Broken Beat and Scared Live from youtube
Metallica Cari "Raja Metal" Baru
Grup musik beraliran cadas, Metallica, tengah mencari band baru yang bisa menggantikan posisi mereka sebagai "Raja Metal". Sebab, personel Metallica sudah merasa uzur.
Metallica sudah malang melintang di blantika musik selama hampir 27 tahun. Mereka pun tetap berkreasi hingga saat ini. Belum lama ini, Metallica meluncurkan album baru bertajuk Death Magnetic. Setelah itu, mereka menyiapkan serangkaian tur untuk mempromosikan album tersebut.
Namun, penggebuk drum Metallica, Lars Ulrich, mengaku usianya sudah uzur sehingga tidak sanggup lagi menjadi roker penuh waktu.
"Saya sempat berpikir bagaimana harapan orang agar kami terus merilis album yang mengokohkan genre ini, untuk 'menyelamatkan' jenis musik metal. Dan itu merupakan beban luar biasa. Kenapa belum ada yang melengserkan kami? Kami mendukung seluruh band metal baru lalu memotivasi mereka. Tetapi orang-orang masih menginginkan kami memikul seluruh genre ini di pundak kami," ujar Ulrich seperti dikutip 3 News.co.nz, Minggu (14/9).
"Saya kini sudah berusia 44 tahun. Saya punya tiga anak," ujar Ulrich. "Sudah sulit mengikuti ritme seperti 20 tahun lalu ketika saya tinggal di kamar dengan dua tempat tidur di Claridge. Kini kehidupan saya sudah berubah."
Source :Tempo Interaktif
http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:dt7pw7ZFZM0J:www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/musik/2008/09/14/brk,20080914-135388,id.html+metallica&hl=id&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=id&client=firefox-a
Mike Portnoy about Death Magnetic
roadrunnerrecords.ca reports that Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater is a big fan of the new Metallica album.
"Death Magnetic is the best Metallica album in over 20 years. This is the album I've been waiting for them to make since Justice For All. And thumbs up to them for doing the first real Metallica instrumental in 20 years since To Live Is To Die. Welcome back, boys."
The band Dream Theater is well known friends and fans of Metallica. They even played the whole Master of puppets album live and released it as a live album.
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985. The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines.
http://www.encycmet.com/news/2008-09-27.shtml
Sticker explaining that "$5.98" is part of the title, not the price
Sticker explaining that "$5.98" is part of the title, not the price
Source : http://www.ilikethat.com/metallica/history86-89.cfm
Nowhere Else To Roam Tour
1993, Nowhere Else To Roam tour begins. It takes the band for the first time to countries like Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Philippines.
"For Attention:
Mr. Jake Berr
Production Manager,
Metallica
Date:
22nd March 1993
Dear Jake,
To reiterate our conversation of yesterday and in reply to your fax, I submit the following answers to your questions:
Q: Can the Band spit onstage?
A: Emphatically No. Spitting is an offence in Singapore and is a punishable one at that. (...) If it is a situation that has become a degree habitual, then all I can say is to please exercise some constraint and if they absolutely must, exit the stage right or left, get rid of the offending problem and return to the performance.
Q: Can the Band use swear words e.g. Fuck?
A: Please No. Not if they can possibly help it. (...) In particular I must put the emphasis on the ever popular phrase of "mother-fucker". At all costs endeavor to avoid this. Any reference to the word "Mother" in this society must be with the utmost reverence.
What they say and do in the privacy of their hotel rooms, dressing rooms, catering rooms, etc. is entirely their business, however when they are up there on stage and have at least 7500 adoring fans hanging on every word and the press in attendance, it would be appreciated if the more colorful adjectives were given a rest for the evening and replaced with something a little less crass.
Q: Can the Band play with no shirts?
A: Yes, in Singapore this is fine, also Jakarta is no problem.
Q: Are there any other weird things that the band cannot do?
A: I have fairly much covered everything that is likely to be somewhat frowned upon and fervently urge the guys to avoid overstepping these barriers of acceptable behaviour."
Source : http://www.ilikethat.com/metallica/history90-93.cfm
A heavy welcome for Metallica
Thousands of Indonesian young people rioted in Jakarta last month after they were excluded from a major stadium where the heavy metal band, Metallica, was playing.
Metallica and heavy metal have developed a strong following among thousands of Jakarta's young working class and high school student population. Metal music cassettes, often recorded in pirate fashion, are to be found everywhere.
In the weeks prior to the band's arrival in Jakarta, there was a visible increase in young people wearing black singlets and headbands.
The Metallica greeting of raised thumb, forefinger and little finger has become a new greeting among much of Jakarta's youth. The Indonesian Democrat Party, which in last year's election campaign mobilised a million youth behind slogans of social justice, also encouraged this greeting among its own youth supporters at the time.
The rage and rebelliousness that are a part of heavy metal music are endemic among youth in Jakarta.
More than half of the city's 10 million people are under the age of 20. Most of those not in high school are unemployed or work in low-paying factory jobs or as street peddlers.
Repeatedly over the last 10 years, riots have broken out on the smallest of pretexts in Jakarta and other big cities. Some have been caused by people being turned away at entrance examinations for the civil service. In the city of Ujung Pandang on the island of Sulawesi, heavy-handed police enforcement of new regulations requiring helmets on motorbike riders caused a riot.
Riots have been provoked before by rock concerts, but the Metallica concert on April 10 led to the biggest so far.
Ticket prices ranged from Rp30,000 to Rp150,000 ($15-75). For many of Jakarta's poorer youth, even the cheapest tickets were over a month's earnings. The concert was also held in an area near Pondok Indah, Jakarta's wealthiest suburb -- an area where the skyline is marked not only by scores of parabolic TV dishes, but also by the occasional helipad.
The riot started as security personnel at the stadium used brutal methods to stop youth without tickets trying to sneak into the stadium -- or young people who just looked like they had no tickets. As thousands milled outside the stadium entrance, somebody set fire to a nearby cafe.
The bus carrying the band arrived and was immediately surrounded by fans. The military moved in with canes to clear a way. People replied by throwing stones, and the melee was on. As it spread through several blocks, thousands became involved.
Severely damaged were a Suzuki showroom, hundreds of cars parked at the elite Pondok Indah shopping mall, hundreds of cars at the Dwima supermarket and department store centre, and several other car showrooms.
As the crowds spread into the Pondok Indah residential area, one car that was stopped was carrying minister of justice Oetoyo Oesman. The minister's adjutant lost his ring and mobile phone, and the ministerial flag holder vanished from the front of the Volvo.
Buses, taxis and private cars disappeared from the area. Smoke rose above the stadium from the surrounding areas.
A number of security people were injured, mostly by flying stones, and more than 100 rioters were detained.
The rioting was finally brought under control by the arrival of 1000 marines and military police and the opening of the gates to the concert, letting thousands in free. In fact, the stadium had only half filled with paying fans.
To prevent a recurrence the next day, 7000 troops were deployed. Fans had to pass through a series of three “filters” to get into the stadium. After the paying fans entered, the organisers again allowed in thousands without tickets.
Will such concerts be banned in the future? No, said Brigadier General Hendropriyono, commander of the Jakarta Military Garrison. Presumably referring to his ability to deploy 7000 troops on the street for such an event, he said that as long as conditions were strict enough, they would not be banned.
But that's not the universal view of the elite. According to the vice-chairperson of the parliamentary Commission on Youth and Education, Mohammad Muas, “The dynamic of this [culture] inflames rebellion ... most of the lyrics in rock music encourage people to rebel. If such rock music is allowed to flourish in a climate different [from that where it originated], it's obviously not a good idea.”
However, the “anak metal” (metal youth) are now an established part of the youth community. So the next time you hear Gareth Evans or some Indonesian official explain that the Indonesian people are too respectful for Eastern cultural norms of harmony to want real democracy, remember the “anak metal” and the justice minister in his Volvo!
12 May 1993
By Max Lane
Source : http://www.greenleft.org.au/1993/99/4083
Metallica Live in Jakarta - The Story
NOWHERE ELSE TO ROAM
Lima belas tahun lalu, James Hetfield dkk sempat konser di stadion Lebak Bulus Jakarta selama dua hari, 10 - 11 April 1993, dalam rangkaian tour Metallica ; Nowhere Else To Roam. Supergroup ini datang di waktu yang tepat. Sebab Metallica lagi jaya-jayanya paska 'album hitam' itu. Masyarakat musik Indonesia juga lagi panas-panasnya mengapresiasi rock/metal.
