10 Musical Shifts That Fell Flat On Their Face

The early ‘00s are not really looked at as a high point in Metallica’s career. After losing Jason Newsted and nearly falling apart due to James Hetfield’s alcoholism and time in rehab, it was a small miracle that the band was even able to recover. Though the outlet for their frustrations came in St. Anger, fans have been turning their back on this album for decades.

Originally, the idea was for the band to go into the studio with producer Bob Rock and pump out an album that took the band back to their garage rock roots, which they hinted at on their covers album Garage Inc. However, with all the drop tunings, abrasive sounds, and lack of guitar solos, the album sounds closer to the greatest modern metal band trying to play catchup with the nu metal trends that were already growing stale.

Since Hetfield had just gotten out of rehab, most of the vocals are pretty raw, leaving many of his agonized wails coming off as painful rather than menacing.

To put the cherry on top of this dumpster fire, Lars Ulrich also seems to have traded in his snare sound for what sounds like a Tupperware container, with each hit slamming you in the head until you physically can’t take it anymore. Metallica have multiple classics in their catalog, but this record will sooner give you a headache than make you want to headbang.