Metallica and AXE-FX II

[tomanyjacksons]

The Black album tour, which I went to the closest show of, was a bit of a let down. They've been different since then. I wonder if the spark is gone and now it's turned into a job. Who knows.

[Chad]

I saw them on the Black album tour and have seen lots of vids.....different, but still good stuff IMO. They still seemed pretty "on it" in the Cunning Stunts DVD era too. Around the time Jason left/St. Anger/James quit drinking is when things went down the tubes and they seemingly never recovered. In some ways the movie "Some Kind of Monster" is about a band nearly falling apart that probably actually should have....fallen apart. The "monster" is them refusing to let it go and continuing on. If they had broke up at that time, their legacy would have been decently preserved. Now it just seems like a bunch of geezers pretending to rock out and riding the cash cow.

[leftykingv2]

I saw them on the Black album tour and have seen lots of vids.....different, but still good stuff IMO. They still seemed pretty "on it" in the Cunning Stunts DVD era too. Around the time Jason left/St. Anger/James quit drinking is when things went down the tubes and they seemingly never recovered. In some ways the movie "Some Kind of Monster" is about a band nearly falling apart that probably actually should have....fallen apart. The "monster" is them refusing to let it go and continuing on. If they had broke up at that time, their legacy would have been decently preserved. Now it just seems like a bunch of geezers pretending to rock out and riding the cash cow.

+1

[VitaminG]

Here's the Lords of Summer garage demo version Metallica put out. The song's okay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiOtev3rEKI

studio version cleaned up okay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4nVj8g4hg

[Steel City Psycho]

Wow, if weed causes that.....I can say I'm happy I don't do weed.

IDK, I personally never tried it, I don't smoke anything

But at Orion a band member introduced each band on every stage and when Rob introduced The Sword he said "These guys can even out smoke Kirk."

[veemagic]

studio version cleaned up okay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4nVj8g4hg

I LOVE Metallica again!!!!

[leftykingv2]

It's not the weed guys. Kirk is just going through the motions of playing with a band that's in a musical rut/decline. He's probably bored to death considering they haven't released a good song in 15 years IMO.

[dg]

+1

Can't blame him for sticking around and making bank, but that is one seriously stagnant situation. My take on Metallica is pretty simple and boils down to one thing: Lars. Go back to 1991 and look at where metal was starting to go, where it is now. Was Metallica going to continue to be able to up the ante with that drummer? He's the main driver of the whole thing since day 1, plus they are loyal to a fault, so they sure as hell couldn't replace him with somebody in the league of Lombardo, Menza, Bostaph, etc. They could either keep doing what worked in '89 and watch the world pass them by or go the hard rock route, so that's what they did. I don't think the hard rock route has been good for Kirk at all. I don't think he ever really liked any of that shit or felt like growing as a musician in that direction. Show up, play the shows, get paid. Like I said, I don't blame him a bit. The only thing I might do differently would be to maybe stay sharp by doing some side projects that interested me, but I don't have an 8 (or 9?) figure bank account, so I have no idea what it's like to try to stay motivated in that situation.

[toejam]

studio version cleaned up okay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4nVj8g4hg

[Steel City Psycho]

+1

Can't blame him for sticking around and making bank, but that is one seriously stagnant situation. My take on Metallica is pretty simple and boils down to one thing: Lars. Go back to 1991 and look at where metal was starting to go, where it is now. Was Metallica going to continue to be able to up the ante with that drummer? He's the main driver of the whole thing since day 1, plus they are loyal to a fault, so they sure as hell couldn't replace him with somebody in the league of Lombardo, Menza, Bostaph, etc. They could either keep doing what worked in '89 and watch the world pass them by or go the hard rock route, so that's what they did. I don't think the hard rock route has been good for Kirk at all. I don't think he ever really liked any of that shit or felt like growing as a musician in that direction. Show up, play the shows, get paid. Like I said, I don't blame him a bit. The only thing I might do differently would be to maybe stay sharp by doing some side projects that interested me, but I don't have an 8 (or 9?) figure bank account, so I have no idea what it's like to try to stay motivated in that situation.

I agree Lars is an awful drummer, but I don't agree with the hard rock not being good for Kirk.

I actually read an interview with James where he was the one dis-satisfied with the whole Load era situation. Claimed that Lars and Kirk were the ones pushing to cut their hair and the bloody jizz cover of Load which James said he did not want. Said Lars and Kirk were all about going to art galleries and wine tastings and pretending they were gay. And I remember at the time Kirk said he was taking lessons again in bluesy stuff. I feel the opposite, I think Kirk liked that shit and is bored of playing the harder songs like Whiplash and Seek & Destroy every night when he wants to be playing the Load & Re-Load crap. I think if he released a solo album it would be a blues rock album, not metal, but that will never happen because James would forbid it, that's why Jason left, because James didn't want him releasing his solo stuff.

Found an article, not the exact one I read, but same info:

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t9905-james-hetfield-opens-up-in-interview

[toejam]

I think if he released a solo album it would be a blues rock album, not metal, but that will never happen because James would forbid it, that's why Jason left, because James didn't want him releasing his solo stuff.

It techically wasn't really even solo stuff... it was just a band Jason thought was cool and wanted to work with, and management was even backing him on it and saying how cool it was. James was just being a dick and Jason got sick of his dictator-shit!

[Whoopu2]

I really wish they did matter. I loved them but he started this "singing" a long time ago. I saw them on the Monsters of Rock tour with Van Halen, Kingdom Come and Scorpions and he sang nothing like that, saw them on the black album tour and was like wtf is this? There is a time to take vocal coaching or throw the towel in unfortunately. I will always site Master of Puppets as my favorite album of all time with Ride the Lightning and and Justice for All in close seconds, hearing them now feels like they are trying to destroying my childhood

I guess I'm the only one on this forum that liked Death Magnetic.

[themisfit138]

What is wrong with James' tone? It is getting very classic rocky, is he playing on the neck pickup?

[JonSick]

If James was really shredding his voice, why not just get another vocalist in? James and Kirk still play guitar, but another shouty vocal to do the right thing. Metallica especially could swing that easily simply due to their history both good and bad!

[AdRock]

They ought to go back to the way they used to write songs. James and lars go write then tell everyone their parts. It sucks big time for the other guys but their music changed for the worse as soon as they quit doing it that way.