Metallica And Their Musical Trajectory

[Vic2012]

Came out separately a while later. I'd really recommend it since you like DM so much.



1. "Hate Train" 6:59
2. "Just a Bullet Away" 7:11
3. "Hell and Back" 6:57
4. "Rebel of Babylon" 8:01

Total length: 29:08

I wonder if Amazon has it for download. I know I can just check it later. Note to self: check Amazon for this EP later and see if they offer it as a download.

I'm really intrigued by this. I don't know how I missed it.

[JIF]

I'm one of those who can't stand the drum sound on St Anger. I'm also one of those who completely lost interest when the Black Album came out. Those first 4 were huge albums for me in my youth though. Metal classics

If you lost interest in Metallica when the Black Album came out, how did you come to hear St. Anger?

[Vic2012]

Got it!!!

I just downloaded Beyond Magnetic from Amazon for a couple bucks. I prefer the physical CD instead pf MP3s but since it's just an EP (and didn't wanna wait for snail mail) I figured I'd get the satisfaction right away. I'll post a small review when I hear all the songs.

One thing I gotta say though (and not to derail the thread) is that DL'ing from Amazon has gotten confusing. You download the songs and you don't even know where they are on your harddrive. After doing a search on my hard drive I found the files. I was supposed to get the album cover but never got it (unless it's a PDF that's scattered somewhere on my HD).

[Frumious B]

I've been into Metallica ever since the Master of Puppets era. I thought "black album" was OK, but Load and Reload were awful. I hated those stupid forays into bloated, 70s sludgy butt rock. As for St. Anger, I don't think its's a great album, but I do think that the live in the studio performances on the DVD that came with the album are miles better than their studio counterparts. On Death Magnetic and Beyond Magnetic they finally got their sh*t back together again. Hopefully that is a trend that will continue.

[Vic2012]

Played Beyond Magnetic a couple times yesterday. Great stuff. Lots of adventure and tempo shifts. The only thing Metallica doesn't do much is odd time sigs. My favorite tracks so far are Just A Bullet Away and Hell and Back. I think they either should've saved these tracks for another full album or they should have just released it as part of Death Magnetic as bonus tracks or something. Anyway, if it wouldn't have been for this thread I would never have known about this EP. Thanks.

[spacefreak]

I've been a day 1 follower. Since their demo days. Metallica and their musical trajectory ended for me after Master of Puppets. Sometimes I wonder if it all had been based around Cliff Burton.

[Vic2012]

My Gawd does "Beyond Magnetic" Rawk! Any Metallica fan should at least like it. The songs are full of fancy tempo changes and attitude. Love it.

Metallica and their musical trajectory ended for me after Master of Puppets.

.

I highly recommend "....And Justice For All" and "Death Magnetic." You need to be in the right frame of mind. If you find that frame of mind, get those albums. I'd also recommend "black" and "Re-Load." Gawd I love this band.

[Progatron]

My Gawd does "Beyond Magnetic" Rawk! Any Metallica fan should at least like it. The songs are full of fancy tempo changes and attitude. Love it.

Glad you got it and are enjoying it!

[JIF]

Someone made a comment that the songs on Death Magnetic and Beyond Magnetic should have been included in the same package. Since Metallica have formed their own record company, they should reissue Death Magnetic with the songs from Beyond Magnetic as bonus tracks, and fix the sound while you're at it.

[Vic2012]

Someone made a comment that the songs on Death Magnetic and Beyond Magnetic should have been included in the same package.

That was me. I don't have a problem with the sound. I know most people don't like it but I like the way Rick Rubin produced it. Maybe it's a little too loud but I like the dry sound. Beyond Magnetic doesn't sound quite as loud from what I can tell. I only DL'd the MP3s so I can't expect it to sound great. I made a CDr mix of the EP and 4-5 of my favorite tracks from Death Magnetic (which I ripped to the hard drive as MP3s as well). There's a bit of a difference in sound between Death and Beyond.

