[Purple Haize]

Yes the new 'tallica album/cd/whatever Death Magnetic is now out and of course I just HAD to bring that up. I knw there are Metallica haters out thereUH butUH it is stillUH a great albumUH
Actually they launched bits and pieces of it on there Mission Metallica and on XM's MANDATORY METALLICA so it sort of took some of the wind out of the sails of its release. Having said that it is quite possibly their best album since the Ride the Ligthening/Master of Puppets days. They get back to their "speed" metal roots, but with a lot more production and general "tightness" of a quality album. Basically, the raw speed of St Anger with the production of BLACk. Their video for The Day That Never Comes is REALLY cool. Some say it is a modern ONE video, but I dont' think it is even close! Love that song and Cyanide, but over all VERY pleased. The really cool thing is that their tour dates don't bring them close but when I am in Chicago in January they will be playing near where I am staying, yes I will be getting tickets.
Now just can't wait for AC/DC' s new one. THEY even have their own XM station now as well!

[RubberMallet]

its ok...a bit too late if you ask me....its forced and you know its not what they wanted to do. some songs are ok but some suck. while their production values are better than original metallica and they do go back to the old sound, the songs just aren't that good. "the judas kiss" and "suicide and redemption" songs were horrible and don't even get me started on unforgiven III.

[Purple Haize]

R U ON CRACK?!?!
This is a GREAT album. It is everything I wish .... And justtice for all was!

Judas Kiss was good so was
I agree with SUicide and Redemption but it DOES have a killer (pardon the pun) hook, I just wish it didn't take so long to get to it.
Unforgiven III sort of had me on edge by just the name but for the song itself it was pretyy good.

You can never go back to your "original" sound (just ask U2 not that they have tried) but this is the best album they have put out since BLACK and it is pretty darn good

[RagingTireFire]

I bailed on Metallica after the Load debacle. The fact that "Unforgiven" now has not one, but two sequels is a joke. They may as well have put out a spoken word album with nothing but James Hetfield repeating the following statement over and over:

"We made this album at the insistence of our therapist because he likes getting paid. Unfortunately, we haven't played an original note or written an interesting lyric in two decades. Anyway, give us your money, ya retards!"

[adam42381]

I think the album is pretty decent and much better than St. Anger (which doesn't take much). I saw them back in June at Bonnaroo and they are very good. I never saw them in their prime but I've seen them twice (St. Anger tour 2004 in Roanoke) and they put on a great live show. While I still prefer Master of Puppets-era Metallica it's good to see them return to decent form. I for one never understood all the hate Load-era Metallica got. Sure it was an obvious change of direction and pace but they still had some decent songs during that time.

[RubberMallet]

R U ON CRACK?!?!
This is a GREAT album. It is everything I wish .... And justtice for all was!

Judas Kiss was good so was
I agree with SUicide and Redemption but it DOES have a killer (pardon the pun) hook, I just wish it didn't take so long to get to it.
Unforgiven III sort of had me on edge by just the name but for the song itself it was pretyy good.

You can never go back to your "original" sound (just ask U2 not that they have tried) but this is the best album they have put out since BLACK and it is pretty darn good

no i'm wondering if you are on crack. this album gets a 2.5 out of 5 stars for me....

[RagingTireFire]

I for one never understood all the hate Load-era Metallica got. Sure it was an obvious change of direction and pace but they still had some decent songs during that time.

Think of it this way:

• Suppose you had a favorite uncle who was just awesome. He was fun, he was cool, he knew how to hotwire a car, basically he was bad***. Also, said bad*** uncle was dating this really cool chick. She might have been a little rough around the edges but she was just as cool as he was.
  
  Well, they're together for about ten years and he gets tired of her. They break up and he starts dating this girl that's a little younger, a little more pretty and a lot more polished except she's also a complete idiot. She's concerned about the environment but she drives a German car that gets 6 miles to the gallon and has seat covers made from the skins of three different endangered species. She drops $500 on a plane ticket to Lollapalooza but doesn't go because the bathroom situation there might be a little risky. She uses the non-word "irregardless" and other words like "indefatigably" in sentences where she really means "definitely". Still, Unc stays with her. Worse, the longer he hangs around with her the more of an a-hole he becomes. He starts wearing a ponytail and loafers without socks, he gets a Chinese character tattooed on his ankle that the guy at the parlor told him stands for 'love', he starts drinking flavored water because "it's less calories" and he starts talking all the time about how he "feels". In the end, he doesn't even resemble the guy you knew and you really really really miss his old girlfriend.
  
