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St. Anger (2003)

Magic

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Mar 27, 2018
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#1
3.00 star(s) Rating: 3.00/5 1 Vote
Title: St. Anger
Artist: Metallica
Genre: Thrash Metal
Released: 2003

Tracks:
1 - Frantic - 5:50
2 - St. Anger - 7:21
3 - Some Kind of Monster - 8:25
4 - Dirty Window - 5:24
5 - Invisible Kid - 8:30
6 - My World - 5:45
7 - Shoot Me Again - 7:10
8 - Sweet Amber - 5:27
9 - The Unnamed Feeling - 7:09
10 - Purify - 5:13
11 - All Within My Hands - 8:49

Overview:
St. Anger is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on June 5, 2003 through Elektra Records. Not only was it the band's first album of the 21st century, but it was the band's last album released through Elektra, thus marking the end of the longest timespan between studio albums from Metallica, with nearly six years between the release of ReLoad and this album. St. Anger was originally intended for release on June 10, 2003, but was released five days earlier due to concerns over unlicensed distribution through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. The album marks the final collaboration between Metallica and producer Bob Rock, whose relationship began with the band's fifth studio album, 1991's Metallica.
St. Anger is the first Metallica album since Master of Puppets that does not feature long-time bassist Jason Newsted. Newsted left the band prior to the initial sessions for the album, leaving Rock to temporarily take his place until a permanent replacement could be found. It is also the first album since ...And Justice for All to have a title track. Recording of the album initially started on April 24, 2001, but was postponed indefinitely when rhythm guitarist and singer James Hetfield entered rehab for "alcoholism and other addictions". St. Anger is often recognized for being a radical musical departure from Metallica's earlier work; it features a heavy metal style, raw production, and no guitar solos.
St. Anger debuted at the top of sales charts in 30 countries, including the US Billboard 200. Upon its release, it met mixed critical reviews and has since gained less favorable reception. In 2004, the album's lead single, "St. Anger", won a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance". The album was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA and has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.
In Metal Edge's 2003 Readers' Choice Awards, the album was voted in two mutually incompatible categories: Best Album Cover and Worst Album Cover. The single, St. Anger", was voted Video of the Year.
 

Riff_Raff

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Aug 23, 2019
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Location
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#3
Although I have my obvious issues with this album I will at least say first I get what they were going for and in some moods the album absolutely has some level of emotional genius to it. There is a level of vitriol behind the music that makes the album have content especially if you also watch the documentary. However there are the glaring flaws with the execution that have made it a unique album and not for the right reasons.

The idea of a garage band starting out is the sound they were going for in theory sounds good but I will say many garage sounds I've heard don't have such an echoing, ringing and overwhelming snare drum tone. I actually feel like if the snare was on it would have made the songs sound more menacing and heavier as they were intended to. Instead the ringing is extremely distracting for me and it drowns out a lot of the good sounds in the mix.

No solos aren't the biggest issue I have typically but this ties in with another flaw and that being the excessive song and album length. Songs without solos should not be as long as some of these titles are especially St Anger, Invisible Kid, All Within My Hands and The Unnamed Feeling. They showed live that these songs are better when Kirk can play a solo because the song structures imply a solo is incoming. The repetitious nature of the songs makes the length a glaring issue for me as it makes for a tedious experience. Should have either added solos or trimmed the longer songs down by about 3 minutes at least.

What I did like are many of the specific riffs they came up with. Bad production aside, there was some enjoyable riffs for me in songs like Sweet Amber, Frantic, Shoot Me Again, Invisible Kid, Dirty Window, My World. There was a lot of good riffage created in these songs and that would have been aided with far better drum tone that didn't dominate the mix, much more crisp bass tone as well.

There are several songs I like even despite the issues and those being Frantic, Shoot Me Again, Sweet Amber, Dirty Window. Those songs were tolerable despite the issues.

I feel like this album despite all that in 20 years has aged a lot better than some of the worst albums by other bands in that time. Like I said I understand what they were going for given the turmoil the band was in but I think the snare being on would have enhanced the songs.
 
Music information in first post provided by The AudioDB