NEW METALLICA VIDEO

[Psycho Circus]

Apparently the sound quality is taking a bashing, the mix is supposed to be better on Guitar Hero! Haha 

http://www.sleazeroxx.com/news08/0919met.shtml

[Brother Ragnarok]

"Metallica started out as a thrash/speed metal band, to be "faster and heavier than anyone else". What happened? Just because times have changed, the musical landscape has changed doesn't mean that you have to totally re-invent your sound, does it? There's still other thrash bands going strong, who aren't alienating fans with a "modern approach" or feeling they have to prove anything."

What happened was, Metallica was never the best thrash band out there in the first place.  Just about every one of their contemporaries, Exodus, Slayer, Kreator, Testament, Destruction, Death Angel, etc., were faster and heavier.  Metallica just sold the most records.  That's always been their main distinction.  Well, that and their lyrics were never overtly Satanic.  I actually think Load/Reload is their strongest period, because it took a lot of balls to reinvent themselves that way.  I hate it when people say they "sold out" because the sound changed.  Really?  No one ever noticed that their first four "classic" records have all gone platinum about a hundred times over?  I don't think a band that's already making millions of dollars filling 15,000 seat arenas can be accused of selling out.

The new record is partially a return to the old form.  It's a fantastic record with a elements of all their different periods.  There are a lot of riffs that sound like St. Anger, vocal arrangements and some mellower music that sound a lot like Load/Reload (mostly The Day that Never Comes), and a whole boatload of good old fashioned thrash.  Seriously, anyone who says this record is just more St. Anger or Reload didn't listen to My Apocalypse or All Nightmare Long or Cyanide or That Was Just Your Life, or really about all but two of the songs on the disc.

Granted, Lars's praise of their absolutely awful Summer Sanitarium tour mates of years gone by is unforgivable, but Lars has always been the weak point in the band anyway.  Not only is he a douchebag, but if you put him next to Tom Hunting or Gene Hoglan or John Tempesta or Paul Bostaph or any of his thrash drummer contemporaries, he's a total puss of a drummer too.

Lars aside, Metallica writes some damn good songs.  They didn't always make the right choices, they didn't always stay "true to metal", whatever that means, they experimented and alienated some of their fans and gained others, but they've always done whatever they (...aaaaaand sometimes Bob Rock, but we won't talk about him) wanted, and they've written some damn fine tunes.

[Mr. DS]

First off, good commentary Brother and I'll give you karma for it.  Looking back, when I first heard The Day That Never Comes I seriously thought "oh christ, same old sh*t again" because I really did not dig the sound of Load.  That and I simply figured the band was doing the "same old sh*t" again which to me was rather bland.  I later changed my mind in the thread after hearing more.

For me, the term "selling out" really is stupid for anyone to use. I'm not sure why metal/punk fans throw it out there the minute a band changes their style/image to make money.  If you take any anti-social metal/punk band who scream of the dangers of capitalism and offer them money/chicks, 99% of them will smile and say "sure".  After all, it is a job. 

That aside, I grew up listening to the old school Metallica and dug their style.   Thats why I never really go into the new Metallica sound during the 90s.  I feel their music was simply rather "blah" during this period.  Granted as you mentioned, Metallica was never up to par with the likes of true thrash bands.  However they at least mixed it up a bit here and there while keep a decent metal sound.  In other words, a lot of thrash to me ends up sounding the same after awhile and a change of speeds on an album was welcome.  Metallica did that a lot on their early albums.

Anyhow, I guess it doesn't matter.  The band will have more money than I'll ever see no matter what our gripes/compliments are in the long run. 

[Brother Ragnarok]

I can understand how people growing up with Ride the Lightning would be disappointed in the change, and why Jerry Cantrell wore a t-shirt at Lollapalooza saying "Friends Don't Let Friends Get Haircuts" after Load came out.  My introduction to Metallica was, as most people's my age, the Black Album, so I didn't have as much of an impression to lose the first time around.
My problem with it is, as I said, when they're accused of selling out or sucking.  A lot of metal heads I know enjoy bands like Down and Sixty Watt Shaman and Corrosion of Conformity (the later, Sabbathey stuff, not the irritating hardcore punk stuff), and if you like bands like that and slam on Load and Reload, which are essentially the same thing, you're missing something.  It's not thrash, but it's still done well and is good hard rock.
Unfortunately, like with most things, the idiots in the crowd of metal fans are the ones with the loudest voices, and they're so quick to shout "sellout!" without really knowing what it means.  Most of the time a band is accused of it, they never really changed, they just made enough money to make their records sound professional.  Coming from a guy who routinely listens to ancient, crusty black metal, I love that stuff, but when a band like Dimmu Borgir starts making enough cash to hire an orchestra and record in a real studio instead of a basement I'm happy for them.  I certainly don't hate them for it.  The music hasn't really changed, it just sounds clearer.
My big hypocritical problem isn't that I don't want the bands to make money, it's that I don't want them to be popular.  Stupid, I know, but it's the curse of the underground metalhead I suppose.  On the one hand, when a band you've loved for years starts selling records in Target and making millions of dollars, you're happy that they're finally being appreciated for the talented musicians they are.  On the other hand, you get all these stupid little emo kids running around the mall wearing their t-shirts when they can't name any songs but the ones on the new, popular record.  All the time you were listening to them when they were nobody, you hear all the garbage on the radio and say, "This band I love is a thousand times better than these tools, why aren't they making millions of dollars?", and then when they do and everyone and their dog listens to them, being one of a select group of their fans stops being special, and you have to resort to being that "I liked them before they were popular" guy in the hope that someone will believe you and not just think you're another indie rock yuppie who really loves The Strokes and Fall Out Boy, but owns a couple of metal records because it's ironic or hip.  The best you can hope for is a band like Strapping Young Lad, who got popular and went on Ozzfest, and wrote their last record entirely to make fun of casual hipster fans.

