Metallica; Yay or nay?

yes and no, respectively.

Metallywhackers.

"I don't know what is marijuana. Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand."

Hadn't seen that one before. (Just found my new picture today.)

I went back to my original sigline after all of this Ira*-has-nukes crap started all over again.

For all the years of solid music they put out, and enjoyment of such I had, I'll give them a :thumbsup:

I'll never buy another one of their albums, but I won't download one either.

The first four albums are amazing...

I even like some of the later stuff, like Re-Load.

But St. Anger is probably one of the worst albums I've ever heard. By anyone.

on edit: It's like "Black Sabbath - Never Say Die" bad.

new Metallica nay crowd.

they can do anything they want, they gave me fade to black and sanitarium, that is definitely enough to get a yay!

Fade to black, i was just listening to it early today(coincidence?)...they were such trailblazing ass kickers in the 80s...to bad they are starting to fade away...

Whiplash. The first time you listen to it, it rawks, and there's the obligatory killer solo in the middle, then it stops, and then............... another killer solo!!!!!!

Fuckin' great. I still have my original vinyl copy of Kill 'em All on Roadrunner Records!

I got all their cds, and a good handful of imports, and some of their cover cds, in all i have 36 metallica cds. I am a fan, albeit their music lately, has been mediocre(average its still better than most of the music thrown upon us via the radio).

I will always remember Ride The Lightning, it was my first metallica tape i ever had...first song was Fight Fire with Fire...and it started off all slow, and i was like, what, what kind of weak ass music is that? And then 30 seconds or so into the song, they drop the pleasantries and start Whooping ass!!...with Fade to Black, Call of the Kthulu, and the rest of the songs on taht cd, it was a very good way to break into the Metallica era of music...Master was my second tape, and that one blew me away more...but my fave, is still Fade to Black...track four, on Ride the Lightning....its one of the only songs, that has my name in it...:)

Not literally my name, they say "can't stand this hell i feel, emptiness if filling me, to the point of agony, growing darkness, taking Dawn, but now he's gone, he's fucking gone!!!".....:) My name is Don, and its the only song i know of, which they say my name...albeit, its not...:) The semantics, withstanding of course...

I liked their first five albums, I could listen to the whole damn thing, and not skip a song...with Load and Reload, i find myself skipping over a few, and with ST. Anger i find myself listening to 3 songs, and their S and M, and Garage Days Inc. are pretty good...

No one can continue to kick ass forever, they are fading, and their last cd is a sure sign of that, but they could come back full force, and blow us away again!...:)

That's all Burton-era Metallica. Of course it's great!

justice and the black album as well, but the albums prior to them, were better...Burton/Hammet their guitar play is so smooth together, i love the instrumentals...Orion/Call of the Kthulu...:)

It's crap now.

This is an overused phrase, and I tend not to use it at all. However, in this case, I think it is truly warranted. Metallica sold out, completely. It started with their first video of "One," which was a good video but went completely against their previous self-proclaimed philosophy of making music, and it's been downhill ever since.

The album with "Enter Sandman" on it was generally crap, and everything has been crap since. They nailed their coffin shut long ago, but they dug themselves up and let us look at their rotting flesh during that horrid Metallica tribute on one of the music channels a few years ago, MTV I think, but I can't be sure. Not only did Avril Lavigne sing a Metallica song that was supposedly a song meant to "reclaim their roots," but the band *grooved* to it while she did so. The horror of this cannot be put into words.

selling out if they make money off their music?

I do agree with the MTV music award thing you mentioned, they also had Snoop Dogg doing Sad but True(I about killed myself), but I did like Korns cover of One, they did a good job...and Brewers little song was pretty funny....:)

But since you mention it, selling out involves more than money. It involves, among other things, changing who you are with money as the benefit.

