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[Jon Neu]

The idea that Metallica died in the 80's it's pretty widespread, and to some extent, I thought the same for years.

But I was hearing Hardwire To Self-destruct the other day and I thought: damn, this thing has some monster songs on it. And I realized that if you take the best songs from Death Magnetic and the best songs from Hardwire and mix them together in a standalone album, that album would be pretty damn good.

Let's say we take the standard 8 songs format:


1.

Spoiler

2.

Spoiler

3.

Spoiler

4.

Spoiler

5.

Spoiler

6.

Spoiler

7.

Spoiler

8.

Spoiler

It's not Master Of Puppets, but it has some pretty amazing songs.

 

[Master Of Illusion]

This is not an unpopular opinion whatsoever, Death Magnetic and Hard-Wired are the best things Metallica's put out since AJFA.

Too bad the former's physically unlistenable. Would kill for a Vapor Trails-style remix.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

If that's an unpopular opinion then count me in.

When Death Magnetic dropped i said to my friends (Metallica fans) "You could take each song off of Death Magnetic and slip it in to a pre-90's album and nobody would think any different"

Not a massive fan of hardwired though, apart from Halo on/of fire (Track 6) i thought the rest were just a more refined 'St Anger'.

Biggest disappointment in the new albums is the lack of bass solos/bass bits. Cliff had loads of them through 3 albums and Rob has 0. Despite the fact that he shreds 'pulling teeth' live on stage in front of Cliff's Dad.

 

[INC]

They peaked at master of puppets

Been cutting my breakfast on a mirror ever since, great life hack

 

[Slings and Arrows]

They peaked at master of puppets

Been cutting my breakfast on a mirror ever since, great life hack

To each is own, but "To live is to Die" exists post puppets and is 90% Cliff riffs.

 

[and 3 others]

Load and Reload have gems too.

 

[Halo is Back]

They have gotten better since the last couple of albums but it still feels like they are way past their prime.

 

[and 3 others]

To each is own, but "To live is to Die" exists post puppets and is 90% Cliff riffs.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

It's sad that it loses all of it's charm and it butchers Cliff's solo.

 

[Loke]

Death Magnetic is seriously underrated IMO.

 

[Thing on a Spring]

'...and justice for all' is the best Metallica album. You're free to disagree but you'd be wrong.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

'...and justice for all' is the best Metallica album. You're free to disagree but you'd be wrong.

It's just missing:

Pulling Teeth
Horsemen
Fade to black
Cthulu
Orion

But it does have Metallica's best piece of music and one of the greatest pieces of music ever written for guitar.

 

[Relativ9]

I quite like St Anger (the single not the whole album). Please don't hit me.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Load and Reload have gems too.

Ah, the wife beater albums..

 

[and 3 others]

'...and justice for all' is the best Metallica album. You're free to disagree but you'd be wrong.

It's definitely the most orchestral and complex album.

 

[Forsythia]

Hardwired is a fantastic album and doesn't need any songs from Death Magnetic to be somehow better.

 

[Pol Pot]

Metallica haven't released an album since AJFA, and they never will.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Metallica haven't released an album since AJFA, and they never will.

LOL @ user name...

 

[diffusionx]

The idea that Metallica died in the 80's it's pretty widespread, and to some extent, I thought the same for years.

Sometimes it is helpful to take a step back. At this point, Metallica is 39 years old, so if they died in the 80s, that would basically be saying they've sucked at their jobs for 75% of their working lives.... which does not make any sense and can't possibly be true.

Yea their 80s stuff is better but music is a young man's game, always has been, but it's not like they forgot how to play or compose.

 

[Drake]

Anything after 99 I don't really like. The Black Album is pretty good. There are a few songs off of Load and Re-load I like, but none of those albums touch their 80's stuff. I'd say they died off around the time St. Anger came out, so 2003. Their live shows are still pretty good though.

 

[Pol Pot]

LOL @ user name...

They died. Friendly fire incident. Very tragic.

 

[DrJohnGalt]

Here's another unpopular metallica opinion: megadeth > metallica

 

[Alter_Fridge]

See below

 

[Alter_Fridge]

This is not an unpopular opinion whatsoever, Death Magnetic and Hard-Wired are the best things Metallica's put out since AJFA.

Too bad the former's physically unlistenable. Would kill for a Vapor Trails-style remix.

Load and Re-Load were alternative/southern rock. Some good song writing there in context, along with James' great lyricism as always

(how the fuck can you keep coming up great lyrics 45 years into the game?)

St Anger was an abomination, although the title track could have been a classic outside of the 8 bars after the intro/chorus. I mean wtf was that bit. And of course the famous Lars rubbish bin snare.

I don't care for Death Magnetic at all but Hardwired has some pretty good thrash songs

Moth is really fucking good and Spit is too

 

[Pol Pot]

Load and Reload are Kid Rock tier trash.

Nothing "southern" about them.

