Well I'd argue all of that is present on Load, Reload and St. Anger. Granted Load and Reload are very patchy and St. Anger is no masterpiece, but there's some awesome songs on there - Bleeding Me and The Unnamed Feeling being just two examples.

If they hadn't released MoP and RtL in advance then I think there's no real bitching to be done. The main point of the majority of naysayers seems to be that they simply don't sound like they used to and aren't writing the same things as they were twenty years ago, which is what annoys me. It's not even as if you can say they sold out.

but for st anger they didnt even bother properly recording it! it was simply their jams stuck together, james going ""HA! HOO! HEHEHE!" lars beating on pots and pans and kirk being stubborn and not doing a solo

If i remember correctly, he wanted to solo but the band said soloing isn't "in" anymore... so he didn't.

If they hadn't released MoP and RtL in advance then I think there's no real bitching to be done.

That's true, because nobody would give a fuck about that band (add Kill 'Em All and ...And Justice for All to your list).

I still remember the live radio interview Hetfield and Ulrich gave in 1988 prior the ...Justice release ("Scream - Hard And Heavy auf WDR 1" with Volkmar Kramarz, any german around here remember that radio show?). They played two songs from the album and I was simply blown away by those new compositions. Pure magic. Nothing post ...Justice could touch that material and very few songs like The Struggle Within came remotely close.

I guess it really boils down to you getting into "'tallica" in 1994 and me getting into Metallica in 1986. You simply weren't there to actually witness the decline and watering down of their songwriting and playing - and attitude.

To quote Dave Mustaine:

"Well that was back in the day
And if you weren't there
It doesn't matter anyway
Because you wouldn't understand"

Nothing personal though.

If i remember correctly, he wanted to solo but the band said soloing isn't "in" anymore... so he didn't.

The band thought solos and drumfills made one of the band members stand out, and killed the idea of the band being 'one', so they didn't solo or do drumfills. Instead, Kirk did backup vocals and sounded like a frog with a cold.

Nothing post ...Justice could touch that material and very few songs like The Struggle Within came remotely close.

I guess it really boils down to you getting into "'tallica" in 1994 and me getting into Metallica in 1986. You simply weren't there to actually witness the decline and watering down of their songwriting and playing - and attitude.

Well, that's not really true. The first Metallica album I heard was the Black Album, followed by Kill 'Em All, RtL, MoP and Justice. Then, 2 years later, they brought out Load. So I was in as much of a position as anyone else to be disappointed by the change of direction. Instead I just thought, 'ah well, 5 albums of thrash, perhaps it's time for a different approach', and I judged the albums on their own merits.

I also don't see what's so important about the production on an album. You may not like it, but at least they didn't smother St. Anger with compression and auto-tune.

Do you think they should still be playing and writing the same sort of music?

If i remember correctly, he wanted to solo but the band said soloing isn't "in" anymore... so he didn't.

The band thought solos and drumfills made one of the band members stand out, and killed the idea of the band being 'one', so they didn't solo or do drumfills. Instead, Kirk did backup vocals and sounded like a frog with a cold.

i dont remember but THERE WERE NO SOLOS! thats the bottom line folks

Has someone posted a link or did I miss it?

eh soulseek

Has someone posted a link or did I miss it?

eh soulseek

Look here

http://media.putfile.com/New-Metallica

EDIT: Isn't it supposed to be possible to download stuff from Putfile? Must've done something wrong. Oh well, at least it's listenable.

Has someone posted a link or did I miss it?

eh soulseek

Look here

http://media.putfile.com/New-Metallica

EDIT: Isn't it supposed to be possible to download stuff from Putfile? Must've done something wrong. Oh well, at least it's listenable.

I can download just about anything. Here's a direct link to the MP3, not to the mediaplayer webpage: http://63.209.191.205/~f8putfi/videos/a1-15720412516.mp3

Has someone posted a link or did I miss it?

eh soulseek

Look here

http://media.putfile.com/New-Metallica

EDIT: Isn't it supposed to be possible to download stuff from Putfile? Must've done something wrong. Oh well, at least it's listenable.

I can download just about anything. Here's a direct link to the MP3, not to the mediaplayer webpage: http://63.209.191.205/~f8putfi/videos/a1-15720412516.mp3

Teamwork! Fuck yeah!

Some metal band really should cover "To Live Is To Die" during a show, Opeth or Nevermore come to mind.

At the Perth show Opeth played, Mikael started playing To Live is To Die during his "guess the riff metal trivia" segment. Afterwards he stated that without that song Opeth would have never been born. Just a random fact I thought would be interesting.

And new Metallica song is so so. Better than much of St. Anger, but similar to it. The main riff is more or less interchangeable with St Anger's main riff.

At the Perth show Opeth played, Mikael started playing To Live is To Die during his "guess the riff metal trivia" segment. Afterwards he stated that without that song Opeth would have never been born. Just a random fact I thought would be interesting.

Yup, I've seen such a clip on YouTube. Amazing. That's where I got the idea off.