Pertunjukan itu akhirnya benar-benar menjadi sejarah, dalam kontotasi yang positif maupun negatif. Puluhan ribu crowd bersenang-senang di dalam arena. Sementara di luar stadion timbul kerusuhan dan amuk massa. Sejak itu pemerintah mulai trauma pada band rock dan melarang segala jenis pertunjukan musik keras. Sebuah pengalaman terbaik dan terburuk bagi dunia showbiz tanah air...
Cikibawawaw ; Total War Zone
Metallica, di Stadion Lebak Bulus, hari pertama tanggal 10 April 1993 [kok ingat?! soalnya masih nyimpen tiketnya, hehe]. Berbekal pengalaman konser pertama, saya sebenarnya sudah mengira soal kemungkinan rusuhnya konser ini. Walaupun konser pemanasan sebelumnya, Sepultura, nggak terlalu rusuh menurut berita-berita yang saya baca atau dengar. Tapi gila aja Metallica, dewanya speed/thrash metal, masak nggak nonton? Setelah nabung uang jajan selama beberapa minggu hasil puasa beli kaset di Duta Suara - dulu setiap Rabu pasti saya beli kaset ke Duta Suara, hasil nggak jajan seminggu di sekolah - akhirnya bisa beli juga tiketnya. Kelas satu, karena VIP kemahalan dan festival nggak kepikiran, hehe. Rp.75.000, mahal untuk ukuran tahun segituan, plus bonus kaset Dialog-nya Setiawan Djody [yang langsung saya tiban untuk ngerekam lagu-lagu dari Prambors].
Di-drop di Lebak Bulus, oleh bapaknya Tjun-Tjun, kakak kelas saya dulu di SMA, dan mulailah berjalan kaki dari perempatan Lebak Bulus menuju stadion yang masih rada baru itu. Ternyata baru saja ngantri masuk stadion, ketika sedang berusaha melewati pos terakhir dari berlapis-lapis pos pemeriksaan polisi dan keamanan, tiba-tiba di belakang saya dekat warung depan stadion, para fans yang nggak punya uang itu mulai rusuh. Memaksa masuk, mulai melepar-lempar batu yang dibalas oleh orang-orang yang sedang mengantre jauh di belakang saya. Jadi mulailah kita bergegas masuk. Di dalam beberapa menit Rotor, band pembuka, tiba-tiba di giant screen terlihat api mulai menjalar dari luar sana. Melahap warung tadi beserta tiang listrik dan telepon di dekatnya. Belum lagi gedoran-gedoran dari luar untuk memaksa masuk...
Di dalam?! Siapa bilang nggak rusuh. Kalau festival yah sudahlah, nggak mungkin nggak rusuh, tapi kelas satu?!... Jangan salah, sama saja. Botol-botol beterbangan. Saya yang ber-headbang ria saja sempat tertimpuk botol air mineral. Tapi ini juga konser terlucu yang pernah saya lihat. Karena kelas satu letaknya duduk di tribun jadi kita bisa lihat bagaimana penonton tanpa karcis berebutan masuk ketika pintu stadion dibuka. Seperti semut berlari mengejar gula. Dan lucunya, seperti layaknya konser-konser lainnya, ketika Metallica pura-pura undur diri, para 'penonton tambahan' itu berlomba-lomba bergegas keluar stadion. Ketika tiba-tiba terdengar intro lagu One, mereka sontak balik badan dan langsung bergegas masuk kembali ke dalam...
Pulangnya, total war zone. Asap di mana-mana. Polisi sibuk menyabet penonton dengan rotan. Bau bensin di mana-mana, sirene di mana-mana. Palang Merah Indonesia sibuk merawat korban-korban rusuh di luar sana. Nggak ada kendaraan yang berani lewat sana. Yang parkir di sana?! Erg, nggak berani jamin mobilnya masih mulus. Kita terpaksa jalan kaki ke Bona Indah untuk mengambil mobil teman saya, yang bertemu di dalam arena. Ternyata besok paginya saya baru tahu kalau konser ini brutal sekali. Sampai-sampai showroom mobil Suzuki di Pondok Indah ludes dibakar massa. Pantesan orang tua panik mencari saya esok harinya...
Vivid95 ; Sabtu Nonton Kerusuhan, Minggu Nonton Konser.
Gue salah satu saksi hidup saat mereka ke sini, April 1993. Saat itu gue masih SMA kelas satu. Konser dibuat dua hari, yakni Sabtu dan Minggu. Konser di Jakarta adalah rangkaian tour mereka yang fenomenal Nowhere Else to Roam yang digelar selama tiga tahun [1991-1993]. Tiket yang gue punya yaitu tiket hari Minggu-nya, tapi tetep nekat dateng pas Sabtu. Pengalaman nonton konser Sepultura tahun 1991, pengawasan di pintu masuk gak terlalu ketat asal nyogok penjaga dengan uang 10.000 - 20.000 dijamin bisa masuk [payah bgt ya?!]. Ini yang jadi salah satu pemicu kericuhan di luar stadion saat itu. Hal lain adalah arogansi-nya Satpol PP [Pemuda Pancasila] yang di jaman Orba terkenal 'preman'-nya. Mentang-mentang sama ABRI jaga konser, mereka seenaknya aja mukul-mukulin orang.
Kronologisnya, bis yang ditumpangin sama anggota Metallica nyasar masuk pintu utama, di mana di situ sudah kumpul ratusan bahkan ribuan fans. Alhasil digedor-gedorlah bis itu, bahkan sampai ada yang naik ke atasnya. Untuk menjaga ketertiban, ABRI maupun satpol PP bertindak over-reacting. Alhasil fans asli maupun gadungan kocar-kacir. Setelah itu gue merasa bakal ada yang gak beres, so mending balik. The rest of story ; kerusuhan...
Esoknya hari Minggu, gue datang sendirian. Di sekitar stadion Lebak Bulus sudah banyak tentara. Akibat kerusuhan kemarin, satu kilometer dari stadion di-sweeping. Hanya penonton yang punya tiket aja yang boleh masuk, termasuk gue.
Penontonnya gak terlalu banyak kalau dibanding sama Sepultura. Dari enam bulan sebelumnya udah ngarep-ngarep Metallica, akhirnya kesampaian juga nonton live-nya. Konser dibuka sama grup Rotor. Gak terlalu heboh sih, soalnya emang gak terlalu enak lagu-lagunya. Aliran musiknya lebih keras dari Metallica. Komposisi lagu yang mereka bawain gak terlalu bisa dinikmatin, penonton pun cuma bengong-bengong saja.
Rada lama nunggu, trus ada MC Mi'ing Bagito bikin penonton pada ketawa. Setelah itu diperdengarkan salah satu lagu dari albumnya Setiawan Djody. Hanya jeda beberapa menit, ini yang ditunggu-tunggu. Ecstasy of Gold, intro wajib di setiap konser Metallica sejak 1986 mulai terdengar. Bisa ditebak penonton langsung histeris. Konser dibuka dengan Creeping Death, disusul Harvester of Sorrow dan [Welcome Home] Sanitarium. Wah, gue lupa setlist-nya. Keasyikan headbang dan moshing. Yang jelas, konser ditutup sama lagu One dan Enter Sandman. Oya, Jason Newsted berkepala plontos saat itu. Sedangkan James Hetfield tetep dengan kumis sangarnya.
Wah kalo inget pas pertama kali nonton Metallica sih, campur aduk deh perasaan, mostly happy berat. Gak dinyana, setelah sepuluh tahun, gue nonton Metallica lagi di Cologne [2003] dan Gelsenkirchen Germany [2004]...
Jati ; Masih Sangat Kecil Untuk Menonton Konser Metal
Empat belas tahun yang lalu, Metallica mengguncang Jakarta. Kuartet speed metal dari USA ini menggelar konser dua malam berturut-turut. Pentas tersebut adalah bagian dari rangkaian World Tour bertitel Nowhere Else To Roam. Kesuksesan mendatangkan para Phantom Lord ini tak lepas dari upaya promotor Setiawan Djody.
Bertindak sebagai band pembuka adalah dedengkot gerakan metal bawahtanah lokal, Rotor. Ada dua versi mengenai penampilan mereka dua malam itu. Versi pertama, tidak seperti Edane yang sukses mengiringi aksi Igor Cavalera cs., Rotor gagal mengesankan penonton. Belum lama beraksi mereka sudah disuruh turun oleh massa. Padahal jatah mereka cuma lima lagu doang. Crowd memang sudah tidak sabar lagi untuk ber-headbanging dengan Jason Newsted dkk. Versi kedua memberi penilaian 'not bad'. Terbukti berbekal curriculum vitae sebagai pembuka konser Metallica, Irvan Sembiring dkk lalu bisa mendapat kontrak major label pertamanya. Ah sudahlah.
