Musicainship: 6/10
Lyrically: 4/10
Metallica rating: 4/10
Overall rating: 5/10
As any sane person would know, the release of the highly anticipated "St. Anger" would cause a division amongst new and old metallica fans. Many of the old fans instantly dislike this album and would gladly see Metallica sitting in a studio talking to the cameras of "VH1's Behind the Music" than seeing them try to record an album that claims to be their "heaviest in years". We all know what Metallica "haters" think but what about judging it unbaisly? How would the album be then?
When you compare "St. Anger" to "Load/Reload" it truly IS their heaviest album in years, but when compared to anything before "Load/Reload" it is their weakest release ever. I found myself actually stopping winamp to take a breather due to the albums constant bombardment of overly heavy guitars and high treble snare drums. The song themes are almost constant, and go with the title name, and sometimes it does get old so if you are able to tune out lyrics then musically it is an o.k. album. This is the first flaw on the album though, lyrics.
The lyrics for "St. Anger" are very weak and don't even match up to anything they used to sing about before (even "Load/Reload" have better lyrics). Many of the lyrics come off very childish and very teenangst-like, e.g. "My lifestyle defines my death style", "I'm madly in anger with you", and "Kill! KILL! KILLLLL!!!!!" These type of lyrics are something that you would find in a Limp Bizkit album, e.g. "I'm a crack addict.... I'm addicted to crackin' skulls" (true lyrics from Limp Bizkit) or in any other modern, mainsteam metal group. These types of lyrics take alot away from the album in the form of credibility.
The music in the album is pretty decent. Its very heavy and fast t times, but what hurts this album alot more than the lyrics are the song structure. Many of times the songs on "St. Anger" go from heavy thrash like speeds to melodic, emotional, soul exposing tempos but at odd times. If this was an attempt to making the album "complex" it failed on this point. Metallica has in the past done melodic piece of work but never in "stop n' go" fashion. This instantly takes away from its strength and makes the album a bit hard to grasp. The time length in the songs also hurts this because they try to make an epic song, epic being over 5 minutes, while still trying to retain their "thrash" tempo and at the same time trying to project moments of emotion all in one huge mesh. Many of times I found myself looking at winamp trying to see how much time was left on the song before the next 6 - 8 minute song began. The last thing that hurts this album in a powerful way is the lack of guitar solos, which were Metallica's calling card back in the day. I honestly believe that the guitar solo would have actually helped this album greatly and would have reduced the moments of bordum by at least 40%.
Overall, the album is a heavy album but still not a good one. There are many flaws in it and at times it sounded like I was listening to a Slipknot song due to its style of play and tempo. For someone who is barely getting into Metallica this is a good introduction album but not a fair one that will clearly display the real potential of this legendary band.
Lyrically: 4/10
Metallica rating: 4/10
Overall rating: 5/10
As any sane person would know, the release of the highly anticipated "St. Anger" would cause a division amongst new and old metallica fans. Many of the old fans instantly dislike this album and would gladly see Metallica sitting in a studio talking to the cameras of "VH1's Behind the Music" than seeing them try to record an album that claims to be their "heaviest in years". We all know what Metallica "haters" think but what about judging it unbaisly? How would the album be then?
When you compare "St. Anger" to "Load/Reload" it truly IS their heaviest album in years, but when compared to anything before "Load/Reload" it is their weakest release ever. I found myself actually stopping winamp to take a breather due to the albums constant bombardment of overly heavy guitars and high treble snare drums. The song themes are almost constant, and go with the title name, and sometimes it does get old so if you are able to tune out lyrics then musically it is an o.k. album. This is the first flaw on the album though, lyrics.
The lyrics for "St. Anger" are very weak and don't even match up to anything they used to sing about before (even "Load/Reload" have better lyrics). Many of the lyrics come off very childish and very teenangst-like, e.g. "My lifestyle defines my death style", "I'm madly in anger with you", and "Kill! KILL! KILLLLL!!!!!" These type of lyrics are something that you would find in a Limp Bizkit album, e.g. "I'm a crack addict.... I'm addicted to crackin' skulls" (true lyrics from Limp Bizkit) or in any other modern, mainsteam metal group. These types of lyrics take alot away from the album in the form of credibility.
The music in the album is pretty decent. Its very heavy and fast t times, but what hurts this album alot more than the lyrics are the song structure. Many of times the songs on "St. Anger" go from heavy thrash like speeds to melodic, emotional, soul exposing tempos but at odd times. If this was an attempt to making the album "complex" it failed on this point. Metallica has in the past done melodic piece of work but never in "stop n' go" fashion. This instantly takes away from its strength and makes the album a bit hard to grasp. The time length in the songs also hurts this because they try to make an epic song, epic being over 5 minutes, while still trying to retain their "thrash" tempo and at the same time trying to project moments of emotion all in one huge mesh. Many of times I found myself looking at winamp trying to see how much time was left on the song before the next 6 - 8 minute song began. The last thing that hurts this album in a powerful way is the lack of guitar solos, which were Metallica's calling card back in the day. I honestly believe that the guitar solo would have actually helped this album greatly and would have reduced the moments of bordum by at least 40%.
Overall, the album is a heavy album but still not a good one. There are many flaws in it and at times it sounded like I was listening to a Slipknot song due to its style of play and tempo. For someone who is barely getting into Metallica this is a good introduction album but not a fair one that will clearly display the real potential of this legendary band.
i think 4/10 is kind of being nice to the guys because of their past, i even had to stop listening to it cuz it sounds really bad. they should called it day,they have lost it!
