So I dub thee...sad but true

Yes ok, the title is a bit obvious. Or will become so.

We wandered down to Loughborough today as there was an English food fair on. We went with a certain trepidation, having been very disappointed by the French fair last year. Anyway, this was much better, good food, surprisingly good coffee, although sadly, no cheese. I felt like some stilton, but 'twas not to be.

Anyway, S decided to catch the bus home (whcih could have worked out better), and being the good boy scout, I'd thrown my ipod+headphones in the backpack for such an eventuality. For the first time in years, possibly 10 or more, I listened to Metallica 'Metallica' (that's the black album). It stood up reasonably well.

As a young 'un, I well remember this release. It was huge. Metal had been on the rise for awhile, even if it had devolved into a plethora of power ballads. I was, of course, aware of Metallica - and in the Hutt and Wanga's, it was assumed everyone had knowledge of the back catalogue, and the argument over '...and justice for all' or 'master of puppets' was similar to the F v H Marillion argument.
I was more in the justice camp, based on 'One' whcih demonstrated interesting musicianship. And lyrics that, at that age, seemed deep.
None of this prepared us for how big the black album became.

So looking back, how does the black album stand up? firstly, it sounds like a Bob Rock album. Which it is. There's a massiveness to the drums that seemed common to Bob Rock albums of the period. BTW Bob Rock even looks like you'd expect a Bob Rock to look like. What struck me today was what a boring drummer Lars is. There's very little in the way of creativity, a lack of fills, just thump the buggery out of them. Lars, and I believe me I never thought I'd say this, makes Niko McBrain (Iron Maiden) look good.
Lyrically, it's bad. But given the music, it works, and there's certainly less clangers than most prog albums. But it's Kurt who shines through the album, there's some wonderful touches in there, and the variety seen in teh album, seems to come from him. I'm presuming the eastern touches are his btw.

No matter what Metallica said about Rock, and a lot of it wasn't very pleasant, he did wonders for James' voice. there's a maturity and power that was only hinted at int he earlier albums. Lyrically, it's also better than some of the earlier stuff. Sometimes.


What really set the album apart from other metal albums, were the singles. Six of them. They kicked things off with Enter Sandman, which still rocks the big one, and is a superb album opener. But who-ever had the idea to release Nothing Else Matters as a single, earned their money. Although in retrospect, releasing it as single#4 seems a bit silly. It's an interesting power ballad, and what really sets it apart is that it's in 6/8 time. That's very odd for a single, even more so for a metal single. Try counting along to it, most singles are in 4/4 time, that doesn't fit for 'Matters. Oh yeah, and Michael Kamen did the arranging. No surprise there either.



The album is still loud, and needs to be played loud. But there are elements of 'samey' especially on 'sd2' in the tape/vinyl parlance. This harks back to the more thrash approach of the earlier albums. What really surprised me was that I still know most of the words, and it still rocked along. So yep, really enjoyed this relisten. Certainly a very good rock album, and at the time one of the heavier ones I owned. My tastes have changed since then, and in the metal stakes, have gotten much heavier. But this still stands up nicely, even if it does push (occasionally) too much into thrash for my liking.

At the time, I may have given it a 9/10, I think that's scaled back to 7/10 now. And Lars' drumming did annoy me...

B