I'M MADLY IN ANGER WITH YOU (St. Anger - Metallica)

Member Name: mr blonde

Product:	St. Anger - Metallica
Date:	20/08/03 (362 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: REBIRTH OF TRUE METAL, ALBUM ROCKS

Disadvantages: NO SOLOS

My oh my, it has been 6 years in the waiting, has involved the loss of Jason Newstead, the induction of Bob Rock as the 5th horseman, albeit temporarily, and has just recently seen ex Suicidal Tendencies, and Ozzy’s band’s bassist Robert Trujillo drafted into the band as Newstead’s replacement, and is finally here, ST Anger was unexpectedly unleashed on music stores around the globe on the earlier than originally planned date of June 5th 2003, a day that I feel will remain memorable for a good few years to come, for one, it is the first Metallica album in 6 years to be released, and for 2, in many ways I suppose it is the first “true” Metallica album to be released since the Black album. I say true album, because yes Load and Reload were decent albums in their own right, however, in many aspects, they lost a hell of a lot of the emotions that made them Metallica in the first place! For the last decade many many Metallicites have been desperate to see the real Metallica come out of the deep sleep they seem to have been in, and quite frankly (sorry for this Dooyoo, please don’t ban the op) Fu***n rock (like I said, apologies Dooyoo). Well, I feel that that long wait over the last decade, has finally come to a close, and the aptly named ST Anger, has finally arrived. Even the Pushead artwork of the covers, lost by Load/Reload, has returned.

I have been away from Dooyoo for a few months now, it’s not that I got bored with it, or that I couldn’t be bothered writing anymore, it was more a case of I have had a hectic last few months, changing job, and doing various other things, but now it seems I am back and have a few things to write about, this album being the first, and possibly to me the most important!

For the sake of this review I am going to go through the song list one by one, I feel that the album has so much to offer in all respects, when I first listened to it, I thought Metallica had not only lo
st the guitar solos, they had also lost some depth, but however, after listening to this album constantly for the last few months, I have realised there are hidden depths to the album, it just takes a little more listening than some of their previous work!

As I have already mentioned, this album is completely different to anything that the boys have done in the last 20 years or so, yes it is indeed heavy, VERY heavy, but it doesn’t seem as studio orientated as their other albums, it has a sort of ruggedness about it, almost as if they have gone truly back to the old school days were they were a garage band in San Francisco, young rough, unproven, but with shed loads of potential. That is almost what this album has about it, it is almost like Metallica, the 7th biggest band of all time in America, the pretty much undisputed kings of metal, are trying to prove that they are indeed still alive, and that oh hell yes they can still kick it with the heavy stuff.

The whole album represents a total change in the mood of Metallica, they have even gone on record and said themselves that at one time this type of stuff felt old to them, hence the load and reload albums, but now they have come full circle, and it is the more bluesy sound of their later music that feels old to them, and they have returned to once again do what they do best, KICK A**.

Anyways, enough of the background information that goes with the album, you can get that sort of thing on their web site if it tickles your fancy!!

Track by track, here we go:

1/ FRANTIC. Put it this way, this song makes one hell of an opening to the album, sets the pace tremendously, real thrash metal in a modern day era, I never thought I would see those days again. The repetition within the song, the power of Hetfield’s voice, the almost desperation in his voice as he cries “FRANTIC TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TOCK” over and over, without pausing for breath, it is
almost just a means of unleashing aggression! Frantic is the second track to be released off the album as a single, and is a perfect follow up for the albums title track, ST Anger. Fast, heavy, full of aggression, top of the pops won’t know what has hit it!

