Metallica…let me tell you the story of how I started listening to them back in the day. It’s entertaining and will give you a little perspective on my general opinion of them.

When I first heard of Metallica, it was back around 7th grade or so. I saw the album cover for ‘Kill ‘em All’ and I thought, “Gee…that’s scary.  They are probably devil worshiphers.” And that was it. I never listened to them.  I had no desire.  Of course, that was around the time my musical tastes resembled something like a single celled organism swimming around in protoplasmic glop.  But hey, we’re talking about a 13 year old kid, so you can’t expect highly evolved music tastes quite yet.

My next experience with Metallica was my freshman year in highschool. I was in a pre-algebra class, and this dude named Tim used to sit behind me and jam out to Metallica. Every. Day. He had a sweet mullet. He used to give me this super-creepy gap-toothed smile and say things like, “Dude…I hate math. But Metallica makes it better. Here man. You should check this shit out.”

And so I apprehensively threw on the headphones and was immediately assaulted by blistering riffs from “Ride the Lightning”.  My young, fragile Rush-soaked brain couldn’t quite take it. 10 seconds in, I withdrew the headphones from my head, looked at Tim and was like, “That’s really loud. And it’s too fast. And the guy is just screaming. How can you listen to that?”  He just smiled said, “Weak,” and put his headphones back on and gave me a a little close-eyed head bang.

The third time I heard Metallica, it was my sophomore year.  1991-1992, and that was when the black album came out.  I had heard Enter Sandman on the radio, and I was thinking that it was pretty cool. Of course, at this point I was full-on into grunge, and I was still thinking that perhaps Metallica was of Satan. But the black album seemed to resonate with more more specifically because the songs were a little slower and crunchier.  And it was pretty musical. So you could say that I got into Metallica at the point where a lot of people felt like they sold out. Fine. Whatever. But seriously….there are some absolutely rocking songs on the black album…specifically Sad But True, Wherever I May Roam, Enter Sandman, and The God That Failed.  And it’s produced extremely well. It definitely put Metallica on the map for a larger audience that couldn’t quite swallow the full-on thrash of the previous albums.

So I started there, and then I went backward. I went to Master of Puppets first, and found myself getting turned on by not only the extreme ferocity of the music and the lyrical content, but also by the fact that these guys were actually really, really good musicians. And that was important to me at that point in my life because I had just flat-out stopped playing baseball and was nose diving directly into band, choir, musicals, etc. at school.

Then I listened to …And Justice for All.  At that point I decided that I actually really dug Metallica. I loved grunge more…but Metallica was well respected in my book.

I was pretty happy with Metallica until Load came out…which is where the suck factor increased exponentially. What the hell happened? And then it was kind of like they tried to reaffirm their place by releasing Reload…trying to convince me that the new sound was kosher…and that was even worse. By the time St. Anger came out, they weren’t even the same band. They hopped on the ‘I’m going to downtune my guitar as far as it will go. And I’m going to be like Korn.  But I want to sing a little bit. And lets not have any solos because solos aren’t popular anymore. I’d also like to sound way overproduced.  And I want to suck.  Yes. I want to suck and not sound anything like I’ve tried in the past.”

I think I maybe listened to all three of those albums for a combined total of 30 minutes.

And now we get to Death Magnetic. Let me caveat this with the fact that my musical tastes have evolved quite a bit since those past three albums have come out. I’m not quite the angry musical angst loving fan I used to be. That said, let’s chat a little bit about where this album is in the spectrum of Metallica…

The good part is that it’s a step in the right direction for them. We’re back to these 7+ minute long opuses with multiple parts and some pretty good guitar riffs. James Hetfield has some of the best rhythm guitar chops ever created. And the addition of Robert Trujillo is welcome. He’s easily as nimble as Hetfield is on guitar, but I think he lacks the musicality of of Jason Newstead or the late Cliff Burton.  There are a few standout songs on there, those being The Judas Kiss, Cyanide, Suicide & Redemption, Broken, Beat & Scared, and All Nightmare Long.  You could say My Apocalypse is pretty good too, sounding like it was something that could’ve come off Ride the Lightning.

So 5.5 - 6 out of 10…mmm…not bad.  But overall…it’s not great, and there are so many reasons why.