I also mentioned earlier that maybe they should've saved these 4 songs for a full album. Maybe they'll do that, or who knows. One thing about Metallica is that no 2 albums sound very much alike, except Load/Re-Load (and even Garage Inc. not including the early covers from the 80s) which are both from the same sessions. But if you listen to everything from Kill 'Em All to Black, no 2 disks sound alike. The production is different on each album. I think that's been a criticism in the past. I'm suprised those albums haven't been remastered/mixed. I think the albums mostly sound pretty good the way they are. I can live with 'em the way they are, but if they ever fix AJFA I'd be all over it. I hope they fix it someday. I wonder what's keeping them from doing that.

[JIF]

That was me. I don't have a problem with the sound. I know most people don't like it but I like the way Rick Rubin produced it. Maybe it's a little too loud but I like the dry sound. Beyond Magnetic doesn't sound quite as loud from what I can tell. I only DL'd the MP3s so I can't expect it to sound great. I made a CDr mix of the EP and 4-5 of my favorite tracks from Death Magnetic (which I ripped to the hard drive as MP3s as well). There's a bit of a difference in sound between Death and Beyond.

I also mentioned earlier that maybe they should've saved these 4 songs for a full album. Maybe they'll do that, or who knows. One thing about Metallica is that no 2 albums sound very much alike, except Load/Re-Load (and even Garage Inc. not including the early covers from the 80s) which are both from the same sessions. But if you listen to everything from Kill 'Em All to Black, no 2 disks sound alike. The production is different on each album. I think that's been a criticism in the past. I'm suprised those albums haven't been remastered/mixed. I think the albums mostly sound pretty good the way they are. I can live with 'em the way they are, but if they ever fix AJFA I'd be all over it. I hope they fix it someday. I wonder what's keeping them from doing that.

I have only listened to Death Magnetic a few times since I have bought it, and I also have no problem with the sound. However, I do know many people(including Eddie Trunk) have complained about the sound. As to your other comment, I do think that Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets sound similar.

[Vic2012]

I do think that Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets sound similar.

Just to be clear (and if I'm misunderstanding you its just that, a misunderstanding) when I said that no two Metallica albums sound alike I was referring to how they were produced. I wasn't referring to song writing, composition styles, or whatever. I do hear a lot of difference between Lightning and Puppets. Lightning has too much echo (or whatever the technical term is). MOP on the other hand sounds just right. MOP and Kill 'Em All are the best sounding albums (imo). I read also that the guitars were tuned lower for MOP. That's why that album sounds so heavy. If "lead" (the metal element) had a "sound" it would sound like Master Of Puppets.

I was thinking about this yesterday. Metallica has never been a "dumb" band. If they did anything "dumb" (as far as song writing) it might've been on their first album, with songs like Metal Militia and all those songs about "thrashing" and just celebrating the crazy, metal lifestyle. With Ride The Lightning through And Justice... they were a mature, intelligent band (imo) writing some great songs with great lyrics. Most fans would probably consider the black album "dumb" too because it was this supposed "sell out." They went all "commercial" and whatnot. Well, I say bullshit to that. But that's just me. I know the Load/Re-Load era is probably their most disliked era but I think they were just changing with the times. Metallica wasn't very prolific in the 90s. They were still a HUGE band back then but I think by the mid 90s there were a few other bands that were recording some great, heavy music, like Soundgarden. Metallica couldn't keep churning out 80s style thrash, so they experimented.

[Vic2012]

I was emailed by Amazon to write a review of Beyond Magnetic. I've made a few Amazon purchases recently so now they want me to write reviews. I wrote just a couple short sentences, nothing fancy. What I found interesting were some of the other reviews that were written by others. Some are a bit long-winded but I was interested to learn that Beyond Magnetic was a sort of "damage control" after the horrible Lulu. I haven't heard Lulu (don't plan to) but all I hear are how horrible it was. What were they thinking? Also, the BM tracks weren't properly mastered or something, that's why they sound different. I think they sound okay. It wouldn't bother me if they re-recorded those tracks for the next album.

