Was Saint Anger by Metallica really that bad?

[The ShIT Factor]

I think ST Anger was a good underappreciated album and people just give it a bad rap. It was something new and wasn't the same old Metallica and purists shouldn't just diss it. It had raw energy and gave the band another direction to go in. The songs were actually good and had blazing guitar riffs. The album was just Metallica trying to find a more unrefined and rough sound to use to put across their thoughts and feeling. It shouldn't get a bad reputation, especially because of the fucking snare drum.

Favorite cuts from the album: ST Anger and Some kind of monster

Say what you say, but this monster lives!

 

[This Is My Name Thank You]

I dig this album. I think all the hate for the albums comes from the lack of solos, and the drums sounding like trash cans. This was a sound they tried when they decided to have Robert Trujillo, join the band as their new permanent bass player. I, often wondered, if this was an experimental sound due to Rob, having a more influence with this album.

Still, I think this album to me personally, is a really good, heavy album with a good feel to it. My favorite tracks off this album are, St. Anger, The Unnamed Feeling and Frantic.

 

[JGlass]

I actually really liked that album when it came out. Then again, I was in 8th grade, and I also liked Blink182 and The Offspring.

That said, I can look back on that album fairly fondly. I remember being able to listen through the whole thing and enjoying most of the songs. St. Anger was a really solid song, I liked Some Kind of Monster, and Dirty Window is an oft overlooked song.

The problem with St. Anger for most Metallica fans is that they tried to branch out a little. Some of Metallica's greatest hits are these slow ballads like Nothing Else Matters or Unforgiven, but this Metallica album was about anger music. A lot of it was faster than Metallica fans would have liked, and it was much less melodic. Does that mean it was bad? No. It means that it wasn't what Metallica fans were looking for.

As a 13-14 year old kid listening to this album that had no real allegiance to the Metallica albums that came out when I was a kid, I really liked it, but I remember getting tired of it pretty quickly and selling it to my friend for 5 bucks, which is about what I'd pay for it now.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I am a big Metallica fan, and own all their albums except for the S&M live album, and St. Anger. I just do not like it.

The title track was decent, there were a couple of other tracks that appealed but overall it didn't impress me. Alot of Metallica fans who like their earlier material do not talk fondly of the albums "Load" and "Re-Load" saying they "sold out" and changed their style or whatever. I do not agree, I like those albums just as much as most of their earlier "thrashier" stuff. So, 'Tallica changing their style for St Anger wasn't a problem for me, I just don't like the style they came up with.

Bands need to evolve in order to remain relevant, and Metallica went back to a heavier style than they had been doing for a while, some liked it and some didn't. Unfortunately I am one of the people who didn't.

A friend of mine, a guitar teacher actually thinks St Anger is the best Metallica album there is, as he isnt a fan of their style of solo, I don't agree though. Mater of Puppets, Ride The Lightning, Metallica, and Re-Load are my favourites.

 

[Danger Burger]

I, often wondered, if this was an experimental sound due to Rob, having a more influence with this album.

Bass was already recorded before he got in! Thats bob rock youre listening to, and he's been a huge influence ever since the black album! But they added Rob to the free DVD that came with it!

I think if anyone else had released the album it would have been adored... But fans dont like change, so alot of the fans of earlier metallica albums (myself included) were a little bedazzled (though i was more surprised by load and reload)... My problem with it and the newer album were that they felt forced, or empty to me. I think it had alot to do with hetfeilds voice, it just didnt have the same feel to it and the lyrics were alot weaker, two problems i didnt have with the loads.

Its not a bad album, only by their own standards. I havent even listened to Death Magnetic the whole way through, but i dont really listen to metallica at all any more. One thing about it i WAS glad to here was that he kept that awful snare sound. He got so much shtick for that, and i was glad to see some balls on their part to keep it!!

Id give St. Anger a seven out of ten... but if you were to line up your favourite 'tallica albums, thats where the problem comes in!!

 

[DethMetal]

I, often wondered, if this was an experimental sound due to Rob, having a more influence with this album.

That's producer Bob Rock on bass. Rob joined after they finished the record

I like St. Anger. It was different, but Metallica needed to branch out and do other stuff. I don't get people who say that they sold out. If they hadn't changed their sound, like many metal bands, they wouldn't be around anymore. St. Anger is a record that needed to be made, and even though it's different, it was brutal. It's not one of my favorite records that Metallica has done, but I like it.

My favorites from the record were the title track & The Unnamed Feeling.