Metallica once railed against the corporate music world, its reason for not doing videos and not getting caught up in all that popularity crap or doing standard "under 5 minutes, preferably 3 minutes" songs. Metallica did songs *they* wanted to do with no particular expectation of gobs of cash flowing their way. The interesting part was that gobs of cash flowed their way anyway because a lot of people, such as myself, loved the style and loved the fact you could listen to their music and feel it as an experience, not a temporary moment of thrashing chords and drumbs that's over in a couple minutes while we move on to the next corporate-inspired piece of crap.

And then they stopped doing that. They abandoned their philosophy. They became the corporation. And, yes, I call that selling out.

And I think Master of Puppets is generally regarded as their strongest effort.

I liked "Justice". I caught that tour, and they still had it.

Got my timelines messed up.

The rest...not so much.

cmon man, that is a good album. unforgiven, sad but true, nothing else matters. it isnt up to their older standards, but it was still better than nearly everything else that came out around then


i truly think the napster/lars thing hurt their image more than their crumby newer music

For fans of the group before that monstrous monument to corporate music, the so-called black album marks the moment when Metallica became a different band. Some of the music wasn't horrible, but some of it was, and none of it held anything in common with what Metallica had been.

And I disagree that it was better than anything else that came out around that time. It was better that a lot of what came out as popular, Top-40 at that time, which is different than what you're saying.

i dont remember liking much else at the time

That was the year of Roxette, Color me Bad, aka OHMYGODMAKEITSTOP, and Gerardo with that super, duper hit Rrrrrrico Suaaaave...erp...'scuse me. I just threw up in my mouth a little. So, by comparison with other top-40 music, the black album wasn't horrible. The point, though, for me is that Metallica wasn't top-40. It became that, and I stopped liking it at that point.

The band even said it made a conscious decision to get away from complicated structures and develop a simple style that would go over well on the radio, and that's where my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of other long-time Metallica fans originates. Metallica's music didn't evolve; it devolved. I mean, I'll admit I can listen to it and not hate it, but I don't think of it being "Metallica" music. It's a band that calls itself Metallica but isn't really.

Anyway ... I don't know if I'd call it a jumping the shark moment exactly. Obviously by bowing to the corporate mentality for making music, the band was anything but on the wane at that point. It was a moment of betrayal for the fans who had helped them get to a position where they could make such a decision. The afore mentioned MTV tribute was closer to a jumping the shark moment. Absolutely horrid.

with the Napster/Lars thing...

Listen to "Master of Puppets"

'nough said.

I was in high school when they first hit, and it seemed that every wannabee dirtball dropout future wifebeater douchebag racist asshole liked them. I thought it sounded like sped up Black Sabbath but with shittier vocals and more wanky-doodle-doo guitar solos. Add the pretentious lyrics and you've got an annoying combination.

Now that they've come out as the money-grubbing capitalists they really are, I can justify my initial dislike for them. Thankfully the rest of the world has stopped paying attention to them, too.

Except that I wasn't even born when they formed, haha.

A quantum leap above everything else.

Their inconsistencies only underline their importance: they're the Clash of metal bands, doing exactly what they want regardless of whether or not it fits some neurotic fanboy notion of "keeping it real".

Joe Strummer rolls in his grave.

Note that when The Clash abandoned everything they had been about and let the manager essentially talk them into using drum machines rather than have a real drummer, subsequently changing the core of what made the group so good at its height, the band fell apart.

Talk about going out on a low note. No Mick Jones, and a drum machine. they should have fallen apart before recording that monstrosity. That wasn't even the Clash, as far as I'm concerned. I still want to kick Joe Strummer's ass a little for that.

that it pissed me off! I refuse to even give any more of my time to listen, and I won't buy that thing in any guise. Just horrible.

The following albums kick ass:

Master Of Puppets
And Justice For All
Kill 'Em All
Ride The Lightning

Everything they've done since has sucked.

Ride the Lighting, And Justice, Kill em All, Master of Puppets. Those were the great years.

The eponymous black album was the turning point. Mediocre at best. Load (Load of shit as I call it) marks their downfall. Like Samson, they lost their power when they cut the hair.