Album of the weekend

Metallica-St. Anger

I know what you are thinking. "St. Anger? This album is terrible." And no, it's not their best. But is it as bad as it's reputation?

After the six year break between Load/Re-Load their changing sound, hairstyle, the battle with Napster, Newstead leaving the band, Hetfields drinking problems, we were all eager to see what kind of music Metallica could create. Would it sound more like Ride the Lightning or the Black Album? Many of us thought that the The Black Album was the beginning of the end for this band, and Load/Re-Load didn't help the matter that they had fundamentally changed their sound and more importantly, their attitude. The dark, philosophical lyrics of Lighting or Justice were swapped out for the more radio friendly lyrical content of the Black album and the useless and forgettable sound of Load/Re-Load.

So St. Anger was going to be, well, interesting. I've been listening to it a bit this week. Many of my friends dislike the album-in fact, they wrongly think it's their worst. No, it's not their best but it's no where near Load/Re-Load, which are easily the worst Metallica albums in their canon. The title song, "St. Anger" isn't as hard or fast as anything off Hardwired (an amazing album), but it's better than any song off Load/Re-Load.

Perhaps the best thing you can say about this album is that it's better than their most recent releases at the time.