Metallica - St Anger (11 tracks) +Album Reviews

The Patron Saint Of Anger

Daniel hall | Moorabbin, Victoria Australia | 11/16/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"St Anger is the 'Jar Jar Binks' of metal albums."

Get your honesty kids....Who wants some honesty?

STORMBLAST | 06/22/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Let's start this by assuring everyone that I am indeed a Metallica fan. In fact, if pressed to list my five favorite artists of all time, they're in at a comfortable number three slot. However, friends and neighbors, this album is not Metallica. Oh, the box says "Metallica". The radio assures us that it is indeed the rock gods themselves, and the helpful little DVD even shows Metallica singing songs off of St. Anger. The box is mislabeled, the radio lies and those must be actors in masks. Lets start with the lyrics. These are not Metallica lyrics. These are fast paced campfire songs to sing at the next AA picnic. I would not be surprised if many of the chorus phrases were copied off of motivational posters found in the break room of a post office, or a first grade classroom. Sadder still, song lyrics that manage not to sound preachy instead just sound like whining. Which is fitting, since I suppose that's what it is. Enough of that, let's move on to music. Let's start with a question : Do you like Linkin Park? Disturbed? Local bands that model themselves after the aforementioned .... and name themselves "Hatred Center" or "Pain Rangers" ? Answer yes to those and I can make this short by having you skip the rest of this review and proceeding directly back to the order confirmation page. Seriously....Shoo. Go buy the album already.....................Okay, now that we got rid of those guys, let's talk music. Let's talk about Lar's drums that have been replaced with Folgers cans. Let's talk about why his drumsticks have been replaced with kitchen whisks of some sort. I mean c'mon folks. The drums sound like they belong behind Paul Simon during a rousing rendition of "Graceland", except Paul Simon would probably have the sense to hire a drummer that can produce easily discerned beats rather than random pounding. Well, random whisking anyway. Tchick tchicka tchicka tchok. Woo hoo. Let's talk about the complete and utter lack of guitar solos. Oh, and don't hand me that "guitar solos are for hair metal" line either. I won't even bother to explain how wrong that is. Solo's MADE Metallica. Kirk helped pioneer single note solos, that's how you knew you were listening to Metallica. People modeled their guitar careers after these solos, but let's not focus on that. Let's instead focus on the COMPLETE and UTTER lack of said solos, maybe Kirk left his guitar on the subway and someone stole it. Stranger things have happened, granted he would have had to leave his feral intensity there to be stolen too. Hmmm. Let's talk about the bass riffs that are left stranded out in the rain like dead squirrels that were run over by the figurative 79' Buick of chaotic rampaging guitars. The gaps that appear in the middle of songs like wormholes near prominent Start Trek characters. The songs that try to change riffs midstream, fail, try again and then once more for emphasis they try yet again. Why? WHYYYY? I feel that I'm missing some points here. I feel that there is so much more that I could tell you, so much more you need to know. I don't know kids. That's the best I can do, may it help you in your decision making process."

Nu Metal junk

STORMBLAST | South of Heaven. | 04/03/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"What do you expect from a Metal album?
Rap? country vocals? the same boring riff over and over and over... again? the most stupid lyrics as possible? an idiot banging on trash cans? no guitar solos?
If you like this kind of music buy st anger now, the perfect album for nu metal fans.
If you want a great Metal check out Exodus new album Tempo of the Damned."

Metallica's "Kid A" ? I don't know...

S. Marth | New Hope, MN United States | 06/05/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"No, this album isn't an avante-garde Autechre-inspired IDM fest, but it's probably the closest Metallica will ever come.When my friend asked me today how St. Anger is, my first response was "F----in' weird...but really great." Then I thought about it, and it hit me--St. Anger is, with the exception of Radiohead's Kid A from a couple years ago, probably the strangest, most experimental and unexpected album to come from a multi-million selling act in the last decade (or more). I had read many reviews and responses to the album before I heard it, and they all said basically the same thing: "Heavy, fast, complex, dirty, grimy, a return to the trashing Metallica of old." That's only partially true. It's heavy, it's complex, it's DEFINITELY dirty and grimy. But what I never read from anyone's review was the pure WEIRDNESS of it all. You have the country-inflected vocal harmonies shoved in the middle of the goliath "Frantic", the half-dead lead guitar sound at the beginning of "Some Kind Of Monster," the almost Moog sounding octaving guitar on the chorus (?) of "Sweet Amber," the double-time drumming and half-time singing on the verses (?) of "All Within My Hands," the simply indescribable vocal stylings in the bridge (?) of "The Unnamed Feeling" -- the list goes on. This is Metallica at their most experimental.Most shocking of everything on the disc, however, is the recording quality (or lack thereof). Who would've thought that the band who gave us the pristine sounds of Load and the Black Album could give us this album that could easily be described as "Lo fi"? It took me a song or two to get used to, but after sitting through the whole disc, it all made sense. This album is catharsis for a band who, in the short time of writing and recording it, no longer gave a damn about what was expected from them. What it lacks in production and lyrics, it makes up for in its pure INTENSITY and those magical moments where you just can't believe they did what they did.Many people are going to HATE St. Anger. Many people already do. It's one of those records where you just have to "get it." While the album has its flaws, I believe that it is planting the seeds for the next true Metallica (or rock) classic.THIS ALBUM IS AT WORST:
A poorly recorded, slapped together experiment that, while lacking direction and incredible songs, still stands as respectable attempt to revitalize the state of modern metal through experimentation and brutal honesty.THIS ALBUM IS AT BEST:
A historic moment in the history of modern rock, where a hugely popular band decided to actualy DO SOMETHING about the state of popular music instead of just talking about it. An anomaly of a record that succeeds in wearing its heart on its sleeve through sincerity, experimentation, and intensity, in spite of it's occasional lack of musical and lyrical focus. Personally I think it's somewhere between those two."

Nu-Metallica

Jared Presley | Cincinnati | 01/11/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This must be the worst album yet, with bad production, no solos, a very annoying snare drum, intentional signing out of tune, and of course no inspiration at all. I'm not against using Pro Tools, but not when you don't know how to use it and make the msuic sound choppy, and I don't mean Guitar chops, since none were to be found. It looks like Jason was smart quitting, since he won't have to deal with the backlash. It's basically the same rythem track repeated over and over. There trying to be Nu-Metal, but someone should tell them to get a clue."

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