METALLICA Secret Project?

Metallica has been filed away under the "NOSTALGIA" category in my head. That means that every once in awhile when I feel the need to revisit my teenage years I might put on a Metallica record, but they have ceased to have any bearing on my present day existence.

And I still find it hard to believe it was the 3 studio albums between '96-'03 that I like the most. I still find their stuff from KEA to TBA and DM and Beyond Magnetic to be really watered down. I especially feel that way about their first 5 albums and at first I thought it was due to my deep affinity for Megadeth but it's more than that...

Well, I think we are all inspired by different things. The era you like the most I can't stand, but that's what individuality is all about, neither of us are wrong and we're both right.

If that makes any sense.

I was challenged to listen to "Lulu" again so I did that just now and I realized that I should like a project like this since I'm really inyo poetry and spoken word witjh an underlying of instrumentation. It wasn't as bad as I once thought but I really noticed just how much Metallica lacks in improvisational skills. I also think something like this would work depending on the contributing artists and I'm sure there are more Lulu like projects to come and even though Loutallica wasn't the first to do such a thing they're prolly the most notable and w/that being said, when it does happen that more such projects come out that's when and how "Lulu" will be deemed a success...

I still can't listen to this but I was challenged to jam it 3 times this week so...2 more times to go!

Metallica could quite possibly be the lamest fucking improvisational group of all-time.

The older I get, the more I realize how really average Metallica is across the board. Hetfield is really the only one I think has some real talent (when he's not being lazy as fuck and that isn't very often).

I've been saying they're average since I first heard 'em around '86 or so. I do agree that James does have talent but like you said, SD, he's just too lazy.

Akeldama wrote:

I've been saying they're average since I first heard 'em around '86 or so. I do agree that James does have talent but like you said, SD, he's just too lazy.

You want to hear lazy? Listen to Slayer after 1992.

Blabbermouth sez Metallica are about to start writing new music in the very near future. Oh boy!

Lulu is growing on me, if I look at it as a Lou Reed album and not just a Metallica sell-out failure I like the spoken word vibe. Hell, even my wife liked it and she hates poetry and spoken word stuff. I've tried to get her into Jack Kerouak to no avail.

Lou Reed with a sub-par backup group.

S.D. wrote:

Lou Reed with a sub-par backup group.

Precisely, but I wonder if even though they are a sub-par backup band did they play with a minialist approach on purpose as to not "waste" any "good" riffs on someone else or are they REALLY THAT BAD?

I think they are REALLY THAT BAD. It took them over a year to write Death Magnetic, give them enough time and they can muster something up...but put them on the spot and they sound worse than your average bar band.

I have been wondering for a long while if on Load, ReLoad & St. Anger Metallica were trying to sound more Stoner and Doomy but with overproduction. I know Load especialloy gets the Grunge comparisons but it seems to me they were trying for a Soundgarden meets COC sound.

What do y'all think?

I've honestly never listened to either Load, ReLoad, or St. Anger. My favorite of theirs has always been Kill 'em All, and I don't listen to their others very often.

I prefer the Dave Mustaine stuff as well as the first two and the three I mentioned. Don't get me wrong, the albums themselves lack a lot of the Doom and Stoner elements but there are some things throughout those three albums.

If they were attempting stoner, all they managed to do was kill my fucking buzz.

What is it with "Metalheads" and even casual Metallica fans that when a person says Lars and Kirk are sub par, Cliff was good but grotesquely overrated and James might have the best right hand in Metal but even his lyrics have always been borderline corny they give me a "WTF?!" I understand most have had their metal cherries popped by them and I'm in the minority or people who don't like them much and in an even bigger minority to think their first five albums (especially MOP and ...AJFA) aren't that good but damn!

Akeldama wrote:

James might have the best right hand in Metal

Nope. Jeff Waters destroys Hetfield from the technical standpoint; he will always be one of my favorite metal rhythm players.

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

Akeldama wrote:

James might have the best right hand in Metal

Nope. Jeff Waters destroys Hetfield from the technical standpoint; he will always be one of my favorite metal rhythm players.

Damn, I forgot about Jeff... Point well taken.

Regarding the original statement, I somewhat agree. I enjoy Metallica when I jam them, but I can't help but feel they're immensely overrated, both as musicians, and as songwriters.

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

Regarding the original statement, I somewhat agree. I enjoy Metallica when I jam them, but I can't help but feel they're immensely overrated, both as musicians, and as songwriters.

You had to be there at the time when it happened. In 1984 Metallica's Ride The Lighting was a revelation, now it's just a really good album...but at the time it had so much more impact.

Metallica were game changers in '83/'84. After I heard Kill'Em All for the first time, half of the shit I was listening to (Def Leppard, Van Halen, Quiet Riot, etc.) didn't cut it anymore.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Metallica were game changers in '83/'84. After I heard Kill'Em All for the first time, half of the shit I was listening to (Def Leppard, Van Halen, Quiet Riot, etc.) didn't cut it anymore.

I can understand that aspect of it, that was never lost on me. "Hit The Lights" has much more going for it than "Jamie's Cryin'" or "Foolin'".

There was also a sense at the time that Metallica were some ultra-cool deep dark secret that only the really hip people knew about, so being a Metallica fan was like being a member of an exclusive "club."

I swear that for the first year or so that my bro and I were into Metallica, we couldn't PAY people to check them out. They were too weird/off the wall for most of our friends, we'd put on "Hit the Lights" and people would go "What the fuck is that?" Haha.

It wasn't till Lightning came out and the band started generating some "buzz" that those same people started getting interested. I remember my brother coming home from school and asking if I could let his friend so-and-so borrow my Ride the Lightning tape, then the next week another friend wanted to borrow it, etc., etc. so after a while I finally said "Just tell'em to give you a blank tape and I'll dub one for 'em." So my copy of the album became pretty influential amongst my brother's 8th grade classmates.

Yeah, I didn't take that into account. Perspective makes a huge difference.