Metallica helped to invent metal music as we know it today. As leaders of the Bay area thrash metal scene, they took the music of their heros in the New Wave Of Brittish Heavy Metal and brought it to the states. They kicked Dave Mustaine out of the band for being a drunk, (ironic), picked up Kirk Hammett from the band Exodus, and traveled to Rochester NY to record Kill 'em All. Over the next 25+ years they have become one of the biggest bands in the world.Bob Rock:
Responsible for pop-metal albums by bands like Loverboy, Rock was brought on to produce metallica's self titled album. (the black album) He helped to refine their sound, simplifying it for the masses, and helped them reach new levels of popularity. That's pretty much it, the rest of the stuff they did under him sucked. Load, Reload, the Garage Inc. Covers album, and St. Anger were all pretty shitty.Rick Rubin:
You know him. The weird bearded guy who brought you most every LL Cool J album in the 80's. Co-founder of Def Jam, he has hit home runs with The Beastie Boys, Slayer, The Chili Peppers, and more. Most recently he's become the go-to guy to resurrect the careers of legendary musicians who have sucked for a while. (see Cash, Johnny most notably)*Side note: I have a big problem with the fact that he tends to allow the albums he produces to have too many tracks. Amazingly though, on Death Magnetic he and the band were able to keep the album to 10 tracks, which in my personal opinion is the perfect number of tracks for an album.
This movie deserved all of the awards and praise that it received, and Metallica should be commended for being so exposed in a film that they themselves comissioned. The film began as a typical "making of the album" film and ended up as one of the most revealing films of any major band in rock history. It follows the band through Jason quitting, James going into and through rehab, and Lars dealing with his anger/control/just plain being a dick issues. The fiercest metal band of all time hire a "performance coach" for $40,000 a month to get in touch with their feelings. The album, "St. Anger", is a brutal mess. It's obvious that they were forcing everything, in every song. But, as Phil Towles their performance coach said to them, the emotional work that they put in would not show up until the next album.....
Death Magnetic:
It's been 16 years since the release of the black album. 16 years!!!!!! That's crazy. It was their last great album. At the time we all thought they were selling out, but the true fans realised that Metallica have always been accused of selling out. They sold out on "Ride The Lightning" when they recorded a melodic balladish song. ("Fade to Black") They sold out on "And Justice For All" because they made a video. They sold out on the black album because their songs were under 4 minutes long and had radio friendly hooks. Then of course they cut their hair, fought napster, got tattoos, wore eyeliner, etc. The truth is, that looking back on the black album you see that they wrote a damn good collection of songs and went on to kick ass on tour for 2 years.Rick Rubin was the perfect choice to produce this album, because he's the type of guy whos not afraid to say "you guys have sucked for a long time". He told them that "Master of Puppets" was their best album, (of course), and that they should write an album as if Master was a double album. Not copy what they did back then, but recapture the spirit and intensity. What resulted is Metallica being Metallica. Back are the 8 minute songs, back are the Kirk Hammett wah-wah drenched guitar solos, back is that feeling when they finish a song you have to catch your breath from just listening.
I think of this album as a cross between "Justice" and the black album. "Justice" because every song has a million different riffs, complex rhythms and structures, and there is an instrumental. The black album because there are tons of hooks all over the place and the production is top notch. (Justice is known industry wide by the fact that you can't really hear bass on the album at all) It is non-stop metal mayhem from start to finish. It's the kind of album where even the songs that I like least are pretty good. The riffs are intense and DO....NOT.....STOP. While the songs average about 7-8 minutes in length, they don't seem too long. Is it all eccessive? Of course! This is Metallica. Metal music is supposed to be eccessive.
Overall, my favorite thing about the new album is that it was recorded live. Sure they overdubbed the solos, and some of the vocals, but for the most part the band recorded the tracks playing all together. You can hear James take breaths in between verses and yell out in excitement. This is all very important, because while this album is compared to "Justice" for it's impossibly hard parts, "Justice" sounds as if every note was placed specifically where it is. It has a cold, brutal feel, which is good in it's own way, but this is the first album where Metallica sound like the band that they truely are.
So where does this stand in the pantheon of Metallica albums?
#1) Master of Puppets - Possible the greatest metal album of all time. This is the album where everything came together. I won't even try to describe it.....
#2) Metallica - (aka the black album) Leaner song structures and bigger hooks made this album the perfect fit for not only radio, but MTV as well. The album vaulted them to superstardom. The bottom line is that its a damn solid hard rock record that has sold more than 22 million copies.
#3) Death Magnetic - The intensity of "Justice", the hooks of the "black album", great production, and above all some great songs. A few of these will be Metallica classics. It's also amazing given how far down they had to come back from.
#4) Ride the Lightening - Ride is a great album. It saw Metallica take a step forward. They became a little more melodic, and took a breather here and there, which made the more intense songs seem that much more intense. It features the Metallica classics "Fade to Black", "Creeping Death", and "For Whom the Bell Tolls". It does, however have a couple of throwaway tracks, and in retrospect seems like the warmup act for what came next.
#5) Kill 'em All - Virtually invented thrash metal. It's raw and takes no prisoners. This is a great album, but much like groundbreaking first albums by artists like Dylan, U2, The Stones, The Beatles, etc. it's not the album that you listen to first. The best was yet to come.
#6)...And Justice For All - On Justice Metallica took everything to the extreme. The songs were really long, each one having dozens of parts. It seemed that they were out to prove something. As I said earlier, the production leaves a lot to be desired. It sounds ok, but there is no bass anywhere on this album. Its layers and layers of James' guitar parts. The standout track is obviously "One", but "Blackened" and the title track are also standouts.
And it's certainly better than:
St. Anger (a mess of an album)
Load (the title says it all, and the album artwork is made from a mixture of blood and semen)
Re-Load (What better way to follow up a bad album than to duplicate it and not even name it anything different)
Garage Inc (a covers album, so it doesn't count anyway)
