Feltzkrone schrieb:Was haltet ihr davon, wenn ich ein interaktives Voting-Tool auf die Beine stelle (man muss nach dem oben genannten System voten, aenderungsvorschlaege gerne!)? Gevotet werden kann fuer jedes Album, jeder natuerlich nur einmal. Die Daten werden dann auf meinem FTP gesammelt und bei mir von einer Art Servertool ausgerechnet. Nach jeweils vier Wochen wird das Voting fuer ein Album abgeschlossen und das Ergebnis veroeffentlicht. Na, wie waer's? :muahah:

Feltzkrone schrieb:Braucht keiner, aber vielleicht faenden's einige interessant.

Zitat:Metallica haben es erneut geschafft. Mit jeder Veroeffentlichung das meistdiskutierte Album des Jahres vorzulegen, ist schliesslich schon eine Meisterleistung an sich. Und auch diesmal kommt es, wie es kommen musste und immer kommt: Die Fans der ersten Stunde kriechen aus ihren Loechern hervor, lugen durch ihre seit "Kill 'em all" offenbar weder gestutzte noch gewaschene Matte und faseln irgendwas Unverstaendliches von "Ausverkauf". Andererseits haben wieder ganze Scharen von Fans am rot im Kalender markierten 05.06. vor den Plattenlaeden campiert, um "St. Anger" als Allererste in den Haenden zu halten. Und schon jetzt, wenige Tage nach der Veroeffentlichung, gibt es zu dieser Platte garantiert schon genausoviele kontraere Meinungen wie Eigentuemer.

Worueber sich alle einig sein muessten: "St. Anger" ist ein Brett. Zurechtgepruegelt mit Hilfe von Kettensaege, Vorschlaghammer und groben, dreckigen Maennerhaenden. Faust auf Faust, hart auf hart. Mit aller Kraft wollen Metallica den dank ihres Kuschel-Metal-Experiments "S&M" und halbgarer Softie-Alben wie "Re-Load" erlangten Ruf als Weicheier wieder loswerden. "Frantic" eroeffnet diesen eindrucksvollen Beweis, dass man auch mit 40 (Lenzen) noch auf 180 (Sachen) kommen kann. Das Schlagzeuggewitter bricht los, kommt sechs Minuten lang nicht zur Ruhe, und zwischen dem eindringlich wiederholten "You live it or lie it" scheint Hetfield zu bruellen "HoeR! DAS! LAUT!" Dem Wunsch kommt man gerne nach.

Bis zum Anschlag aufgedreht, offenbart auch die Videosingle "St. Anger" maechtige Qualitaeten. Siebeneinhalb Minuten lang knueppeln sich Metallica durch drei passgerechte Parts, von denen einer mehr knallt als der andere. Hier scheint sich jemand das letzte System Of A Down-Album genauestens angehoert haben. Und sich an das neue Jahrtausend anzubiedern, ohne peinlich zu wirken. Metallica 2003 verbinden die brachiale Gewalt aus der Anfangsphase mit der Wut der neuen Generation. Und brauchen fuer zeitgemaessen Metal weder Masken noch Scratches, sondern einfach nur ehrliche oder auch mal aufgesetzte Wut. Und so viel Geschwindigkeit wie nur geht. Gerne auch in Form von purem, stumpfsinnigem Geknueppel wie "Sweet amber" oder "Dirty window", die in etwa so subtil wirken wie ein Faustschlag von hinten.

Ganze sechs Mal ueberschreiten Metallica die Sieben-Minuten-Marke. Waehrend "Invisible kid" mit seinen Hoehen und Tiefen fast schon enfernt an Tool denken laesst und auch das straighte "Some kind of monster" keine Sekunde langweilig wird, verbirgt sich das wahre Opus Magnum hinter "The unnamed feeling". In bester "Unforgiven"-Manier wagen Metallica den Rundumschlag und schlaengeln sich durch unzaehlige Laut-/Leise-Passagen und mystische Lyrics. "Cross my heart, hope not to die / Swallow evil, ride the sky / Lose myself in a crowded room / You fool, you fool, it'll be here soon", roehrt Hetfield und freut sich ueber die zweite potentielle Single zwischen all den harten, schwer verdaulichen Brocken.

Das groesste Fragezeichen jedoch wirft die Produktion auf: Das Schlagzeugt scheppert, die Gitarren matschen, und Hetfield klingt stellenweise so dumpf, als ob man ihm ein Pflaster quer ueber den Mund gepappt haette. Vermutlich hat es Metallica einen Mordsspass bereitet, in einem suendhaft teuren Studio die Dollars zu verschleudern, um ihr Album am Ende doch nach Lowest Budget klingen zu lassen. Nicht einmal, wenn sie sich auf der beiliegenden Bonus-DVD im duesteren Proberaum noch einmal durchs ganze Album pruegeln, nimmt man einer Stadion-Band wie Metallica so viel Garagen-Appeal ab. Und doch passt der Sound-Brei bestens zur brachialen Gewalt von "St. Anger". Metallica spalten. Die Schaedel und die Meinungen. Sind sie zu hart, bist Du zu weich.