Penampil utama malam itu, menurut kesaksian para 'veteran', bermain dengan intensitas energi yang maksimal. Since susah banget nyari arsip dokumentasi event akbar ini, tidak bisa dijelaskan detail peristiwa sebenarnya. Satu yang pasti, Jason bikin pangling dengan rambut cepaknya. Ia personel pertama dari supergrup 'metal & vodka' ini yang mencukur pendek long hair-nya, beberapa tahun sebelum tiga anggota lainnya melakukan hal yang sama. Menurut majalah HAI - waktu itu this magz really rocks, nggak kayak sekarang, cemen - konser tersebut nggak ada matinya. Kalau reportase itu yang jadi pegangan, bisa direka-reka sendirilah situasinya. Perpaduan live on stage empat 'pengendara petir' ini jelas dahsyat ; penabuh drum hiperaktif Lars, James yang kharismatik, si lincah nan garang tapi melodius Kirk, plus our friend of misery Mr. Newsted. Singkat kata, atmosfer Lebak Bulus dua malam itu benar-benar cadas. Pol-polan.
Sihir The Four Horsemen di atas panggung ternyata juga sampai membius mereka yang berada di luar arena. Tapi sayangnya dalam konteks negatif. Heboh dan tertib di dalam tapi rusuh di luar. Di area sekitar stadion Lebak Bulus, sejumlah mobil dibakar dan beberapa fasilitas umum dirusak para metal militia yang kecewa berat karena kehabisan tiket dan tidak bisa masuk. Akibat riot act itu keluar keputusan fatal ; pemerintah melarang setiap konser dari grup rock mancanegara untuk waktu yang tidak ditentukan. Solusi yang tidak menyelesaikan masalah dan cenderung represif. Ibarat membalas lemparan telur busuk dengan tomat yang busuk pula. Kerusuhan itu terjadi tentu bukan karena musisinya, tapi jelas lebih karena anarkisme massa yang belum dewasa. Tapi apa sih yang tidak dilarang di jaman orde baru?!
Teringat cerita seorang kawan yang kakaknya menjadi saksi hidup pentas si raja metal ini. Penonton yang berjumlah total 44 ribu orang, hampir sepanjang konser berayun kepala serta koor bareng tanpa harus dikomando sebelumnya. Sampai merinding membayangkannya...
Now I lay me down to sleep
pray the lord my soul to keep
if I die before I wake
pray the lord my soul to take
Hush little baby don't say a word
and never mind that noise you heard
It's just the beasts under your bed
in your closet, in your head
Exit... liight
enteer... niiight...
Sampai sekarang saya masih menyesali kenapa saya masih sangat kecil untuk menonton sebuah konser metal - dan venue-nya jauh dari rumah pula - ketika itu.
Sebenarnya beberapa tahun lalu Metallica sempat menjadwalkan konser di tanah air. Tapi batal gara-gara pemerintah AS memberlakukan travel warning buat warganya yang ingin ke Indonesia. Lagi-lagi saya hanya bisa mengutuk sang biang kerok, para pelaku pengeboman di Bali dan Kuningan itu.
Pengen banget mendengar langsung sapaan khas sang frontman, "Are you still alive?"
Hell yeah, sure! How 'bout yourself, dare to blow my country again?!?!...
[various-metalikatz]
Foto dok Yuda96, Farry, Jati & Netz.
Sebenarnya agak susah mencari arsip dan dokumentasi tentang konser ini. Beruntung kami dibantu oleh mister Gugel akhirnya bisa menemukan beberapa tulisan dan foto yang tercecer di sejumlah blog pribadi. Thanks & long live the bloggers!...
Kerusuhan konser Metallica bisa disimak pada trailer film dokumenter 'Global Metal' karya Sam Dunn - lengkap dengan kobaran api yang menyala hebat dari mobil-mobil dan bangunan yang berada di luar stadion Lebak Bulus Jakarta!...
Source : http://www.apokalip.com/webzine/eksplorasitiadahenti/nowhere-else-to-roam-www.apokalip.com.html
Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' Hits Number One Spot In 25 Countries
Metallica's latest album 'Death Magnetic' has topped the album charts in 25 countries.
The band's first album since 2003's 'St Anger' is currently number one in most of continental Europe, as well as the UK, America, Australia and Canada.
The band's first album since 2003's 'St Anger' is currently number one in most of continental Europe, as well as the UK, America, Australia and Canada.
Metallica's album is also outselling competitors in Russia and Turkey, two countries which don't have an official chart.
As previously reported on Gigwise, 'Death Magnetic' sold 76,000 copies in just two days when it went on sale in the UK.
The album, which was released worldwide on September 12th, also became the first to be simultaneously released on the video game, Guitar Hero
Source : http://www.gigwise.com/news/46296/metallicas-death-magnetic-hits-number-one-spot-in-25-countries
Musicians Say about Metallica
Find out what musicians say about metallica
Matt Baumbach [Vision of Disorder guitarist]
"Metallica is the reason that not only I, but Mike Kennedy play guitar. We were of the age where we knew when a new Metallica record was coming, and it was a 'school's-in-session' thing. I've always loved how intricate they got on the first four albums. It's the only type of music that sounds both melodic and heavy without being too much of either. Master of Puppets is the top metal album of all-time based on the first two tracks alone. Both are so well thought out it's incredible. I was always a fan of Kirk's way to give songs additional melodic lines that are just as memorable as the vocal. My all-time favorite tracks would be "Damage Inc.", "Jump in the Fire," "Orion," "Trapped Under Ice," and a hundred others. I'm not the biggest fan of Load and ReLoad, but do like the Black Album. I remember me and Mike "moshing" to "Through the Never" in his old place - we ruined our friend's carpet! VOD picked up on the way to be intricate, but still come across original and heavy - Imprint best represents this. People need to take more chances, just like Metallica."
Brian Tatler [Diamond Head guitarist]
"As some of you will already know, my band Diamond Head influenced Metallica. In 1981, Lars came to England to see and hang out with Diamond Head, and not long after returning from that trip, he formed Metallica. Since then, I have watched Metallica's rise with astonishment. It is one of the hardest things in the world to achieve - going from a garage band to stadium monsters, without ever really losing credibility or deliberately making hit singles. And what is even more difficult is sustaining it. You can hear Diamond Head's influence in a couple of early songs, but we all take inspiration from somewhere. I have seen Metallica many times, and they always give 100% - they don't hold anything back for the next show. Such a great band to watch live. I can hear their influence in thousands of bands, who want their phenomenal success. It's down to writing great songs, working very hard at it for 25 years, building an incredible following all over the world, and Lars' business brain. My favorite Metallica song is "One." It has great dynamics and has to be one of the best double kick drum/guitar parts ever recorded."
King Diamond
"One of the great memories of Metallica is when we met while I was with Mercyful Fate in '84. We were playing in San Francisco and they came to the show. I heard they had a Danish drummer and that I might know his dad, the famous Danish tennis player, Torben Ulrich. Metallica came in, said hi, and later, came out on stage and headbanged during one of our encores. Later, they were recording Ride the Lightning at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen. We had a rehearsal room in the same building and Metallica happened to need a rehearsal room. So we offered them our room while we were not rehearsing. I remember hearing some riffs and saying, "Wow," it was some of the heaviest stuff I had ever heard at the time. "Creeping Death" is still one of my favorites. This year, I had the honor of performing onstage with Metallica at Ozzfest. Singing the entire Mercyful Fate medley was an incredible experience. We had only practiced two hours the night before, and they had not played the song since '99. It just shows how pro they are and that there is a reason they are the biggest metal band in the world!"
Charlie Benante [Anthrax drummer]
"Ummm, I don't think they had an influence on me - I think we were influenced by the same bands. We liked the same style of music - Maiden, NWOBHM, Misfits, etc. I think it came across in our music and attitude. I think for me, the Puppets record was their finest moment. I think Cliff had a lot to do with that sound - it was so fat and precise. I love the song "Orion" - it still is one of my favorite musical pieces by them. I do think it's all so different now - the media back then didn't really cater to them like they do now...it doesn't really matter anymore, it all seems to be considered great anyway."
Alex Skolnick [Testament guitarist]
"Metallica took the thrashy garage band vibe of bands like Venom and Motorhead, cleaned it up, and gave it a razor sharp precision. This was especially true on Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, where they showed us that this type of metal can have melodic vocal lines, guitar harmonies, and rhythm guitar riffs - which were as exciting and sophisticated as any solo. Hetfield's rhythm guitar - arguably on an influential level on par with Van Halen's lead guitar - and the other guys tastefully building their licks, fills, etc. around the riffs and vocals, combined to form a machine that was unstoppable, and a huge influence on newer bands like us."
