold for shit. The only reason it gets any publicity at all is because of the once-credible monkeys who stuck their name on it.
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| DayFly Posts: 383 From: Germany  |
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| Dominus The Shooter Posts: 375 From: Argentina  |
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