Metallica Fans

Archive for January, 2009

Called “the Black Album” by many (due to its monochrome cover), Metallica marks the group’s entrance into the mainstream, with shorter songs, simpler song structures, and slower tempos overall. That said, this is an excellent album, featuring some of the best songwriting Metallica has ever done. “Enter Sandman,” “Wherever I May Roam,” and “God That Failed,” despite being slower and more groove-oriented than the band’s earlier work, feature the same heavy riffs and heavier rhythms that have always been a feature of Metallica’s music. The band goes introspective with “Unforgiven,” and proves that they can write a ballad with “Nothing Else Matters,” which succeeds better than one might expect. Overall, this is a high-energy album despite its laid-back approach, and is in many ways superior to the previous . . . And Justice for All, which was weakened by overly complicated song structures and mediocre production. — Genevieve Williams

1. Enter Sandman -
2. Sad but True Listen -
3. Holier Than Thou -
4. Unforgiven Listen
5. Wherever I May Roam -
6. Don’t Tread on Me -
7. Through the Never -
8. Nothing Else Matters
9. Of Wolf and Man -
10. God That Failed -
11. My Friend of Misery -
12. Struggle Within

Having already established themselves as the streetwise saviors of heavy metal’s oft-tainted legacy in the ’80s, Metallica rebounded from the accidental death of original bassist Cliff Burton to produce their most thematically challenging, musically accomplished album to date. Despite James Hetfield’s dank, extended portraits of a world collapsing from corruption and decadence–themes that virtually guaranteed it little radio or television exposure–the album was nonetheless a muscular commercial success. Even “One,” its complex, seven-and-a-half-minute adaptation of Dalton Trumbo’s “Johnny Got His Gun,” managed to scale the singles charts. Other highlights include “Blackened,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and the sweeping “To Live Is to Die,” tracks that underscore a sense of musical ambition that’s often downright prog-centric, yet never merely self-indulgent. –Jerry McCulley

1. Blackened -
2. …And Justice for All -
3. Eye of the Beholder -
4. One Listen -
5. Shortest Straw
6. Harvester of Sorrow -
7. Frayed Ends of Sanity -
8. To Live Is to Die -
9. Dyers Eve

Don’t let that classical-guitar-ish opening to “Fight Fire with Fire” fool you–Ride the Lightning packs a heavy-metal wallop. While not as ambitious as the subsequent Master of Puppets, this early Metallica album is indubitably one of their best. Thematically, it explores death and dying from myriad points of view: nuclear war (“Fight Fire with Fire”), electric-chair execution (the title track), and drowning (“Trapped Under Ice”). Interestingly, the best track on this album is probably “Fade to Black,” a slower, more introspective song about suicide. There’s also “Creeping Death,” which remains a concert favorite. An excellent mix of rapid-fire guitar riffs, rip-roaring solos, and singer James Hetfield’s trademark growl, this is thrash metal at its finest. Very highly recommended. –Genevieve Williams

1. Fight Fire with Fire
2. Ride the Lightning
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls
4. Fade to Black
5. Trapped Under Ice
6. Escape
7. Creeping Death
8. Call of Ktulu

With Load, Metallica takes a dramatic left turn with their music, continuing in the direction suggested by Metallica, their previous album. The songs on Load have groove; they’re slower, with far fewer of the lightning-fast riffs that have been Metallica’s trademark since their inception. While songs like “Ain’t My Bitch” and “Wasting My Hate” are up-tempo and full of the vitriol one would expect from the quintessential heavy metal band, “2 X 4″ is hard rock with a blues beat, “Hero of the Day” sounds positively mainstream, and “Mama Said” is an actual, honest-to-god ballad. While some diehard fans may find this mix unappealing, there’s plenty to like about this album, including its laid-back, rhythmic orientation, and James Hetfield’s characteristic growl tempered by his growing maturity as a vocalist. — Genevieve Williams

1. Ain’t My Bitch -
2. 2 X 4 -
3. House Jack Built -
4. Until It Sleeps -
5. King Nothing
6. Hero of the Day -
7. Bleeding Me -
8. Cure -
9. Poor Twisted Me -
10. Wasting My Hate
11. Mama Said -
12. Thorn Within -
13. Ronnie -
14. Outlaw Torn

Blackened
(Hetfield,ulrich,newsted)

Blackened Is the End
Winter it Will Send
Throwing All You See
Into Obscurity
Death of Mother Earth
Never a Rebirth
Evolution’s End
Never Will it Mend
Never

Fire
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Blackened Is the End
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Color Our World Blackened

Bustering of Earth
Terminate its Worth
Deadly Nicotine
Kills What Might Have Been
Callous Frigid Chill
Nothing Left to Kill
Never Seen Before
Breathing Nevermore
Never

Fire
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Blackened Is the End
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Color Our World Blackened

Blackened

Opposition…Contradiction…Premonition…Compromise
Agitation…Violation…Mutilation…Planet Dies
Darkest Color
Blistered Earth
True Death of Life
Termination….Expiration…Cancellation…Human Race
Expectation…Liberation…Population…Lay to Waste
See Our Mother
Put to Death
See Our Mother Die
Smouldering Decay
Take Her Breath Away
Millions of Our Years
In Minutes Disappears
Darkening in Vain
Decadence Remains
All Is Said and Done
Never Is the Sun
Never

Fire
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Blackened Is the End
To Begin Whipping Dance of the Dead
Fire
Is the Outcome of Hypocrisy
Darkest Potency
In the Exit of Humanity
Color Our World Blackened
Blackened

Metallica – And justice for all

One
(Hetfield,ulrich)

I Can’t Remember Anything
Can’t Tell If this Is True or Dream
Deep down Inside I Feel to Scream
this Terrible Silence Stops Me
Now That the War Is Through with Me
I’m Waking up I Can Not See
That There Is Not Much Left of Me
Nothing Is Real but Pain Now

Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God,wake Me

Back in the Womb its Much Too Real
in Pumps Life That I must Feel
but Can’t Look Forward to Reveal
Look to the Time When I’ll Live
Fed Through the Tube That Sticks in Me
Just like a Wartime Novelty
Tied to Machines That Make Me Be
Cut this Life off from Me

Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God,wake Me

Now the World Is Gone I’m Just One
Oh God,help Me Hold My Breath as I Wish for Death
Oh Please God Help Me

Darkness

Imprisoning Me
All That I See
Absolute Horror
I Cannot Live
I Cannot Die
Trapped in Myself
Body My Holding Cell

Landmine

Has Taken My Sight
Taken My Speech
Taken My Hearing
Taken My Arms
Taken My Legs
Taken My Soul
Left Me with Life in Hell

One of the defining albums of thrash metal, Master of Puppets is arguably Metallica’s best album (as well as their last with bassist Cliff Burton). Focusing on the concept of power and abuses thereof, this is a collection of complex, intelligent music, played at about a hundred miles an hour. Not that these are short songs; this eight-song album clocks in at over an hour, which makes it all the more impressive that not one moment on this recording is boring. In tackling various approaches to their subject, Metallica is insightful lyrically as well as musically: “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” is from the point of view of an institutionalized inmate and “Disposable Heroes” is the perspective of a soldier. If all you’ve heard of Metallica is what’s been on the radio recently, check this one out. You’re in for a surprise. –Genevieve Williams

1. Battery -
2. Master of Puppets -
3. Thing That Should Not Be -
4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
5. Disposable Heroes -
6. Leper Messiah -
7. Orion [Instrumental] -
8. Damage, Inc.