2/ ST ANGER. The album’s title track and first single. The video shot in the hard hitting maximum security San Quentin prison, was the perfect setting for this song, the song itself is about the depression that anger can cause, the way it almost sends a person insane “I’ll tie a noose, I’ll hang myself, ST Anger round my neck”. That lyric to me, as obvious as it may look, defines so many months of Metallica in the last 2 years or so, all the anger to do with Jason, his reasons for leaving the band partly being him seemingly being excluded from the main trio of Lars, James and Kirk. It also goes a long way to defining the emotions of both Kirk and Lars when they received a call from James, letting them know he was going into rehab and that the band was just going to have to wait for him. Like I say, if you look into the songs a little more, there is a lot of depth, the album this time though isn’t based around other people’s feelings and emotions, this time it is almost like the band are opening up to the world and saying “this is how we feel, this is how we have felt for a long time, think what you like we don’t really care anyway”.

3/ SOME KIND OF MONSTER. Again this could interpret the atmosphere that the album creates, the key word being monster, the reflection of the album is considerable, a wild, rugged, untamed beast that Metallica have unleashed on the world. Hetfield’s voice returns truly to its old school splendour, as he makes up for the loss of Jason Newstead’s grunt on his own, let alone adding in Kirk and Robert as backing vocals. Heavy bass chords from James and Kirk, accompanied by Bob Rock who absolutel
y pounds the bass guitar for this track, although Robert’s rendition on the live DVD that comes with the album is superior, but then he is a professional bassist and not a music producer like Bob Rock. The first three tracks on this album are all very highly rated in my personal opinion, I do feel that they are three of the strongest tracks on the album, although in fairness, I do feel that the album as a whole is excellent anyway. The song itself starts really slow with bass chords being played, then the rest of the band kick into this almighty riff, gradually building in speed, yet never losing the depth of the bass chords. Excellent song.

4/ DIRTY WINDOW. This one starts off with a fairly high tempo, again the bass line shows through strong, although not as strong as “Some Kind Of Monster”. Again there is real depth to the song, and very possibly a reflection of the time James spent in rehab, asking questions like “Am I who I think I am?” This being a well documented factor of his reasoning for going into rehab, he has said that he just couldn’t think of who he was, and needed guidance in re-finding who he was beyond “James Hetfield, Metallica Frontman”. I do like this song, again repetition comes into the fray, adding emphasis onto particular words that everyone becomes at some point when they look at themselves closely:
“Projector
Protector
Rejector
Infector”
When we look at ourselves, we look at how we project ourselves, we try and defend things about ourselves that people criticise us for. We tend as a race to reject parts of ourselves, or to try and at least hide parts of us that we either don’t feel confident about, or we simply do not like about ourselves, but in fairness, someone please feel free to enlighten me on the infector bit, as I haven’t the foggiest what Hetfield means by that one!

5/ INVISIBLE KID. Starts fast, stays fast, very catchy as
well. The title of the song seems really obvious, and in many respects it is. The song revolves around someone who just wants to be alone, just wants to escape people, yet doesn’t want to be so far away that they get forgotten about or left behind in people’s lives. Lars Ulrich’s drumming in this gets really, and is typical of many songs on the album whereby the sound of the drum has a real snare/tin sound to it. Simple yet effective. Again I do like the song, but not enough to go into as much detail as some of the others.

6/ MY WORLD. Excellently catchy guitar based intro to this one, Heavy riff right from the word go, and then an opening line that states “The motherfu**ers got in my head”. The language and riff combine to give a poignant intro to a song that is basically saying, this is who I am, noone can change that, get out of my head, you have been there too long, now get the hell out and leave me the f**k alone, or as the song itself says “It’s my world you can’t have it!” This to me is the rebellion inside the band escaping, the part of the band that almost stood up and said yes, we have gone through a rough stage in our lives and our careers, but now it’s time to go back to what we are, go back to what made us what we are today, and that means getting rid of everything that won’t help us, only hinder us, and doing things OUR way. Like I say, this whole album has rawness about it that you really would not expect from a band that has been going for over 20 years, and I feel that this song epitomises that perfectly.

