10 Times Rock Bands Drastically Changed Their Sound

2. St. Anger - Metallica

The amount of times that Metallica fans have gotten frustrated at the thrash legends changing their sound has almost become a joke at this point. Even as far back as Ride the Lightning, many of the thrash metal purists were getting upset that these metalheads had the gall to actually use an acoustic guitar on Fade to Black. If you want Metallica to get heavy though, you may want to be careful what you wish for with St. Anger.

Granted, this was far from the first time a Metallica album left a sour taste in the audience's mouth, with Load and ReLoad being called out for being too mainstream. After that, everything seemed to go south, from Jason Newsted leaving to eventually resorting to group therapy to prevent the group from breaking up. As a result, a lot of St. Anger ends up feeling heavy because of the pained experience it was to actually bring it into existence.

While the detuned guitars are certainly a nod to acts of the time like Fear Factory, this is not the kind of thing that looks well on Metallica. Since these guys were always known to do their own thing, a lot of these tunes feel like they're trying to play catchup with trends that no one even wanted to revisit in 2003. For as much of a return to form that Death Magnetic was a few years later, this was bound to be a long journey back to normal.