What's wrong with the Black Album (Metallica)?

Stone Cold Crazy was a hint of what was to come next.I guess as a band they naturally had to go this way after what they had accomplished.As a fan I accepted it but didn`t like it,slick production radio frfiendly tunes.I guess it`s still Metallica`s greatest achievement.Me being greedy and all,I wanted a sequel to And Justice For All....
Don`t Tread On me,Where Ever I May Crap,Nothing Else In James` Bladder,The Lars That Failed?C`mon!

 

I'd like to ask the Metallica fans who think it was a sellout, than what did you guys do now that it's been 25 years? Have you not heard it in 25 years? Do you put earplugs when the Black album songs are performed in concert?

I always liked the Black album, I don't take sides-it's just music whatever the context. Just sounds. If I like those sounds-doesn't matter if they are over-corporate. I was too young at the time anyway so I didn't buy it till years later.

But really, when you rebel against an album, and everyone knows all the songs except you, what do you do 25 years later? It's been a quarter century-does it still mean that much to you to rebel against an album?

I guess what I'm saying is it feels arbitrary saying 'well if it sells 10 copies it sucks and I won't buy it, if it sells 10,000 I'll buy it, if it sells 100,000, I won't buy it.

 

Hated it then. Hate it 25 years later. Sorry! Wimpy album. Lame songs (except "Enter Sandman" is pretty good).

When "Nothing Else Matters" comes on in concert when I see them, I take a bathroom break.

I love Death Magnetic. Also loved Garage Inc. So don't count me in that "liked them when they sold nothing and hated them when they became popular" bandwagon.

 

Tell me more, what makes it wimpy or lame-those are really just words that could mean anything. I'm just trying to get the logic-I don't hear a massive difference between this album and their others. Help me out here.

"Death Magnetic" is my favorite album by the way over everything.

 

This really is unfair to say when it comes to Metallica. The Black Album was SO DIFFERENT than their preceding four albums, that it would be perfectly acceptable to not like it if you were a fan since '83 (like I am).

 

Okay, okay cool. What's vastly different? I'm not being tongue-in-cheek, I mean I know it's got more melody for commercial sake, but what else? The drums are too loud someone said earlier.

 

When they started doing interviews about the Black Album and what it sounded like, they were saying they were going for a "more simpler direction". When I heard they were recording Diamon Head's "The Prince" as a b-side, I was expecting them to be straight-forward along those lines. I was all for it.

Instead, we got standard metal "stock". "Nothing Else Matters" is just about the lamest song anyone could come up with. Yeah, they had "Fade To Black" and "Welcome Home" and "One" before that, but each one of those songs had a loud, fast and heavy part to it also. Nothing Else Matters had none of that. More boring than Pink Floyd.

 

The production is amazing on the Black Album. I love it. I wish all their albums were produced so well.

 

Okay so the production wasn't the issue, but the arrangements were the problem. Not as fast, still heavy. It doesn't seem to have any fast songs let alone speed metal.

 

Its the moment they lost me.....but gained millions more fans.
I still don't own it.

 

Didn't bother me live because I haven't seen them since Cliff died.

 

I remember going to Castle Donnington Monsters Of Rock.

To see maybe ZZ or Lizzy or AC/DC , I remember lots of people wearing Metal Up Your Bottom shirts & an impossible sky , full of piss filled bottles with no tops on , which resulted in a fragrant , not very tasty yellow rain ! Experienced attendees were equipped with brollies. I don't recall much at all of Metallicas set , it really wasn't my cup of tea.

However , once the Black album arrived I really liked there sounds. Guess I'm a very casual fan.....

 

True story, when I saw them on the St. Anger tour, it was my first time seeing them and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. There actually was a couple of guys in the section over who would stand there arms folded and pouty faced when a black album song was played and then rocked out if it were something pre-black album. Pretty pathetic.

 

What is fast? There are several uptempo tracks It's not just mid-tempo songs and ballads. No, there's no speed metal, but I'm not sure why that's a necessity.

 

For me it has nothing to do with the production, the tempo, or the lack of thrash.

I just think the songs are pretty weak.

I can point to Anthrax's "Sound Of White Noise" (an album where a thrash band had slick production, songs with slower tempos and an evolved sound) as how you can have all those things but still make a great record. The Black album doesn't succeed in this, but that's just my opinion.

 

For the audience generally speaking it's a great álbum, for the fans and the connoisseurs was a money grab. Don't get me wrong the Black Album is a great album but not a landmark, it was a commercial attempt and for the fans of the band this new approach was (and still is) a bit uncomfortable.
It reminds me one thing, I stayed a bit pissed when "Justice" was released... overproduced, too much polished, blah, blah, blah... but still was Trash.

The choice of Bob Rock was not random, Bob Rock is a great producer but his name is not Bob Trash.

 

Mainly just being overplayed to death, especially Sandman.

 

I don't know. It's hard to have songs that have such lasting appeal and be "weak". The melodies have to be there, the riffs have to be there. They wouldn't have succeeded otherwise.

 

i agree. SOWN by anthrax still sounds somewhat thrash even though its not

 

What's wrong with the Black Album (Metallica)?

I'll answer this the same as I did 5 years ago:

Loved all the albums until the Black Album, then they started eliminating too many of the things I liked about them.

I was so disappointed with the new overproduced sound on the Enter Sandman cassette single I bought I actually threw it out of the car. I did convince myself to buy the album when it came out and just didn't care for it. Gone were the dynamics, the melodic riffs, galloping drums, interesting time changes/song structures and other musical "hooks" that made me love this band. Nothing Else Matters sounded more like a Scorpions ballad than a Metallica song to me.

Obviously they sold a lot of copies of the Black Album and I think there were some good moments on it and albums afterward, but I think a lot of the changes in musical direction being made were not the right ones for the long term.

I do think Death Magnetic was the first proper return to form for them, shame about the brickwall mastering of the disc/vinyl though. I now listen to the Guitar Hero "extracts" of Death Magnetic which sound miles better to my ears, even being only in mp3 format. I'll probably never play the CD I bought again.

 

Death Magnetic was a deliberate attempt at an old school style. Which is something they (admirably) avoided doing up to that point. Also, I wouldn't say it was a completely successful attempt nor would I put the songwriting at the level of the old stuff. But for what it is it has some good stuff on it.

How are the riffs on black album not melodic? You don't sell 16 million copies by being less melodic or having fewer hooks. They did start making songs out a single riff or two rather than several. In that way the dynamics were still there just across the album instead of within the songs, but even then there are songs they go in more than one place.

 

Death Magnetic was the album I'd been waiting for since 1988. It was them getting back to what they did best- being a thrash metal band and selling an album that was an encyclopedia of melodic riffs that required repeated listenings to take in.

You're asking my opinion here, so I'll give it to you- there was no comparison. Everything on the Black Album was watered down, diluted, stripped, simplified, slowed down from what I loved in their earlier work.

Tame.

I can't argue the success of the Black Album, and I didn't have a problem with my favorite band selling more records!

I just didn't like what they did.

 

death magnetic is good but sounded like multiple songs pieced together not 1 long song thats connected

 

Death Magnetic is better than the album that came out before it and that is about the best thing I can say about it. No hooks, melodies, or catchy riffs really. Sounds like they took a bunch of song ideas and pieces, hit shuffle and released it in my opinion.

 

thats what slayer said about it death magnetic too