Zitat:Usually before a release by a major band, the reviewers discuss the album amongst ourselves and we cannot form a consensus opinion. On many occasions, an underscore has been substantially higher or lower than the reviewer’s score. This week (in one of the first times since I have been on the team), we came to a unanimous agreement. Metallica has failed us.

Before I continue with the review, I have a few points I would like to make:

Metallica, Please Retire. I want to be able to see you tour each summer without too much crap accumulated in your catalogue. Load and Reload were sub par albums but they cannot compare to this.
I never thought I would HATE a Metallica album before. I do not particularly care for Justice, Load and Reload but I don’t hate them. I can listen to Load and enjoy many of the songs but with St. Anger, I just hate listening to the music. It’s terrible. After listening to this album several times, I wanted to destroy my new store bought Metallica album.
Jason must be laughing his ass off. He is the only one with integrity because he jumped off the sinking ship.
Bob Rock? I can’t believe you put your name on this turd. For someone who charges a couple million per album, you can’t afford to ruin your reputation with this.
Robert Trujillo should leave this band before he records an album with them. While touring as the bass player is one thing, putting your name (which is quite respected in metal circles) on crap like this will destroy your street cred just like Metallica.

First things first. This album wins the award right upfront for WORST DRUM SOUND EVER! A drummer for my old band couldn’t tune his drums. Each time we would press him to learn to tune them he told us “Lars Ulrich can’t tune his own drums either. He’s had the same guy doing it for 20 years!” Well, I guess Lars and this guy must have had a falling out. The snare is the most annoying thing ever. It sounds like the snare head was replaced with a Teflon coating. Or maybe it’s a steel drum? The sound is so high pitched and reverby it bores into your mind and you feel like killing yourself. The cymbals sound shallow and don’t have the huge crash that we expect and need from a Metallica album. The toms are nearly as low as the bass drum and have a dreadful fuzzy sound to them. The bass drum is so low you can’t hear exactly what Lars is doing on it. You were never the best drummer but don’t try and fool us into thinking you have finally developed skills on the pedals by using predictable and played out commercial fills on the double bass. As Jason Newstead said in an interview “But, c’mon Lars? He hasn’t practiced drums in ages. He’s let his art fall away from him.” These statements are very grounded in reality. Lars was never the best skinbeater and the bathroom recording of the drumkit just ruins it all.

Moving on to other aspects of the recording, the bass is tuned down to the lowest end of the spectrum of hearing possible. Metallica was trying to be contemporary and took a wrong turn. They took lessons from the Limp Bizkit School for Shitty Music and ruined the bass sound on this album. It’s disheartening that Fred Durst has this kind of influence. The guitars similarly sound like the tuning a stoner metal band like Fu Manchu or High on Fire would use. There is a reason that stoner metal sounds awful. The guitar sound is a far cry from the racing thrash guitar that Metallica almost single-handedly brought to the world. The worst part in all of this is that there are NO SOLOS! While Hammet does play some leads alone, there are none of those shredding, killing, solos that Metallica is famous for. How can the people who brought us “Creeping Death” do this? They know what real metal is. They know what their rabid fans want. I predicted that if this album was “Master of Puppets 2,” the world would embrace Metallica again. If this album was “Reloaded,” the world would continue calling them sellouts. This album doesn’t make you do either; it just makes you pity them for what they’ve become.

Finally and of equal importance is James. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? Did you forget how to sing? The vocals on this album are bar none the worst I have heard on an album this year. He just randomly screams so cacophonously many times for no reason. Half of the time, he sings completely out of key. Kirk is appalling on backing vocals. Why couldn’t James track the backing vocals too? Kirk cannot sing and he ruins the songs with his atrocious backing vocals. In addition, the lyrics took a major slide as well. Even on Load and Reload there were songs with metal lyrics like “Fuel” and “King Nothing.” The lyrics on this album could have been written by shitty garage bands like The White Stripes or (the most overrated band ever) The Strokes.

The album opens with “Frantic” which was played over the credits of the MTVicon show. This is not an album opener. “Hit the Lights,” “Battery,” “Fight Fire with Fire,” “Enter Sandman,” and hell even “Fuel” are album-opening songs. They make you excited to listen to the album. “Frantic” just rubs you wrong from the first seconds. “Frantic-tic-tic-tic-toc” has got to be the stupidest and most aggravating song lyric ever. James’ screams don’t help anything either. I don’t know what the breakdown riff is supposed to be but it’s annoying.