  Jump ahead a little and your formerly cool uncle realizes that he's gone wrong somewhere. He loses the ponytail and tries to re-capture the old magic. He dumps the pretty girl -- who's not all that pretty anymore, it turns out -- and tries to get back with the old girlfriend only she won't take him. So, instead, he hangs out with this other chick who looks almost exactly like her -- except she's not -- and he tries to pretend that things are just the same as they ever were, only you and everyone who's ever known him know that it isn't the case. He isn't cool anymore, he's just making the attempt and you're never going to be able to look him in the eyes again without knowing what a giant dou*** he turned out to be.

I hope that explains everything.

[RubberMallet]

another good analogy from another site

"I'm a fan of the Kansas City Royals, an organization that last experienced a successful season back in 1985. Despite years of watching incredulously as players turned simple plays into slapstick pratfalls, I still follow their games, and I think of the team in a generally positive light. This is because they haven't fundamentally altered their identity or goals. They attempt to win baseball games, and they even manage to do so, once or twice a week.

In order for them to appear as traitorous as Metallica, thus earning my unwavering enmity, they'd have to completely abandon the framework in which I first appreciated them. For example, if the Royals players started wearing eyeliner instead of eye-black, suing everyone who watched the games on TV instead of purchasing tickets, inflicting Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park on paying fans as nightly "opening acts," and playing golf instead of baseball, I'm sure I would view the Royals as most of the country does, as an entity that should be ignored when it's not serving as a pitiable punchline.

To clarify the specifications of this analogy, the Royals play baseball, under the broader category "sports." Metallica, when listenable, plays metal, under the umbrella term "music." If Metallica had stuck to metal while getting half-***ed ideas and lyrical retardation out of its system, no one would be saying "**** these guys." Slayer fans admit 2006's Christ Illusion wasn't the group's finest record, or they would if they weren't programmed to respond "EVERY SLAYER ALBUM IS TIED FOR BEST ALBUM EVER! SLAYER!" Christ Illusion isn't innovative, but it's not embarrassing, and it's not treasonous. At worst, it's a poor man's Reign in Blood. Metallica fans would've killed for a poor man's Master of Puppets during the past decade; in fact, now that they've received exactly that in Death Magnetic, they'll surely celebrate to a degree unwarranted by the album's actual merits. Perhaps all this bs was just an elaborate "Prodigal Son" set-up to inspire fans to kill the fatted calf over a mediocre release."

[adam42381]

Bands evolve and go in different directions but that's not necessarily a bad thing (see the Beatles). I know everybody expected them to try to make Ride The Lightning again but that's not what they wanted to do. Here are the songs from the Load/Re-Load era that are listenable for me:

Load:
Until It Sleeps
King Nothing
Hero Of The Day
Mama Said

Re-Load:
Fuel
The Memory Remains
Low Man's Lyric

By the way, I am in no way comparing Metallica to the Beatles. I am just making a point.

[RubberMallet]

until it sleeps was i think the only song i really enjoyed during the load and reload era....i didn't hate those albums...i just wasn't estatic about them.....st. anger was absolutely horrible and a complete disaster.

[adam42381]

until it sleeps was i think the only song i really enjoyed during the load and reload era....i didn't hate those albums...i just wasn't estatic about them.....st. anger was absolutely horrible and a complete disaster.

Agreed. I was too young to be into Metallica in their prime but I started listening in high school a little then more when my roommate at LU was a big fan of their old stuff and that's what I prefer (...And Justice For All, Master of Puppets, Ride The Lightning, Kill Em All). The turning point for most of their fans was the Black Album. I think it is a very good album with 5 great songs on it but I don't think it's their best. I don't like to compare new stuff with music that was made 20+ years ago because influences and times change. I'm happy with the direction Metallica is headed and I think their fanbase will be very pleased with Death Magnetic. In the end, it's just music. If you like it good, if not that's fine. I get crap sometimes about some of the bands I really like (Pearl Jam, White Stripes, etc.) but I think it's very solid music and I'm going to keep on listening to what appeals to me. At least it's not Nickelback, right?

[RagingTireFire]

Bands evolve and go in different directions but that's not necessarily a bad thing (see the Beatles). I know everybody expected them to try to make Ride The Lightning again but that's not what they wanted to do. Here are the songs from the Load/Re-Load era that are listenable for me:

Load:
Until It Sleeps
King Nothing
Hero Of The Day
Mama Said

Re-Load:
Fuel
The Memory Remains
Low Man's Lyric

By the way, I am in no way comparing Metallica to the Beatles. I am just making a point.

