10 Hated Rock Albums That Are A Lot Better Than You Remember
2. St. Anger - Metallica
Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that St. Anger by Metallica is an undisputed masterpiece. On the surface, the album is an absolute mess, with some of the worst production to be featured on a metal album and more than a few instances of James Hetfield sounding like he's popping a blood vessel with his singing. Then again, this might have been the album that Metallica needed to keep moving forward.
From the outset, it's not like the riffs themselves were necessarily bad, with Frantic becoming a fan favorite once it reached the live stage. What about the mixing though? Even though the final production of this album is borderline unlistenable, it serves as a great depiction of where these guys were at emotionally. After months of being in group therapy, Jason Newsted's departure, and James entering rehab, you can really hear all of that anger being channeled into the music rather than on themselves.
For as one-note as this album seems at times, there are even some moments when they switch it up like on the Unnamed Feeling, which feels like a bastardized version of what they had tried to do on the Unforgiven all those years ago. While this album may be hard to listen to in any scenario, it stands out more for its unique place in Metallica's history.