One of the things that made Metallica the band it is is the fact that each musician contributed equally. All of the guys have chops and know how to work together. I’m not real sure what happened, but Lars Ulrich has pretty much gone to holy hell.  There is something…off…about his overall performance. It sounds like he’s struggling, really trying hard, to keep up with everyone. And maybe he is; he’s in his 40s and he’s attempting to play some pretty blistering stuff on the drums.

But the most dissappointing, the one I’m most let down by, is Kirk Hammett. This guy used to write guitar solos that people can sing. They were such an essential part of the Metallica experience. On St. Anger, the album was devoid of KH solos. This album brings them back…but they are soulless. Its sounds like there was no thought put into them. Half the time they either don’t quite fit, or they’re just sloppy. My friend Tom said it best when he said that there are a lot of notes being played, but he can’t remember much about them.

There is a lack of cohesion of the songs. If you listen to Metallica of the past, you’ll notice something of a theme throughout all of them.  It’s not necessarily a ‘progressive’ approach, but at least there’s a running idea throughout the album. This album tries to do that, but I feel like it fails. There’s a story there, but its not immediately apparent. A lot of it is cliche and hard to take as a whole.  And the lyrics…wow…some of them are just flat out terrible.  Prime example would be, “Love is a four letter word…”……..

But the main reason why the album isn’t great is because it all sounds about the same…not only from the perspective that the album itself sounds the same from song-to-song, but it sounds like they were trying to dig up the old vestiges or something they did in the past. I get that. They are trying to show they stlll have it, and that’s important to do considering how horrible the last three albums have been.  But they did it better in the past, and that makes me sad.

It’s so hard to walk the line of doing something new and innovative and musically fresh while making sure that enough of the sound you created remains intact. Unfortunately, Metallica hasn’t done a great job of that with Death Magnetic.

They apparently recorded about 25 songs, so I’d expect a B-side to come out here within the next year.  Let’s hope that if those tunes ever get released that they are a little more raw and edgy than what has just been released…

.:the tables turned:.

i’m was pretty used to being the ringleader of my band. note the words ‘my band’. therefore, it’s weird to think that i had to ‘tryout’ for a band…and face the possibility of being turned down.

which…my cynic’s mind tells me that i have indeed been turned down in not so many words. and i honestly don’t feel too bad about it or anything.

for those of you not reading all of my posts, i tried out for a band here last week on wednesday after six months of not having played a whole heck of a lot. it went very well, but they didn’t make a decision there. they had me come back tonight, which was fine. everything went well tonight too. at the end of the night, the guy who heads the thing up says, ’so we’ll (meaning the four current guys) jam this wednesday and then we’ll give you a buzz and let you know. we haven’t really talked much about it. but it has definitely been great playing with you.’

so i’ve done this enough times now to know that this is the speech you generally give someone that has tried out that isn’t going to work. but everything has gone so well. personalities clicked. swell music was made. melodies were put to some songs that didn’t have melodies before. everything gel’d nicely.

being completely objective…i don’t think i’m going to work because i suck or anything. i don’t think i’ll work because:

a) they have a perfectly good singer/guitar player. he’s a little rough around the edges, but his vocal style actually fits pretty well. i would say with some more experience and some informal vocal training, he could refine what he’s got.

b) my voice is a little too clean for what they are doing. i’m humble and introspective enough to know that i don’t exactly have a super-alternative geared voice. i definitely have a more ‘pop’ sounding voice.

i’m not upset…or depressed…or angry…or whatever. it’s kind of ‘business as usual’ i suppose. i quite honestly woudn’t be my first pick if i were in their position. i would actually keep the current guy singing.

but that’s just my own humble opinion.

here’s the part that is making me a little…i don’t know…annoyed? annoyed isn’t really the right word. anxious? yeah, maybe that’s it. anxious. what’s making me anxious is that i really would not like it if they don’t get back in touch with me. as i said, i hit it off well with them…and one of the guitar players i actually hung out with last weekend. he’s a good guy, and we’ve got a lot in common. so it would really suck if i just got the big blow off.

the other thing that i don’t want to happen is just get an e-mail saying, ‘duuuuude…you’re good, but you don’t fit.’ i’d rather hear something like that in person. jesus…my feelings aren’t going to be hurt or anything. again, i feel like this is business as usual.

