METALLICA: St. Anger

Produced by Bob Rock

Released: 2003

With the spectre of another Metallica album looming, it's time to take a backward look at their last release, the Grammy-winning and starkly polarising St. Anger. I refused to even listen to a single track from this for more than two weeks after it was released. Only when my flatmate of the time brought home a CD-R copy he’d burned at work did I give it a spin, and I have to say I was actually rather surprised. It wasn't a return to their classic sound as clearly deluded early reviewers had suggested, but I knew it wouldn't be. And it wasn't anything like the trio of albums before it, which is sort of what I thought it would be like.

Metallica's shiny veneer was stripped off on this album to the point where it seems like Bob Rock did nothing at all. This resulted in a dirtier, rawer and more aggressive sound that made Metallica heavy again. Despite all of St. Anger's faults, that this is a heavy record can't be denied. But heaviness alone is not a be all and end all, especially for a band like Metallica and St. Anger is not so much a representation of a band at war with its demons, but of one who had lost to them. So the few good things about it are far outweighed by the bad. And the bad things are atrocious.

Apart from one key element I will touch on shortly, I actually like the production on St. Anger. For a band of Metallica's stature to use such raw, earthy tones was a brave thing to do and it did bring back a little of the edginess they possessed when Dave Mustaine was still on lead guitar. That's really the only thing I did like, though. Lars' decision that Metallica no longer needed guitar solos meant that Kirk Hammett no longer had anything to do except smoke cigars and dress up as a sleazy Mexican stereotype. He's never been anything more than adequate as a lead guitarist but his playing did add an extra element, even when he was driving the wah-wah pedal into overdrive. Without that, Metallica just isn't Metallica.

Then there is James Hetfield’s horribly inconsistent vocal delivery, a truly nerve-wracking experience as he goes from half-decent to pretty good to ordinary to worse, sometimes within seconds like some kind of reverse King Diamond. Lyrically, St. Anger is totally devoid of meaning, even going so far as reworking lines from older songs in an effort at either relevance or some way to show they were remembering the past. Either way, it failed. On top of this is the horror of all horrors: Ulrich's drum sound. Instead of leaving Hammett idling in the cigar bar, it should have been Lars in there. In a move that made even people who didn't know what they were talking about scream "The snare! The snare!", Metallica came up with the most annoying drum sound imaginable. It can't even be adequately described. It's just horrible.

Metallica finally reached their nadir with this, and it seems that even they have since realised it. Whatever Death Magnetic sounds like (and it's not looking good, with a stupid name like that), it has to be better than this.

1. Frantic
2. St. Anger
3. Some Kind of Monster
4. Dirty Window
5. Invisible Kid
6. My World
7. Shoot Me Again
8. Sweet Amber
9. The Unnamed Feeling
10. Purify
11. All Within My Hands

Rating: 38%