Metallica
Metallica

THE REVIEW

September 1991, the fifth album of the San Francisco band "Metallica" is released. The album is untitled and is immediately nicknamed "The Black Album" for its completely black cover. But perhaps it would be more correct to simply call it: "METALLICA".

It is certainly the most famous album of the Californian quartet but it has always divided their fans, creating a clear divide. Those who love it and consider it a masterpiece, and those who see it as the end of their career. This is because the "Black Album" was profoundly different from the earlier productions of our "4 Horsemen". At the time, I was 18 years old (how sad), and I already owned the band's entire previous discography. But for me, who mostly listened to "street", "glam metal" and "hard rock", Metallica still represented something I liked, but considered too harsh and niche. As far as I'm concerned, I consider this album the last true Metallica album. The subsequent "Load", "Re-Load", and "St.Anger" were, in my opinion, the real end of their career. In reality, due to "megalomania" crime by J.Hetfield, a character I've always deeply respected more as a communicator, front-man, and composer than as a musician. His decision to release a double album (Load and Re-L.), even if a year apart, to mimic "Use Your Illusion" and all the more famous double studio albums was his downfall. Perhaps a selection of only about ten pieces from those two albums would have produced a CD maybe not epic, but certainly more listenable. "St. Anger", on the other hand, is like Michelangelo's Moses. Many of its pieces would also be remarkable, but it sounds like something that was intentionally ruined by its author. Let's face it, the snare drum with the snares off has an ATROCIOUS sound! The bass parts played by Bob Rock, merely and pathetically following the guitars in the background. The guitar sounds seem to come from my "little Marshall" from the '80s. What a pity, I'll never understand!

Returning to the "Black Album", YES... I am among those who consider it a masterpiece. However, I also understand the fierce criticisms from fans from an earlier generation (the one before mine), too romantically attached to the sounds of (the splendid) "Kill 'em All", "Ride the Lightning", "Master of Puppets", and "...And Justice for All". Let me make another parenthesis here. "And Justice", the album preceding "Metallica" from 1988, was commercially speaking a flop. In my view, it is the most technical album they ever produced, but it was not understood. The tracks were excessively long (the average is around 8-9 minutes), the rhythms too fast, and Kirk Hammet's solos too "baroquely" exaggerated with tapping. As if that weren't enough, it was produced HORRIBLY in terms of sound by Flemming Rasmussen, to the point that it forced Hetfield and Ulrich (known "heavy-handed") to hire Bob Rock, the most "expensive" (but also the most "forward-thinking") producer of the time. The choice of Bob Rock already hinted at a shift in direction to the fans. A desire for greater notoriety? Or more money? The death of former bassist Cliff Burton greatly influenced this. Cliff was the dark soul of the group, perhaps the most virtuous, the most "cursed artist". But also the most coherent. With him in the group, I believe the shift towards the more "radio-friendly" sounds of "Metallica" wouldn't have happened. Or perhaps he would have clashed with Jamz and Lars and left the group? The fact remains that during a band tour in Scandinavia, Cliff Burton dies (officially) crushed inside the band's bus following a road accident. For over two years, the band closes in mourning silence and only in 1991 enters the studio with new bassist, Newsted. The exact opposite of Burton. Not a similar-replacement for Burton, but an honest "four-string instrument worker" who plays with a pick. Kirk Hammet (according to the chronicles of the time) has always been described as an introverted guitarist, a man of few words. Someone who would arrive last to put his solos like the final cherry on songs already fully written and played by the two buddies.

So, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich start writing what would become "Metallica", the "Black Album". They have to shake off the flop of "And Justice", the memory of Cliff Burton, and they know there's quite a number of people out there waiting to crucify their music with criticism. They weren’t few those who, after Cliff's death, hoped for the dissolution of the group. What to do? Hetfield is a decision-maker, one who likes challenges. His ten-year-old choice to get rid of an element like DAVE MUSTAINE and replace him with Kirk Hammet had already demonstrated that. He wants to be the only one to write lyrics, melodies, guitar, and bass parts, and wants to personify Metallica himself. He was born a leader in that bigoted family with the preacher father he so detests in his texts. Who knows what pieces we would have had with the creative input of Mustaine? The pieces he wrote on Kill 'em All together with Hetfield still leave us astounded today. He only repeated himself sporadically in Megadeth. And here’s Hetfield's stroke of genius. Ladies and gentlemen, Thrash is over! He realizes that "And Justice" marked the technical peak for Metallica. More than that they can’t and won’t play. He is not a virtuoso, but he’s tremendously good at playing and singing simultaneously. He has a very powerful rhythm yes, but the last open string played at those speeds places a limit on the imagination of the architecture of the songs and the melodies applicable to the playing. Hammet is good with solos okay, but they are starting to sound too similar between one song and another. Lars has a very fast double bass drum and dry and precise drums, but on the cymbals, he is not as virtuosic.

Newsted, the "new guy", no longer gives them that touch of madness in the rhythm changes underneath that Burton did. There’s nothing more to invent in that genre for Metallica, they need to turn the page. And God only knows how much I appreciate the courage of those who know how to do that. And Metallica did it brilliantly with this album. What is it? Is it still thrash? Is it hard rock? Grunge? No it is simply METAL. The perfect middle ground between two styles. The thrash remains in the "tractor-like" rhythms but the tempos change. They are no longer played at 1,000 per hour but the tempos become 4/4, square, slower. It is the sounds that become fuller and more powerful. Bob Rock gives Ulrich's drums a sound that... damn! It sounds like a TUM-CIAK-TUM-CIAK- TUM-TUM-CIAK from "we will rock you" but with dynamite in the arms and feet! Hetfiled's rhythm guitar sounds like a bazooka and together with the bass seems to create a true "wall of sound" reminiscent of Wagnerian grandeur. Those basses get inside you and make the glasses shake even with the stereo at a quarter of the volume! Hammet's guitar seems to soar liquidly over everything, and the solos are more "bending" than "tapping". Sometimes it almost seems blues (heresy) played by Mesa Boogie in saturation. The voice is warm but piercing, full-bodied (it must be said that compared to the early albums, he has improved a lot. The guy applied himself). In short, money well spent for Bob Rock who then also adds the "touch of class" filling the songs with new sounds. Bongos, castanets, banjo, gong, everything not seen in a studio since the Led Zeppelin era. So what to say. I believe some albums make music history not so much for the technical quality of the pieces within but sometimes for the intrinsic importance they manage to provide to the ethics of a musical genre.

The "Black Album" like it or not is an important album for the history of rock, which cannot remain unknown. Enter Sandman is one of the most listened to, played, and copied "commercial" metal pieces ever. Sad But True? Try playing it in the rehearsal room without the "Wall of Sound" by Bob Rock. It becomes crap! It lacks that "woooo-wo-wo-wo-wooooo___wo-wo. It's incredible! Yet they are just 4 crappy chords! The Unforgiven retraces a classic from previous albums. The epic, mythological piece, with acoustic arpeggios mixed with electric ones (which lays its foundations in "Fade to Black" from 1983) but it's damn beautiful with that "Morricone" atmosphere. Wherever I May Roam (my favorite) has that intro which is genius! And then it explodes underneath with that somewhat tribal drum rhythm, typical of Ulrich. Its lyrics are like a bible to me. Nothing Else Matters? Despised by many thrashers, if you listen to it well and don't think it's Metallica, it’s one of the most beautiful ballads ever. With such a profound text it brings tears to the eyes. The other pieces are filler, okay, but filler that makes you nod your head up and down. To the point that they would make for "singles" on many other bands’ albums. In short, this was Metallica's album of liberation. They came out of the somewhat niche world of thrash and entered the MTV & C. charts.

I understand all the "deontological" criticisms of the case. But it must be said that they did it with class, with style, with appeal. They managed to turn generations of kids into metalheads who without Nothing Else Matters or Enter Sandman might never have approached metal. And perhaps, like me, wouldn’t have explored the genre further. Then discovering Megadeth, Pantera, or Anthrax, starting precisely from listening to "Metallica". Is this a bad thing? No, this is a HUGE merit.

CARVED UPON MY STONE, MY BODY LIE BUT STILL I ROAM.