Metal Reviews

Seriously, folks.

The songs are overlong, Hetfield sounds like a redneck, Lar's drumming is incredibly predictable, and the thrashing is flaccid compared to the other classic albums from the same era. I'm sorry to be the "tr00er" than thou type, but Metallica have never been that good of a band, and their influence is massively overstated.

Fact dealt.

I agree somewhat, I never quite understood the praise for that album beyond the first two tracks, and the end of the album goes on forever and blurs together. This album always felt significantly weaker than the album before and after it too, namely from lack of memorable songs, but Metallica also had their moments too, particularly from RTL and AJFA.

Cute when you speak from the angle of objective truth too.

Been saying this since the mid-80's... truly one of the most overrated bands of all time.
Safety-helmet Metal for the masses.

Metallica is probably the most overrated band of all time.

That being said, their first 3 records are still good and better than the other shitty ass music I hear on the radio generally.

I don't like the black album though.

Lars has always been a pretty shitty drummer for someone who is in such a famous metal band and metallica is just nothing compared to Sodom, Kreator, Slayer, Destruction, or any of the thrash bands who actually were/are extreme sounding with their music.

They knew how to use tri-tones, so you get an album that sounds different for everyone. The riffs are awesome for that reason. When they started restricting themselves to blues style note progressions, it really robbed them of what they were good at.

Oy....I guess I'll try to add some balance to this.

The first Metallica album I listened to was Ride The Lightning back in 2008 when I was 21 or 22 and I loved it. Later on, I of course got Master Of Puppets and loved it as well.

I mentioned my age because I feel it's important to point out that I didn't listen to it during the glory days of metal in the 80s where everyone came to love Metallica. Also I wasn't a teenager looking for some loud agressive music to lash out whatever stupid teenage frustrations I had with the world and life in general. I was way past that phase of my life. I think the nostalgia factor is something people use as an argument against MoP. "You only think it's the greatest album of all time because it defined your teenage years in the 80s and Metallica were a fresh new band to vent your anger out. If you listen to it now it's pretty shitty." It's kind of like how certain video games don't age well. They were great for their time but some of them can be unplayable today.

I brought up Ride The Lightning because the consensus, at least around here, is that RTL is awesome but MoP is garbage. What is the reason for this? Is it because MoP gets all the love? I see this over and over again where people like to point out how the most acclaimed album from a band is actually "overrated" and their true best album is something else. If we're talking thrash, I've definitely seen this with Slayer (i.e."Reign In Blood is overrated, their actual best album is Show No Mercy" or something to that effect).

Another argument I see is that people just haven't been exposed enough to other thrash albums of the time so in their eyes MoP is a classic. Well, 2008 was six years ago and I've listened to a shit ton of metal across all genres, eras, etc since then and believe it or not I still love the album to death. I don't know, that's my take on this. At the end of the day there's a reason why classic albums are considered classics.

MOP & Metallica are overrated, yes. But I wouldn't say MOP is a weak album or it sucks. I think it's a pretty solid album and still listen to it at times. If there is one Metallica album that I feel is overly long, it is Death Magnetic. The songs were long for the sake of being long. It's like Metallica was saying, "Hey, we can still write looooong songs and play thrash." It got old real quick. Although I do like some songs from that album, they aren't flawless.

This was the last of the classic Met albums I bought and I must admit, it never grabbed my attention quite like RtL or AJFA did. However, to call this a shit album is pure nonsense and reeks of false pretense. The title track is a thrash standard, Disposable Heroes is pure neck wrecking bliss and the band never wrote a better song than Sanitarium. Oh, and that fucking immortal album cover! Say what you will about what Metallica became but for a time, they were one of the flag bearers of the thrash underground and introduced a whole generation of kids to heavy music.
Honestly, we could pick apart imperfections from many of the genre's greats all day. Yes, even the mighty Teutonic Thrashers had some real cringe worthy moments. Need I mention Destruction's Rosenmerkel period. Ugh.

Bullshit about them being "torchbearers of the thrash underground", sure they introduced people to metal generally speaking but by 86 all of the major bands in the genre had all released albums faster, more intense, and that would inevitably be more influential. The band after RTL became label whores, and the gradual change which began on MOP is reflective of that fact.

+1

I disagree with you there. All of the Big Four were moving into a more commercially accessible direction by the late 80s, Slayer included. Following the Black record's success, Anthrax and Megadeth outright jumped on Metallica's coattails and rode them all the way to the mainstream. Mustaine bitches about Billy Ray Cyrus stealing the Billboard #1 from CtE to this very day. Metallica played a major role in introducing heavy metal to the masses and, like it or not, the landscape of rock music post '91 looks very different without Enter Sandman.
But I think you are arguing about future underground influence which, I will agree, is absolutley true. Many better albums (and bands) came in the wake of Metallica and MoP. However, my main point was that Puppets is definitely NOT a shit album. There is some very fine thrash to be had on that release. Thumbs up to Metastable to Chaos for some excellent commentary on this subject. Some people just can't contain their inner contrarian.