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Wpnfire · 05-14-2014, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musicfanatic

Arbitrary, aren't all opinions closely arbitrary?

I'd agree, but I think that there are a few good heavy tracks on there. Not Sad But True heavy, no. But most of them contain heavy riffs...

And this is why the album is highly regarded within most off-metal fans; it gave a way for new fans to get into the older stuff while still being able to make those new fans keep listening to their newer, future, releases if they couldn't get into it. I've never looked at that as selling out. It's just a "progression" onto different pastures. I'd probably do something similar, if I were a musician; you can't stay in the old mold if it's getting stagnant.

It's the same with the Black Album; it's different. The reason I love the Load album is because I love hard rock, too, and I am not offended when a band does something different. Yes, it'd be nice to get a few more like their first four, but they matured into different musicians, differing feelings, and thus they needed to find new material, though it was older than thrash metal.

Plus, have you ever heard James Hetfield try singing their old stuff? I saw Through The Never the other day. He can't do it. He can't even make anything off of the Black Album sound like it did when it first came out! And the way the audience is when he tries the old stuff, it's a wonder they don't walk out hearing just how thrashed his voice really is now. Pardon the pun, but Hetfield couldn't sing himself into a thrash band now if he tried. And that is why I disliked Death Magnetic; with a different singer with Hetfield's teenage vocal cords, it would've been so much better. Or they could have just made it an instrumental, would've been so SO much better!

And that is why I do like Load and reLoad. And some of their other stuff, like the covers on their Garage Days Inc. double album. They just can't do thrash with a lead singer that hasn't been able to hold onto his young voice. But that isn't the only reason why one should like those albums. It's just a good place to start defending them. Up until they listened to their fans and not themselves, trying to upgrade the metal sound into Nu-Metal.

Whenever I think of thrash, and especially talk about why Metallica are my favorite thrash metal band, plus my liking of bands that are just plain rock, I always say that Metallica are the most melodic thrash band I have ever listened to. People have gotten on me about this, but it is the truth; I like melody. I call Slayer's Diabolus In Musica my favorite by them because to me it's the one with the most melody. Before the last year I only had Reign in Blood and up for albums, but now I have their two earlier albums (which are mostly black metal in sound) and I like them a bit more than most their others. I still like Slayer's DIM the most, though, because of the melody I hear. Or, maybe I am just crazy...?

And I think I just realized that your point, Wpnfire, in that quote, wasn't supposed to honor Metallica. Damn you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xurtio

I'm not so moved by lyrics as the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. I write a lot of melodies myself and have an interest in music theory and treating music as a language in general.

This is for both of you. One of the most notable characteristics of heavy metal is that it is dissonant, and if not dissonant, harsh and aggressive then. The fact that you both like the black album specifically for the harmony is one of the reasons I consider the black album to be barely a heavy metal album. The black album uses overdrive guitars, but nothing else about it is what I consider to be heavy metal.
The black album trades in the harsh, dissonant aspects of heavy metal for a more melodic, slower, lyrical-oriented sound (there's no instrumentals which ALL of their previous albums had) with an emphasis on the chorus in particular. The difference is just shocking.

The fact that the black album is considered to be from the same genre as Iron Man by Black Sabbath just baffles me. They sound so entirely different (outside of the songs like Sad But True and the Unforgiven, which are the closest representatives of the heavy metal sound from Metallica's previous albums).

The black album isn't even a good representation of Metallica's earlier material. Xurito even said she doesn't like their earlier material outside of a few songs. It's an entirely different album that I just wish never came into existence. Michael Jackson's Beat It, is more representative of the heavy metal genre than 90% of the songs from the black album, and I'm being 100% serious with that statement.

I agree that Metallica may be the most melodic thrash band, though Megadeth is really close in that department. Mustiane is really a genius songwriter (less than he thinks about himself, but still great) and his work gets lost in the extreme speed of many of Megadeths' songs. The melody is there, it's just surrounded by intense, aggressive guitar playing.