Millie Petrozza [Kreator singer/guitarist]
"I've seen Metallica opening up for Venom way back, and they blew the headlining band away! Without Metallica's early stuff, metal wouldn't be what it is now. Endless respect!"
Mitts [Madball guitarist]
"Metallica represented a huge, groundbreaking step in the evolution of heavy music. In the 1970's, there was "heavy metal." In the 80's, Metallica lead the way for a group of bands that I considered to be the first true "metal" bands. The difference between 70's "heavy metal" and 80's "metal" is in the roots of the guitar riffing. Heavy metal was legendary bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. And as heavy and brutal as those bands were, they still based their riffing on blues and rock progressions. Kill 'Em All was still in that style - but with Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, they began to shed those last remnants of blues, and progressed towards a sound that was dissonant; devoid of melody. ...And Justice for All was the culmination of that. Metallica's straightforward style, metal-riffing, and brutal speed influenced me, along with an entire generation of musicians. The late 80's and early 90's saw hardcore bands incorporating more and more metal sounds into their songs. Some of my band's biggest influences were bands like Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags, and both drew inspiration from the metal style riffing of Metallica."
Metallica blows up on ‘Magnetic’
Five years after the disaster of “St. Anger,” Metallica has redeemed itself with “Death Magnetic” — the iconic metal act’s best work in nearly 20 years.
In the ’90s, the quartet brought metal into the mainstream. With the release of the band’s 1991 self-titled record, dubbed “The Black
In the ’90s, the quartet brought metal into the mainstream. With the release of the band’s 1991 self-titled record, dubbed “The Black
Album,” Metallica shifted from thrash metal to rock/pop. Hard-core fans felt the band had abandoned the style it perfected in the ’80s.
Metallica traded blistering guitar solos and speedy drums for symphony orchestras and power ballads.
While the band doesn’t break new ground on “Death Magnetic,” that’s a positive. After all of the experimentation in the ’90s, it’s refreshing to hear the group return to what it does best — thrash and slash.
Most songs explode from the get-go with crunchy power chords, but “The Day That Never Comes,” the album’s first single, starts with a slow, ominous, electric guitar lick before it peaks around the chorus. The music video, which intersperses performance footage into a suspenseful war story, gives new life to an already charged anthem.
The trilogy of “The Unforgiven” ends on the new album with “The Unforgiven III,” which opens with a calming piano and a soft violin. Otherwise, the CD follows a straight formula of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. It’s one that works.
Though bassist Robert Trujillo is far more capable than predecessor Jason Newsted, the bass is unfortunately buried — just like on every other Metallica album. After the turmoil the band went through with Newsted, it’s wonderful to hear each member complement the other. Drummer Lars Ulrich and Trujillo provide one of the most dynamic rhythm sections in music today.
“Death Magnetic” feels like a rebirth for Metallica. “You’re down then you rise again / What don’t kill you make ya more strong,” front man James Hetfield bellows on “Broken, Beat & Scarred.”
In an industry where metal isn’t sexy and a decade where rock struggles to make a lasting impact on listeners, Metallica has shown that 25 years later, a group of seasoned rockers can still rise above the rest. The new disc hit No. 1 in several countries, including the U.S., where it sold nearly half a million copies in four days.
Most notably, “Death Magnetic” marks the return of the guitar solo, a spark missing from “St. Anger.” Though the new songs don’t quite match the imagination or complexity of ’80s Metallica thrash, the band finally sounds like a pure metal act once again, and it’s a beautiful awakening.
Source : http://theithacan.org/am/publish/cdreview/200809_Metallica_blows_up_on_Magnetic.shtml
How I Got Into Metallica…
Let's face it, if you're in a metal band, Metallica definitely influenced you in one way or another. Chances are, if slinging speed riffs is your business, one or more of Metallica's albums helped define a period of your life. We asked some of today's best and brightest metal luminaries how they got into "The Four Horsemen." Their stories are hilarious, enlightening and downright heavy!
We also got some thoughts from Trivium frontman Matt Heafy about Metallica's latest epic, Death Magnetic. Matt exclaimed, "Man, it's fucking cool! We were listening to it in the dressing room last night, and I was like, 'Fuck, this is really awesome!' I went in and bought it right when it came out. I feel like it's a really great combination of everything they've ever done. That's what it sounds like to me, basically. We're always up to tour with them, so if you talk to them, tell them that [Laughs]! We did some festivals with them about a year and a half ago, and it was just amazing!"
Find out what hard rock's elite had to say about Metallica below.
How and where did you first discover Metallica? What was your initial reaction?
Shavo Odadjian, Achozen // System of a Down // urSESSION.com
The first time I heard Metallica, I was in third grade, sorry Lars [Laughs]. I heard Kill ‘Em All. A friend of mine lived in this apartment building in Hollywood where I used to skate around. The older kids—the stoners and heshers—would hang out there. One of those kids had Kill 'Em All on the stereo one day. At the time, I was listening to Quiet Riot and Kiss's Lick It Up. Also Ratt was going on back then. Motley Crue was going on. I heard Kill 'Em All and went, "Shit, why isn't this going on?" [Laughs] It was only going on with bands like Venom and Celtic Frost—shit like that. It wasn't going on the way Metallica made it go on though.
I don't care what people say—"After The Black Album, after St. Anger, after whatever"—it's bullshit! That's fuckin' Metallica. Metallica could shit on a fuckin' plate and release it. I don't give a fuck because Metallica already did what they did to music. Now, they're having fun. Let the motherfuckers have fun. Let them do what the fuck they want to do. A true artist doesn't worry about what his fans are going to think because that's playing for the masses—not playing to the masses. Don't conform because your old school fans think you changed. Who cares? An artist changes. If Metallica did Ride The Lightning seven times around, Metallica would not be Metallica, period. If Metallica did Kill 'Em All, Master of Puppets, or …And Justice For All every year, Metallica would not be Metallica. Instead, they do what they do, and they're real.
Phil Demmel, Machine Head
I was in my 7th period "Guitar Class" in high school when someone brought the Kill 'Em All vinyl in and started to crank it. There was a group of eight of us that instantly came over and gave each other the "confused puppy" look, as though we couldn't believe what we were hearing. Fast tunes, fast solos, growling but understandable vocals—It was perfect. I'm still that 16-year-old kid when I hear them today.
“
A true artist doesn't worry about what his fans are going to think because that's playing for the masses—not playing to the masses.
”
Dez Fafara, Devildriver // Coal Chamber // The Family Management
The first time I ever heard Metallica, I had just left a long time girlfriend. I was moving in with one of my best friends, who had a roommate that I had never met before. The guy's name was Mark, and the first night I moved my shit into the house, he brought a 12-pack of Coors downstairs and put on a cassette tape. That tape was Ride The Lightning. After that night, all things metal changed for me! I borrowed that tape, and I played it all day, every day on the construction site where I was working. I played that tape until it got jammed in my truck player and I had to forcibly remove it! By then, I was hooked!
Herman Li, DragonForce
I discovered Metallica on The Black Album through TV and commercial radio stations. I think the first song I heard from them was "Enter Sandman." It's a really catchy song with a great tune, and I thought the guitar work was awesome. I actually rented that album off the library first, then I got their entire catalogue. Funny enough, the first song I ever played in front of an audience with my band back in school was "Enter Sandman," as well!
Mikael Akerfeldt, OPETH
I first took notice of them when the Master of Puppets album came out, around 1986 I believe. I had heard some songs off the previous record, but at the time, I thought it was too fast or something for me. The Puppets album, however, had some slower stuff on there that attracted me to them. It showed they had some interest in music overall, rather than just being heavy, I guess. I became a fan pretty fast, and soon enough I was worshipping them. By the time ...And Justice came out, I was already a "'Tallica" superfan. That record got me to re-evaluate my ideas on what heavy metal was, and through them, I started developing my own style.
Kevin Talley, DAATH
My brother Rob turned me on to the band during the Justice days, and I was floored by the drumming. I played along to that record for years and, even to this day, it has a huge influence on my writing. These days, they still put on an amazing show.
Eyal Levi, DAATH
I was twelve years old. I had to go to a friend's house to watch Headbanger's Ball (Rikki Rachtman-era) because I wasn't allowed to watch evil MTV at mine. "Enter Sandman" was getting world premiered, and I couldn't believe how heavy and dark and powerful that song was. The video was scary too. I think I can safely say that is when I officially got into metal. I bought every single Metallica album right after that.
Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater
I remember the first time I heard Metallica. I found them really early on. It was sometime in 1983, shortly after their debut Kill Em All was released. A friend of mine was a college radio DJ, and he was sent a promo version of the album. He thought it sounded like noise, but I listened to it and was immediately blown away by its raw intensity. I traded him my copy of AC/DC's Back In Black for it and never looked back. It was the heaviest thing I had ever heard, and I had been looking for a sound like that for years.
I immediately started covering "Seek & Destroy" in the band I was in at the time, and I even remember that Ride The Lightning was released the very same day I passed my road test and got my driver's license. I made my very first drive a trip to the local record shop to pick up the album that very afternoon. I also remember seeing them live for the first time at L'Amour in Brooklyn when they were opening for W.A.S.P. and knowing that they were inevitably going to blow up the whole scene and change music forever.
Master Of Puppets was released when myself, John Petrucci and John Myung were at the Berklee College Of Music. I totally remember picking up the album the day it came out. The three of us sat around my stereo like some sort of religious ritual. I dropped the needle onto the record (what the hell is that?), and we were floored by what we heard. About 50 minutes later, we peeled our faces off the walls and realized that we had just listened to metal's quintessential masterpiece.
I also remember the three of us being together in Sept '86 when we heard that Cliff Burton had died. We sat in my bedroom with a case of beer listening to 'Orion' and practically were brought to tears.
16 years later in 2002, Dream Theater paid tribute to the mighty Metallica by performing the Master Of Puppets album live in its entirety at three different shows in Barcelona, Chicago and New York City—an idea that Lars Ulrich has since told me directly inspired Metallica's doing the same thing themselves a few years later!
People have always known DT's obvious influences to be bands like Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, etc....but it was always just as important for us to incorporate the "Balls & Chunk" of the metal bands we grew up with. Those first few Metallica albums were a big part of our early days.
I continue to admire and respect Metallica for not only what they've done in the past, but for what I know they are still capable of doing in the future...and I am as eager and excited as anybody else to hear Death Magnetic.
Metal Up Your Ass!
—Rick Florino
09.18.08
Source : http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/news/article/0,,4812298,00.html
Latest CD proves Metallica still undisputed masters of metal
“Death Magnetic” Metallica (Warner Brothers)
After unilaterally disarming themselves for years, the heavy-metal, Napster-bashing Metallica is back to full nuclear-strike capability with “Death Magnetic.”
After unilaterally disarming themselves for years, the heavy-metal, Napster-bashing Metallica is back to full nuclear-strike capability with “Death Magnetic.”
Proving that they are still the undisputed masters of metal and still have plenty of teeth, talons and toughness to tear many of their contemporaries apart, the San Francisco quartet hasn’t shown this much muscle, menace or mettle since 1986’s “Master of Puppets.”
With its 10 tracks clocking in at 75 minutes, Metallica’s 10th studio disc rocks with visceral rage and reckless abandon that we knew the band was capable of but has been avoiding for far too long. With their long-absent, full-throttle, take-no-prisoners, seek-and-destroy mission once again intact, Metallica — singer-rhythm guitarist James Hetfield, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, new bassist Rob Trujillo and drummer Lars Ulrich — promises to unleash all its metal fury Jan. 17 at the TD Banknorth Garden, Boston.
Showing that Metallica is not ready to slip off this mortal coil anytime soon, a beeping, intensive-care heart monitor gives way to an adrenaline-pumping, kick-in-the-pants barrage of crunchy power chords and pummeling drum beats on the anti-Frank Capra opus, “That Was Just Your Life.” Not much of a people person, Hetfield wishes ill will on everyone (and I mean everyone) he holds responsible for his hellish, horrible existence. His downtrodden lyrics work better when you catch them only in snippets, which is the case here because one is too engrossed in the all-out blitzkrieg that’s raging all around him. Ulrich sounds like he’s pounding the skins until they (and himself) are a bloody pulp while Hammett’s snarling, staccato guitar solo practically restores the mighty Metallica to its metal maelstrom glory and reminds of us of his guitar god/guitar devil status.
There’s something soothing and reassuring about Hetfield howling, “You reached the end of the line” on, you guessed it, “The End of the Line.” But he also wallows in his self-misery a little bit much. Roaring out a series of nonsensical nihilistic pairings such as “tainted misery,” “chemical affinity,” “snuff reality,” “karma amputee” and “incinerate celebrity,” Hetfield sounds like he stole Trent Reznor’s diary, shoved it into a shredder and haphazardly cut-and-pasted the remnants. However, the tension (whether genuine or contrived) is heightened by the unflinching, unmerciful instrumentation that sneaks up on you and eventually smothers you like a cold serpent.
On “Broken, Beat and Scarred,” Hetfield badly paraphrases Nietzsche with the bumbling battle cry, “What don’t kill you will make you more strong.” That might be true but it doesn’t make you any more grammatically correct, now does it? There seems to be more emphasis on Hetfield’s lyrics here than the two previous outings, which is a bit of a mistake because it sounds like a commercial jingle for some demonic chewing gum, rather than a rousing call to arms. But bad English and cliché nihilism aside, Hammett’s fiery guitar solos sound like they have the power to incinerate the song’s lyrical shortcomings, as well as scorch the surface of the Earth.
Narrative-wise, the domestic abuse ditty “The Day That Never Comes” is the disc’s most harrowing opus because it hits so close to home and deals with real-life monsters that usually hide in plain sight. Once again wrestling with father issues (while, once again, revisiting “One” from “And Justice for All”), Hetfield warmly croons his disturbing lyrics and then unflinchingly snarls the unnerving chorus. As the song’s combustible, claustrophobic mix builds and eventually blows up, the listener’s senses are sonically bombarded by a symbolic representation of being bruised and battered and the lingering aftereffects.
“All Nightmare Long” continues the nocturnal moodiness of “Enter Sandman” and serves up another misanthropic musical playground for demons of our subconscious to run amuck. Here, Hetfield speaks, sings, spits and snarls like a knife-welding psychopath hiding in your closet until you fall asleep, while Hammett lets his fingers do the stalking with his jarring guitar solo that is awe-inspiring and goose-pimply all at the same time.
“The Unforgiven” was an interesting little opus and pleasant surprise from the “Black Album,” while “The Unforgiven II” was a needless sequel that offered nothing new to the original. And “The Unforgiven III,” which is featured here, is the worst of the lot. While the opening tickling of the ivories and schmaltzy strings test the listener’s patience, the lyrics will put you over the edge. True, there’s plenty of crunch and munch in the mix but not enough to salvage the song for its outpouring of melodramatic drivel.
Metallica is on a Sodom-and-Gomorrah mission to flatten everything in its path (and it does just that) on “Judas Kiss.” With an unrelenting onslaught of booming power chords and bone-crunching percussion, Hetfield orders, “Bow down/Surrender into me/Submit infectiously/Sanctify your demons/Into abyss/You don’t exist/Cannot resist/The Judas Kiss.” It’s been a while since the prospect of selling one’s soul for rock ’n’ roll sounded as enticing and, in a good way, ear-splitting as this.
The over-inflated, 10-minute instrumental “Suicide & Redemption” sounds like a hellish hodgepodge of all the menacing riffs Metallica didn’t have time to write lyrics for. Resembling a “Guitar Hero” game program on shuffle, skip and repeat mode, the riffs are haphazardly strung together with little rhyme or reason (other than that they are heavy) and, in the end, the track might make you bang your head for all of the wrong reasons. True, there are plenty of fire and brimstone assaults here but there are also moments of cheesy, ’80s guitar grandiosity that evoke images of Maverick and Goose flying their F-14s into the wild blue yonder.
Metallica quickly redeems itself with the day-of-reckoning closer, “My Apocalypse.” Although, lyrically, the song seems to suffer from acid reflux, sonically this hot-magma, speed-metal opus erupts like a raging volcano. By the time Hetfield declares, “Feel thy name as Hell awakens/Destiny, inhale the fire,” not only has he stirred up the hounds of hell, they are trembling in fear
Source : http://www.telegram.com/article/20080928/COLUMN17/809280461
Metal is magnetic
'Death Magnetic' is the ninth original studio album of Metallica's career — a career in which the band have sold over 100 million albums. Produced by Rick Rubin, 'Death Magnetic' is their first release since 2003's therapy session 'St. Anger' and also the first to feature bassist Robert Trujillo.
Formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield, Metallica are one of the most successful and influential rock bands of all time, with their '80s albums 'Ride The Lightning' and 'Master Of Puppets' classics of the metal genre. Their 1991 album 'Metallica' — known to fans as The Black Album — pushed the group into the mainstream with singles like 'Enter Sandman', 'Sad But True', 'The Unforgiven' and 'Nothing Else Matters' pushing the album to sales of 15 million copies in the US alone.
