Metallica for the masses (Metallica - Metallica)

Member Name: rabidbadger

Product:	Metallica - Metallica
Date:	05/10/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some fantastic songs

Disadvantages: Some not so memorable

Track listing:
1) Enter Sandman
2) Sad But True
3) Holier Than Thou
4) The Unforgiven
5) Wherever I May Roam
6) Don't Tread On Me
7) Through The Never
8) Nothing Else Matters
9) Of Wolf And Man
10) The God That Failed
11) My Friend Of Misery
12) The Struggle Within

Purists might argue that this The Black Album, as it has become known, marked the beginning of the end for the original essence of Metallica. I'm not so sure but I would certainly agree that this was the album that took Metallica out of the thrash-metal niche and onto the CD racks of the mainstream masses. Of course, it is natural for a band to sound more polished after playing together for so many years - and there were hints of this refinement on the And Justice For All album - but The Black Album and the band's first offering, Kill Em All, are chalk and cheese.

The album opens with the excellent Enter Sandman, a hard-hitting spin on the children's nursery rhyme which, with its heavily distorted guitars, prominent thumping beat and Hetfield's menacing vocals, is quite reminiscent of the song One from And Justice For All.

Track 2, Sad But True, is slower in tempo but no less punchy in its delivery, telling a tale of an almost schizophrenic analysis of one's own life and character.

Even slower still is track 4, The Unforgiven, which, along with track 8, Nothing Else Matters, provide a pleasant relief from the usual relentless barrage of hard-hitting rock, the latter of the two being the best track on the album in my humble opinion.

Other highlights of the album are the wonderfully thought-provoking Wherever I May Roam and the intense raw energy of Through The Never and Of Wolf And Man.

I have to admit that there are a few tracks on the album that I tend to skip. This is not because they are bad songs, simply that there is nothing distinguishable about them to hold my ever-diminishing attention.

Summary: Not the Metallica of old