Review Summary: This is not a bad album, its just misunderstood. Many gems are within it and the true art of it takes more than one listen. I stand for the defense of St. Anger
In the Defense of St. Anger
I have listened to St. Anger many times, after several listens I have come up with my own interpretation of this album. I'm not saying its definitive, but I could be onto something. This is not a bad album, its just misunderstood. Many gems are within it and the true art of it takes more than one listen. I stand for the defense of St. Anger
(The lyrics have been shortened to take less time to type this novel of a review, helps if you know the lyrics or have them to read on the side)
1: Overall sound w/lyrics:
Production is loud, harsh, distorted, unforgiving. Like James’ emotions at the time. This is a projection of what is going on in his head, and the shear confusion, disorganization and anger of the entire band on a CD. These emotions are not quiet and laid back, they are forward and loud and will never let you unhear them even for a minute. They hit with no care or consideration taken to how others can perceive it, its ugly and confusing to anyone who looks at it. This album as someone's mind would drive anyone crazy, which is why this can be seen as a look into the crazy of Hetfield's mind at this time.
2: Song by Song
Frantic:
Wasted days: days of drug and alcohol abuse, days of laziness, days of allowing depression to overcome you
Deal with what I shouldn’t know: maybe repressed memories, or the harsh reality of an ugly situation you would otherwise not see as bad or harmful
Live it or lie it: self-explanatory, you do it, or you lie to yourself and others about furthering your life
Keep searching: Peace? Tranquility? The love for life?
Fran tic tic tock: Clock ticks, time is running out for help, clock tics get louder as you put it off and more intense as you try to not notice, unforgiving, continuous, maddening, makes you fear the clock running town, you become afraid, frantic
Always afraid/endless stream of fear that I’ve made: Fear you create for yourself when worrying too much, putting fear into something there is nothing to fear at all
Fran tic tock of hurry: treading water and the clock keeps running, making you wonder how much time is left to fix a problem before drowning
Do I have the strength to know how I’ll go: can I stand up to what I’ve done, can I accept the things that are wrong with me?
Rising time/pushes to the other side: Other side=heaven and hell=death
St. Anger:
Round my neck: can’t ignore it (like the sound of the album), choking you, killing you, always there
Never gets respect: angry people get no respect, only more anger or hatred. Anger is seen as a bad emotion to the point of others being unwilling to help, others turn their heads and shun those that are angry. Anger is natural, its ok to be angry but we make it seem otherwise, nobody respects anger and in turn, causes those that feel it to feel hated, alone, or casted out
Anger not to control: Not wanting anger to take over your actions and emotions and speak for you irrationally.
Set it free: let it out
Some Kind of Monster:
Eyes can’t see me: The monster cannot see the true you, or other people can’t see the real you because of your anger speaking for you
Drop your trust: monster destroys the trust that someone has in you, after taking over
Tongue that speaks on inside: the internal angry thoughts are now being let out via the real tongue
Voice of silence no more: the monster’s voice of rage, from biting your tongue or just pent up anger
Burden of every man: others see anger and rage as a burden (St. Anger gets no respect)
Ominous, I’m in us: monologue of monster
Some kind of monster: St. Anger
All lyrics: the monster has taken over the mind and therefore the entire being of the victim, it’s the thing that the victim holds within them and that is not pretty for anyone else to see
Dirty Window:
Reflection in the window/ different then what you see: victim sees a different image of himself, whether it’s more pure (refusing to admit a problem) or if its ugly (seeing the monster and hate filled thing that lies within you)
Projecting judgement on the world: A dirty window will act like a filter, you will see the world less clearly and more blurry and dull if its dirty, causing you to falsely judge the way it looks
Am I who I think: Pretty self explanitory, trouble understanding who he his
Judge/jury/executioner too: you judge people as you sit on a throne that you’ve made for yourself thinking that your judgments are all correct, but you have a skewed view of it all due to the window
This house is clean: things may be clean in the rest of the house(body) but the window you see out of (eyes) are plaguing your view, causing a distorted view.
