Before I get back on the horse with the music stuff here, I wanted to just let everyone know that this past Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, an interview of Alice in Chains by Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich aired on radio stations in a lot of the bigger radio markets. Having just purchased this album today (review forthcoming) and being a huge fan of AIC, it was great to hear 2 awesome bands talk about success, failure, and tragedy. If you haven’t heard it yet, I highly recommend listening in. You can find links on Metallica’s site here. Enjoy!
posted by bill at 6:46 pm
Metallica is getting their own Guitar Hero game. Yep, that’s right. You can finally rock out to your favorite Metallica tunes and then some without really knowing how to play an instrument. Ok, yeah, playing the drums on the game is definitely a workout, but its probably not as hard as actually ripping off 20 songs in 3 hours if your name is Lars Ulrich. Anyway, this is pretty cool if you ask me. All of the Metallica songs I’ve played either on Guitar Hero or Rock Band have been a ton of fun and challenging. I’ll be looking forward to playing this game when I get the chance. I’ve played Guitar Hero I, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, and Guitar Hero World Tour and all of them are fantastic. I do have to say I like the guitar controller better for Rock Band though. I’m not sure I’ll get it as I’m selling my PS2, but I might look into getting an XBOX 360 and perhaps will get it for that. Anyway, look for the game for coming this Spring!
posted by bill at 4:25 pm
Figures, right after posting my thoughts on Death Magnetic, I read over at Billboard.com that after just 3 days of sales, Metallica’s Death Magnetic has scored them their 5th straight number one album (wait, St. Anger was a #1? Huh.). They were able to sell almost half a million copies in a really short time frame, which just shows you the popularity the band has among its fans.
It’s great to see a rock band getting a #1 album nod in a day where charts are dominated by Pop and R&B albums. Personally, I don’t think a lot of bands that are due great recognition get it these days.
posted by bill at 6:09 pm
I’ve been MIA lately with my posts, so I thought I’d start things back up again with one of my all time favorite bands, Metallica. The have finally released their 9th studio album, Death Magnetic. The album has been out for almost a week now and has been getting a ton of air time on the local radio stations here in the Boston area.
It’s been over 5 years since their release of the disappointing St. Anger album, thus there has been a lot of hype and excitement surrounding Death Magnetic. A lot of early reviews prior to its release were applauding Metallica for getting back to their roots, ala the era of Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. I’ve probably listened to the album in its entirety 5 or 6 times so far. I wouldn’t go so far to say its on the level of Puppets or Lightning, but its way stronger than the St. Anger effort. Then again, the album has only been out a week and those others have been with me for 20 years…
The most interesting thing about Metallica to me is they seem to be able to re-invent themselves with every album. The classic albums from the 80’s were arguably their best albums. The Load/ReLoad albums were a new twist for Metallica, having a more “mainstream” sound. Death Magnetic definitely has a more refined sound to it than St. Anger, which sounded really rough. I’d say every album they’ve released has its own personality which makes them utterly unique.
I will say this about Death Magnetic. It definitely sounds like a culmination of all of the Metallica albums to date, rolled into one. In a way it makes it a unique album and an album that definitely has a great sound. You can hear pieces of the old 80’s songs, the 90’s songs, and yes, even a little bit of St. Anger in the tracks on Death Magnetic. I think this makes it an album that will definitely stand on its own as a a great Metallica album in the future. You can definitely say Metallica is back to its true self in Death Magnetic.
That said, its a decent effort that I’ll keep spinning in my iTunes playlists. Favorite track on the disc? Track #3 – Broken, Beat & Scarred
Note: Also check out the review of Death Magnetic over at RollingStone.com. Definitely on point for the most part with my thoughts.
posted by bill at 5:59 pm
I heard this weekend that Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich was quoted in a Rolling Stone article as saying that the band would consider all options for releasing material on the Internet for their next album. Their latest studio album, slated for release sometime this year, is their last which they are under contract for with Warner Bros. music. Apparently after seeing what Radiohead and Trent Reznor have accomplished by releasing their albums online has done, Metallica is intrigued about doing the same sometime down the line. This is rather interesting after their battle with now defunct free music sharing service, Napster back in 2000. What I find interesting here is that really nothing has changed since then other than more people are downloading music online (both legal and illegal) instead of buying CDs in stores. So I wonder what has changed their minds? Maybe the fact that they can’t control their music being downloaded for free so they might as well offer it at a lower price. Like I’ve always said, I find paying $5 for an album fair. $10 and up is a stretch. So, if they do decide to distribute music in this way, I’ll be first in line to pay (though I’d likely buy the CD at the store if they didn’t).
posted by bill at 4:40 am
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new Metallica
album. From what I read online, we were supposed to see some new stuff from the guys around the end of 2007, but now we’re out to September of 2008. They’ve dropped their long time producer, Bob Rock in favor of Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Danzig, etc.). This next album will be their 9th studio album, a follow up to the 2003 album St. Anger. Most die hard Metallica fans found St. Anger to be a disappointment. Personally, I didn’t care for it much but I’ll still listen to it from time to time.
This next album I’m hoping goes back to their roots that gave us Kill ‘Em All,
Ride The Lightning,
and Master Of Puppets
. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like their later albums, but the earlier stuff just sounds more original to me. The latest releases sound overproduced (not so with St. Anger
though, which sounds really rough edged) and released to fall in line with more “modern” rock. My take on that doesn’t mean I think they’ve sold out, which Metallica has been accused of for years.
Anyway, here’s hoping the 5 year wait for a new album will be worth it. Don’t disappoint me fellas!
posted by bill at 3:43 pm
