METALLICA — St. Anger (review)

Album · 2003 · Alternative Metal

0.5/5 · 2010-05-29
AtomicCrimsonRush

tick tick tick tick tick tick tock? Metallica go BOOM!

St Clanger, I'm madly in anger with you...

The best thing about this album is the documentary behind it, Some Kind of Monster.

The band went through immense turmoil during the making of this album. Hetfield left the band for rehab and to clear the cobwebs in his head. With lyrics about his lifestyle and his 'deathstyle', the content of 'St Anger' is bitter, morbid and twisted, and there is no heart in it. Hetfield sounds like he has vocal diarrhea, a word incidentally, from the Greek word meaning 'flowing through'. The only thing flowing on this monstrosity is the cash from the fans who unfortunately were suckered into buying this beer coaster.

OK, so who the heck is responsible? Metallica are not even close to peak performance and the album would be their worst as a result. Most band members played solo parts and the whole thing was edited together hastily in time for its release date. It feels as though the members of the band did not care about the album and that's a rarity for Metallica. Bassist Robert Trujillo jumped on board the Metallica Machine but did not play for his debut; Bob Rock did all the bass parts on this and is as good as he needs to be to make the thing hang together. The band themselves are now trying to ignore this album. Live performances at most play three of the tracks but I dare say they will eventually hope this album becomes a distant memory, though "the memory remains"...

Unfortunately this album stinks of a poor attitude. The guitar work is tiresome and there is nothing innovative or new in Hammet's guitar riffs. There are no lead breaks just a bunch of noisy garage band riffs. This album sounds like a debut for the latest grunge garage act. Ulrich does not have a chance to shine on drums either, his drums sound like they were played in the toilet, actually they were I think. And the lyrics were written on toilet paper so that the music industry could wipe their bums on them. Ulrich is the best thing on this, in fact on the doco he is the one who was most worried about this release. He is excellent on the doco as a mouthpiece for how the band was falling apart. I also loved Megadeth's intervention to help out in places.

The album cover looks like a slogan for an anti Apartheid rally. And don't get me started on those lyrics: actually they are too good to pass up... "Frantic tick tick tick tick tick tick tock, Frantic tick tick tick tick tick tick tock, Treading water full of worry, This frantic tick tick talk goes hurry... my lifestyle determines my deathstyle" or "This is the face that you hide from, This is the mask that comes undone, Ominous, I am in us, Ominous, I am in us..." No compromise, My heart won't pump the other way, Wake the sleeping giant, Wake the beast, Wake the sleeping dog, No, let him sleep..." or "Tear it down, Strip my layers off, My turpentine, Old paint, old looks, Cover up the past, White heat, white light, Super whity, bones, Bones of you and i, Pure if i ... Can't you help me?" and finally "Who's in charge of my head today, Dancin' devils in angels way, It's my time now, Look out motherf***ers here I come, Gonna make my head my home..." These make their other album's lyrics sound like Wordsworth or Keats.

The whole background on this album is compelling viewing and the documentary is one of the best 'warts and all' fly- on-the-wall docos in history. However, the album is appalling in both production and content. None of the songs stand out as highlights.

A real waste from some of the most talented metal virtuosos in history... so I dub thee Unforgiven.