Is St. Anger really all that bad?

[pantallica95]

Because it's absolutely terrible regardless of the band involved. It's also a heavy metal album with 0 solos, so they signed their death warrant from the start. Seriously, why are you listening to Metallica after And Justice For All anyway?

Because its fucking excellent music! Load, ReLoad, and St. Anger are awesome albums. I have all of metallica's albums, ive listened to all of them, and that era was a great one. Its not as good as Puppets and Justice and whatnot, but RTL isnt much better and The Black album is worse in my opinion.

saint anger is shit thats a given but i think the real questions is "is mettalica all that good?"

I think the real question is "Do you play guitar?" If you dont, you dont understand James Hetfield's godliness. He is the best rhythm guitar player alive today. And has a kickass voice.

Hey, at least it made for a good documentary, amirite?

What, Metallica, or their fanboys?

Metallica, obviously. Did you see Some Kind of Monster?[

Not a Metallica fan here. Give me Black Sabbath or Queens of the Stone age for my Heavy Metal, if you please. Rammstein as well, and some later stuff, but Metallica has never been a favourite. Average at best.

Queens of the Stone Age? RAMMSTEIN?! And you call yourself a metal fan?

If St. Anger is the first Metallica album you listen to, then chances are you will like it. However, if you listen to their older albums, it is likely you will agree with the majority of fans who believe those were some of the best and it is hard to compare St. Anger with that. Reload was their first one I bought and I love it to this day, but I still think the Ride the Lightning and Black album were their best.

Ive listened to all of them. I like all of them. And Load, ReLoad and St. Anger are very comparable. Some of their songs are better than some songs on the old stuff. For example, I prefer The Unforgiven II to the original.

The problem is that Cliff Burton was the backbone of the band and since his untimely demise the band has been going downhill. They have tried to evolve and that is just not what fans want. Load, Re-Load, and St. Anger were all attempts to do just that and many people did not like them. Especially people like myself who has grown up with them and bought their albums on cassette. We want the old Metallica. They tried to recapture the spirit with Death Magnetic, but within Cliff they are merely a shell of their former selves.

So...according to you ...And Justice for All was a shitty album then? And how could Death Magnetic be a "try" to recapture former spirit. They DID

 

[dmase]

I think that people don't like st. Anger because its different more than anything else. They didn't sellout making that album they tried something new like the Black album which was there "biggest" album. You can't blame a band for trying something new and I like most, not all but most of St. Anger's songs. I think their older stuff is better tho.

 

[Hookman]

I loved St. Anger. I especially liked the sharp,metallic drumming.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

St. Anger is not a bad album as such, but it's not a good album either. It ties with Re-load as my least favourite 'Tallica albums. I was at a concert with them two days ago, and I can't say I mind that they played nothing from either album really.

There was a time when I didn't like Load at all, but I find that the older I get the more I see Load as a true gem. It really is an excellent album despite my former misgivings. I think that it's the experiments they do on it I like so much and the fact that Hetfields vocals are very good on it. So, who knows, I might also end up loving St. Anger, Re-load and Death Magnetic. (It should be noted that my main gripe with DM is the atrocity known as My apocalypse.)

 

[Wadders]

I guess it depends on how old you are. St Anger sounds like a shitty generic rock album. Metallica hasn't really been cool since 1996 anyways.

I think that the new album has reinstate their coolness, if by coolness you mean their ability to play thrash, and not generic sounding rock...

 

[pantallica95]

St. Anger is not a bad album as such, but it's not a good album either. It ties with Re-load as my least favourite 'Tallica albums. I was at a concert with them two days ago, and I can't say I mind that they played nothing from either album really.

There was a time when I didn't like Load at all, but I find that the older I get the more I see Load as a true gem. It really is an excellent album despite my former misgivings. I think that it's the experiments they do on it I like so much and the fact that Hetfields vocals are very good on it. So, who knows, I might also end up loving St. Anger, Re-load and Death Magnetic. (It should be noted that my main gripe with DM is the atrocity known as My apocalypse.)

The songs from Load and ReLoad are technically from different albums, but really are supposed to be on one double album. The songs are interchangable between them. it mystifies me how you can like Load but hate ReLoad lol.

