Metallica and their success

[shape shift]

Re: Metallica and their success

Metallica has been the biggest influence on my playing as well.
I love their music and always will, allthough I'm not thrilled with St. Anger.
They're the ones that got me into guitar playing 13 years ago alongside with Megadeth and Pantera.
And I'm going to see them open the European tour in Oslo on Tuesday. I can't wait! [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[axeman81]

Re: Metallica and their success

I too have always been influenced by their music, I don't see myself as a "fan" in that terminology, but more as, in lack of a better term, part of something bigger?

I've listened to hetfield's riffs since I was 5 yrs old and I still do, I saved my allowance for 3 weeks to afford to buy Kill'Em All heheh [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

I don't like to see people bashing them like, "I liked their music up until the black album" and now it's even "I liked their music up until Load"...it seems it changes to include one more album over the years, heh!

People who use phrases like "sell out" I usually just ignore completely, because you have to look at where people come from when they start out. Metallica were never posers, and never will be IMO. If they change their songs and songwriting methods, that's part of life...things evolve.
Like Ulrich has said many times, he can't write another "Master Of Puppets", and doesn't want to attempt it either and I agree in that "been there done that" philosophy...

I didn't like the black album as "instantenously" as I did like the earlier stuff when I first heard those, but it grew on me and now I really like it. I also think Load is a good album, but with Reload I feel they could have just stuck "memory.." and "unforgiven 2" on Load and I could have been without the rest of Reload.
I assume it is because I like many types of rock and blues music, and therefore understand why many hardcore metal fans are appalled by it...

I like some songs on St.Anger but's it not good when you view it as a whole album...the earlier Metallica albums you could like ALL the songs but I don't like St.Anger yet in the same way...but maybe it will grow on me. I think the songs are too long, St.Anger is for example a great song but they stretch it too far...it should be 4:40 not 5:40....that's my opinion!

What I really regret for them is that they lost their chance to evolve as musicians together with Cliff Burton, I believe he is the one who came up with most of the harmonies like the genious mellow part 2:30 into MOP, and also contributed otherwise to songwriting (although he might never have been credited for it)

This is very obvious when you listen to differences between MOP and AJFA! Anyway....

I'm going to see both their shows in Oslo on the 2nd and 3rd of Dec!! It's gonna be great.

Too bad I didn't win in the meet'n'greet lottery though... [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[slayer]

Re: Metallica and their success

My 3 biggest influences in guitar playing were Metallica-Slayer and Testament. Slayer is my favorite band, if you don`t like them Johnny Bravo Avatar Dude, it`s all cool, we can`t like every band [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img] But if you ever get to see them live, check them out, I think you might be pleasantly suprised [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Jack.

[jgcable]

Re: Metallica and their success

Originally posted by Newc:
"For some reason..." yeah, probably wasted [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

And Metallica's tone on those early albums was explained in a GW interview - they recorded each track multiple times, layering the guitars, and each track only had one note of each chord all the way through.
Which means they played "Master of Puppets" once fretting only the roots, then went back and layered the 5ths or whatnot, then went back again and layered the octaves. Then they doubled those three guitar tracks.
If you've got recording equipment, try recording like that. You'd be surprised how tight and forcefull the sound gets.
Also, they didn't use Max Gain for the rhythms. At higher gain levels, the tone begins to dissolve and buzz, but by doubling tracks, lower gain levels seem to smooth out and sound like high gain - hence everyone chasing that tone through Mesa, VHT, Bogners, etc. Every recent "Metal" amp like the Double and TripleRecs were built to try to duplicate the rhythm tones on Ride and Puppets, because that's what players/customers wanted.

As for Metallica's success - heavy constant touring. When other bands did a few months of touring and a couple of months of recording, then a couple of months of marketing (street team stuff, etc), Metallica were touring. When Justice came out they toured 2 years straight to promote it. They toured to promote each album when it was released instead of waiting at home for the sales reports. They got the success by playing anywhere and everywhere they could set up, and for anyone that would listen. They also had a great deal of help from fans who passed out the recordings of their shows and their "EP" No Life Til Leather.
The worldwide underground fanbase system worked for Metallica - fans would mail boxes of copies of their live shows to friends and family all over the world (literally) and they would pass them out for free just to spread the music.

Of course, people seem to forget that fact when they b!tch about Metallica suing Napster and MP3.com and the like, but once upon a time Metallica NEEDED the fans to freely distribute their music; they don't need their fans to do that anymore.
Of course, once upon a time Metallica said they'd never have a contrived, stupid video ("One" was neither contrived nor stupid - the movie clips in it were from the same story the song was written from), and they slammed MTV - then one day they show up on stage playing 'Beat It'.

It doesn't change the past, but it sure does darken their future.

Newc

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Newc, I am consistantly impressed. Damn you know your stuff bro.. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

[tmdiamond]

Re: Metallica and their success

Buzz: Another vote for the Mark IIC. I've used Marshalls....can't stand them. I had a couple of Fenders....Hot Rod Deville and a Blues Deville....great amps for clean and dirty blues stuff....and terrific gain! But when I bought a Mesa Triaxis....the earth shook....you probably felt it! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] That thing can do the IIC perfectly along with a ton of other Mesa amps. Mine's mated to a Simul-Class 2:90 also by Mesa and that setup KILLS! IMO of course. Recently, I wanted more gain but after asking here about stompboxes, I think Newc alluded to the fact that the Tri should be plenty. I dicked with it a bit and....perfection. For 1500 bucks, you can have a midi ready, fully programmable preamp that can pull any Mesa amp except a Triple Rectifier. I don't know of anyone who really needs all the gain that the triple will generate. I step on my Lexicon MPX-R1 switcher and I can go from sweet clean tones of the Mark I's or IV's to full blown, rip your skull off crunch. Harmonics and feedback are beautifully rich. I've used my rig for modern, down tuned or 7 string stuff, for classic rock, 80's and 90's metal, and I even used my full rack rig and one of my 4X12's last Xmas at church when I did O' Holy Night (the Trans- Siberian Orchestra version) for Midnite Mass. Can you imagine it....walking in wiht a 20 space rack, a half stack, and a piple of skulls Soloist or a blood drip [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Actually, I used my white Jem 7 but you get the idea.
I'll always recommend the Triaxis to people if they're looking for a highly versatile preamp. The secret is to use a Mesa power amp with mode switching capability. The possibilities are endless.
Tom