[Rael]

IMO, production has never been a strength with Metallica. But I've never had a problem with it either. I don't even mind the mix on AJFA. Sure, it could use a remix to beef up the bass and downplay that thwacking kick drum, but I can live with it and have done for 25 years. It's the amount of compression on the last couple of albums that's been too much, particularly Death Magnetic.

[yogibear]

i prefer the early stuff since it ahd the most fire and energy going. The first 3 or 4 albums are all classic thrashy metal but they are really better than the bands that were their peers at the time Metallica came up because they wrote good songs with interesting riffs (much better than all the top bands at the time imo) and had some killer arrangements for a young band back at the beginning of their career. for me i lost interest when as they got older they began slowing down and their songs became like everyone elses the uniqueness they had early on they slowly let go of.

[Rael]

^^
I have to admit I'm a sucker for Slayer as well. Whether they were great songwriters or not I guess is up for debate!

[3LockBox]

Ironic that an album named ...And Justice for All would be so criminally mixed and produced. I understand that they'd lost their original bass player and had hired Jason Newsted, but did they even have Jason lay down any tracks? I've used a wave file manipulation program like Goldwave to boost bass (parametrically) to limited success, but its hard to boost or enhance that which isn't there.

[Vic2012]

I used Audacity to fatten up the "bass" on AJFA. I've had a CDr of AJFA for a while. No, there's no bass to fatten up but with Audacity I was able to give it some thickness. Who knows what these guys were thinking when they signed off on that album. I've always felt that maybe this was their way of honoring their fallen comrade. They put out an epic, thrash masterpiece that's flawed. Yeah, they got a replacement for him but for this release the bass chair is empty in honor of Cliff. I'm even more surprised that it hasn't been remastered/mixed/whatever.

[JIF]

I used Audacity to fatten up the "bass" on AJFA. I've had a CDr of AJFA for a while. No, there's no bass to fatten up but with Audacity I was able to give it some thickness. Who knows what these guys were thinking when they signed off on that album. I've always felt that maybe this was their way of honoring their fallen comrade. They put out an epic, thrash masterpiece that's flawed. Yeah, they got a replacement for him but for this release the bass chair is empty in honor of Cliff. I'm even more surprised that it hasn't been remastered/mixed/whatever.

Metallica's first four albums were remastered in the mid '90s.

[Vic2012]

^ Really? that's news to me. I bought all their albums within the last 4-5 years. If you mean "digitally remastered" then yeah. I guess when they get issued as CDs they've been remastered. But I can't believe they couldn't fix AJFA. Was the recording that flawed that they couldn't add some bottom? My guess is that at some point they'll fix it and make a big deal out of it. That's the only remaster I'd get. All their other albums sound fine enough for me.

[Vic2012]

Came out separately a while later. I'd really recommend it since you like DM so much.



1. "Hate Train" 6:59
2. "Just a Bullet Away" 7:11
....... suck on the barrel, suck on the barrel, suck, suck till it's dry ....
3. "Hell and Back" 6:57
4. "Rebel of Babylon" 8:01

Total length: 29:08

Dude, I simply cannot stop listening to these songs. Thanks again.

[Progatron]

Dude, I simply cannot stop listening to these songs. Thanks again.

You're most welcome, I'm glad you're enjoying it - I thought you might.

As for AJFA, it needs a complete remix IMO. Put Newsted's bass parts at a decent level, dammit!

[Kim Olesen]

I will say this about the Lulu album. Cudos for trying. Maybe it was a failed experiment but at least they did experiment and that always gets my respect.

[Vic2012]

Cudos for trying

I guess at some point I need to hear it. Does Lou Reed sing or is it all talking and poetry and shit with crunch guitar?

[Vic2012]

I still can't stop listening to Beyond Magnetic. All four songs are ferocious. My current favorite is ...

Rebel Of Babylon

I don't normally pay a lot of attention to lyrics but I can't help thinking that this "rebel" of Babylon is Jesus Christ. Anyone else get that impression?