Cup of denial: the cup a king drinks from, the metaphor implies the denial that what is seen by the king is wrong due to the dirty window
Invisible Kid:
Never see what he did: Hides everything he does form the world, covers it up
Got stuck where he hid: Where he went to feel ok (room)
Falling through the grid: “going off the grid, not wanting to be like everyone else”
Got a place of his own: Room
Inward he’s grown: Introvert form being alone all the time
Locked away in his brain, shame and the pain, world down drain: Stuck with only himself, told to be ashamed of who he is (what a good boy you are) world: future? Life?
Bridge: The kid talking, claims that he is pain all the time but “I’ll show you” finally able to open up to someone (embodiment of St. Anger and Sweet Amber?)
Chorus: I’m ok always a lie when someone is depressed, does not want to be asked about it or talk about it, just wants to show someone what he’s like, doesn’t want this person to “stray too far” needs someone he can trust close by without commitment
Open your heart I’m beating right here: His heart? Still has one? Someone else’s: his pain exists in others?
Interlude: Out of the way, kept to yourself: people (family) push mental illness aside, see him as just a bad kid, train him to keep quiet and not act out in public for fear of embarrassing those close to him
Doesn’t want the attention: taught not to seek attention about his problems, causes the bottling up
Looks so calm floating around in himself: takes solace in himself and his room, its all he has, looks calm, isn’t on the inside
My World: (invisible kid’s world?)
Mother***ers got in my head: bullies, parents, personal demons, people dismissing problems
Try to make me someone else: Mother***ers want control just like bullies do, form of projection
My world now (The mother***ers’)
Raining in my room: (invisible kids’ room), cloud-over-the-head cliché, depression, fears, pain
Clouds’ll move on soon: the notion that pain goes away with time
Heavy fog: pain, anger, depression skew your view of reality and happiness (foggy)
Sit back and enjoy the ride: (accepting fate? Getting high? (coping?), angriest people like anger/loss of control (gives an excuse not to be punished))
Who’s in charge of my head today: multiple personality disorder
Dancing devils in angel’s way: allude to “Devils Dance” they dance cuz they have control, it’s the equivalent of a middle finger to the angels.
Look out mother***ers, gunna make head home: Taking control over a lost mind again (meds, improvement in mental status, getting better, recognizing a problem)
Don’t know answer/question: How? Why? Who?
Only rains on me: centralizing pain, self-explanatory
Shoot Me Again:
Won’t go away, I’ll stay: Standing your ground
Stand silent in flames: Burn alive, feel the pain, show no sigs of weakness like screaming or flinching
Until it fades: (until it sleeps), fire burns out
Prechorus: “Shoot me again”: bring it on, the person can take more, alludes to being used to it, always been bullied, callused from pain
Heart wont pump other way: Heart won’t turn its own cheek, won’t go in reverse to “save” someone else
Sleeping Giant: Inner demon, (St. Anger) or the (Some kind of) monster that will fight back and kill
Sweet Amber:
Wash your back/wont stab mine: Take care of/be nice to someone so they wont lash out (implies fear of them lashing put from past experience
In bed w/own kind: Mentally unstable, implies a new “breed” of person because of creed
Live life/don’t see mine: Live life outside of the abusee to ignore the misery in his
Drape back (Drape means rest/relax somewhere (back against a wall)): Keep back against a wall for no betrayal
Lie to get a smile: Do anything to appease (fear of lashing out)
Use what I want: compromising? Giving him things to withhold control over him (using gifts as ammo)
How sweet does it get: sarcastic
Chase rabbit, fetch stick: Symbol of control like a guard dog “go do what I want cuz I said so”
Rolls me over: Keeps up the same trick for amusement and reward, but it makes him sick, only benefits her
deals in habit/pain: Compromises with abuse (pain)
Run away/back again: Try to get away, but she holds control over his mind, she made him think that they need each other, too sick to see otherwise
Holds the pen/spells the end: Pen=control
Traces me/draws in: Draws in what she wants in someone, makes him into what she wants as her “perfect man”
The Unnamed Feeling:
Been here before: Regression
Do I start writing: Coping mechanism, doesn’t think it helps cuz he’s back
Plug you in my world: Show you something through my eyes
Help me: Now that they see it through his eyes, he thinks someone he confides in can help him undo it
Name this: Diagnose
Heat cold air, take chill off: Cold air: pain, depression, misery
Look inside, see what’s coming: Wants a warning of the “wave” of pain to come for preparation
Comes alive: The monster, St. Anger, depression