the funny and relatively ironic thing is that if this were me, i’d most likely try to make it as comfortable as possible…meaning that i’d probably e-mail or something. or pray that the phone didn’t pick up and i could just leave a message or something like that. why? well, with me it’s the fact that i have this empathetic streak. i really have no desire to hurt someone’s feelings…even if i know that i probably won’t. it’s really hard to tell someone that they aren’t going to work out in person when it comes to this kind of stuff.

oh well…i’m not going to think too hard about it, as it’s really not THAT important. just thought i’d spew some random thoughts out there.

next up: re-living the baseball days. for some odd reason, i’ve been thinking a lot about having played baseball. i haven’t thought about that in awhile. i used to have fond memories of baseball until i moved to cincinnati and met two idiots who enjoyed making my life as miserable as possible. normally, i’d say, ‘i’m changing the names to protect the innocent…’ or whatever. but in this case, i don’t give a rat’s ass because i STILL don’t like these two characters…and i am therefore going to name them.

but not now…

i’ll name ‘em in the story. and then maybe we can find them out there on the world wide interweb thinger and then we can send them lots of e-mails telling them how stupid and ass-hattish they used to be.

.:rebuilding the chops:.

i’ll be the first to admit…right now…i’m in some poor musical shape (no…that is not me on the left).
you can pretty much equate this to a person who used to exercise all the time who has decided, all of a sudden, that’s it’s a great idea to take a six month break. yeah, every once in a while they get up and hit the weights for 15-30 minutes, but it’s not on any kind of consistent basis. all that muscle mass that was there all of a sudden starts to turn to flub and love handles.

yeah…that’s what i have. i have the musical equivalent of love handles.

my fingers feel like they have olives on the end of them…kind of like you used to do when you were a kid. they’re slow and start their stinging complaints about 15 minutes into playing. my hands feel like they’re having their ‘time of the month’…bloated, slow, and crampy. and my body…wow…my body that used to be pretty nice and limber for flailing around now feels a little stiff. what’s worst is my voice. where i used to be able to strongly sing an entire set, i’m having a little trouble singing three songs full keel. granted at this point they aren’t my songs…i’m learning them…but it’s still hard to think that i used to do this on a very regular basis. i can see how, as you get older, it gets harder to motivate yourself to ‘get back in shape’.

but that’s a stupid weak thought. i’m actually really super excited right now…

my latest venture into music may perhaps be with a band called exeter. i’m looking forward to it…and yet i’m kind of a tiny little bit scared. my confidence has dropped some over the past six months. i moved here thinking that i wouldn’t have any problems finding new people to fill out my band. i knew it’d be hard; the last iteration of my group was pretty much about as good as it got for me. there was a lot of good energy and chemistry there. but i thought that moving to the self-proclaimed ‘music capitol of the world’ wouldn’t make it too much of a problem. and it’s not that i was wrong or anything. there are indeed a lot of really good musicians here. it’s just that the majority of them are either taken or they’re into way different stuff than i am. so for the past six months i’ve kind of been sitting here in this little musical vacuum flashing back to my solo days that i don’t really want to repeat. after playing with a band and hearing things how you want them to be heard, it’s hard to think about taking a step back. i don’t want to start acoustic here…i want to start with a band so that i’m not hearing, ‘hey man, i like your band, but i really want to hear some of your solo stuff…’

don’t get me wrong…i’m flattered that anyone would want to hear anything i have to play. however, i just like playing with a band better. i think anyone who has played solo and played in a band will tell you that. the only advantage of playing solo is that you don’t have to rely on other people and you can make up your own practice schedule. that’s it, though.

but exter…

so i’m searching around on craigslist over the weekend and i see this post for a group that is looking for a vocalist. reading further, i see that they list just about every band that i know and love as influences. bands like failure, muse, HUM, radiohead, tool, a perfect circle…all of them there. and upon listening and contacting, i hear stuff that i’m immediately interested in.

the funny thing about this is that i’ve never been “just a vocalist”. there is something very comforting about having the guitar strapped around your neck serving as a little barrier between everyone and you. it also gives you something to do other than just stand there and look like a stupid mope who doesn’t know what he’s/she’s doing.

how many shows have you gone to where you’re just not impressed with the energy of the band up on stage? i can’t even remember the number of times that i’ve talked about that. especially local shows. i think that’s the downfall of local shows is that they have a lack of energy…a lack of showmanship.