EDIT: My Apocalypse is the wor-no. the least awesome song on Death Magnetic. I skip it when i listen to that album.

 

[darthzew]

St. Anger represented everything bad happening to Metallica in the 90s... namely Bob Rock and Jason Newstead. Bob Rock brought Metallica into much-hated Load/ReLoad era and I believe that Jason Newstead fueled that. Both of them made Metallica into the more commercialized thing that they were.

When Jason Newstead said "I want a year off for echobrain" and was denied, he quit. Metallica did take a year but James Hetfield went into rehab. And then Bob Rock had much more control over the weakened band. It got so bad that fans signed a petition to have Bob Rock fired. And they responded.

My proof of this is how vastly superior Death Magnetic (Rick Rubin produced with Robert Trujilo on bass) is to St. Anger and Load/ReLoad(all Bob Rock produced and with Newstead on bass, except St. Anger, Bob Rock played bass on it). DM is everything Metallica should have been in the last 25 years.

So, St. Anger sucks because of Bob Rock and Jason Newstead being an idiot.

 

[DamagedWill]

Yes, have you heard anything pre-the black album because that is the only good stuff, further more and justice for all is only semi-listenable. It all went down here when the "written by dave mustane" credits were no longer in the liner notes

I see this every now and then and it always annoys me. He helped co-write about half of Kill Em' All and about two songs on Ride the Lightning. Every thing else was Metallica. Not Dave Mustaine. People who say Metallica owe everything to him are dead wrong.

 

[pantallica95]

St. Anger represented everything bad happening to Metallica in the 90s... namely Bob Rock and Jason Newstead. Bob Rock brought Metallica into much-hated Load/ReLoad era and I believe that Jason Newstead fueled that. Both of them made Metallica into the more commercialized thing that they were.

When Jason Newstead said "I want a year off for echobrain" and was denied, he quit. Metallica did take a year but James Hetfield went into rehab. And then Bob Rock had much more control over the weakened band. It got so bad that fans signed a petition to have Bob Rock fired. And they responded.

My proof of this is how vastly superior Death Magnetic (Rick Rubin produced with Robert Trujilo on bass) is to St. Anger and Load/ReLoad(all Bob Rock produced and with Newstead on bass, except St. Anger, Bob Rock played bass on it). DM is everything Metallica should have been in the last 25 years.

So, St. Anger sucks because of Bob Rock and Jason Newstead being an idiot.

you didnt really talk about the actual MUSIC in your post. just all the issues they had with jason and how you think Bob Rock is the devil. that doesnt make an album suck.

 

[darthzew]

St. Anger represented everything bad happening to Metallica in the 90s... namely Bob Rock and Jason Newstead. Bob Rock brought Metallica into much-hated Load/ReLoad era and I believe that Jason Newstead fueled that. Both of them made Metallica into the more commercialized thing that they were.

When Jason Newstead said "I want a year off for echobrain" and was denied, he quit. Metallica did take a year but James Hetfield went into rehab. And then Bob Rock had much more control over the weakened band. It got so bad that fans signed a petition to have Bob Rock fired. And they responded.

My proof of this is how vastly superior Death Magnetic (Rick Rubin produced with Robert Trujilo on bass) is to St. Anger and Load/ReLoad(all Bob Rock produced and with Newstead on bass, except St. Anger, Bob Rock played bass on it). DM is everything Metallica should have been in the last 25 years.

So, St. Anger sucks because of Bob Rock and Jason Newstead being an idiot.

you didnt really talk about the actual MUSIC in your post. just all the issues they had with jason and how you think Bob Rock is the devil. that doesnt make an album suck.

I decided to answer to answer the reasons behind it sucking rather than the actual suckage itself. I figured everyone else has already given that.

 

[TaborMallory]

While this album certainly isn't as bad as people make it out to be, it's still bad music.

And before you ask, Load was the first album I've ever heard from them.
As such, there are a few songs I like, such as King Nothing and Outlaw Torn.

The lyrics are some of Metallica's best

The lyrics are subpar. They're boring and often times repetitive.

The drums are excellent, although they do sound better with Lars' snare turned on.

The drums were what I disliked most about the album.
They overpowered the music, and the snare sounded like a child's toy or a tin can at best.