Metallica Appreciation Thread

rushfan4 wrote: I thought that I had seen one of these already but a search didn't find one, so here we go.  Let us use this thread to discuss things that we like, err... appreciate about the, dare I say, "ultimate" thrash band of the 80's and 90's.     I was probably 15 years old when I first heard them back in 1985.  I was out mowing my lawn, when my ears heard something amazing coming from my buddy/neighbor's garage.  He was blasting Ride The Lightning, and I was immediately floored by what I heard.  Back in those days, CDs and the internet didn't exist yet, so most music purchases were either of the vinyl or cassette variety.  I belonged to the Columbia House music club, but Metallica had not yet graced their pages yet.  I had to purchase a metal guitar magazine in order to find them, and than special order them via the mail.  I had never done anything like that before, but within a few short weeks I was the proud owner of Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning on vinyl.  And they were both well worth the purchase.  I am one of those strange people around these parts that when I like a band I tend to like everything that they have done, and Metallica is no exception for me.  I realize that albums like Re-Load and St. Anger aren't of the same quality of their previous works, but they are still albums that I enjoy listening to from time to time.    Anyhow, I have many other stories to tell, but I thought that I would try and get this thread started with this one.  Let us know what you like and appreciate about one of the bands that put thrash music on the map.

Edited by ProgMetaller2112 - 03 Sep 2014 at 5:29pm

Yeah? Glad to hear!
It seemed, at least to me, that MoP was pretty much considered their crown jewel.
Great album of course, but my fav has always been AJFA.
Weird sound aside (and really is it that big a deal?) some great music!

KEA to AJFA are brilliant. Some great music!

I dont like Black Album, Load and ReLoad ().
I actually don't hate St Anger (Id say 3 stars)
Death Magnetic grew on me.

I discovered Metallica in the mid 90s as a teenager. Of course they were famous in Eastern Europe, after the dictatorial regimes fell everybody was exploring the new found freedom and catching up with the West, there were tons of metalheads, hippies, "depeche"-ists, etc. But I could not hear Metallica anywhere, until cable television finally arrived in my town too and they had MTV. When the first single from Load hit the screens, I was hoocked - it was "Until it Sleeps". I had no idea what their old stuff sounded like, and I had no clue about metal in general, so I liked the songs from the Load-Reload era a lot. They were excellent pieces of mainstream music of that time. When I started going out in town with the rockers and drink vodka in lousy bars, I would hear "One" or "Master Of Puppets" once in a while, and they were awesome, but since most people in the East had discovered metal because of the fall of Communism in 1989, everyone was big on the "Black Album" - the album that came out at that moment in time. Only a small elite of metalheads were really experts and had a good knowledge of 80s metal (and discs to listen to). So I only got acquainted with their thrash period in the 2000s, when I also got the habit of listening to full albums instead of only listening to the TV singles. Right now I'd rate higher the 80s albums (especially Justice and Master), but I still like Black/Load/Reload/S&M. At least I think so, I didn't listen to any Metallica in years.

I think that a lot of the Black Album-era concerts were boring. I remember seeing Metallica live back then in Copenhagen with Mercyful Fate and Suicidal Tendencies warming up. After those bands, Metallica seemed like a tired mastodon on the brink of extinction, with their long rendition of "Seek and Destroy" and all the state chatter and so on.

I caught one of their shows in Copenhagen last year, and that was much, much, much better, as they'd cut most of the pointless stage chatter and Hammett's guitar solo was shortened down to less than five minutes.... oh, and there were no "Load" or "Reload" songs which I appreciated a lot :-)

Charcaroth wrote:  I also like the "Binge and Purge" live set a lot.

I was big into hair metal when I was 12 years old. I was lucky enough to have a few heavier things like Maiden's "Number of the Beast" and Priest's "Sin After Sin", and Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon", but Def Leppard was my favorite band at the time. Then this girl I knew in school sold me a copy of Metallica's "...And Justice for All" because she didn't like it. I had no idea who they were or what they sounded like, and up to that point, I'd remained ignorant of the world of extreme metal, so that album served as my gateway into heavier fare. I didn't really know what to make of it at first, it seemed so alien to me, but I kept listening to it, mesmerized. It was so morose and wrathful and malcontented, and in some sense I'd never really considered that music could speak to the unhappiness and frustration we feel in life until that point.

So "Justice" was my initiation into the world of extreme metal. I've since gotten into everything from really fucked up death/black metal to doom and prog metal, but recently I've been revisiting thrash metal and listening to these bands again. "Justice" remains my favorite Metallica album, along with "Puppets". I also like the "Binge and Purge" live set a lot.

I'm embarassed!  I was a seriously late starter on the Metallica front, 'cause I was brought up with prog, hard rock and some glam metal. So, I wasn't even too sure who Metallica were until I was about 13. You see, thrash was never a genre that my family really knew or took to.

I know that it's in to hate Metallica and Lars Ulrich, but I don't care - I think that "Ride the Lightning", "Master of Puppets", and "... and Justice for All" are some of the best thgrash metal albums ever. "Kill 'Em All" is an album I enjoy listening to, too, and I actuallly like "St. Anger" despite the strange production. I think that "Death Magnetic " is an excellent come-back, and I don't mind the black album. I can't stand "Load" and "Reload" though.

Metallica has played an important part in my life and is a central part of the sound track of my youth, so I'm not going to jump the anti-Metallica bandwagon.


Edited by Time Signature - 26 Jul 2010 at 4:30am

Metallica was one of the first metal bands I got into. I don't listen to them a whole lot anymore, but when I was first exploring heavy metal, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice For All, and Ride The Lightning were some of my all-time favorite albums. I absolutely loved the intensity and heaviness in the music, something I hadn't heard a whole lot of before Metallica. I started my musical journey with Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Iron Butterfly, so I was in complete amazement the first time I heard Master of Puppets. I still love them, and I'm glad they showed they were still worth something with Death Magnetic (which I love).