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Good news, I guess.

This new album keeps sounding worse and worse every time there is something new.

Sounds promising but........Metallica......ermm...hard to say.

Promising? yeah right! more like disappointing.

Whoooeeeeeh whooooooooooooeh

i dont now if its dissapointing or promising. for all ypu know those two songs would be the best on the album

Good news, hopefully that means the album will have a much higher standard. Those songs had some interesting parts in them, but overall they weren't great.

Wooeeee, as Brahm said. Could be interesting, could ultimately mean nothing.

We shall wait and see...

Okay, I think I know now how Metallica can make a good album:

LAY OFF THE DAMN EXPERIMENTATION!!!

Just about every Metallica album after Master Of Puppets has been experimental in one way or another. Not that that's a bad thing (the proggy And Justice For All is IMO their overall best album). But as St. Anger has proven, it's just gotten to be too much of a good thing. The main problem with that album was that there was just so much experimentation that it wound up being a jumbled mess of ideas that really needed some more consideration and thought before being put on a full-length album (let alone one by a band as respected as Metallica). Contrary to what Metallica seems to believe, A BAND DOESN'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE INNOVATIVE TO BE GOOD. Monster Magnet, Exodus, Testament. None of these are particularly innovative bands, but they're still good bands. And, as St. Anger has once again proven, innovation can actually be an album's worst enemy.

I think what Metallica should do for the new album is relax a little, forget these little musical experiments, go back to their 1980's/1990's playbooks, and simply do what they do best. Or, if they have to experiment, at least let it come naturally and take their experiments into heavy consideration before releasing them to the public.

You kind of have to admire their cojones though. I'm sure they know the fans want the thrash back, but they keep trying to do something new, regardless of how much people are going to like it.

I agree that it's admirable they do what they want without worrying about what other people think, but they do it to a fault. There's a fine line between being gutsy, and just being foolish. With St. Anger, Metallica crossed that line (from the former to the latter). James Hetfield himself admitted, about six months after its release, that the album was just too long and cluttered for its own good. So even THEY didn't really want to listen to it anymore after a while. That right there should say something...

I don't think they could really go back to the thrash anymore, because it would sound false.

I think it was Kirk who described the upcoming album as the missing link between ...And Justice For All and The Black Album, which definitely bodes well. Could be just normal bullshit hype though, but personally I'm starting to have a good feeling about the album. It clearly won't be as good as their first five albums, everyone should have realized that by now, but I think it's gonna be alot better than the Loads and St.Anger. Which probably would be sufficient for it to be a great album.

I'd be happy with a few more Loady rock songs, but the current success of Trivium makes me think they'll do something more Thrashy. As Seinfeld says, it'll probably be quite experimental for them - interesting, sure, and odds are better than St Anger.

What will happen when it comes out, though, will be that everyone listens to it, realises it's not Master of Puppets pt II, and promptly say it's crap.

Let me state something for the record: People will promptly say it's crap, regardless of whether or not it's MOP Part 2. Why? Because it's Metallica. Metallica has become the kind of band everybody loves to hate. There's a certain "coolness" in hating Metallica. More-so than probably any band I can think of right now. So when the new album comes out, people will say it automatically sucks because Metallica made it. Even if it turns out to be the greatest and thrashiest metal album ever released. Not to sound bitter or nasty, but it's the unfortunate truth. Hating Metallica is just as trendy as liking Metallica. Even with the mainstream (remember when Lars was booed off the stage at the 2000 MTV Music Awards due to the whole Napster controversy?).

Anyway, I agree that Metallica doing some more Loady songs on the new album would be fine. I'm not so sure how they'd do with more thrashy music now, though, since James's voice has really gone to pot (the result of smoking too many cigars, I guess). He just doesn't have the aggressive growl/scream he used to have. So if Metallica were to make another thrashy album, his voice would probably need to be pro-tooled to death to sound appropriately aggressive.

Heh, agreed.

And all I need to be happy really is for the focus of the required music video to be on Lars, doing his 'spastic having a heart attack' impression.

Interesting point on James' vocals. He's going to sound like Attila Csihar in about ten years' time.

Or Marriane Faithful. Which would be pretty creepy, considering her bit on The Memory Remains is officialy the creepiest thing ever. I'm just waiting for his solo country release, which I reckon he'll make one day.

Interesting thought I had: Hetfield could really have recorded all the parts to St Anger himself. He's as good a drummer as Lars, can play bass, and there were no solos.

If Metallica made another awesome thrashy album people wouldn't criticize it at all because that's why they are being criticized for in the first place. In fact it would be monstrously huge, considering how people love "return to form" albums (Machine Head's newest). Metallica doing it would be great, but that's not happening.