10 Great Songs On Otherwise Terrible Albums
3. Frantic - Metallica
Anyone who has ever heard anything about Metallica in recent years doesn't need reminding about how much St. Anger sucks. Considering how close that these thrash metal titans came to breaking up in the midst of making this record, it's a miracle we got anything that resembles metal at all. Though nothing can really save an album like this, Frantic actually gave it a fair shot.
Granted, it's not like we can't see the problems of the album coming into view from the first few bars, with the harsh snare sound hitting you over the head right from the outset and James Hetfield sounding like he's about to blow a gasket every time he opens his mouth. At the same time, this song is actually an accurate portrayal of what that kind of dark period was like for Metallica, along with the lowest guitar tunings they had ever attempted up until this point.
As the album goes along though, things start to go further and further out of whack, giving way to some of the worst metal songs committed to tape like Purify and Invisible Kid. Since most of this album feels like a prolonged mess from start to finish, Frantic is probably the closest thing that we can consider to be a breakout single from this record.