St. Anger by Metallica review
“The idea is it should sound like a band getting together in a garage for the first time...only the band is Metallica.” Bob Rock said these words during the opening couple minutes of the rockumentary Some Kind of Monster (2004). Metallica is one of the biggest bands in the world and could stop playing music and still live comfortable lives. That’s not who they are. James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, the original two members of the band, had written the previous songs beforehand, and dictated what the rest of the band recorded. On their 2003 release, St. Anger, they started as a collaborative writing/jam session that almost ended in the band falling apart.
Jason Newsted, the second bassist for the band, had just left the group for creative differences. It is common for a band to be like a family, especially one as long lived as Metallica. From 1986 to 2001, after the death of the original bassist, Cliff Burton, fifteen years of Jason’s music life was only Metallica. When Jason wanted to do a side project, he was shot down. And so he quit. It caused such a rift that the management of the band hired a group counselor to help the healing process and drama within the remaining three members.
St. Anger is the result of the emotions running through their state of mind at the time. Songs like “Frantic,” the opening track, sets the mood. “My lifestyle determines my death style” is an acknowledgement of their unhealthy lifestyle. James Hetfield, the singer and guitarist, soon entered rehab as this project started, delaying the release of the record by almost a year. They were also in a heated battle with Napster during this time. “Shoot Me Again” deals with all the hate that they received for that, “shoot me again / I ain’t dead yet.”
The sound of the album is unapologetic. Aggressive through and through without any solos. In an interview, Kirk Hammett (lead guitar) said “We wanted to preserve the sound of all four of us in a room just jamming. We tried to put guitar solos on, but we kept on running into this problem. It really sounded like an afterthought.” (Blabbermouth, 2003). The album is definitely not polished. The mixing and mastering of some parts (namely, the snare) that people hate about this album is evidence of that. Metallica should have better production than this. That’s what people want. But this album is raw emotion. It’s all the anger that has been building up for 20 years finally being let out.
There are plenty of bands where you hear one song, you’ve heard them all. AC/DC is a great example. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to a formula, but creatively it’s pretty boring. Bands that take a chance on something completely different usually get flack for it. Hardcore metal fans, who ironically hate the systemic mold, run away when a band does something different. Metallica got flack when they cut their hair for the Load/Reload (1996/1997 respectively) sessions (actually my favorite Metallica albums). They broke the mold with St. Anger. This album is one of my car albums. There are no skips, and I unapologetically sing every line. Especially when I’ve had a bad day.
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