Metal Reviews

Those big 4 (Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth & Slayer)...they must be doing something right to still be popular bands still to this day. With around 40 studio albums combined, numerous live albums and other stuff, these bands have what it takes to survive for over 20 years. Still touring, still selling out concerts, still strong.
Thats why their albums become classics. Those other thrash bands may be good also, but will NEVER reach the stature those big 4 bands had and still have.
They are the kings of their time. The thrash bands listed here probably bow down to those big 4 bands, thanking them for creating metal history and paving the way for them.
I tend to agree about the age of some people in this thread. Would your opinions be different if you were a teenager back in the mid 80's, instead of the mid 90's or now. Myself being born in the 70's grew up listening to the refreshing sounds of Metallica and the other 3 bands. If i were a teen right now, my thought on those 4 bands may well be different....but thats not the case....

Yeah they watered down their sound to appeal to larger audiences...they've been doing it since the late 80's. Thats all fine and dandy...if you care about record sales....which I dont. I'm just really tired of those four bands...they've run their course..their music was only ok, and now I'm so tired of it I can honestly say that I never listen to their albums. So to me the classic appeal has been lost and replaced with stagnation. With that said I'm going to go listen to Seven Churces by Possessed.

So basically, we judge bands by how popular they get and how many albums they sell. Right... And whoever says that Metallica is still strong needs to be forced to listen to St. Anger for 4 hours (enough to make anyone want to kill themselves, I'm convinced). Or God Hates Us All for that matter. Or anything Anthrax has released since Persistence of Time. Or anything Megadeth has released since Youthanasia.

A band's album getting a classic status must involve those things. How the album affected the genre at the time, how it affected the listeners and fans, and the band itself. One band who releases 1 awesome album while their others are poor will never recieve a classic status for that one album, they need to be consistent..which is what Metallica were in the 80's. Same with Anthrax and Megadeth and Slayer.
They may have changed with the times now, but back in the 80's, those bands were at their peak. Yes, some of them dont know when to quit and most if not all should step aside.
For the record: I hated St. Anger, but am still a big Metallica fan. Their next album will decide their fate. I have jumped off Slayer, but its just cause i've moved away from their type of music. I have grown tired of Megadeth and Anthrax (last albums bought from both were Risk and Volume 8). Again, I dont hate them now, just moved away from that type of sound.
But the 1 thing that has kept them going has been consistency...they may have changed with the times and people may not like where they have gone, but until their fans run away in droves, they will still pump out albums and the people will pay attention...thats popularity. Example: People all heard sneak peaks of Metallica's St. Anger and were stunned, shocked, etc. But they still payed attention and bought the album or found some way to hear it...even after their conscience said "what the fuck are you doing"...
So i guess popularity does play a part in picking an album to be called a classic...with a popular band we will remember that awesome album even if it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago, rather than a band who has since long gone and left behind a one-hit album that no one remembers cause no one remembers the band.

Like I said before, I can see why some people would put MoP in the classics list, but like I said before, I don't think its a classic, I don't even think its a good heavy metal album. Keep in mind this is just an opinion, there's no sense in trying to change my opinion. I'm not saying that everyone should think like me, but its good to see other peoples opinions and to consider one's that are not your own. This is all I'm trying to say.

I think Punishment For Decadence should have been reviewed instead of Mediocre of Puppets.

i also said before that if people dont believe that MOP deserves a classic status then thats fine....everyone has their opinion. Everyone's metal tastes are different. I'm just giving my opinions on why i believe it is a classic.
This is exactly what forums are for....

Ok then, so everyone's happy.

Yes, let us drink beer and have sex with midgets.

Good idea but lars said he wasn't up for any tonight.

I was there too, I picked it up the day it came out. It is a classic album just for the impact alone it had on people getting into more extreme forms of Metal, etc. Ride the Lightning was the first stab, Masters just took it and that type of Metal to a whole new level. Without it there is no further work from the others, no interests, etc, at least not on the level thrash got to before it became a parody of itself. Musically is it classic? That is up to you, its impact on Metal alone, that can't be argued. Who ever said Fistfull of Metal from Antrhax was a classic needs to go get their ears cleaned out though....

Very good album. I personally feel it is overrated. Maybe because by the time I listened to this album, I had already listened to Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss, Exodus's Bonded By Blood , Sodom's Tapping the vein and many more. In fact I would place this album after AJFA, The Black Album and RTL(in that order). Probably it is a classic for the sheer impact it had and still does have.

the black album? that sir, is a crock of shit.

bwah, it's not that bad but def. not their best

OK album, but the best metallica album.

i dont want to ruin this, but they totaly lost every bit of respect from me. whenever i hear an older Metallica song come on, all i hear in my head is "you flush it out, you flush it out." St. Anger baby. I think St. Anger should become a classic, because its so bad.

It already is! Whenever people think of a bad album, they think st anger.

The amount of dissent over this album really is astounding. As others have said, I think it has to do with what they've become. Metal fans I think intrinsically fight for the little guy, and negativity over this album is perhaps partially rooted in that. On the other hand, maybe it's because some people have no musical acuity beyond thrash metal. Whatever the reason, I'll tell you now that this is the most obvious of classic metal albums and I think comes closer than any other as the best metal album of all time. This album represents the peak of creativity for Metallica, and every song on this album shows an evolution of melody and time changes that few bands, including Metallica, have been able to come close to doing. This album is pure metal genius and any metal fan who feels this album should not be a classic....well, you're just an idiot.

Yeah man, you're an idiot for not agreeing with me on music! Rock on!

No, you're wrong.

Wow, that's some great reasoning.

Melody? Time changes? Why, Metallica MADE the usage of those worthless! Other bands that used them upwards of twenty years before Metallica and in more interesting and complex manners were just looking into the future in a time machine and stealing Metallica's ideas!

Beyond thrash indeed! Why, no other thrash band had the ingenius idea to stretch out two or three riffs for an eight-minute song, and then throw in a mandatory acoustic break that makes no sense! (Wait, I hear... OPETH! Man, Opeth sucks.) No other thrash band would decide that good drummers are passe, and that bad drummers who can barely keep time, let alone create interesting fills and complex beats, are the REAL THING.

In real life, you are an idiot, and this album is not very good at all.

You're missing the point. The quality of music and metal is not defined by the best drummer, the fastest guitar player or the most or least riffs with acoustic transitions as you say. It is obviously something much deeper that that, something that is difficult to define but almost always in some way stirs your emotions. MoP does that for me and millions of others out there. I just don't see how any metal fan can listen to Battery or Damage inc. and not get into it. But if you do evaluate this album has a thrash metal album, than yes you will be dissappointed because it isn't thrash metal. Kill em All was thrash - this album for it's time is progressive metal, just like Opeth, Tool, Dream Theater, etc., all of which I love and I have a feeling you don't.