[Mr. DS]

My big hypocritical problem isn't that I don't want the bands to make money, it's that I don't want them to be popular.  Stupid, I know, but it's the curse of the underground metalhead I suppose.  On the one hand, when a band you've loved for years starts selling records in Target and making millions of dollars, you're happy that they're finally being appreciated for the talented musicians they are.  On the other hand, you get all these stupid little emo kids running around the mall wearing their t-shirts when they can't name any songs but the ones on the new, popular record.  All the time you were listening to them when they were nobody, you hear all the garbage on the radio and say, "This band I love is a thousand times better than these tools, why aren't they making millions of dollars?", and then when they do and everyone and their dog listens to them, being one of a select group of their fans stops being special, and you have to resort to being that "I liked them before they were popular" guy in the hope that someone will believe you and not just think you're another indie rock yuppie who really loves The Strokes and Fall Out Boy, but owns a couple of metal records because it's ironic or hip.  The best you can hope for is a band like Strapping Young Lad, who got popular and went on Ozzfest, and wrote their last record entirely to make fun of casual hipster fans.

Well said.  Personally I've grown past all of this becuase I had a coming of age at an Ozzfest one year.  Looking at the 40 something guy with the long hair and the bald spot next to the teenager wearing a $25.00 Cradle Of Filth shirt, I realized its all just...well...silly. 

Another thing that annoys me about a lot of the meatalheads is their inability to lighten up.  I love metal but its only one of the genres I listen to.  I recall my metal friends in high school chastising every type of music that wasn't progressive metal.  They preach of bands "not having talent".  I was always on the side of "who the f*ck cares if the song is good". 

 

[Brother Ragnarok]

I'm friends with a few of those 40 something metal guys.  In about 14 years I'll probably be one.  But like you, I listen to a lot of stuff.  My favorite band is a folk group from Canada called Tanglefoot.  I love the Pogues.  I rock out to the Beach Boys and Louis Armstrong.  I own Sarah McLachlan records.  The vast majority of my record collection is metal, but I listen to a lot of stuff.  I'm like you in that, "if the song is good" philosophy.  It's just that I find more metal songs to be good than anything else.  It's great anger management music.  I like a song that sounds like it could physically beat the crap out of a UFC fighter.

Cradle of Filth, by the way is one of those odd bands that, while if any metal band could be accused of selling out it's them because their sound has changed so much to fit what is popular with goth kids these days, they avoid the brand because they were always a self-aware parody of the conventions of black metal.  Dani Filth, say what else you want about him, writes some hilarious lyrics.

[Mr. DS]

I'm not huge into black metal but enjoy death metal in moderation.  I have a rather high distaste for metalcore.  Other than that I like most forms of metal and rock.  Cradle Of Filth's music seems so epic with the operatic ladies singing in the back.  I find it actually pretty funny. 

I won't embarrass myself with the non-metal stuff I have on my I-Pod.  It ranges to the point of people more than likely questioning my sanity if they saw it. 

[Brother Ragnarok]

You think Cradle's bombacity is funny, you should check out Rhapsody or Therion sometime.  Me, I loves me some orchestral metal, but Cradle has wussed out pretty bad on the last few records.  Compare Thornography to Cruelty and the Beast and you'll see what I mean.
I'm kind of the opposite of you, in that I love black metal and listen to death metal in moderation.  Must be my Norwegian blood.

[Torgo]

I think that death metal peaked as a genre in the early to mid 90's. To my ears it has been pretty stagnant since then with the exception of some bands like Quo Vadis and Cryptopsy.    As for black metal, the high screeching "vocals" ruin it for me, which is a shame as the music is sometimes amazing. I do however like Dimmu Borgir quite a lot. But they keep the vocals in much more of a midrange level.

[Mr. DS]

You think Cradle's bombacity is funny, you should check out Rhapsody or Therion sometime.

I actually reviewed one of Therion's albums for my old college radio station.  I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it here and there.  Its the one with Seven Riddles Of The Sphinx on it. 

[Brother Ragnarok]

I think that death metal peaked as a genre in the early to mid 90's. To my ears it has been pretty stagnant since then with the exception of some bands like Quo Vadis and Cryptopsy.    As for black metal, the high screeching "vocals" ruin it for me, which is a shame as the music is sometimes amazing. I do however like Dimmu Borgir quite a lot. But they keep the vocals in much more of a midrange level.

If you think death metal peaked in the 90's, you need some Nile and some Behemoth and some Necrophagist.  That stuff'll knock your dick in the dirt.

As to the screeching vocals, what bands are you referring to?  I listen to quite a lot of black metal and the only band I've ever heard do that is Cradle of Filth, and yeah, it's freakin' obnoxious.