fett on 17/2/2008 at 03:22
I'm not talking about his guitar wankery, I'm talking about some of the songwriting he's been involved with that's outside of the 'rock/metal' realm, which is almost anybody knows him for (his own fault).
I'm not necessarily saying I'm a HUGE fan of these guys, just that there's often more to them that what hey did 20 years ago. Ya know, like artists in pretty much any other genre that didn't have the misfortune of being lampooned and stiffed by everyone from MTV to Rolling Stone.
june gloom on 17/2/2008 at 05:29
Just wanted to add my opinion:
Old Metallica (first 4 albums are mandatory) and most Megadeth, particularly the early to-mid 90s stuff. I'm a fan of most subgenres of metal, so naturally lots of stuff appeals to me.
Anyone ever hear of Isis? They're a post-metal (post-rock/metal) band and they basically rule all ass forever. Get "Panopticon" and "In the Absence of Truth", both two of my favourite albums of all time. Most post-metal in general is quite good stuff, too; I recently discovered Rosetta, whose first album, "The Galilean Satellites" is an oddity, featuring two albums- one with the guitars and other instrumentation, the other with ambient background stuff. The idea is that you're supposed to listen to them both simultaneously; there's a combined version floating around on Megaupload somewhere, if you can't be fucked to buy the album.
Mr. headbone on 18/2/2008 at 01:23
METALLICA :angel:
Saw them live 4 times during the late 80's & early 90's. Freakin' loud!!!
Nowadays when they tour they sell-out tickets in just under 20-min.
James Hetfield is in out of rehab these days; so I don't see any tour dates recently.:nono:
june gloom on 18/2/2008 at 03:51
At least he's getting help, but it's kind of like putting gas in the car after you've already wrecked it. He's pretty much ruined his voice with all that alcohol.
Not to mention Metallica's sucked hard the last 10 years.
Shug on 18/2/2008 at 05:48
Garage was released in the last ten years and the first cd was reasonable
At least, I assume such an abstract schoolyard comment was about the quality of their music releases in the last ten years unless you've been following them around the world
june gloom on 18/2/2008 at 06:36
I was referring to their albums, yes. And Garage Inc. was kind of crap.
I reiterate: First four studio albums are MANDATORY. Black Album is optional. Everything else, particularly St. Anger, are listen at your own risk. And S&M would be better if they had quit fucking trying to overpower the orchestra.
In my opinion they should've broken up when Cliff Burton died. Lars Ulrich has no drumming talent and Hetfield's alcoholism has ruined his voice. Jason Newsted got the fucking shaft- you try filling in Burton's shoes- and the band never really treated him right. Kirk Hammet isn't even trying anymore- he was only really good when he was playing the shit Dave Mustaine wrote anyway- and Robert Trujillo is largely irrelevant.
Oh, and I just wanted to second BrokenArts' mention of Opeth. Not really my favourite band anymore, but they've never done wrong by me. Opeth fans may want to check out the Isis albums; while technically different subgenres they both have a similar bluesy riff structure.
Shug on 18/2/2008 at 07:04
Load is a fantastic album in terms of both the ROCK factor and the technical expertise. Reload also had some pretty fantastic songs, but probably wasn't as all-round solid.
I have to say, I've found a fair few people who rubbished them (and the Black album, which sold a lot of copies for obvious reasons) simply because they weren't 100% young guys with long hair smashing heavy guitars due to social injustice
(or even worse, because aforementioned groupies need people to KNOW they're hardcore so they lap up some of truly abominable thrash and speed metal that has been thrown out there by horrendously one-dimensional outfits)
edit:
Are you seriously saying Metallica should have died with Cliff? That's just mindboggling to me, as though you could possibly say even a truly great bass player somehow makes up for the fact that Lars allegedly has no talent (whatever that constitutes for a drummer in a hard rock band) and that Kirk was only good playing other people's gear, as though he didn't cowrite substantial amounts of their eventual discography alongside Hetfield (across their entire range of albums). Whether Hetfield's voice has since disintegrated I have no idea, but when I saw them live at Australia's Big Day Out festivals in 2004 he could sing well enough.
That's without even mentioning that "Justice" was released after Burton died. I have a hard time believing that argument is anything other than standard "I liked them before they sold out" posturing.
I will, however, agree with you on the fact that St Anger was a very poor release.
june gloom on 18/2/2008 at 09:39
As it's nearly 5AM and I have class tomorrow (which I'm seriously considering skipping 'cuz if I can't go to the bank on President's Day why should I go to school but w/e) I'm just going to clarify on Lars: the man cannot drum. Hard rock/metal/whatever band or not, the man cannot fucking drum. Ever wonder why they don't do a few songs live? It's 'cuz Lars can't fucking do the drums. They used a machine for the studio albums. One example is Dyer's Eve- Lars just couldn't do the drums on that song, which is why they didn't play it live for 12 years. He was decent to start with but it's nice to know skill development only happens in MMOs.
