Metallica isn't Metallica anymore. I don't know what happened to them except $$$, but as soon as they "miraculously" went from Metal (underground and get get on the air to save your life) to "played on every rock station clone owned by Clearchannel" they lost it. The Black album isn't bad, but it was disappointing in the direction it took. A lot of die hard metal fans view "...and Justice For All" as the pinacle of Metallica's work, and they're right. To me it's been downhill from there. You know it's bad when you have old-school Metallica fans on their own message boards saying "St. Anger is crap". The only people I've seen defending it are the NuMetal generation that has no flocking clue what Heavy Metal is. They hear someone screaming into a mic and banging on a guitar, or doing "rap" to power chords and think it's metal. It stigmatizes metal as everything it's been stereotyped as for two decades now and only showcases the worst gutter-slime filth that people take metal to be.
I contrast this with Iron Maiden's new CD, "Dance of Death", which the cover art sucks but the music is everything classic metal SHOULD be. Musically it is superior in that they have balanced 3 guitars (they got a lot of flack for not doing more with the third guitar on Brave New World) and you can tell an obvious distinguished melody, harmony, and rhythm - all three necessary to fit the very definition of music. The songs tell stories, deal with some very passionate issues (Face in the Sand or Age of Innocence) historical tragedies (Pachendale, Montsegeur) and it sounds fantastic. Where is any of this in Metallica's stuff? They USED to write powerful stuff. Look at Eye of the Beholder, To Live is to Die, Master of Puppets, Sanitarium, etc? I can draw this comparison because I like Maiden but I also like Metallica's old stuff, from "Kill 'em All" up to the Black album. I know who VENOM is, for crying out loud. I'm as old-school metal as you get, so I think I've every right to bash Metallica on this. I've heard only 10 seconds of some of the "songs" on St. Anger. That was more than enough to know what it was, and what it wasn't.
Metal has gone very very wrong, and Metallica, which used to lead the pack is only leading Metal into extinction if the trend keeps going this way. I pray to God that Halford hooking back up with Priest ends up with them putting out some good strong Metal. If it's anything like what he did with Crucible then there's some hope there. Priest and Maiden have always been the backbone of metal. I'm hoping a new generation of proper metal can rise from the ashes of all this.
If you want to know what Metal's about, let me quote these words from an old Manowar song:
I made a rock'n'roll sin when I tried giving in
To make money, had to turn down low
They said why be proud don't play so loud
Be like us and get a sound that's real thin
Wear a polyester suit, act happy, look cute
Get a haircut and buy small gear.
That's whan I turned to them and said
HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!
Well it's more to me than just a job
And while you're playing you won't get robbed
NOBODY tells a man how to play
It just ain't that way
All men play on ten. Never gonna turn down again!
I spit on Metallica, and what they've become. Eck PTUH!! :angry:
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