Metallica Can’t Compete In Today’s Harder & Faster Metal

Phil Freeman of the Cleveland Scene reviewed Metallica’s latest effort ‘St. Anger’, calling it “definitely the noisiest, ugliest record Metallica’s ever made.” Freeman says, “‘St. Anger’ introduces the fourth version of Metallica. There was the Metallica that took thrash metal aboveground, from ‘Kill ‘Em All’ through ‘…And Justice for All’; the Metallica that got arena- and radio-friendly for the ‘Black Album’; the Metallica that embraced boogie-rock and Marianne Faithfull on ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’; and now, there’s this Lazarus Metallica, which wants to be hard and heavy again, the way it was in the old days. But that was a long time ago — and they were pretty drunk. Metal’s gotten faster, harder, and grittier in their absence, and the new, middle-aged Metallica can’t compete.” Read more.