The other Metallica - self-titled ****
Genre: Fake metal.
Released: who cares
Position in discography: first of the ****-era of Metallica
Look at the cover, LOOK AT THE COVER. Metallica did not even have the balls to show their logo on this like they did on all prior albums. They knew the songs on it would not fly with their fans–THEY KNEW–and they chose to hide their logo just like they hid their thrash metal sound. Did they think they could slip this one under the radar? Be a pop metal band
and a thrash metal band? I guess the answer does not matter because either way, this is the followup to
...And Justice for All, and if that album was the beginning of the end of Metallica, this ****ery outright killed them.
Musically, this album resembles earlier albums though everything is worse. There are tons of downstroke-picked riffs, though all of them are slow and not that technical, which leads to most of them being rather boring. Ulrich's drumming is played at a quarter of the speed and he never uses the double bass, and Hetfield is the worst part of all as he sings FAR,
FAR too much. At least Heftield does not sound like he did on
Ride the Lightning.
"Enter Sandman" is acceptable, though woefully overrated as it is basically a less technical "Master of Puppets" played at a eighth of the speed of that track. "Sad But True" is interesting to me because of the riff and the harder-than-steel drumming by Ulrich. The fact that the beat is in rhythm with the riff greatly magnifies the heaviness. "The Unforgiven" is boring, save for the solo. I do not like fancy solos so it is nice to hear Hammett play some simple stuff for a change.
Every other track sucks. A big F U to "Nothing Else Matters." Currently the only Metallica song in their entire discography that is ****ty enough to warrant a one-star rating from me. **** "Nothing Else Matters."
/5
... for this piss stain on the metal world.