| Admission time!
I've been a Metallica fan since Lightning was new on the shelf...call of Kthulu and Fade to Black were why i picked up a guitar for the first time.
Was huge fan up through Black. Load/relaod were meh, some good songs, others I'd skip all together, but worth the price to buy. The last Garage was pretty cool, a couple stinkers but over a solid album.
Then St. Anger. GAH! Lars may be a hell of a drummer but I'd already gotten pretty tired of his whiney ass. Ya know what it sounded like to me? James went into rehab and 'lost it', his alpha dominance over the band. Back in the day it was he and Cliff (may he rest in peace), then just him after the accident in '86.
He did it well for a while, but it took its toll...hence the more and more drinking. He finally burned out. Kirks a good guitarist but needs a strong leader, and Bob Rock ain't that. Lars' ego grew unchecked, and it produced a situation so horrible that Jason bailed and Lars now became the musical George W. Bush. That is what St. Anger sounds like....fucking shit drum track and Kirk walking in on Fridays, playing for 10 minutes and picking up a paycheck.
Since that festering pile of shit (which, despite repeated attempts, I have yet to be able to listen to end-to-end) I haven't been paying attention. Everything I happened across sounded the same, and I hated it.
Has it been long enough? Has James grown back his balls and taken over the reigns again? Enough to break that fuckin wussie bass player (Trujio? whatever his name is) and get Kirk recentered on the music?
If so, and the album sounds like, them maybe I'll go back. Hell, Metallica still stands as my second favorite live performer, not much is better than their live show...but for now, I remain unconvinced.
I still listen to the older stuff frequently though. Anyone that attempts to pick up a guitar and play music for a living should be forced at gunpoint and pain of death to listen....really LISTEN...to James' work on the whole Lightning album; THAT, motherfucker, is how it is supposed to be done. The lyrics complement the rhythm line, but don't follow it note for note. The lead line flows in and out of the rhythm at the right times. Bass line is solid, not overpowering, but works well with the drums. Drums solid, not too loud or flashy. James' rhythm on that album is probably the best over rhythm performance for a full LP I've ever heard...those line are *tight*, they grab you by the nuts and don't let go till after the last bar....and grab right on again for the next track. As close to perfection as you'll hear in rock/blues rhythm playing in the lifetime. | 