Echobrain is an album that pisses me off.

If it had been released four or five years earlier, music critics would have hailed it as a masterpiece.

The birth of this band coincided with the (almost) death of another important entity: the Metallica.

At the end of the nineties, indeed, bassist Jason Newsted wanted to do something else, and despite the decade spent amid various successes and some falls, the weight of still being treated as a newcomer (by James and Lars) was present.

On the occasion of the 1995 Super Bowl, he hosted a party at home. On this occasion, he met the then sixteen-year-old drummer Brian Sagrafena, with whom an artistic partnership was born immediately.

When guitarist and singer Dylan Donkin joined the duo, the synergy became even more constructive.

Pressures from the Metallica made the bassist leave the main band forever in 2000.

Hetfield said about the Echobrain during an interview:

Side projects by members of a band ruin the dynamics of our work. What's he planning to do with this new group? Go on tour? This undoubtedly takes energy away from Metallica.

Kirk Hammett nevertheless has a better relationship with Jason, and helped him on some occasions during the recordings for the album.

It is important to state that this album has nothing to do with heavy metal; it consists of ten tracks balancing between honest pop rock and some well-chosen stylistic innovations with particular echoes of the English modus operandi, strangely.

The most representative tracks in my opinion are Adrift and Ghosts; the first more dynamic and Beatles-like and the second with a more refined mood. Even though I hate making comparisons, I have to admit that fans of Queens Of The Stone Age and Soundgarden will in my opinion especially love Echobrain.

A few years later Newsted, as usual, moved on by dedicating himself to his self-titled thrash metal project and then taking a long break from the music world.

The most purist metalheads have always disapproved of this kind of departure from their world, but a true musician like Newsted, who looks around from all angles and is not afraid to divert his gaze from his background, risked offering a work that conveys many more sensations compared to the usual demonic screams.

Tracklist and Lyrics

01   Colder World (03:20)

02   SuckerPunch (05:36)

03   Keep Me Alive (03:49)

Clear the cloud in my head
Smog I find brings dread
In this tree I see way behind the refuge fallout
Is it distant or never?
Could you spare the time to keep me alive?

Living, Breathing, Hungry, Drone days
Sold out, Fold out, Breakdown
Mishap, Creeping, Always cheating
Fake out, Found out, Handout, Freakout
So fierce, You feel, Slowly sinking
Fooling, Yolding, Preach to growling

Keep me alive

04   Adrift (03:15)

For too long I struggle
Strive for nothing cold earth I lay
Endings changed
I'm old up close

Springtimes are gone
Bring those teardrops those dreams upon this day
Always undone they all work round to create the ups and downs
They fall

Once you've found the gate call the wind
And you know love grows beyond call the wind
As you cross the circumstances they change
Passion to me calls and I wait

05   Ghosts (03:50)

06   I Drank You (03:08)

07   Spoonfed (04:47)

Actions are left behind never to change the signal
Cause it's beautiful
Life in a daze your dry sockets go blind from exposure
It's so beautiful

I've been needing time to breathe since I was zero

I've got a case against people who waste all their power
As they're spoonfed
The way you sell faith how about selling some taste
Preacher faker

Except I forgot the atomic souls to save
Revel in all the game
Never is one to gain
Better? it's all the same

Once you were alive
More to see tonight
It's a strange enjoyment for all
Strange enjoyment for all
Strange enjoyment for all
Strange enjoyment for all

08   The Feeling Is Over (03:37)

09   Cryin' Shame / The Crazy Song (10:40)

10   Highway 44 (04:16)

Loading comments  slowly