7/ SHOOT ME AGAIN. This really is the perfect follow up track to “My World”, as it is basically about the band has been shot down, slated, gone through hell and back, and is still coming back for more. The layout of this album almost tells the story of the last 2 years in their careers, starting with the anger, the pain and desperation that they went thr
ough with Frantic, ST Anger and some kind of monster, and then it moves into the hope and the rebellion that is the band moving forwards, and refusing to give up where most band would and have already given up and called it a day. As the lyric says “all the shots I take, I spit back at you, all the sh*t you fake, comes back to haunt you”, the chorus (previous quote) really sums up the attitude of the song. In fairness, a song with this kind of theme would be expected to be pretty heavy, with a fast/aggressive pace, however, Hetfield’s voice seems quite smooth, for want of a better word, with some more melodic parts where he almost seems quite calm considering the song itself is challenging those who oppose the band, although towards the end of the song it does build and get heavier.

8/ SWEET AMBER. This is another fairly easy flowing song, I feel there are several possibilities to what the lyrics of it could mean. One explanation could well be that it is about the “other substances” that James went into rehab for, and how he was used by people who fed him what he wanted in order to use him for their own personal gain. Another interpretation could be that it is part of the realisation process that the band at some point must have gone through at some time or other in order to produce this album. The realisation process that must have told them that they had too many hangers on, too many people trying to tell them what to do, and where they should be going with their music. These are the people that have damaged them over the last 10 years, as they are the people who haven’t been in it to help Metallica, they are the people that have been in it just to make money from the band.

9/ THE UNNAMED FEELING. This is my favourite song on the album, it starts with a sort of nu metal screeching from Hetfield, although not enough to become irritating. The song itself is a deep song, describing the feelings people get that can
’t really be described as anything, they are not love, they are not hate, they are just feelings that alive inside of us. There is a lyric within this song, that as soon as I heard it, just hit me, and is very possibly on my list of favourite quotes, it goes “cross my heart, hope not to die, swallow evil, ride the sky”, I love the whole thought of breaking free of shackles, of evil, and totally escaping anything holding me back in life. This whole song is the next stage in the album, they have gone though the depression, then through the rebellion, and this is were they have almost won the war against those that oppose them, and have broken free of the shackles that held them back.

10/ PURIFY. This is a faster paced song, starting with a reasonably heavy riff, leading into a very heavy medley with the whole band present. The song itself is kind of the after effects of Metallica’s struggle over the last couple of years, it is almost like it is them saying right we have come this far, now let’s finish the job we started, lets get ready, let’s purify ourselves as a band, and let’s make use of what we have finally got in our hands after all this time, that being freedom to rock however they want to rock.

11/ ALL WITHIN MY HANDS. This song reflects the current mood that the band seems to be in, from the interviews I have seen with them of late, they seem to realise that they have a gift, and only they have the power to use it properly. As the title says, they really do have it “All within my hands”. They are stating that they are now in control, something they haven’t been for many a year now. There is a slightly more laid back tone to the song, it does get heavy, but it is far from the power of say “Some Kind Of Monster”, or “Frantic”. It has a fast pace to the song, almost a reflection of the band themselves, after seeing their set lists of late, they are playing thei
r music faster, louder and far far prouder than they have done in at least 10 years, they seem to be on a train at the moment, and the only 2 gears seem to be fast, and stop, I just hope they don’t run out of fuel because if this album is an indication of what is to come, then I think Metallica fans are seriously in for a treat in the coming months and years.

So there we have it, hope this hasn’t been too boring for you, I am a bit rusty on the old review writing, been a while hehe. Like I say, I am an avid Metallica fan (as you will have obviously guessed by now), they are a unique band, but this album has done something I haven’t seen any of their others do, and that is to paint a picture of the last couple of years in the lives of Metallica. The album itself as an album rocks in a big big way. But the hidden depths that it possesses are far greater than initial impressions would dare to consider. Thanks for reading the op, please go easy on me, it’s been a while like I say.

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