 

[The ShIT Factor]

That's producer Bob Rock on bass. Rob joined after they finished the record

I like St. Anger. It was different, but Metallica needed to branch out and do other stuff. I don't get people who say that they sold out. If they hadn't changed their sound, like many metal bands, they wouldn't be around anymore. St. Anger is a record that needed to be made, and even though it's different, it was brutal. It's not one of my favorite records that Metallica has done, but I like it.

So true bro, so true.

 

[Owen 3:16 says I just stole your Slammy!!]

I like couple of songs from that album, St.Anger and Frantic are great songs. I've always been a big Bob Rock fan. Bob Rock was a great producer, produced two of the greatest albums by two of the greatest bands, Black Album by Metallica and Dr.Feelgood by Motley Crue.

 

[nightmare]

It wasnt terrible and had a great energy, but it definately wasnt their best album. I thought the direction and energy did have a good impact on their next album though. They have had a crap rep since Load and it is undeserved. Their live show is still filled with the same energy they have always had. Even the 'shittier' songs are great live.

 

[jerry20xx]

To be honest, Metallica went downhill after the black album. Load, Reload, St. Anger...all shit stains in the underwear of metal. Metallica somewhat redeemed themselves with their newest album. I think what made St.Anger easy to criticize is because that album had no solos. Lol. People are used to hearing James and Kirk go crazy with their guitars.

All bands make terrible albums every once in a while. The new Megadeth one was complete garbage and they are my favorite metal band.

 

[HellBoundPower]

St. Anger wasn't too bad of an album. It was pretty obvious that there was a big rift between the band during the beginning process of the recording. If you haven't seen the "Some Kind of Monster" documentary, I would definitely suggest you check it out. They were going for a raw sound, almost like a garage band for the album. I think the album gets a lot of unnecessary hate, mostly because of the lack of solos, the snare drums, and the raw, unpolished sound. Not to mention the simple song structures compare to a lot of their other work. Especially the first 4 albums. The way I see it, if a different band put out this album, people would have loved it. But because it's a Metallica album, being unfairly compared to the other great albums they put out, this one kind of fell flat in people's opinion. Personally, I think it has some decent songs, The Unnamed Feeling being the best on the album. I also think that Hetfield's vocals are underrated on this album. It sounds kind of strange because his voice doesn't really fit the drop c tuning of the guitars on the album, but I think his vocals were pretty good.

 

[Sinister Shadows]

When I first heard St. Anger I didn't even recognize that it was Metallica. My first thought was that it was literally giving me a headache. none of the music flowed together, the vocals sounded terrible and it seemed like it was the same 5 words over and over forever on St. Anger, I don't think I've ever still just set down and tried to listen to the whole album, but from the 4-5 songs I've heard from it... it all sounds the same... and none of it was good.


Whenever I hear St. Anger now... before I turn it off. I get the vibe that they was going for something that sounded Raw un-refined such as Disturbed - The Sickness.. it just didn't work for them as it did for Disturbed. So whenever I'm asked about St. Anger, my answer is...

Disturbed's The Sickness, done poorly.

 

[ABMorales787]

Well, it was a totally different sound. St.Anger and Some Kind Of Monster were the only tracks from the album I really liked, but other than that, it wasn't really to my liking. It was the first full taste of Metallica I got so I never hated on them for the change. From what I understand, they need to readjust their gear or change for songs from the album too. A concert I went to featured songs from every album (Garage Inc. included) but nothing from St. Anger.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

The thing is, while every band needs to experiment every now and then, when you veer too far into one direction or another it's never a good thing, because you put a tremendous amount of strain on your listening audience. The problem with St. Anger was not that it was a "bad" album. The problem was that it was the worst album that METALLICA put out, because of the quality of record they'd been putting out for years prior. It was simply too stark a contrast between what they'd been known for and what they'd become — it's why Death Magnetic was such a wild hit. It returned them to their roots and to something much closer to the original sound of the group.

So no, St. Anger was not a "bad" record, but for Metallica.... yes, it was.

 

[Equimanthorn]

St. Anger is a good album. It's probably the worst Metallica album, but it's still a good listen. Yes, it has flaws. The songs are too long and the drum sound is abrasive to say the least, but I still enjoy it. Tune out the snare, and you'll appreciate it a lot more. Look out the single edits for SKOM and Unnamed Feeling, they're drastically cut and work much better.

The DVD version of the album is even better though.

