Review Summary: Some kind of snare drum
In 2002, Metallica entered the studio to record their next album. It had been a rough few years for the band. Bassist Jason Newsted had left the group, leaving them as a power trio and the group’s approval rating had tanked following their notorious lawsuit towards Napster. Add on James Hetfield entering rehab and the rapidly changing state of the rock scene, with the public favouring nu metal over thrash, as well as having a film crew recording their every move for a planned documentary and it’s easy to see why they were all at each other’s throats. From the chaotic sessions, full of arguing, disagreements and some… unusual creative decisions, St. Anger was born. Not counting Lulu, it’s the group’s most widely hated album. A monolith of terrible lyrics, grating snare drums, overly long structures, zero guitar solos and down tuned guitars. It’s an album that has gone down in infamy, but is it as bad as the world suggests?
First off, it’s important we understand the state of metal music at the time. While Metallica were guaranteed to make serious bank with whatever they put out regardless, the record buying public had found enjoyment in other forms of metal. Standard heavy metal had lost traction, while the more polished and catchy sound of Nu metal had taken over the airwaves. So, the biggest Metal band on the face of the earth followed the trend, rather than set the standard. St. Anger feels like it was made by an entirely different group at times. Kirk Hammett’s (in)famous wah-wah powered solos are completely absent from the album. The guitars are tuned down to be much beefier and deeper and Lars has ***ed with his kit to such an extent that it sounds less like a drum set and more like a collection of pots, pans and scrap metal. While the group reasoned that the change in sound was to reinvent themselves, it’s clear that this was a trend chasing situation. While the focus on a nu metal sound isn’t a bad thing (hell, some bands that went nu didn’t do too bad for themselves either) but the change in style isn’t really the problem, it’s the execution.
The main issue with St. Anger, besides the snare, is the monstrous length and weight of the record. Metallica have always been known for long songs, hell this isn’t even their longest album (the Load albums, Garage Inc, and Hardwired all beat it out) but the structure of the songs themselves are a serious issue. The lack of solos means the songs often just repeat verses and choruses more times than necessary. There’s no breakdowns, acoustic interludes, very few changes in tempo, it’s often just a pummelling endless barrage of riffs for 5+ minutes (the shortest song on the album is 5:14). Add on the clanging sound of the snare that’s present at nearly every moment on the album and you can see why this becomes an issue. Songs like ‘Frantic’, ‘St. Anger’, ‘Invisible Kid’ and ‘My World’ all feel like extended fan edits that loop sections of the track to artificially extend the song than actual developed songs. The album becomes an endurance test at times and by the end of the 75 minute runtime; you’re left feeling drained and exhausted. Not because of the album’s aggression and emotional weight, but because it feels utterly punishing to get through at times. If this was cut down to maybe a lean 45 minutes, it would be so much more digestible. But it simply isn’t. This is ‘St. Anger’ and this is what you have to accept with it.
Lyrically, St. Anger is… unusual. Inspired by Hetfield’s stints in rehab, the lyrics and vocals on the record are both incredibly personal and also pretty ridiculous and silly. There’s clearly a lot of pain and fury in these words, and they clearly mean a lot to James, but at the same time they’re often cheesy and occasionally embarrassing. But he delivers them with such passion and heart that I can’t bring myself to hate them. I can chuckle and occasionally cringe at the bizarre lyrics at times, but I can never dislike them. His strained and tuneless yells on the chorus of ‘My World’ can be ***ing awful to hear, and don’t get me wrong; they’re not good, but the man sounds so distraught and tortured that laughing at his delivery feels wrong almost. There’s an uncomfortable earnestness to the lyrics, like you’re reading someone’s diary. Someone’s very embarrassing and edgy diary, but you get my point. There’s something too… human about lyrics like “MY LIFESTYLE DETERMINES MY DEATHSTYLE” and “Can’t you help me be uncrazy?” that elevates them from being simply terrible lines. But trust me, there are some actual stinkers here. The bridge in ‘Invisible Kid’ might actually be the single most embarrassing and awful thing they ever set to tape (and it doesn’t help the song is nearly 9 friggin’ minutes!) but even those sound like screams for help than aggressively edgy ‘*** you mom I’m not doing my homework’ stuff that a lot of Nu metal ended up devolving into after everyone missed the point about Korn and Limp Bizkit’s lyrics.
Hook wise, again it’s a bit of a mixed bag. You get some good ones, and some bad ones. ‘The Unnamed Feeling’, ‘Dirty Window’ and ‘Purify’ all sport solid and memorable hooks, while stuff like ‘Shoot Me Again’ and ‘My World’ border on the ridiculous. A good Metallica song to me has killer playing and a solid hook. ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘Fade to Black’, ‘One’, they’ve all got that and they’re great songs because of it. ‘St. Anger’ is halfway there, I guess. Average (sometimes great) hooks and okay playing. It all makes the record such an unusual listen. At times it’s pretty rocking with some killer riffs, energy and the odd excellent hook, but that’s often countered with needlessly long and repetitive song structures and some downright awful lyrics, but even THOSE are countered by their uncomfortably personal and honest nature. It’s such a confused, annoying, weird and occasionally brilliant record. At the very least I can determine that they knew full well what they were doing, even if the finished results are very very mixed.
St Anger isn’t a bad album in all honesty. It’s not GOOD, don’t get me wrong, but it’s certainly an extremely intriguing record. Behind the draining sound and length of the record, there’s a lot of passion and emotion here that I simply can’t write off. Like a lot of nu metal, it’s a little juvenile and supremely cheesy but it’s too heartfelt for me to just laugh at. While the endless clatter of the record can be taxing, songs are still memorable and even catchy. There’s even a few genuinely excellent songs outside of most of the album’s merely alright or just downright awful tracks. ‘Dirty Window’ is a fantastic song and might even be one of their best, whereas ‘Invisible Kid’ might be the worst song they ever recorded ever. Still, it’s an album they needed to make lest they all killed each other or themselves. At the very least, it proved they were all human and not some kind of monster.
Standouts: Frantic, Some Kind of Monster, Dirty Window, The Unnamed Feeling, Purify
Skips: Invisible Kid
