It's been a while since I've done a Metallica album. I want to clear out a queue of albums I've got backlogged, one of which is Metallica's S&M which I previously decided being a live, orchestra-backed album would be wrong to listen to without hearing some studio-based Metallica first. So I'm jumping ahead to hear the third and last Metallica studio album to appear in 1,001 Albums to Hear Before You Die, their eponymous album often referred to as "the black album".
I'm somewhat familiar with this album. My bunkmates when I worked at a summer camp back in 1997 were quite fond of it, so I regularly heard a song or five when they had control of the boombox. It was actually the first I had ever heard of Metallica (the band) in my life, and I was understandably intrigued by their assaulting mix of crushing guitars and scorching vocals. I've since learned that in spite of their fury Metallica is pretty boring, since crushing guitars and scorching vocals is pretty much all they do.
The album opens with what I have to assume is Metallica's biggest hit "Enter Sandman." Even if you don't know Metallica, if you lived through the 90s you've heard this song and probably like it. Even the most conservative Bible-thumping goobers who think heavy metal music contains backwards messages to convince you to convert to satanism probably like this song. Actually, I'm guessing just about everyone who wasn't a diehard Metallica fan in the 80s probably likes this song. Those diehard people hate it because this is a clear example of their thrash gods selling out to corporate America. Not really, but that's what I've heard a lot of them tell me. To me it's just a damn good song. Granted it is much more commercial than anything they released on Master of Puppets or ...And Justice For All, but I can't ever fault a band for making a good song, even if they only meant for it to be more accessible to a casual audience.
Up next is "Sad But True" which has another bone-crushing guitar riff and slower than typical for Metallica tempo. It's an OK song but I'm always annoyed by James Hetfield's pronounciation. In this case, I used to think he was saying "Sad Patrol" which makes the song feel a bit silly, especially at the end where it sounds like he says, "I'm your Sad Patrol." "Holier Than Thou" comes next, and it's not really very special. In fact if fans were complaining about Metallica selling out, they're probably more pissed about a song like this, which really just sounds like generic heavy metal. Or maybe they're pissed about "Unforgiven," which really isn't that bad of a song, but it does sound ridiculous compared to what most people assumed about Metallica up to this point. It might be the closest a thrash band has ever come to making a competent ballad.
What I especially appreciate about Metallica as opposed to Master of Puppets and ...And Justice For All is the songs are relatively short and stay away from long wandering instrumental passages that seriously bogged the music on those earlier albums. The album itself is still plenty long at just over an hour, but with the songs running between about 4 to 6 minutes in length and shifting in tempos and attitude Metallica hardly ever gets boring.
I think most hardcore Metallica fans that don't like the band's eponymous album have it largely wrong. Superficially songs like "Unforgiven" or "Nothing Else Matters" feel on their face like the band betraying their angry roots to appeal to a softer audience. I choose to see a band finally experimenting with new genres and expanding their sonic horizons. Granted most of the sound they use on Metallica sounds exactly like their sound from their previous albums, so as a sonic revolution the album falls short. But I'm not sure I'd recognize Metallica without all the growling and heavily distorted guitars, so I can't fault them a ton for sticking with what works. In any case there's clearly plenty of artistry to be done around their signature sound.
I'll give Metallica's Metallica 3 stars. Yay!
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