 

[Hudo]

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Lars found his second bass drum in Lords of Summer.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

I quite like St Anger (the single not the whole album). Please don't hit me.

It's a good song apart from that woeful 8 bars the verse beings with

God that bit pisses me off so much

 

[Alter_Fridge]

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Lars found his second bass drum in Lords of Summer.

Well pointed out. If they didn't do the slowy down bits it would have been pretty great.

He also does good double bass in Spit Out The Bone

 

[kraspkibble]

st anger is probably the only bad album. even at that it's not BAD...just stupid decisions they made with the sounds/mixing. the songs themselves are decent. honestly can't blame them for trying something new. we all moan if a band stays the same.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

st anger is probably the only bad album. even at that it's not BAD...just stupid decisions they made with the sounds/mixing. the songs themselves are decent. honestly can't blame them for trying something new. we all moan if a band stays the same.

No, most of the songs are trash tier

 

[Hudo]

st anger is probably the only bad album. even at that it's not BAD...just stupid decisions they made with the sounds/mixing. the songs themselves are decent. honestly can't blame them for trying something new. we all moan if a band stays the same.

here's a remix of frantic without the tin can drums.

 

[Catphish]

I was a huge fan on Metallica in the 80's. Kill 'Em All through And Justice for All were like books of the fucking bible to me. But they started losing me with the black album, and lost me for good with Load. The whole Lars/Napster thing was the nail in the coffin. Every album that's come after, I've given it a listen, tried to have an open mind, but ultimately could find little trace of what they used to be. And holy fuck if Lars isn't even more of a smug, insufferable cunt.

Yeah, for my tastes, they ended with Justice.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

here's a remix of frantic without the tin can drums.

That's actually pretty good with that edit.

St Anger and Frantic were the two only good songs from that album. Both are let down slightly by the inexplicable soft bits. The rest of the tracks are utter trash

 

[Airola]

That's actually pretty good with that edit.

St Anger and Frantic were the two only good songs from that album. Both are let down slightly by the inexplicable soft bits. The rest of the tracks are utter trash

Sweet Amber and All Within My Hands are both good songs.


Hell, Sweet Amber has one of my favorite Metallica riffs, starting at 3.45:


I just wish they would've have a part with some fast chugachuga drum beat playing along with that riff at some point. It's good as it is but would've been better with a fast part somewhere in the song. That riff really cries for fast drums.

 

[Master Of Illusion]

Load and Re-Load were alternative/southern rock. Some good song writing there in context, along with James' great lyricism as always

I think if the two albums excised filler and were just one disc, it'd be a banger. Like Unload or something.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

I think if the two albums excised filler and were just one disc, it'd be a banger. Like Unload or something.

De-Load in the Comatorium

 

[Pol Pot]

I think if the two albums excised filler and were just one disc, it'd be a banger. Like Unload or something.

De-Load in the Comatorium

Unload: Should have left this shit in rehab

 

[Jon Neu]

Sweet Amber and All Within My Hands are both good songs.


Hell, Sweet Amber has one of my favorite Metallica riffs, starting at 3.45:


I just wish they would've have a part with some fast chugachuga drum beat playing along with that riff at some point. It's good as it is but would've been better with a fast part somewhere in the song. That riff really cries for fast drums.

The Unnamed Feeling is a good song too.



So we have already Frantic, St. Anger, Sweet Amber, All Within My Hands and The Unnamed Feeling.

Not bad for an album with such a bad reputation.

 

[Master Of Illusion]

De-Load in the Comatorium

They're not good enough musicians for that.

 

[Jon Neu]

To each is own, but "To live is to Die" exists post puppets and is 90% Cliff riffs.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I play bass and worship cliff.

Playing 'hetfields' solo is 100% the same format and layout on the fretboard as cliffs style. The solo also sounds mint on distorted bass, much nicer than guitar

 

[Alter_Fridge]

They're not good enough musicians for that.

James is

 

[SirKicksalot]

All Nightmare Long and St. Anger are both top 5 Metallica songs. Nightmare has such a good video too.

 

[bender]

Bob Rock killed Metallica. Actually Cliff's death did, but Bob made sweet love to the corpse. St. Anger is one of the worst albums ever made and that's where I checked out.

 

[Hulk_Smash]

Here’s an unpopular opinion: They’re only bad album is St Anger.

 

[highrider]

Ehh, metal is a sausage fest. Even the few girls on that scene look rougher than a night in jail. So for me it has always sucked.

 

[teezzy]

This is a nice thread.

For some reason it's cool to hate Metallica these days, but they can still outperform most bands without even trying.

 

[Lanrutcon]

If St Anger is Metallica at their worst then damn.

One of the greatest bands to ever be, and so much of their material is timeless. Whenever I feel like digging back in there's just so many killer songs to pick. The absolutely must listen list for these guys would be...what? two dozen tracks strong? How many musicians have achieved that?

 

[ManaByte]

The solo on Atlas Rise is awesome:

 

[Tschumi]

My unpopular Metallica opinion is, don't need 'em