take the guy on the left for instance. this guy is on a stage in front of some people playing music. can you please tell me what could POSSIBLY be any cooler than that? you should want to get up and freakin’ go crazy! but commander d-cicle (who i’m sure is a nice guy…but doesn’t rock AT ALL) looks like he’s at his best pal’s funeral rather than playing guitar on a stage and bringing the rock. boo.

i’m not saying that i’m any kind of model for how it should be. but i was definitely working on moving around a little bit and trying to do more than just strum on the guitar and sing real loud into a mic.

then there’s the opposite where it feels like the showmanship is completely contrived. i remember playing with a band (no names) who played quite a bit, but the singer…holy crapola…not only was he not all that great, but all of his movements you could tell that he was thinking really hard about doing. you could tell that the part of the song where you’re supposed to raise your hands into the air was coming up…and he’d raise his hands up in a stiff, very planed looking way. it was more funny than cool.

and i know that things like that come with time. you have to perform and become comfortable with every aspect of a song before you start throwing movements around with it. think about it…you’re asking a lot of your body. for all of you that haven’t’ played in a band and sang, here’s everything you generally have to be doing. not really thinking about it…just doing it…

1. remembering lyrics and singing
2. controlling your breath (if you know how to really sing)
3. playing guitar and remembering the song
4. listening to the tone of your guitar so you’re not too loud or soft and you’re mixing well with everyone else on stage
5. listening to the rhythm and everyone else playing so you don’t get off the beat
6. moving around
7. hitting certain pedals at specific times in a song (i.e. switching on your distortion, turning it off

so you’re doing approximately 7 things, give or take a couple.

when i start thinking about being ‘just a vocalist’, i start thinking back to my musical theater days. while i want to be a performer, i also don’t want to overdo it. while i want to be entertaining, i don’t want to get made fun of. while i generally don’t give a f**k about what someone thinks, i still want to be perceived as ‘cool’. and it’s hard as hell to think about being ‘naked’ up on stage…meaning, i’m going to be guitarless most liklely.

ahhh, good ol’ insecurity. it still haunts and plauges you no matter how old you get.

i think what is most important is that i’m really, really glad to have found a group of guys that are into the same music i am, who all seem to be on the same page as me as far as how to approach music. it’s really cool to be starting this back up in a new city too. i’ve got a chance to start new here, and i can act however i want to. i guess we’ll find out next wednesday…

.a.

.:the bleeding edge of new music:.

aime street site

from the site:

• Discover and buy new, independent music at your price.
• Earn free music when you find great songs and recommend them to your friends.
• Download new songs to any mp3 player or listen to them from your Amie Street online library, on any computer, any time.

in a nutshell:

music community driven sales…the common man/woman dictates the worth of a song. gee…what a novel idea. here is yet another way that the music industry will have to adapt in order to please the thousands of niche music markets that now exist.

the idea here is that artists are able to upload their music to the site in DRM-free MP3 formats. this means you as a user can play them on any player you want. the MP3s start off for free. as people continue to download them, they begin to increase in price. a $.30 song generally means that the song is starting to become popular, and a $.99 song is apparently a hit according to the community. there are also some community voting tools too which also help out with how popular a song can get.

for an independent artist, this is pretty great, and they have some cool offerings to help you along. they have an embeddable player for songs that you have on the site…so, for example, it’s easy for someone to embed your music on their myspace site. there’s also a nifty little store application that you can use to sell your music on your web site. the artist gets to keep 70% of the sales after $5.00. i play music and have a CD and i personally think this is yet another great way to increase your reach into the market. every little bit helps…

i really like this idea a lot, main reason being that it is a consumer driven model. i trust my friends’ opinions much more than i trust a lot of music reviewers out there about what is supposed to be new and great. i can only see this not working in the sense that you may not have a diverse enough mix of a site audience in order to make it easy to find a diverse range of good stuff. for example, there may be a disproportionate number of users who are looking for/voting on/downloading a specific type of music; thus, the site becomes biased in its pricing model. the site states that ’songs in the $.30 range means that the song is gaining popularity. songs that reach $.99 are hits’. well…what if all the .99 cent songs are crunk? you could say this is good for the consumer because they’d be able to find really good music in a not-so-popular genre very cheaply, but bad for the artist because they aren’t reaping any of the benefits of becoming a more popular, and popularity in this instance translates into dollars for the artist.