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St. Anger
Artist : Metallica
List Price : $18.98 USD
Your Price : $14.99 USD
ProductGroup: Music
Release Date : 2003-06-05
Studio : Elektra / Wea
Label : Elektra / Wea
Avg. Customer Rating :  (4185 reviews)
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Reviews
Customer Reviews for St Anger
The most underrated album ever
Rating:
OK, I ll have to admit: Even though I consider myself to be one of the biggest Metallica fans in the world, I believe this is not their best album.
But still, does this disc deserve all the criticism that it received? Hell no. First, let's look at the actual content of these critics:
1. Crappy sound. True, the disc has a "garage", brunt and ugly sound to it, and the drum snares are... well, you will hear. But coming from the same people that complained about Metallica selling out to the masses on Load and Reload, with its softer songs and cleaner sound....this is unacceptable. Lars Ulrich in 99 had said that their next album would have an 'ugly' sound. This is not an overproduced mix of a rock star line up, this is a dark, almost "filthy" raw sound. No sell out band would chose to record this way.
2. "Nu Metal" attempt, Metallica trying to sound "current". This is a pathetic criticism. The only remotely Nu Metal element of this disc is the lack of guitar solos, which has been well documented. On the contrary, this is a more agressive disc not only than all nu metal albums I have ever heard, but also more than all Metallica albums since Kill Em All.
So, here is what I like with this disc:
It is an incredibly violent album. For a band 20 years into existence and which has been labelled as a sell out act for 15 years, this is remarkable.
Songs like Frantic, St Anger and the magnificent All Within My Hands provide the listener with a unique, unpure form of agression.
Coming after Load & Reload, this artistic approach is remarkable and deserves praise for the attempt alone. Given Metallica's "classical sounding" approach to thrash metal, it is also refreshing to hear.
This approach takes Metallica music to a place where it had never been before. You may not like this CD, but never before had Metallica sounded like this, and no one could have guessed it would sound like this. I view St Anger as yet another example of the band's attempt to "take chances" and innovate artistically speaking. Bands like Slayer, who have been rehashing the same album for over 20 years, could never do that. These bands in my opinion are the "sell out" ones, playing it on the safe side, like a company afraid to change a product that works. I guess Slayer resembles a soft drink company in that perspective (I admit I am being a bit provocative here).
I will admit not everything is perfect. Some songs have not stood the test of time as Tier 1 Metallica songs (Invisible Kid, Purified, My World). More importantly, the album was recorded extensively using Pro Tools, and the computerized end product can sound monotoneous when played from beginning to end.
But this particular flaw is corrected by the free rehearsal DVD that comes with the CD. We see here the 4 Horsemen playing those songs live, with Trujillo, and I think the body of work sounds even better than on the album.
In conclusion, I will say that St Anger is "Some Kind of Monster". Despite of its flaws, it is a unique, fascinating body of work. Not for Metallica first timers, but a great disc nonetheless.
PS I will not comment here on the movie SKOM, nor the turmoil that took place around the time of recording. Too many people review the album based on the movie. IMHO I tried to review the album based... on how the album sounds like.
PS2 I would have put 4 stars based on my views of the band's other albums but I wanted to compensate for the bunch of retards who gave this only 1 star.
Customer Reviews for St Anger Cd
What If....
Rating:
What if a top metal band decided to explore their punk roots? With a new bassist right out of punk/metal hell, and three veterans who've been there and done that, St. Anger is thrash/metal heaven. Take away the obligatory guitar-hero solos, and what's left? Tight, bone-crunching beats, ingenious arrangements, and lyrics full of angst, malice and malaise. This is a punk/metal crossover masterpiece, born just a little too slow. If you ever thought punk, or metal, might have some tiny merit, GET THIS NOW! Wasted on these snotty kids of today...the title cut alone is worth the price, and it doesn't stop there. I have seen the light!
Otherwise, go listen to some one-hit wonder who's hip today and gone tomorrow. These guys have PAID THEIR DUES. Ignore this album at your own risk. If anyone in the band reads this, God bless each and every one of you. YOU CAN'T STOP THE ROCK!!!
P.S. The DVD is too cool for the MTV generation...documenting the bands practice sessions...punk rock lives!
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