 

[MMSoldier]

St. Anger wasn't bad, It was just different from what the fans were used to. I've met people who liked it and hated it, and it's personally my favorite Metallica album overall. They tried to evolve, and I applaud them for it. It just wasn't for everyone, and, personally, I know more who liked it than hated it.

 

[Lancer]

It wasnt terrible and had a great energy, but it definately wasnt their best album. I thought the direction and energy did have a good impact on their next album though.

I agree. The energy on St. Anger was unique, and overall I think the record had a great sound. But, like many have said, it's just not the sound people expected from Metallica. They did redeem themselves with Death Magnetic though. Not to everyone, but I think they may have regained a lot of fans.

This may be sheer blasphemy, but St. Anger remains one of my favorite Metallica albums. I'd even rank it above the self-titled "black" album. Simply because I'm tired of hearing most of those songs. All but 4 of the tracks are constantly circulated on pretty much any generic rock station nowadays. Hell, you could say the same for the hated Load and Re-Load albums.

At first, I didn't give St. Anger much of a chance once I heard the title track. But upon purchasing it, I grew to enjoy most of the tracks. Along with the title track, Frantic, The Unnamed Feeling, and Invisible Kid are my favorites. I just like the energy the record possesses. To me (and I'm no thrash expert, just a fan) the drums, and the raw, unrefined sound harken back to their thrash roots.

So no, St. Anger wasn't really that bad. You could say that I'm more of a fan of their early stuff, and their much later, to more recent, efforts.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It depends on if you are comparing it to Metallica's discography or referring to if it sucks overall as a piece of music. Saint Anger really was that bad, at least in comparison to other Metallica material. Metallica had been going downhill for years and that album marked their absolute lowest point. They went from good (Kill Em All) to amazing (Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, And Justice For All) to not quite amazing but still awesome (Black Album) to somewhat boring (Load, ReLoad) to HORRIBLE (Saint Anger). Granted it's not a 1 star album or anything, but it's one I'm in no hurry to ever listen to again. When compared to Metallica's other efforts it's awful. When compared to everything else, it's not as bad as some make it out to be but it's still average at best but leaning toward bad in my opinion. Had a nearly identical album been released by another band, it would not have received even half of the negativity that Saint Anger has. The problem was that Metallica are such a huge name as a band that their work has much higher standards to live up to than most other bands. They did make a step back in the right direction in Death Magnetic, although I had already given up on them by that point.

 

[Radio GaGa]

Being only 16 now, I can say that St. Anger (the song) was actually the first song I had heard from them. I can not say I hate the album. There was tons of hate on Metallica in general for the next things:

*Napster - There was a general hate for Metallica for the Napster incident, so I think that their album wouldn't be a major success, even if they released another Master of Puppet's, It'd get an reaction similar to Load. Not as bad, but bad.

*The Snare Affair - Lars changed his drum kit on this album. Now, for me, Lars was never the best drummer - neither was for James when they first started - he said in the documentary When Metallica Ruled The World. What is so good about him is the ability to write songs for all instruments and his personality. If he was not around when Cliff Died, Metallica would be no more, even if they were even thinking of dumping him cause of his mediocre drumming at the time of Kill Em All - Mustaine said that they were going to dump him. Back to the point, he changed his kit and it actually sounded like he was pounding on tin garbage cans.

*Jason went away - There is no legit announcement that that would be the reason, but Jason certainly had a fair amount of fans too himself, and even when we see a band member go away we think that the band is a bit disfunctional...

That being said, Let's talk about their album progression...
First you have Kill em All and Ride the lightning. Speed/Thrash at it's finest. Out come Master of Puppets, Best Thrash album out there, with a touch on their upcomming things. Cliff dies, they die down a bit. Come in jason - ...And Justice for All. An awesome album, but placed badly between the Black album and Master of Puppets. Black album creates lots of hate among the arrogant Speed Metal junkies, but they get commercial success...

So what they did is go away from the hardcore fans for a bit to get commercial. Their first experiment. It went good. No hardcore melt your face solos, but it got more buys than before. They made another experiment, cut their hair and cut out the very harts of every hardcore metalhead. They released Load, that rocks like fuck, but they just didn't like it. Metallica got more and more haters as they were working on Reload. And it all exploded in 2003 when they had their defense set lowest. James in rehab, Jason quit and Lars being an arguing like a prick...

About the music: No hard rockin' solos, no single that would explode, the St Anger album not bad. Not bad at all. But when you have a playlist and 'Invisible kid' comes between One and For Whom The Bell Tools, you're gonna skip it.