Metallica's Anger Monster.

As I understand it, St Anger (2003) is not very highly regarded by rock critics and the Metallica fanbase but I am quite fond of it, and like it better than, for example, their first two albums or … And Justice For All, to name but a few.

 

The making of St Anger is documented in the Some Kind of Monster documentary, one of the best rock documentaries I’ve seen and by far the best of the various “making of …” documentaries of other Metallica albums. Some Kind of Monster is riveting and almost plays out like well written fictional tale of personal and band turmoil, with many challenges to be overcome before the record, recorded over a couple of years, is done and sent out into the world.

 

The resulting album, with a rule of no guitar solos, is quite brutal, unrelenting and harsh and for this reason very attractive to me. This is how I envisioned thrash metal to sound back in the ‘80s when I  heard of the genre without haring much of the music. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was probably the first Metallica track I ever heard and it didn’t sound like “thrash” to me, but just very good contemporary hard rock.

 

I was mightily disappointed when I first heard, more than 20 years after their respective release dates, Kill ‘Em All (1983) and Ride the Lightning (1984) because the production dampened what I’d anticipated to be  raging fire storm of metal. There was just no power to the music on the records. I also didn’t care for the intricate, variable riffing and shredding style of guitar solos. This went double for … And Justice For All (1988), and album I dislike and have never been able to listen all the way through. I don’t care how ambitious the songs were, how proficient the musicians were or how deep the themes were. I think the album sucks.

 

I came on board with Metallica (1991) because it had really good songs, songs that still resonate to this day, and an awesome power though the production still tended to reduce that power rather than elevate it. 

 

After that, not being a die-hard fan, I abandoned Metallica until Some Kind of Monster. I bought the DVD of the documentary, watched it several times and then bought St Anger.

 

The production imbues the tracks with all the power, energy, brutality, relentless surging thrash and intensity I’d always thought Metallica should sound like. The absence of guitar solos is no loss whatsoever; Kirk Hammett might be an awesome technician but most often his solos simply irritate me because of the show-off noodling they seem to be. The songs on St Anger are better for simply being focussed on tough riffing.

 

Though I own all the albums up to Metallica and St Anger,  I’m not a hardcore Metallica fan and will, push comes to shove, probably just stick with those two albums for repeat listening.  The first for the grandiose, sweeping, cinematic tunes and the latter for its hardest of hard rock intensity.