Following a period in the creative wilderness — which saw the release of the disappointing 'Load' and 'Reload' albums, as well as personal turmoil that almost caused the group's collapse — Metallica are back with their strongest work in 17 years.
Now Hetfield, Ulrich, Trujillo and guitarist Kirk Hammett speak about the making of 'Death Magnetic', working with Rick Rubin, the "cathartic" experiences of 'St. Anger' and 'Some Kind Of Monster', and about their unique relationship with their fans.
Now that Death Magnetic is completed, how do you feel about the album?
Lars Ulrich: My head is still kind of spinning about the whole process, the last couple of years. But everybody who's heard the album says it sounds great, so I'll go along with that! It certainly has a lot of energy, it sounds very lively. One of the key things Rick Rubin wanted to do is to get Metallica to sound really live in the studio. Some of the previous records we made in the '90s, I think, got a little over-laboured, got a little too anal and detail-oriented. Rick wanted to preserve that wall of sound that happens when we play live, and I'm 100 percent sure that it's retained all that liveliness, that it's loud and in your face. My friends who've heard the album all like it, so I'll take that as a good thing!
James Hetfield: 'Death Magnetic' feels really good. It's old-school essence with new sonics. And it's the most band-like I can remember us being. We've gone through lots of growing up after 'St. Anger' — as much as we can say we're grown-up! I think the main part is realising friction is a part of it all. And we need each other more than we hate each other, simple as that!
Kirk Hammett: When we started writing songs for 'Death Magnetic' we were a band again because we'd gotten Rob. That was tremendous. We started playing like a band again, started sounding like a band, started creating like a band, and that was an obvious step up from our starting place last time with 'St. Anger'. I'm really proud of this album. It's too early to tell how it fits into the overall picture, but I really believe that this album is one of our finer moments.
Robert Trujillo: This being my first Metallica album, I feel like it's great. The creative environment can be a bit intimidating because it's so intense. With Lars and James, it's like going to the best school of songwriting. But they were really open to suggestion and they wanted to hear what I had to say.
Was it a conscious decision for Metallica to reconnect with their past on 'Death Magnetic'?
James: People have said it's 'Master Of Puppets II'. That turns me off… and scares me a little bit. 'Death Magnetic' is Rick Rubin and us trying to capture the essence, the hunger, the simplicity, the skeleton of Metallica. And that's what I think we captured. It really is very clear and obvious to me, and hopefully I can make this clear to the fans, that we write these songs for ourselves. You can't please everyone. There's always going to be someone who feels victimised by the way you've done something, and I totally get that. There are lots of bands I can't listen to after a certain album, and so be it. It's perfectly normal. But we are explorers, we have to move forward and keep going, we're artists, we're hungry for the best. The best has not been achieved yet, so on we go.
Kirk: One of the main concepts that Rick Rubin brought to the table when we were initially talking to him was that he knew, in his head, what the ultimate Metallica album should sound like. He said to us: 'Whatever you guys were doing, whatever you were thinking, what you were listening to, what you were eating, drinking… try to put your minds in that spot. Because whatever you guys were doing in the early '80s, mid '80s, you guys turned out some incredible music back then.' We listened to that and agreed. The attitude we had back then was a lot different to the attitude we have now. We were young, eager to prove ourselves — eager to prove that we were one of the heaviest bands around — and we wrote accordingly. So Rick said: 'Just put yourselves in that spot.' And it totally worked. It worked across the board: in the writing, the lyrics, the guitar solos, the attitude. I remember when it came time to put down guitar solos, I listened to all the stuff that I used to listen to as a teenager: a lot of UFO, Deep Purple and Rainbow, Van Halen's first album, Pat Travers. Initially I was shocked, because I found myself being re-inspired by all this stuff that influenced me back in the day, and it opened up my playing all over again. When I applied that attitude and brought that inspiration to the new songs I got some incredible results right off the bat. The self-referencing was working, and we weren't just copying ourselves. I really felt that we were going somewhere fresh and new.
Lars: Reconnecting with the past was something that definitely happened organically. Rick spends a lot of time just hanging out and talking about music, and during the first few months, he made us comfortable about revisiting and being inspired by some of the records that we put out in the '80s: 'Ride The Lightning', 'Master Of Puppets', '…And Justice For All'. When we finished 'Justice', we felt there was nothing more to do on that progressive, thrashy side of Metallica, so we spent the better part of the '90s running as far away from those records as we could. Rick made us feel okay about revisiting those records. We started the creative process for 'Death Magnetic' in the summer of 2006, which was when the 'Master Of Puppets' 20th anniversary was going down and we played that whole record live all over Europe and Asia. We got under the skin of 'Master Of Puppets' right as we started writing these new songs for 'Death Magnetic'. And that certainly made us feel comfortable about embracing some of the things that we had done in the '80s for the first time in 15 years. It’s been interesting. Rick would suggest: 'Listen to the same records that you listened to in the '80s, or try and write the same way.' It was never: 'Copy what you were doing musically.' It was: 'Put yourself in that headspace.' And it felt really good to do that, finally. We avoided going there for so long, but when we finally went back, it was like: 'Yeah, we can hang out here — we can be inspired by those records and feel good about it.'
Rob: It seems like the band, over the past ten or 15 years, has been trying to get away from the early years. And for me, coming into Metallica, I love everything that Metallica's done, but I really, really love the old-school stuff. And just the fact that the guys were open to that was a real positive thing. Rick was very clever, even in the tuning of the songs. 'Why does Metallica have everything tuned down a half step, or a whole step? Why doesn’t Metallica tune the way they did on 'Master Of Puppets'?' And so we ended up trying the songs in natural tune, and that's great — James can still sing his ass off, and there's a bit more angst to the vocal. I really like what James did. A lot of positive things came from Rick.
Was Death Magnetic an easy album to make, especially after the difficult birth of 'St. Anger'?
James: Making this record was certainly easier than 'St. Anger'. 'St. Anger' was a purging. It boiled to a point where one of the members couldn't hang anymore. And the three of us kinda joined together after that. When a fellow brother, soldier, whatever, leaves or falls, the others rally together. It was a great thing finding Rob. The dynamic of the band is quite different now. Lars and I fight over the steering wheel, and the other two guys are perfectly fine sitting in the back seat — and that is their pretty difficult contribution, at least in my mind. I could never sit back there and be okay with it. It works real good. So the making of this record was really so much more positive and productive, we were all really thinking the same way, we weren't stepping in each other’s way just for the sake of making it known that 'I'm here!' We were going for the same cause and mission.
Lars: We wrote for the better part of a year. The songs were all constant works in progress. Then we’d go on the road and get re-inspired by this and that… we ended up with 25 skeletons of songs and then started weeding them out and ended up with 14 that we recorded. We made a decision that we were gonna record and see 14 through. We did that, and it was pretty clear which songs ended up being 11, 12, 13, 14 on the list. And we remember the old days when you made records that were a whole instead of just individual songs. We wanted that sense of a complete record, so we picked the ones that did that the best. The only thing that Rick was really adamant about was that he did not want us to go into the studio until we could play these songs in our sleep, standing on our heads, backwards, upside-down, whatever. I know this sounds silly, but he didn't want the studio to be a place of creativity, he wanted the studio to be more a place of execution, where you just go in and you just f***ing bang this shit out. You do all the thinking and the tweaking in the pre-production.
Kirk: I think 'Death Magnetic' is a pretty logical step for us to take after 'St Anger'. We spent a lot of the time not really playing our instruments while we were making 'St. Anger', which was really strange, whereas on this album we actually played our instruments a lot while we were making it! We had a lot of material pre-written, and we just took it from there: we jammed on the music, started creating songs, and the album started taking shape. Then Rick Rubin came in and added his opinions and ideas on direction.
Rob: The making of 'Death Magnetic' was very organic. The songs started to blossom about five years ago, that’s when we started to develop ideas. After two years of touring, we had at least 60 hours of ideas. We had to read through that for a year. And the writing process was created through jamming. We built up about 25 songs, narrowed that down to 14, and then to 10 for the album. The pure fact that it was created through jamming was very organic. And Rick also wanted to capture a live feel from the band, so when we were actually recording the songs we were all standing up, like it was a performance. When I was tracking bass or re-tracking something, I would stand up and headbang or get on my knees or whatever, so there’s a lot of that feel.
Is Metallica a stronger band after making 'St. Anger' and the documentary 'Some Kind Of Monster'?
