Artist: Metallica
Label: Mercury Records
Released: 2003
Have you ever been stuck in a pit with no way out? Has life ever brought you to the point where despair pushed you to end it all? Did the people around you treat you like a clown, or just one more loser?
Were your actions ever pointless, and the words you spoke with such pride scorned and mocked?
Have you ever woken up night after night from the same nightmares, over and over, ones you often couldn’t wake from, ones you didn’t want to go back to at all, so you stayed up the whole night?
Have you ever stood on the edge, with one foot on the other side?
If your answers were all NO, then you’ll never understand St. Anger. If not, you’ll be reliving a whole lot of it again and again.
The descent into the pit, the stumbling around, the search for a way out, and the way out itself. Not an exit, an escape!
The doubts were huge – first the band’s energetic powerhouse Jason Newsted left, and soon after James Hetfield, the rhythm guitarist, singer and main lyricist, went into treatment for alcohol and mental-health dependencies.
What would become of the band? What would happen to the gods of heavy metal?!
James made his first public appearance when Aerosmith were named MTV Icon last year, and then the whispers started about a search for a new bassist and about recording an album.
The rumors about the record were weird, with talk of pianos and tambourines, fully acoustic tracks and other very strange stuff. Then again, we’ve seen it all with Metallica!
The new bassist is Robert Trujillo, who joined after all the material for the album had already been recorded. The bass on the recordings was played by the band’s producer Bob Rock himself, and from what I’ve heard, he did a great job.
Robert is definitely different from both of his predecessors (not counting the first bassist, McGovney, of course) – the late Cliff Burton and the fired Jason Newsted. From the first he has plenty of technical know-how (he plays bass with his fingers, which is pretty unusual in heavy metal), and from the second, charisma and an incredible dose of energy.
In every respect, especially after what we got to see last Sunday on the Rock am Ring stage (the footage on MTV Icon was sadly too short, though just as great), he’s a worthy replacement.
The rumors about the album itself changed too – no pianos or tambourines, let alone acoustic stuff. Raw power and brutal heavy metal once again, the kind Metallica played when they were still terrorizing the clubs of San Francisco in the early eighties.
Music in the vein of Kill ’em all was promised, and definitely a step away from Load and Reload.
The video for the album’s title track St. Anger, shot in one of the oldest prisons in the US, the infamous California penitentiary San Quentin, already showed where Metallica have returned to. Back to the eighties, with energy and brutal power. Vocally they’ve stuck with what they did on the last few albums, and the lyrics fit everything that’s gone on over the past two years.
Full of rage, fury, outrage, disappointment, and redemption too.
The record is… not exactly great, since only the first three albums can truly be called great. You could call it a cross between …And justice for all and the last two albums. St. Anger is definitely packed with rawer, heavier power than the music on Kill ’em all, but the lyrics sing about all the countless doubts, shadows, in short, all the bad stuff that can hit a person in a very short time.
True, the album has no real guitar solo, but it’s bursting with Kirk Hammett’s racing, hard-hitting riffs, aspiring drummers who want to imitate Lars Ulrich will have plenty to work on, and the bass, as always, leaves its mark too.
No ballads, and no proper radio hits either. So the band kept two more of their promises. Judging by what we heard live (the tracks St. Anger and Frantic), there’s plenty of energy left in these forty-somethings, and thanks to the new songs the band has gone back to playing the Kill ’em all repertoire, and the rest of the songs are again much rawer and faster.
At the shows we can once again hope for Whiplash, Motorbreath, The Four Horsemen and Fight fire with fire, while tracks from the last two studio albums will rarely be heard (Fuel is the exception).
The band is working as one again, on stage and off it. Let’s hope it lasts.
The special bit is of course the second DVD disc, where you can watch the band play all four tracks in rehearsal, plus a code that unlocks the extras – mp3s of live tracks, videos, unreleased photos and the like.
The verdict?!
Many people won’t like this record, because it’s way too personal and too noisy. You won’t hear the songs on the radio much either, since they’re too long and too noisy, or rather – unradio-friendly. And that’s exactly as it should be.
Just let them not turn into Black Sabbath (still considered the pioneers of true, classic heavy metal) of the late seventies, when Ozzy was telling the crowd how much he loved them. Of course, these days Ozzy has his very own TV show with his family, one that often goes way beyond the bounds of good taste.
From Metallica we still expect a healthy Metal up your ass! attitude.
Lineup
James Hetfield – vocals, guitar
Kirk Hammett – guitar
Rob Trujillo – bass
Lars Ulrich – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Bob Rock – bass
Production
Metallica & Bob Rock
Tracklist
1. Frantic
2. St. Anger
3. Some Kind Of Monster
4. Dirty Window
5. Invisible Kid
6. My World
7. Shoot Me Again
8. Sweet Amber
9. Unnamed Feeling
10. Purify
11. All Within My Hands