Next comes the title track, “St. Anger.” The video, as you have probably seen, was shot in San Quentin Prison in California. As a friend of mine said to me last night “When they said that all the families that have been affected by San Quentin will always be a part of the Metallica family, I felt like throwing the goddamned TV out the window.” Metallica is a badass thrash band, not Hallmark. They can’t afford put cheesy, plastic and most importantly, untrue emotional subtexts into everything they do. By the way, the song is no winner either. Again, the snare just kills the song before it has a chance to go anywhere. The guitar riff sounds like Korn or Slipknot and the whole double bass portion sounds like a session drummer actually played it because Lars was never that good. Kirk’s rapping is uninspired and only detracts from the song. Kirk should stick to the six-string razor. So should James for that matter. The music in the verses is virtually non-existent like many nu metal songs of today.

“Some Kind of Monster” follows next. This is the first of three eight+ minute songs on the album. The problem is that these aren’t good songs. These are “staring-at-your-watch-wondering-when-it’ll-be-over” eight minute songs. There is a lead guitar intro to the song which is as close as we get to a solo. James is basically trying to rap to this music. I didn’t appreciate it at all. The growling bass during the bridges are horrid. As are James’ pathetic screams of “We the people” during the bridge as well. At one point there is this religious style chanting which probably was intended to have some sort of tribal flair to appeal to the Soulfly fans out there. The significance is completely lost.

The next crapfest is “Dirty Window.” From the song’s inception, the snare sound ruins it. This overpowers everything and casts a whole shadow over what had potential to be good. The song had lots of potential but Metallica ruined it. I like the verse part a lot. It does harken back to the old style. The rest of the song is shit but that one part had potential. However, when you layer on the sounds of the bass and guitar, the shitty drums and awful vocals, it all self-destructs.

“Invisible Kid” starts out like a Soundgarden song. Interestingly enough, this too has potential. The drumming even starts to sound interesting for a while. The intro is one of the best parts of the song. The horrible choices of instrumentation tarnish the song. Then all of a sudden, there is a total nu metal riff with high-hat rolls. Just no. The breakdown is typical nu metal and James' quasi-singing, quasi-spoken word is out of tune and out of sync with his audience.

“My World” has in intro similar to “Ain’t my Bitch.” It can’t sustain that goodness. The chorus has James using too many effects and sounding like some generic nu metal band. Screaming “Suck It!” doesn’t help your cause of trying to become the toughest band in metal again. The break down in the middle of the song is garbage once more. The uninspired, cookie-cutter riff could have come from anyone from The Deftones to Chevelle.

I nearly pissed my pants when I heard the opening of “Shoot Me Again.” There is direct homology between this and a song by the band Cold. The drumming sounded lifted from Disturbed and the bouncy tempo could have come from Slipknot or bands of that ilk. The verse sounds like Jonathan Davis’ whining vocals. Pure and simple this is a nu metal song. It is a travesty that Metallica is reduced to playing this music. “Shoot Me Again” is the first seven-minute nu metal song.

Before I go into the song, I have a problem with the title “Sweet Amber.” The album is called “St. Anger.” Isn’t it just smart not to title a song so close to the album and title track? The song itself isn’t that bad for this album but again it just cannot hold water on it’s own. They sound like they’re ripping off themselves during the break down. The drumming and riffing sounds lifted from “One.” Why does it have to sound so contrived? The tempo is there, where are the speedy melodic riffs and solos?

“The Unnamed Feeling” they speak of is the disgust and disheartening sinking feeling that their fans are experiencing right now. This slow and plodding rocker is one of the more unified songs on the album but again feels contrived. James does turn in his best performance on this album though. It is a tiny jewel of performance until the end of the song when he just loses it all. The clean portion of the song gives you a fleeting reminder of “The Unforgiven” but just as you begin to enjoy it, it’s ripped away in favor of more nu riffs, detuned bass and guitar feedback.

“Purify” as in what Metallica has to do to their music, is the next song. I don’t even know what there is to say any more. It sucks. Skip it. Next. “All Within My Hands” is the final song. Clocking in at almost nine minutes, it is the worst song on the album. The very beginning sounds almost identical to “Shoot Me Again.” The constant snare beating again makes you sick of this music fast. James sounds like Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour) on this song. It’s so fucking sad to listen to this knowing Metallica’s back catalogue. Near the end of the song, there is a part where James is yelling “Kill, kill, kill…” over and over. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard put to tape.

This band is a shell of their former selves. I’m so ashamed that they would stoop this low just to be popular. Jason’s departure was justified after hearing this. The reason I called this Midlife Crisis metal is that we all know that at least James and Kirk (a.k.a. Carlos Santana. Have you seen what he looks like lately?) don’t want to be playing this vile baseness. The one point in my quote is a nod to their catalogue. Metallica were once the baddest thrashers on the planet. Now they are merely a sad and disheartening bad joke.


