Worst Metallica album?

There was an interview on the Metallica site about the 20th anniversary of Load with Lars and James. In it the interviewer said that fans generally think Load and Reload are the worst Metallica albums (which are basically one album split I guess). I actually like three or fours songs from those. I would say that, IMO at least, St. Anger is THE worst Metallica album. I actually skip those songs on my playlist (too lazy to make a new one :lol).

Well I'm officially old.

I had to look up St Anger.. I'd never heard of it and wasn't even aware that there were more albums after load-reload.


In fact...i think I'm just going to delete that info from my brain after posting, so that by the time you read this I will once again believe they stopped existing after Unforgiven Too.

Still a Cliff era fan.

everything after (and maybe including) the black album!!

Meh....St.Anger wasn't that bad and yet at the same time showed that the band was/is kinda stuck and more-or-less become "mainstream" so most anything on it is just okay,lot of stuff I forget but I haven't listened to it in several years.

Bands do that,they get successful and bam-right into a rut,AC/DC did it big time in my opinion.

Metallica hasn't released an album since the Black album as far as I'm concerned. And, even that was essentially their "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" to their own "Roth era". Solid album with huge commercial success, but really the end of the real Metallica.

I think St. Anger is generally regarded as the worst. Dropping Bob Rock was a move in the right direction. Their last album was their best since ...And Justice For All in my opinion. Still not great but better than some of the other crap they released. Oh wait, didn't they do some horrible collaboration with Lou Reed too?

Load and Reload were pretty bad, I remember the fans at the art institute complaining when load hit. I lost interest in them once Lars starting running his mouth about napster, even more so now when he admitted he downloaded one of their albums illegally and liked it.

St Anger, without a doubt. While there are some good ideas in there, it's overall a bad album, and almost unanimously disliked. Although it doesn't technically count as a Metallica album, Lulu also deserves an honorable mention here.

Now, Load and Reload are certainly not without their share of faults either, most notably to me the lack of editing down the filler to a strong album, but imo the good stuff from those albums is just as good as anything else Metallica did, and there's actually plenty of it between the two discs. If it were a single disc, I'd potentially rank it as one of Metallica's best albums.
I get that it alienated fans with its departure in style, even more so than with The Black Album, but personally I don't consider evolving their sound a bad thing, and I didn't consider it selling out either. Selling out would have been repeating the same tired old thing for the fans, like Death Magnetic.

Over time, I've come to appreciate Load/Reload more and more for what they are, and listen to them more often than the thrash era albums these days. It wasn't until St Anger that Metallica really lost me with their output. My hopes aren't terribly high for the new album, but we'll see. Hetfield still has it in him.

I actually think Death Magnetic was their best album since the Black Album. I think people are going to complain if they diverge too much or if they do similar things.

St. Anger for sure. It's got a couple of decent songs on it, but as a whole package it falls flat on a number of levels. Death Magnetic was a big step in the right direction. Now, if only they can get their mastering taken care of with this new album.

What does everyone consider their best?

Jumping on the St. Anger is the worst bandwagon.

My personal favorite, though, is the Black album.

matty matt said:

What does everyone consider their best?

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Master of Puppets, as far as I'm concerned.
Solely for the fact that it contains "Orion".

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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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Reelo said:

Master of Puppets, as far as I'm concerned.
Solely for the fact that it contains "Orion".

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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.

Risking making Metallica fans angry, I think the start of them going downhill was the Justice album. There is of course some great songs on that album. And for me the black album is when I completely wrote them off. I remember working with a young guy about 10 years ago who was listening to headphones. I asked him what he was listening to. "Metallica" he said. I replied, "Which album?" He said "The first one, Load. I like their old stuff." I almost died. Is there really a whole generation of people out there who think Load is there first album?
Personally, I liked Slayer a lot more than Metallica.

Im a die hard fan of Metallica for sure, their records were the first albums I ever bought, and actually got me into music in general. Lars inspired me to pick up the drums. I would say for the production value alone, St. Anger is probably their "worst" album. I cant get over the snare sound, but James has some good notes, and there is one song I like called "sweet amber", other than that, the album as a whole wasnt very good. And it makes sense as to why, for anyone that has seen Some Kind of Monster, that was a tumultuous time for the band, and it shows on that record.

I also think hating on Metallica is the popular thing to do. Nothing against any of you guys, but in the metal forums that Im in, its like the "cool" thing to do, which is weird to me.
DeLano80 man, how can you like Slayer more than Metallica? Im sure you have seen Slayer live, their shows are awful. Kerry King doesnt even play the same solos as he does in the song, Araya just comes out there, yells at the mic, they play a few songs, then they walk off stage. Kind of like "thanks for the money idiots" then thats it. Not to mention all the other stuff that came about with Lombardo, Jeff H dying etc. Kerry King is one of the biggest d-bags in music. I met the guy, and man. It made me not want to buy a Slayer album ever again.

Snikt said:

@DeLano80 man, how can you like Slayer more than Metallica? Im sure you have seen Slayer live, their shows are awful. .

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The key word was "liked". I hate Slayer now, while I can still listen to a Metallica song from time to time.I would definitely agree that Metallica put on way better shows in the 80's. I saw them once in '89 and Slayer twice. Metallica had long shows with a ton of energy. Slayers shows were short and quick and me being drunk at the time, I don't really remember them!:sleep

Some would say they jumped the shark after "And Justice For All." I remember watching the Debut of "ONE" music
video on MTV...that was HUGE!

I LOVED the Black album despite many thinking of it as selling out...I was happy for them to become mainstream
and get radio play on that one.

Everything after the Black album is garbage to me.

I lost all respect for them after seeing that documentary some years ago.
What a bunch of drama bitches. Good on Jason getting out then.

Painful to hear James sing now.

Metallica is what got me into Metal music and made me pick up the guitar, back when the Black Album was released. I immediately got Kill 'em all and Ride the Lightning, and I'd still say the first 3 albums (Kill to Puppets) are their best. The songwriting, the Thrash attitude...
I hardly listen to them now, I admit. By the time Load/Reload were released, I had transitioned to Megadeth, Sepultura, Morbid Angel and the likes. Also, Iron Maiden, which I still love. While Megadeth had its bad period by the end of the 90s, I feel Dave managed to get the band back on track much better than Metallica.
Besides, I'm really not a fan of Jaymz's political views. The old albums are great for what they are, but that's about it. Not even hating their new stuff, I just never got into it.

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