Metallica Degrading?

[champ007]

Ok, I have heard the new released song from Metallica and talk about crap...I mean WTF?
The riffs are sloppy, the lead guitar jumps in all over the place, and Hetfield sings like he has been castrated.
I have listened to it 3 times to see if I missed anything and it gets crappier each time.
This band has went way downhill, plus they are all a bunch of spoiled brats. I saw a special where they hired a shrink to help them come together... looks like they are due a refund!!
Have never like Lars anyway, he thinks he is better that he is 
Anyone else??

Also, I have to say the new AC/DC track holds true to the band... they have earned the right to get my hard earned cash!! 

[schro]

Big Metallica fan here.
St. Anger was a big disappointment ("Kill 'Em All" one of my all time favorite albums).

Was looking forward to their new album....maybe not so much now.

Oh, I've had 'ritas with Lars....seemed like a decent guy. Then again, that was in the mid 90s....things may have changed.

[Tyler]

They degraded when they started to claim that they people who shared music were evil. 

[Northernlion]

Metallica has sucked for like 15 years now. Honestly the new stuff is the best I've heard since before Load came out but it's still not even close to their glory days. Battery is one of my favorite songs of all-time.

[The Zook]

I think the new album is definitely going back on track, but it will take a lot from them to get me to listen let alone buy it.

I used to be a die hard Metallica fan, but after ...And Justice For All they seemed to go more mainstream to get airplay or something.

[Robmeister]

...they seemed to go more mainstream to get airplay or something.

I'm gonna dissent a little here and defend my former bruthas a bit.

There is something to be said about the artistic aspect of the music business (although stooping to the word "sucked" is a whole other conversation)... and the matter of taste and preference by the consumer is certainly fair game.

but it is also the music BUSINESS. 

Sure early diehard Metallica fans have cried "SELLOUT" for years....decades now.

One thing about Metallica now is that they are freakin MASTERS of their genre.  If they stuck to their original formula and never "branched out," they'd not be as huge as they are now.

Similarly, Sam Walton (founder of Walmart) may have been faced with pissing off the original folks who liked his small town shop.....does he "suck" for choosing to expand and becoming a multi-billionaire?

I came up in the hard rock biz at the same time with Metallica....and was part of a lot of inner-circle discussions about "branching out" in order to sell more records...(not with Metallica, but other burgeoning biggies of the '80's metal scene). 

It was never a slam-dunk decision when record sales and income potential is on the line.

Let's face it who among us would turn down the opportunity--out of had--to quadruple our income? Whether we're making $30k, $80K, $100K, $200K, $500K or $2.0 million a year--sure there may be travel, work load, family and other sacrifice issues to consider--but, c'mon....we'd WRESTLE MIGHTILY with the factors and pros and cons.

If yer so committed to your craft that you are willing to severly limit your your income potential, more power to ya.

But ya can't blame a BUSINESS or say that they "suck" for trying to continually improve the bottom line and increase profit margins.   Metallica has hung in there pretty damn well...their longevity could end up rivaling the Stones, man.

It's not like they now sound like ABBA.

Side:  If there was a way to get the original die-hard fans in a profit-sharing, stockholding position with voting rights...they might not mind the "branch out" discussions. 

[champ007]

Robmeister,
I understand the business, and lately I think the business has went downhill where rock is concerned. Some of these new groups playing on "rock" stations belong on the pop stations. Even my 15 year old states that rock isn't what it use to be. MTV was built on rock and now look where its at.. I mean Panic at the Disco won for best new rock group last year or the prior one Who the hell are they??
I was looking for Metallica to bring the cards out on this one, to lead people back to "rock". 
The Day that Never Comes doesn't cut it, have you listened to it?
Like you said they are Masters of their genre, but you wouldn't reconize that from this single... I expected alot more.  They have a huge following so they will sell albums, so I don't unstand this release at all. Maybe I am jumping the gun from this one release, I only hope the rest of the CD is better arranged.

PS... I never said sucks, that would be too harsh. Just really disappointed!!

[Robmeister]

Good points and well taken...

I'm just taking a look at the other side of the coin...

You're absolutely right...I'm appaulled at where MTV has gone to "improve the bottom line"...but then again we're the die hard original fans of MTV.

I haven't heard the latest by Metallica....my point was that they--in my opinion--haven't strayed the likes of MTV and other abominations of the bottom line.

I'm pissed that TV Land is now getting into all the reality crap....

It was N.Lion that used "sucked" .... no biggie ... nothin' against him ...  the younger generation lumps mass areas of life into "AWESOME" and "SUCKS" categories.

No offense, N.Lion...I'm just a pedantic, polemic, middle-age fart sometimes. 

[slyinglide]

The music industry has destroyed "Music".  It's not about music as we know it or have known it, it's about putting crap on a disk and HYPING the hell out of it in hopes to sell 5 million copies.  My favorite music years were the late 60's and the 70's, when musicians did not worry to much about the money, hence music was music. Then the Disco era came along with Bubble Gum pop music, and hair bands............Frigging MTV started this musical spiral of death into hell..............Don't get me STARTED

[wpruitt]

I'm still a great fan of that marvelous genre known as "Beach Music".  There ain't nothing like a good Carolina Shag !

[slyinglide]

I'm still a great fan of that marvelous genre known as "Beach Music".  There ain't nothing like a good Carolina Shag !

Might want to explain to our friends in England, way across the pond what you version of a "SHAG" is,  it might mean something else to them....

[wpruitt]

Carolina shag

The shag is a form of swing dancing that evolved from the jitterbug and jump blues of the big band jazz era and originated along the strands between Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, during the 1940s. It is most often associated with beach music, a genre of rhythm and blues-based songs that lend themselves to this dance form. According to Bo Bryan, a noted shag historian and resident of Beaufort County, the term was coined at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Today, the shag is a recognized dance in national and international dance competitions held across the United States.

In the dance the upper body and hips hardly move as the legs do convoluted kicks and fancy footwork. The man is the center of attention, showing off, and the woman's steps are either mirror steps of the man's or a sort of marking time while he shows off with spins and other gyrations.

The shag is the state dance of North Carolina and South Carolina, and is still popular amongst residents of both states.

and

http://people.cornell.edu/pages/kpl5/f_Shag_rap.html

[DJ_Bald]

The music industry has destroyed "Music".  It's not about music as we know it or have known it, it's about putting crap on a disk and HYPING the hell out of it in hopes to sell 5 million copies.  My favorite music years were the late 60's and the 70's, when musicians did not worry to much about the money, hence music was music. Then the Disco era came along with Bubble Gum pop music, and hair bands............Frigging MTV started this musical spiral of death into hell..............Don't get me STARTED

I don't think the music industry has destroyed anything. I think they are catering to what younger people like these days which seems to be rap and country.  I personally don't like anything MTV has to offer so I don't watch it...I haven't in years. Now if you guys are looking for Rock Music there are plenty of Rock bands out there that are really good. Are they on MTV a lot ......no. I could care less if they are on MTV.  Get yourself a Sirius radio subscription and check out Octane 20.  Newer bands like The Red,Revelation Theory and Five Finger Death Punch are awesome.
Of course bands like Disturbed and Godsmack are still going strong and the newest Ozzy Osbourne CD is great.
I do agree MTV is sh*t...but there are other sources to getting good rock music.