10 Blatantly Unfinished Rock Albums (That Were Released Anyway)
6. St. Anger - Metallica
If any other band had to go through what Metallica did back in the early '00s, they wouldn't have even gotten around to releasing something like St. Anger. After having to juggle Jason Newsted leaving the group and James Hetfield checking himself into rehab for alcoholism, the whole album feels more like a by-product of that raw-wound emotion. The only problem is it actually sounds like an old wound too.
Compared to the slick and polished production that Metallica were known for getting with Bob Rock, there are entire parts of songs where every instrument sounds like its clipping the microphones. While everyone loves to bash the notorious drum performance and unholy snare hits from Lars Ulrich, the rest of the band isn't too far behind him, with no guitar solos to speak of and James Hetfield sounding like he's about to burst a blood vessel depending on what song you find him in.
Out of all the defenders for this album though, the one man who has stood by St. Anger through the years has been Bob Rock, who said he approached the album not so much as a producer, but as a friend of the band. So you have a producer taking a back seat, and you have the musicians taking a back seat...so why are we even still here listening?