10 Rock Albums That Almost Killed Careers

Ever since the early '90s, there had seemed to be nothing stopping the Metallica train. After conquering the '80s as the pioneers of thrash metal, their big commercial breakthrough with the Black Album brought them a new level of fans. Though both Load and Reload both proved to be different beasts than the Metallica of old, that didn't detract from the massive popularity of the group. That is, until everything hit the fan at once.

At the turn of the millennium, Metallica's work on their next album fell to pieces when Jason Newsted announced that he would be leaving the band due to creative differences. Looking to get back in touch with each other, the choice to hire a group therapist turned into a disaster, with James Hetfield eventually checking into rehab and not resurfacing for almost a year. Though the struggle to rebuild the relationships proved to work themselves out, the same couldn't be said for the album St. Anger.

This album has become notorious among the metal community as one of the worst heavy records ever made, with the ringing snare and lax production making for more earsores than proper hooks. However, this reads less like an album and more of a document of where Metallica were at the time. This may be on the wrong side of listenable a lot of the time, but if Metallica was able to survive this (and themselves), they could take on virtually anything.