I'm a diehard Metallica fan - and I tend to like most of their stuff. Been a huge fan since the 80s... and their music has been a huge part of the soundtrack of my life.
I understand the dislike of St. Anger - the drum sound, the downtuning and Lars run amok with copy and paste in Pro Tools. I do think some of James' best vocal and vocal lines are on that album - there's some really cool stuff going on there. I kinda look at that album as almost a demo - I think there are potentially some great songs there. I think it gets a lot of undeserved hate - but, it's so uncommercial, just a step I didn't expect (or really want) that it's hard for me to not like it ...for what it is.
Load and Reload. There's lots of debate about the low and high points of either album. There is a bit of filler on either album (might've argued the same in 1986 about Master of Puppets - although, it might be fair to say Re/Load has more)... but, there are some strong moments on either that stand up with their best. (The Outlaw Torn and Fixxxer most notably. I'd also say Bleeding Me, Low Man's Lyric and a few others).
What's their worst album? I'm not sure if they have a worst album - for me at least. As much as I loved ...And Justice For All and wore out several cassette copies of the album way back when - it doesn't hold up well for me. Amazing songwriting, but dry production and monotone guitars just kinda dull that experience for me now... I'm sure overplaying didn't help much.
Death Magnetic seems a little rote to me. Some great moments and a mostly great sound. There are some songs I like (Broken Beat & Scarred should be a concert staple), but - and maybe because it's still new-ish - very little seems timeless. Too much seems copy and paste - not quite like St. Anger, but more like "let's add this section of song to this other song," I remember my first listens of the album it sounding terribly disjointed and not very organic (they blend a whole better for me now). While the album is generally solid all around - there really isn't those one or two songs that just make an album (...arguably every album seems to have a couple of standout songs that stand a little taller than the others).
I still look at the Black Album as a more logical successor to Master of Puppets than Justice was. But, that's a whole other debate...
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Master of Puppets, as far as I'm concerned.
Solely for the fact that it contains "Orion".
Amen - so glad I got to see them play Orion live last time I saw them. I didn't 'get' Orion as a kind when I first got the album, but - wow, do I get it now.