Kirk: They were very cathartic and intense experiences. 'St. Anger' and 'Some Kind Of Monster' forced us to re-evaluate everything, forced us to work on our relationships with each other, our musical relationships and personal relationships: to re-evaluate why we’re even doing this. I think it was really important for us to get that perspective. We could easily have faded off into the Where Are They Now? Files. But we chose not to do that. And having gone through that whole experience, I like to think that we’ve matured a lot more now. We’re a lot more responsible to each other and to the music. And I really feel that we’ve moved on and got it all out of our system, to a point where we were able to bring in a new band member and make him feel that he wasn’t joining a band full of loonies! That was really important. And now that Rob is in the band, he interjects so much fresh enthusiasm and positivity and energy into the whole experience, it’s just a great thing. It brings us together and makes us feel like a much stronger unit nowadays, much stronger than we had felt in the last ten years.
Lars: I think Metallica is a stronger band because of 'St. Anger' and because of 'Some Kind Of Monster', even though I look at those things as very isolated experiences and experiments. We had to go through them and I’m glad we did. After Jason Newsted leaving, and James going through his whole thing, we regrouped. We couldn’t go back to making records the way we’d made them in the '90s, because we would just fall right back into the same traps. So 'St. Anger' had to be. And I’m proud of the fact that we saw it through. I understand that it’s a difficult record. It’s not a record that everybody has embraced. And that’s okay. But it had to be, in order for 'Death Magnetic' to be the way it is. 'Some Kind Of Monster', the movie, is something I’m fiercely proud of and very protective over. I’ve always felt that Metallica has done its best to welcome people in, for our fans and friends to have as much access to Metallica as possible. And obviously that movie is the ultimate in that access, whether you want it or not — here it is, in all its glory and all its ugliness! And there were a few people that maybe felt there was a little too much access, but if you open the door, open the f***ing door and let people in. To me, that just goes back to our punk roots. That’s just about trying to connect with people as much as possible. Obviously things are very, very different in this band in 2008 than they were in 2001 and 2002, when both of those projects were going down, and I’ve spent an awful lot of time in the last couple of months trying to make sure people understand that it’s not quite like that anymore. Everybody plays nicely in the sandbox and everybody sort of gets along. It’s all very civil, cordial… pleasant, even! There’s a word: pleasant! The word ‘fun’ comes to mind, goddammit! It’s fun to be in Metallica! It’s been a great couple of years. I think we finally got all the balances figured out between our own needs, the band’s needs, family needs, the whole thing. It’s balanced. And the fact that the Metallica baby factory spits out babies one a year at the moment, it gives everybody in the band — a bunch of guys that don’t have a lot in common to begin with — something more to talk about! It’s all good. 'St. Anger' and 'Some Kind Of Monster', those are distant memories, really.
James: I turned 45 on 3 August, and so far the 40s have been the best decade yet, I’d say. Maybe it’s a little bit wisdom sinking through this thick head. But I’m starting to figure out the dynamic of the band, acknowledging what we have and why it works. Realizing that we need each other. When we go places together, we’re able to achieve great things with the Metallica key. Otherwise we’d be four so-so musicians, I’d say. Except Rob.
Rob: With 'Some Kind Of Monster', I first heard about the film crew being on hand when I was about 20 minutes from the band headquarters. I’d flown in from Los Angeles and I received a phone call that said: ‘There will be a film crew there documenting, are you OK with that?’ What am I gonna say? It’s going down! And I had spent the previous year running away from the cameras in the world of Ozzy Osbourne. So here I am, and I’m not running away from anybody this time. So I was like, oaky, I can handle this. It was a little bit strange at first. But at the end of the day, when I see the footage from 'Some Kind Of Monster' and I see myself performing the songs for the first time with them, I feel some joy in there, but I also feel some pain, because Lars took me out for a few drinks after the first day. It was more of a fly on the wall day where I was kinda hanging out, but later on that night it was like: ‘Hey, let’s go for a few drinks!’ I think he was testing me. I think the Viking in Lars wanted to see how the new guy can handle himself on a night out with Lars Ulrich from Metallica. Can you handle this? I did a pretty good job — but when I see that footage? Painful.
During the creation of 'Death Magnetic', Metallica have taken time out of the studio to play three summer tours. Why?
Kirk: The reason why we did all those summer tours to get out of the studio is because you can really get stuck in studio mode. It’s really easy to lose touch with what that live energy is all about. You lose touch with that feeling of playing music in front of an audience. We thought is was essential for us to continue to go out and play shows so as to keep grounded in that live performance format. Also it was a good way to get out of the studio so that we didn’t feel like we were doing too much of one thing. A good chance of pace. It was good to readjust our whole perspective. You can lose touch with that essence of live performance if you stay in the studio too long. It’s really easy to get caught up in a lot of the production things when you’re recording a song. You can put it in five or six guitar overdubs here and then we can dub in a symphony here and all this percussion stuff here, and then when you go to play the song live, you’re basically playing the skeleton of the recording. It’s very easy to fall into that groove of building a song in the studio so that it turns into this audio collage of sounds, but when you take it out of the studio and play it live, all you have is two guitars, bass and drums — and a lot of times, the song suffers. These songs, they’re put together to be played by two guitars, bass and drums live, and it’s great that we’re back to that again, because what you hear on record is going to be much closer to what you’re hearing live.
Lars: Being fortunate enough to travel around the world and play to an average of 50,000 people a night, I hear myself say: ‘If you ever hear me complain, slap me!’ It’s an unbelievable thing. I’m just amazed that people show up! Metal all over the world is alive and well and probably doing better than it has for a long time. It feels like a real vital energy at the moment, and it seems that a lot of the younger kids that are coming up are bypassing most things grunge and bypassing most things rap-metal, and most of the 13 year-olds now are into all the same things that we were into the ‘70s and ‘80s, thanks in part to Guitar Hero and Rock Band and so on. It’s very healthy, metal on a worldwide basis, and we really feel it. I mean, we’ve been around longer than God’s dog, but I try not to use the word ‘work’. And I try to discourage other people around us from using it. That’s an insult to people that really work. The closest we get to work, that’s when we’re at home, taking care of our families, getting up at 6.30am and making lunchboxes and driving kids to school, all that domestic suburban stuff. When I’m on the road, it’s fun! When I’m on the road, I sleep more than I do at home! On the road, I got my friends, I sit around and have a couple of glasses of wine and play some rock ‘n’ roll and meet some nice people. That’s fun. The work part’s at home. We’ve found much better balances now. We tour in shorter spurts, but we tour more often. This thing that we joke about, the last couple of years, our summer vacation tours, it’s great. We play a few a shows in Europe… what would you rather do? I can’t think of anything.
The band will be back on tour in 2009. Are you excited about bringing some of the new 'Death Magnetic' songs into the live set?
Lars: Absolutely! We started playing 'Cyanide' and 'The Day That Never Comes' in Europe. We’re gonna rehearse all ten songs from the album. We wanna be able to play all ten of them at any given time. These songs feel a lot more effortless. Some of the 'St. Anger' stuff was pretty f***ing difficult to play! A lot of 'St. Anger' was created in the ProTools computer, which explains it a little bit. But these new songs are very effortless to play, it’s fun, it feels a lot more natural and organic. Some of the 'St. Anger' stuff was a bit of a challenge to connect with the fans live. But these new songs… we can’t wait! There’s 75 minutes’ worth of music on the album. We change the set list every night, so we’ll play different new songs, throw as much different stuff in there. We’ll play three new songs one night and three or four different ones the next night. Playing 'Cyanide' is fun, and we’re itching to play the other songs.
James: When I’m writing in the studio, I can’t help but think, This chorus will sound great with 10, 20, 30 000 people — depends on who shows up! It’ll sound great with ten people in a club! I get that sense… I’ve kinda been doing this a while! I can feel what parts people are gonna latch on to. It is pretty universal. When there’s a part to be sung, you kinda feel it. So when we’re writing, I do like to concentrate on… this is a bouncy part, this is very easy to understand, this is very sing-able — but without making it corny anthem-y, where everyone and their brother’s is gonna be singing all the time everywhere. 'Death Magnetic' is a mixture of a lot of different tastes of Metallica, and hopefully there are a few songs in there that will become live evergreens. We’ve been touring for a few hundred years and forced a lot of songs into people’s faces, and they’ve learned them, and that’s how you get that song that stays in the live set. We saw it even in the …And 'Justice For All' length of songs. I’d rather have shorter songs that are meatier. 'St. Anger' had a lot of long songs that did not translate well live. We are destined to push this live. We want to keep relevant and keep going, because that’s what keeps us alive.
Kirk: I can’t wait to get back on tour and start playing these new songs. We thought we should try to play at least four or five new songs every night. I feel that every single song on this album will make an incredible live song, because they’re all written with live performance in mind, which is something we did back in the ‘80s. So it’s going to be pretty fun to interject these new tunes into the set, because we’ve been going off on tour every summer for the last three years and we haven’t had an album, so it’ll be nice to out some fresh new songs into the set and really change it up.
