The “anti-metal” Metallica album
Metallica has never apologised for being exactly what their name implies. Their music has always been crafted into pure musical steel whenever they come out with a new album, and even when they don’t leave audiences with much to talk about, James Hetfield always finds a way to make the perfect riff that hits the listener square in the face the minute they hear it. But anyone playing the same song would get bored every now and again, and there were a few times when the thrash legends wanted to get out of their comfort zone a little bit.
But for any Metallica purist, Bob Rock is practically the reason why everything went wrong. The whole point behind them working together on The Black Album was to simplify their sound from And Justice For All, and listening through some of the singles, it’s clear that they wanted to make something that was more accessible than having someone sit through all seven minutes of ‘Blackened’.
While it did pay off to some extent, their wilderness period from Load to S&M was all too much for metalheads to stomach. Playing with orchestras and making songs that veered towards the alternative trends weren’t going to win them any points with their fans, but no one should really fault them for doing that, either. They were taking chances, and while that’s what bands are supposed to do, everything was bound to reach a breaking point by St Anger.
Hetfield and Jason Newsted had already been butting heads before the album began, but when the bassist walked out on the group, they realised they needed to take a step back and look at the big picture. They certainly had a role to play in Newsted’s departure, and after Hetfield left for a year to go to rehab, the fact that they could play music at all afterwards was a miracle.
The only problem was that the album was absolutely terrible from front to back. There were at least some good ideas on the project that could have made for some great moments, but the only way the band could think to express their anger was to release it as raw as possible, from Lars Ulrich unhooking the snare from his snare drum and letting their tunes stretch out for far too long.
But according to their producer, the point was to make something that deliberately went against the grain when submitting it to radio, saying, “They were surprised and pissed off, and it scared the hell out of them. But I wanted to make an anti-metal album in the metal format. So it sounds a little garage-y! It’s about the riffs, and it’s about playing.”
It’s one thing to make something that people would want to hear blaring out of a garage, but this almost goes too far the other way. By keeping things so raw, tunes like ‘Purify’ come off either like the band aren’t truly in control of what they’re doing or are trying their best to keep their shit together for the length of one song.
It’s far from the greatest Metallica album, and you’ll have to make a good case to say that it’s a fantastic record, but St Anger feels like it should be respected more than enjoyed. Anyone could spend their time trying to make the finest record they can at the time, but when someone is in a position this dire, they will settle on whatever idea they have and bring it to fruition.