You just illustrated my point about their unoriginality. I liked Until It Sleeps until I listened to the rest of the album and realized that every song on it and, in fact, every song you just listed is the same freakin' song. As for band "evolution", did anyone ever notice that bands generally don't start "evolving" until they start getting paid to? At this point, I see no distinguishable difference between Metallica and Nickelback.

BTW, I absolutely loathe the Beatles. Most overrated band of all time.

[RubberMallet]

BTW, I absolutely loathe the Beatles. Most overrated band of all time.

i heart you

[adam42381]

BTW, I absolutely loathe the Beatles. Most overrated band of all time.

While I like the Beatles I have to agree that they're highly overrated. They had some great pop songs but a lot of their catalog is filler. I actually prefer the songs written by George Harrison to the Lennon/McCartney songbook but that's me. I'll take the Rolling Stones over the Beatles any day.

[Purple Haize]

I think all Metallica fans will agree that St Anger was their finest hour. The reason it was popular was b/c it was the first "original" album in awhile. You give a starving man stale SPAM he will eat it.

As for the therapist thing, you should know that he was let go a few years ago and they no longer have that influence in their group. They now have a management company but none of the drama they had during the post LOAD days.

This album IS really good. It is not Ride the Lightening good but what can be. It does go back to their roots. I am currently grooving on CYANIDE, can't get that freakin song out of my head LOL

Here is where I think Metallica deserves KUDOS and not condemnation. They went in a "different direction" for awhile, S and M Load Re Load, realized it wasn't really them and have made an effort to return. NOT alot of bands do that (See U2) so it may take awhile but at least they TRIED and realized it wasn't a good idea. For that they deserve props.

Now, back to The Day That Never Comes

[RubberMallet]

realized it wasn't really them and have made an effort to return.

if you truly believe that i can't help you

[Purple Haize]

I need no help. They have made a turn back to where they were. Maybe you are the ONE who needs help I mean you are acting HOLIER THAN THOUGH coming up like CREEPING DEATH with a 2 x 4. I mean sit back, RIDE THE LIGHTENING and quit acting like you are the CEO of DAMAGE INCORPORATED. THese are musicians, not some DISPOSABLE HEROES or LEPER MESSIAH or a THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE. The bottom line is that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, we can come out of our SANITARIUMS rub our 4 LEAF CLOVERS TURN THE PAGE and HIT THE LIGHTS!!!

[RagingTireFire]

I need no help. They have made a turn back to where they were. Maybe you are the ONE who needs help I mean you are acting HOLIER THAN THOUGH coming up like CREEPING DEATH with a 2 x 4. I mean sit back, RIDE THE LIGHTENING and quit acting like you are the CEO of DAMAGE INCORPORATED. THese are musicians, not some DISPOSABLE HEROES or LEPER MESSIAH or a THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE. The bottom line is that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, we can come out of our SANITARIUMS rub our 4 LEAF CLOVERS TURN THE PAGE and HIT THE LIGHTS!!!

I hate you so much. That was like rubbing salt in an open wound and then puking in it.

[Rocketfan]

I need no help. They have made a turn back to where they were. Maybe you are the ONE who needs help I mean you are acting HOLIER THAN THOUGH coming up like CREEPING DEATH with a 2 x 4. I mean sit back, RIDE THE LIGHTENING and quit acting like you are the CEO of DAMAGE INCORPORATED. THese are musicians, not some DISPOSABLE HEROES or LEPER MESSIAH or a THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE. The bottom line is that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, we can come out of our SANITARIUMS rub our 4 LEAF CLOVERS TURN THE PAGE and HIT THE LIGHTS!!!

I hate you so much. That was like rubbing salt in an open wound and then puking in it.

What i would pay to see this cage fight live.......

[RubberMallet]

I need no help. They have made a turn back to where they were. Maybe you are the ONE who needs help I mean you are acting HOLIER THAN THOUGH coming up like CREEPING DEATH with a 2 x 4. I mean sit back, RIDE THE LIGHTENING and quit acting like you are the CEO of DAMAGE INCORPORATED. THese are musicians, not some DISPOSABLE HEROES or LEPER MESSIAH or a THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE. The bottom line is that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, we can come out of our SANITARIUMS rub our 4 LEAF CLOVERS TURN THE PAGE and HIT THE LIGHTS!!!

that was quite possibly the dumbest thing i've ever read