Metallica's Reviews

St. Anger

Inconceivable.

-Metallica has sold over 90 million albums worldwide, 50 million in the U. S. alone.

-In the last 10 years, Metallica has sold more albums than The Beatles, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Backstreet boys, N'Sync, Aerosmith, Ozzy, or Celine Dion.

-Metallica has been the #1 most played artist on rock radio in the last 10 years.

-With over 12 million concert tickets sold, Metallica has been the #1 North American concert draw of the last 10 years.

-Six Grammy awards.

-Two American music awards.

-Over 30 California music awards.

-MTV ICON award.

-St. anger charted at #1 in thirty countries and has sold over 4.5 million copies since it was released.

These facts were taken from www.somekindofmonster.com. For those unaware, that's the name of the new Metallica documentary. It's recieving rave reviews as well.

On Blabbermouth.net, I read that at the Metal hammer awards in London, Metallica won the title for the "Best international act" and Iron maiden were named the "Best U.K. act". You've got to be kidding me. Metallica gets the world and Maiden is limited to two fu***ng islands? That's sad. I read on the same website that Lars won a drumming award. I'll tackle this subject later.

Metallica is so overrated, it's disgusting. I don't even like them as people, much less musicians and songwriters. Their eighties material is so overpraised by their nostalgic fans, that even that stuff isn't fun to listen to anymore.

I came across this line from an S&M review some time ago:

"First of all, it's clear we are dealing here with extremely gifted musicians".

"First of all", they're not "extremely gifted musicians", they USED to be reasonably above average. I love how the virtuosity of the band members is blown out of proportion by their fans. Cliff Burton was the only bassist of Metallica who was truly talented. Jason was very good, but he wasn't as creative as Cliff. James' work was good and solid, but unremarkable. Kirk was very good, but even his best work can't compare to that of guitarists like Chuck Schuldiner (Death), John Petrucci (Dream theater), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Marty Friedman (Megadeth, Cacophony), Jason Becker (Cacophony), Mike Amott (Carnage, Carcass, Arch enemy), James Murphy (Death, Obituary, Testament, etc. etc.), Vogg (Decapitated) and Andreas Kisser (Sepultura). Finally, there's Lars. He's not that great. Hell, he isn't even particularly good. He lacks creativity. The only fields that Metallica excelled in were lyrics and songwriting, and in my opinion, that lasted from 1984 through 1988. Now that I think about it, James wasn't even a consistent lyricist.

Now, back to the matter of drumming Whoever gave Lars that award obviously has no taste for quality Metal drumming. Check out the work of the following performers.

Mike Portnoy (Dream theater)
Sean Reinert (Death, Gordian knot)
Gene Hoglan (Death, Testament, Strapping young lad)
Richard Christy (Death, Burning inside, Iced Earth)
Doug Bohn (Suffocation)
Mike Smith (Suffocation)
Flo Mournier (Cryptopsy)
Doc (Vader)
Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Testament)
Proscriptor (Absu)
Hellhammer (Mayhem, Arcturus, Kovenant)
Frost (Satyricon)
Horgh (Immortal, Grimfist, Hypocrisy)
Martin Lopez (Opeth, Amon amarth)
Trym (Emperor, Zyklon)
Igor Cavalera (Sepultura)
Alex Hernandez (Immolation)
Tomas Haake (Meshuggah)
Pete "The commando" Sandoval (Morbid angel)
Nick Barker (Dimmu borgir, Cradle of filth)
Inferno (Behemoth)
Dave Culross (Malevolent creation, Suffocation)
Brian Harvey (Pig destroyer)
Derek Roddy (Nile, Hate eternal)

You think Lars is a talented drummer? Well, you haven't heard these men pound the skins yet.

Now I have a question for fellow Metalheads: Have you ever heard of a humble Death metal band from Florida simply known as "Death"? Probably not. Well, this group debuted almost four years after Metallica, and in a period of eleven and a half years they released seven studio albums and displayed a level of progress that would give the members of Metallica a real run for their money. The five albums they released in the nineties could easily stand with the best of bands like Iron maiden and Megadeth. Invest your money in Scream bloody gore, Leprosy, Spiritual healing, Human, Individual thought patterns, Symbolic, and The sound of perseverance if you want to hear what evolution without selling out sounds like.

By the way, the purpose of this review is not only to slaughter a sacred cow, but to encourage people to support the underground. Most members of underground Metal bands, especially Death metal and Black metal bands hold second jobs on top of their band commitments. They work hard to achieve their goals. Metallica doesn't deserve to be recognized. I'm done.

"Let the Metal flow"-Chuck Schuldiner

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