Die a little more: Regression
The unnamed feeling: Everything hitting at once, depression but can’t be described, only those who feel it understand it
Frantic in arms: Reference to Frantic, still shaking, feeling the pain
Can’t sleep: “Down filled” = filled with “downs” (pain, misery)
Safety in loneliness: nobody can hurt you if you’re alone, isolation safer for personal well being
Can’t stand it: Loneliness is still loneliness, still eats at one’s mind
Cross my heart: wants to promise something but not willing to die, still wants to live despite everything
Swallow evil, ride the sky: get high? Swallow evil as in keep it inside of you
Lose self in crowded room: From isolation comes far of being in crowded rooms with many people, lacks security of safety
It’ll be here soon: The “Wave”
Wait for train: Train: The Unnamed Feeling
Get the *** out (entire section): Conscious of being “Sick”, wants it to end (references My World) rest is self-explanatory
I wanna get away from me: It’s part of yourself, you wanna get away from who you are cuz it hurts to think you’re a monster and if your misery is a part of you, you’d rather be away from yourself
Purify:
Tear down, strip layers: Take off the old (bad) replace with new (emotions, outlook on life)
Turpentine (solvent): Coping mechanisms, purification
Bones of you and I: Going through this with someone
Truth: Admitting mistakes
Dare: daring to try new things
Peel skin, acid wash: Takes acid (something really strong) to clean off the remnants of the past
Wannabe skeleton: underneath is true purity, white represent purity, like a skeleton, also signifies having to go deep and not just focus on what’s on the surface
Clear eyes: No longer obscured by filth (anger, rage, depression) there is beauty underneath all the pain
Confine the dead: Trap the past (dead skin?) so it won’t come back (could also allude to bottling it up)
Ain’t dancing w/skeletons/ what might have been: Wont focus on what could have been, focusing on what is now
Purify: Get better, spiritually, mentally, physically, and ditch addictions
All Within My Hands:
All within my hands: All=pain, control, basically the whole album and the power to control/use it
Squeeze in, crush down: Squeeze it in the hand, being sure not to let go, but MAYBE hurt it a little like it hurt him
Hold dear/suffocate: Similar to previous
Love to death/smack around: Love so hard, grabs to tight, actually hurts person he loves
Beware: Of who has control, of what he is capable of
Love is control/ die if I let go: Love has taken control (Sweet Amber) again, making him think that he needs it to live simply to keep control over him
Hate me, hurry up and hate me: Asking what is in his hands to hate him, giving him an excuse to hate them back, the only way he can admit to feeling hatred, doesn’t think he can do it unless provoked verbally to do so
Hold/trap/squeeze within hands: Self explanatory
Take fear, pump me up: Using the fear of what he will do what is in his hand to fuel his hatred of “It” wanting mercy (which is ironic) to be able to hate it more for what it has done
Let you run/pull leash: Revenge, just toying with what toyed with him
Under thumb: Controlled by him
Only let you breathe/my air/see if I let you love me: Using fear of torture, if its his air he has full control of killing it (let if suffocate) and keeping it alive, it cannot live on its own, like it tried to do to him
Kill all within my hands: Now that the control is all on his hands, he knows that even though it will hurt to grip tighter and kill it, it’s the only way to make sure it can’t come back and do more damage. Must endure the pain of suffocating it as it fights to escape and makes the and bleed to end it for good, it will be the last time it hurts, but it will hurt.
3: What is means to me/connections:
Entire album is about invisible kid. The inner demons he has, and the progression of things getting worse and then ending. Invisible kid is my friend of misery and trapped under ice.
This album is about one messed up person. This how James felt while he was writing it, it’s not always poetic and polished, but neither are his thoughts. Thoughts are not polished like they would be in songs and movie scripts, they are raw, brutal, lacking in “intelligent” structure. It’s pure, its raw, and its real. Reflects the sound of the album greatly. This a view into James’ mind in the form of music, this what his mind, and life were like. It freaks people out, they see it as ugly and they dismiss it as pure gibberish and craziness, like they do with most mental problems. It’s to real for some people, they don’t want to see it if its not calm, cool, collected and “pretty”, like how we see mental illness. St. Anger has a lot of potential to be an immense work of art, and in a way it is. With a bit of reworking this could have been a more appreciated album, but I have grown to take it and appreciate it for what it is.
