Album Rating: 2.5

lol

Album Rating: 2.5

This still is miles over anything they did on St. Anger.

Album Rating: 3.0

This is a good album. Not bad for a bunch of dudes in their late 40s.

I got this album when I went to Hot Topic the day it went out, and they had it for like $1.99, totally worth it.

Good review, album's pretty good.

Album Rating: 4.0

Nothing wrong with being a fanboy eveyone's a fanboy of something you just don't admit it

Album Rating: 4.0

I thought this album was great, a 3.3 average is bs.

Album Rating: 4.5

If I wanted to be really controversial, I'd have done a St. Anger review and given it a 4. Seriously.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

mehtallica

Album Rating: 4.0

Criminally underrated in the grand scheme of all things 'Metallica.'

I could not agree more. Sure, it's not as good as their first four albums, but it is still awesome. At least I think so.

Album Rating: 4.5

I agree wholeheartedly, it's like people deliberately rate it only in terms of the first four or as a comeback, when it's great in its own right.

"A return to form after St. Anger could have just been another Load, such was the lack of quality to be found in the 2003 release."
You're making it sound like Load was somehow an inferior album LOL. Even if it somehow is, then it's only by a very small, subtle degree - to even imply a faint praise along these lines, is beyond any taste or reason.

Anyway, why are the "classic songs" put up on such untouchable pedestals here? Dyer's Eve, for instance, aside from the amazing intro and electrifying main riff, has pretty annoying lyrics and vocals, and I'm not particularly blown away by its chorus musically, either. Apocalypse is definitely a superior song imo, and the only sense it's in any way "behind" DE in is the increased complexity that comes with being on AJFA. All those diverse little breaks and syncopations that embellish the main B riff are obviously absent on MA, but then again, so are they from any of their previous output.

Sometimes when listening to a DM song, I feel like skipping the second verse and jumping straight to the middle section and then to the end - but then again, same goes for the older stuff. KEA and RtL had some cheesy, sloppy vocals that certainly rival DM's clipping issues in their potential to drag down / enhance the experience, and there are some breakdowns and solos there that I also find don't quite flow, or fit in.
Aside from lacking that "old golden classic" feel of the first three albums, I honestly don't see how DM is in any way inferior.

Regarding the band's... deviations inbetween, the consensus seems to be that the Black Album is still really kickass while the Loads are somehow subpar? What? BA has the advantage of being more whole as an album, sure, and having each song on it standing out from the rest - but it's also the campiest, most pompous and most "commercial feeling" album they've ever made (well, half of it at least). The Loads, by contrast, sound earthy, honest and genuine, and also lack most of the cheese that can be found on the classic albums.
Now, I like humorous, over-the-top camp stuff as much as the next red-blooded individual, but wouldn't those kinda things at least have produced significant subgroups within the fandom that preferred the Ls to tBA, and in certain respects the previous ones as well if it weren't for this boneheaded, religious "the original style/canon is sacred, and I don't like things that are different" cult mentality that seems to permeat and pervade and penetrate a giant portion of the fanbase?

What a boring, uninteresting mindset. I enjoy DM's "return to the roots" aspect, in addition to already appreciating it as a work in itself, in many different ways - but unlike some others, I don't operate under the delusion that said return to the roots is also, therefore, concordantly, a return to form.
Sorry gaiz, DM isn't the best thing Metallica put out since MoP or Justice, nor is it the best thing since the Loads, but we all know how much that means harr harr harr - it's simply their next great album after the bizarre but entertaining experiment that was St. Anger. That is it - they tried a funny thing on the sidelines (I'm familiar with the actual backstory btw, so quit emailing me), and then went on to make another proper album.
How great, how pleasing, that it was in a musical style that had been abandoned for 20 years! I suspect after spending this joyful weekend in their old hometown, they'll go off venturing into other areas in their next albums all over again - though they might as well not.

"I've been saying that for years. Don't cop my stylee, brah"
What does a cop do with a stylee? He *assumes* it.
I'm so, so genuinely sorry.

Album Rating: 3.5

"All Nightmare Long" is probably the most badass thing they've made since Master Of Puppets in terms of aggression.

check dyers eve mate

If you said "since Justice" I might agree

but yeah, Justice got sum heavy ish

Album Rating: 3.5

yeah if you don't include ...And Justice for All and s/t



That's true. "Sad But true" and "One" are onslaughts of riffs and craziness.