On tour, Metallica always arrange special meet-and-greet sessions with fans before every show. Why is this so important to you?
James: The meet-and-greets are such a great vibe, they’re such a great inspiration for both sides, I think. I feel I’m getting more out of it than the fans are, a lot of times. When there’s not too many, when you’ve got a manageable amount of people, you can actually spend some time with them and make it real. We love the meet-and-greets! They inspire us. I love to hear the feedback, good and bad. When you go into a meet-and-greet, you’re feeling pretty confident. Everyone’s looking at you, you’re going, ‘Yeah, I’m the man, I feel pretty good, you can say anything you want to me and it’s not gonna hurt.’ Someone will say: ''Kill ‘Em All' is the best — you guys suck after that record!’ ‘Okay! That’s great — but what is it you thinks sucks?’ You know, start to converse about it, maybe they didn’t think about it, ha ha ha! You meet some kooks, too. It’s pretty funny, you get some people that just have me rolling. It puts you in a good mood, man.
Lars: Meet-and-greets, they’re usually the first highlight of the day. It doesn’t matter what kind of day you’re having or what the f**k is going on, when you’re out there for half an hour meeting people who’ve travelled from all over the world and who are sharing their stories and sharing their love for all things Metallica, it’s just the greatest. We were down in Istanbul this summer, and there were kids that had come from all over the Middle East, Iran and Iraq and Lebanon, it was just crazy. Just standing there and hearing their stories, it was unbelievable. It’s always the highlight of the day, that’s when the day kicks in, it’s something I treasure a lot. When I look back over the last 25 years, what I’m proudest of is the relationship with the fans. I think we run as clean of a ship as you can. We’ve always tried to make the fans feel that they’re part of a ride and that there are as few obstacles between us and them as possible. I think Metallica exists in its own little universe that’s pretty independent of what goes on in other music genres and waves and fashions and all this crap. The Metallica fans, we do what we can to connect with them. I think the website that we have, we do it about as well as anybody, and we can part ourselves on the back here. I’m proud of that. The fans have stood by us in difficult times, but now it’s better than it’s ever been, on all levels.
Rob: The welcome I’ve had from the fans has been great. In the beginning I really tuned out because I had so much on my plate. I had to learn over 23 years of catalogue, had to learn the St. Anger music, which was very difficult. So my head was spinning, it was like a whirlwind. And of course, when you’re coming into a band like Metallica, you’re gonna have the fans and their comments and how they feel — you really have to prove to them that you’re worthy. So I really didn’t kinda tune in to the exterior much. I was the boy in the bubble. I just felt more like I needed to focus on the music and taking it to the stage, doing what I know how to do, trying to give 100 percent. That’s what I’ve always tried to do in Metallica, give it my all. Everything in Metallica happens very quickly. When I officially joined the band, they called me one evening and said: ‘Hey, can you come up to the headquarters?’ I had to stop everything and move for these guys. I flew up the next morning, but with the notion that maybe I wouldn’t be getting the gig. Like, ‘Hey man, you came close, but we wanted to tell you in person that we’re not going with you.’ Anyway, it was quite the opposite. It was a great moment, a bit like being wiped out by a huge wave. Not getting hurt or anything — just this massive whirlwind of white water throwing me around. A lot of excitement.
The first single from 'Death Magnetic' is 'The Day That Never Comes'. The video for the song is essentially a short film with a war theme, directed by Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg. What is the concept behind this film?
Lars: 'The Day That Never Comes', the first featured video — we’re actually trying to condition ourselves to use the phrase ‘short film’. I was on a treadmill in Italy in July and I spent about an hour in the company of one of those cheesy music video channels, and literally I was close to puking. I called our manager Cliff Burnstein and I said: 'We can’t make videos, we have to get away from that. We have to make short films.' Of course, when all the songs are north of eight minutes they almost by default become short films. But we basically made the decision to work with film directors. We made a very short list of some our favourite directors, people we thought were edgy, the vital young film directors of our time. That’s our plan: three or four short films. Thomas Vinterberg, a fellow Dane, somebody I’ve been enamoured with for ten years and have known for a long time, he just came up with this great concept for 'The Day That Never Comes'. Of the ten songs on the record, this probably has the least abstract, most specific lyrics. He took the very obvious place where those lyrics were set and completely threw that away and set the song up in a very different environment. The scale of it was very big. This whole set-up on one hand is very contemporary and very relevant in what it’s saying, but it’s also completely timeless: it really is a story about forgiveness, it’s a story about redemption, it’s a story about human interaction, it’s a story about people being in a situation they don’t want to be in. I’m really, really proud of this video. I think that it fits the song beautifully. I really want people to interpret it for themselves, but I think it has one foot in relevance and one foot in timelessness, and in some way it has the same vitality that the video for 'One' did.
James: The short film appealed to me. I’m tired of seeing the same old kind of video. We wanted to try something different. Obviously we’d done certain short film types with 'The Unforgiven' things. We’d done the One video, which I wanted this to remind me of. Obviously there’s a war theme. But the movie behind 'One', that’s an older movie, so it wasn’t like we were hooked up with the new 'Batman' movie or something. This is supposed to enhance our music. I really love the fact that it’s not literal. It’s not dumb! It’s emotional, even without the music.
You had various titles for the album before you chose 'Death Magnetic'. What was your favourite working title?
James: We had a whole wall of possible titles that obviously turned into the joke wall. I think one of the titles was 'Van Halen 11'. It didn’t make much sense! Rick Rubin was on this organic kick. Everything was organic. 'Turn the computer off, it’s not organic!' So we played along with that and we found a little organic stickers and put them all over the desktop. And we came up with album titles around that. One was War-ganic!
Lars: 'Suicide & Redemption' is the album’s instrumental track, and the title, we were toying with that as the title for the record, because all of the songs had that dark and abstract feel. That was the first album title I liked. It certainly fits the song. As we were sorting through the riffs and putting ideas together, the idea of doing an old-school Metallica instrumental track came up. It has that kind of epic hugeness to it.
Finally, a last word on 'Death Magnetic'?
James: We try to concentrate on what we think it right and what’s best for us, and whatever radiates form there we have no control over. We’re not worried too much about the outside pressure. The pressure from within is always the greatest — from us, being perfectionists, wanting to be better, wanting to be the first at things, wanting to shine brighter. The will to be better — that’s what keeps Metallica going.
Source : http://entertainment.iafrica.com/features/1178120.htm
Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' rocks
Metallica's latest album, Death Magnetic, is the band's attempt at showing their fans that they can work outside the box while staying true to their metal roots.
The album's first single, "The Day That Never Comes," is an eight-minute ballad that is filled with melodic guitar interludes. Few metal bands, past or present, have been able to produce an album like this. Only the gods of metal could write such a catchy yet aggressive album. Death Magnetic is made up of ten tracks, with each song better than the previous. Every track brings any music listener to a musical nirvana.
On the track "The Judas Kiss," the band delivers a song that will make even the most devout metal head's ears bleed. The ear piercing guitar riffs from Kirk Hammet are out of this world.
"The Unforgiven III" is a pleasing sequel to the "The Unforgiven II," which was on the album Load. The song has samples of strings, brass and woodwinds throughout. Once again, the band shows that they are not afraid to push the envelope of mainstream rock. It is moves like this that have allowed them to stay on top for all these years.
The music video for "The Day That Never Comes" features various scenes of American soldiers in the Middle East. This is nothing new for Metallica. They have been outspoken on their opinions of war and politics since their first album, Kill 'Em All. For example, their album And Justice for All… dealt with themes such as war and politics. The music video for the popular song "One" shows scenes from "Johnny Got His Gun," a movie from the 70s that features a paralyzed soldier.
The release of Metallica's previous album, St. Anger, left a lot of fans questioning whether it was time for Metallica to call it quits. Kirk Hammett's intense yet melodic guitar solo in "Broken, Beat, and Scarred" proves that he still has all the edge Metallica needs to continue to be the metal legends they have been since 1981.
James Hetfield's vocals show no sign of aging. Hetfield's singing on all of the tracks is as edgy as they were on Kill 'Em All. Hetfield's voice demands respect on this album; the way he carries each note with such confidence adds to the experience of enjoying the album.
Death Magnetic is a victory for metal fans everywhere. Metal zealots have been waiting a while for the next "big" rock album. Death Magnetic answers this call.
Source : http://media.www.pioneertimeswpu.com/media/storage/paper756/news/2008/09/29/Entertainment/Metallicas.death.Magnetic.Rocks-3459100.shtml
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