Killing Songs :  For Whom the Bell Tolls, Battery, Damage Inc. etc…  <span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>1 / 100  </span>

Zitat:METALLICA - der Name war mal Programm! Und so ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass der neue Rundling der Bay Area-Recken mit Spannung erwartet wurde.
Nun, man hat viel gehoert und es ist viel gemunkelt worden ueber "St. Anger", aber im Endeffekt haben die Kritiker von METALLICA absolut Recht! Was am groebsten hierbei ins Gewicht faellt, ist der wirklich miserable Sound, den "St. Anger" bietet. Die Klampfen – allen voran Mr. James Hetfield in Person – sind viel zu sehr in den Vordergrund gemischt worden, wobei dann, irgendwie zwangsweise, der Bass kaum wahrnehmbar ist. Mir draengt sich unweigerlich die Frage auf, ob ueberhaupt ein Ersatz fuer Jason Newstedt gefunden wurde und ich frage mich ein weiteres Mal, ob 'The Unnamed Feeling' – allein schon wegen des basslastigen Beginns – nicht ein ueberbleibsel vergangener, glorreicher Tage ist. Weiter geht das Geschepper mit den Drums, die mir eher danach klingen, als wuerde Lars Ulrich mit aller Macht seine AMC-Toepfe zerdeppern wollen, um die lebenslange Garantie selbiger in Anspruch zu nehmen. Selten hab ich so schlechten Drumsound aus meiner Anlage (sind auch immerhin 2000 Watt mit Vorverstaerker und auch ansprechenden Boxen) vernehmen duerfen.
Soweit zum ersten Eindruck von "St. Anger", welcher ja bekanntlich immer der...aehem...beste sein soll?!
Blicken wir doch nun einmal auf die Musik im eigentlichen Sinne. Was war im Vorfeld nicht alles zu hoeren und zu lesen ueber dieses Album – das Beste seit der "Justice For All...": Back to the roots wuerde man gehen und, das wichtigste, METALLICA wuerden wieder thrashen wie zu "Master Of Puppets"-Zeiten – weit gefehlt wuerde ich mal sagen.
Der Einsteiger 'Frantic' klingt zwar nett, hat aber mit den "alten" METALLICA so viel am Hut wie Heidi Klum mit Fusspilz. 'St. Anger', wie ja hinlaenglich bekannt sein duerfte, erinnert mehr an LIMP BIZKIT als an jene Metalheroen, die METALLICA einst waren! In die Sparte Nu-Metal-aehnlich duerfen sich auch Schlusssong 'All Within My Hands' sowie 'Shoot Me Again' (mit PRIESTscher Sprecheinlage) und 'Invisible Kid' einreihen – soviel zum Thema back to the roots, meine Herren! Weiterhin frage ich mich, warum Kirk Hammet ueberhaupt namentlich erwaehnt wird, wenn er denn in keinem einzigen Soli (es gibt ja auch kein einziges Gitarrensolo auf der Platte!!) zu hoeren ist - alles klingt irgendwie nach Hetfiled.
Einigermassen den Standard zum schwarzen Album (um das mal als Beispiel aufzufuehren) halten die Tracks 'Purify' und das rockig-knallige 'Dirty Windows', aber das war es dann auch schon.

Nun denn, ziehen wir ein kurzes Resuemee der am sehnlichsten erwarteten Platte diesen Jahres: "St. Anger" kann keinesfalls mit den Klassikern, sprich den ersten drei Scheiben von METALLICA, mithalten, ebensowenig wie mit "Justice For All..." und "Metallica". Dies meine ich rein vom musikalischen Aspekt her gesehen. Nie und nimmer koennen Hetfield & Co. hier im Bereich Songwriting und musikalischen Arrangements mit einer der erwaehnten Alben mithalten! Von der Produktion her ist es mit Abstand das schwaechste Album der Amis, was mich zu dem Fazit kommen laesst, dass METALLICA fuer mich einen schweren Schritt zurueck getan haben anstatt back to the roots zu gehen, geschweige denn nach vorne getrottet waeren.
"St. Anger" stellt fuer mich den Tiefpunkt der bisherigen musikalischen Laufbahn von METALLICA dar.
Eines ist Gewiss, Goetter koennen sich nur selbst demontieren – JUDAS PRIEST sind bereits soweit – nun folgen ihnen andere nach...traurig, traurig, traurig... .

Anspieltipps: Dirty Window, Purify

Alex Kragl [11.06.2003]

(08.06.2003, 20:41)Wizz21 schrieb: und wenn ich jetzt mal ganz subjektiv sein darf..

ICH LIEBE DIESES ALBUM!    

...und jetzt duerfen mich alle "St.Anger - Hasser" im Board anflamen...  :muahah: