Metallica

[deadduck]

Lars Ulrich. Should have stuck to tennis (he was once ranked as an up and coming star). He is one of the worst drummers ever. Live, he cannot keep any kind of rhythm. That being said, I like Metallica, at least with Jason on bass. Without him, (St. Anger) the band has no rhythmic direction. It is no wonder Metallica is not as popular now as they were pre Jason's decision to run. Lars has an ego the size of Jupiter.

Jason is part of the Rock Star band due out this summer on TV, with Tommy Lee, and Gilby Clark. Should be interesting.

[luciano]

casinobride said:

I haven't seen the documentary but I saw a "Behind The Music" or something on them and they said this was initially their "group therapy" - after Jason left and James went into rehab and all that. Those were supposed to be "private" tapes but they decided to turn them into a documentary on the making of their album.

The camera crew was there initially to capture the making of the album [one of those straight-forward 'making of' documentaries], coupled with the band's struggle to regroup after Jason left. It was supposed to be a documentary - during the actual movie itself, they talked about the film. After Hetfield came back from rehab, he was vocally uncomfortable with all the filming [as opposed to silently but obviously uncomfortable, as he was before rehab] and there was a discussion about whether or not to go forward with the film [which led Lars into discussing something about the "priority of the collective" versus the "priority of the individual," complete with hand and arm gestures while Hetfield mentally told himself that strangling his bandmate wouldn't make for a good first post-rehab meeting]. There was the thought of keeping them as private tapes after the filming started, but they just decided to let it all hang out.

If you ever do watch it, you're going to be amazed at all the horrified-yet-entertained faces you could make.

That being said, I like Metallica, at least with Jason on bass. Without him, (St. Anger) the band has no rhythmic direction.

I think the fact that they decided to change the way the songs are set up, guitar-wise, was the reason that it sounded so off - Kirk was talking about it when they talked about doing away with the traditional guitar solos. He said that the album was going to risk sounding 'dated.' I don't know about it sounding dated, but it made the whole thing sound like a mess.

Nothing against Trujillo, but I do miss Jason being in the band. Considering who Jason replaced, it says a lot about him that fans loved him. He was the one that most connected to them and, along with Kirk, created a good balance with the egocentric Hetfield and Ulrich.

[spinsterliz]

twodollars said:

At some MTV award show, the head of Napster (some teenager) came on stage to announce an award wearing a Metallica shirt. Lars was pissed as hell.

That was one of my favorite television moments EVER.

Fuck Metallica. A bunch of multi-millionaires trying to sue the asses off the fans who got them where they are in the first place? Forget that. As Ed the Sock once said, "If they keep this up they'll only have enough fans left to go to small claims court." (It got even better a year or so later when Metallica did a video set in a prison and Ed said, "Looks like they're visiting all the fans they put away for downloading their music." I *heart* Ed.)

[celerydunk]

I remember the days when Metallica said everyone on MTV were sellouts and they would never ever make a music video or go on some music channel selling themselves.

Oh, how far they have come.

[Deleted]

I have no real feelings towards Metallica and the overwhelming majority of my music has been downloaded illegally, but I totally agreed with Lars on the Napster thing, and I hated the Metallica fans during that time. They all came across as such loser whiners. As I said, I download free music, but at least I don't try and con myself into thinking it's some noble pursuit or anything other than me being cheap. The fans' excuse boils down to, "But I waaaant it! Give me that album now, I waaant it!" Okay, that'll be 18 dollars..."NO I want it now for FREEEEE! Gimme!" There's absolutely no legal or moral justification for it, at all. Nothing. Not that they're millionaires, not that back in the Seventies people used to exchange bootleg mix tapes. Then if you made a tape you could give it to a few people you knew, max, and it took a lot of time to copy. Online, a click of a button and you can distribute an album to hundreds of thousands of strangers. There's no comparison between the two. I'd love to see the reaction from some of those fans if I came into their workplace and demanded they work for free.

It's easy to say that Metallica are multi-millionaires so they should just sit back and let their music go out for free, but the fact is that it's because Metallica is famous and is in such an exalted position that they could take the stand. The overwhelming majority of people working in the music business are not millionaires, and it's them who are affected. The studio musicians, the technicians, the secretaries, on and on: even with someone like Metallica, there a ton of people you don't see who go into the making of each album and who rely on it for their employment. And that's aside from the fact that I was unaware being a millionaire automatically meant that you lost the right to get paid for your work. Metallica's music is their product and their creation, so they get to decide with what they want to do with it, not the fans.

As I've talked about in the fandom thread, when did fans get such a sense of entitlement? "Hey, I bought a Metallica tee shirt and like, all your albums! Therefore you owe me! Gimme all your stuff for free from now on and bow down to me because I now own you!" Really? No one forced you to buy those things. When you buy a CD, the only thing the artist owes you is that music. It's not a charity wherein you gave them money because they looked down and out. They worked and created their product and offered it on the market. You exhanged your money for their service (of a CD, concert, etc.), they gave it to you, and that's where it ends. You don't become their master. To quote Bob Dylan, "Just because you like my music doesn't mean I owe you anything."

[Casino Bride]

luciano said:

I do miss Jason being in the band. Considering who Jason replaced, it says a lot about him that fans loved him. He was the one that most connected to them and, along with Kirk, created a good balance with the egocentric Hetfield and Ulrich.

I love Jason. That took quite a pair to just quit a hugely popular band like that. And to join Voivod, a band from my town! He is so cool.

[Deleted]

casinobride said:

luciano said:

I do miss Jason being in the band. Considering who Jason replaced, it says a lot about him that fans loved him. He was the one that most connected to them and, along with Kirk, created a good balance with the egocentric Hetfield and Ulrich.

I love Jason. That took quite a pair to just quit a hugely popular band like that. And to join Voivod, a band from my town! He is so cool.

It also says to me that things between him and the rest of the band had become completely hostile and unworkable to make a decision like that - or maybe even have been in a way forced into making a decision like that.

They did the whole Jason leaving bit in the documentary. And Jason said a little something. James admitted he wasn't all that supportive of Jason's projects outside Metallica. Jason said he thought the other guys were commited with family and homelife and not as fully into just music like him. But I was still left with the feeling that both sides were not telling the whole entire story as to why he left. But we will never know, will we.

[venusdiva429]

flipper said:

I've decided to venture into starting a thread on thee guys.

I watched the documetray they did "Some Kind Of Monster" only a few months ago (I understand it came out in 2002 or something).

Talk about the real life Spinal Tap only even funnier.

Does anyone know what prompted them to make the film.

I listened to the album St Anger and well the lyrics were kind of ...um

"My lifestyle determines my deathstyle"

"Frantic, tick, tick, tick, tick, tock"

Well.

But I liked the music. I had never listened to metal before ever and it wasn't what I expected musically. In fact I thought it would just be a bunch of noise and nothing exciting about it - just loud.

Are they the "greatest metal band of all time" (or whatever Laars kept refering to themselves) as in record sales or what it in concert attendance?

If there are any metallica fans here who can post I'd appreciate it. I'd really like to know more about this band and where they were coming from.

Oh and what is this Napster shit? They touched on it in the movie but I still didn't get what they did and why the level of hate from their fans or the public. Did they singlehandedly close Napster? I'm too young or just too stupid to remember what happened to Napster.

And how did the new bass guy they hired at the end of the movie pan out? Do the fans like him?

Listen to "Master of Puppets". That's good Metallica right there. St. Anger is my ass. No, no, not true. My ass is better than that awful CD. If you want metal, try Queensryche. I love them, and the lead singer has a foxy-ass voice.

I haven't actually seen this movie, but I should...it sounds like a trainwreck of proportions immense.

Money can warp the most pure minds. I think that thier Napster crusade was a bit over-the-top. I believe they were even calling their fans nasty names and what-have-you, which is bullshit. I think that some people don't like to remember where thier money and fame came from, or on what foundation it was built. Don't get me wrong- they completely have the right to be put out by downloading. But there were other artists that were anti-DL back in the day, too, and they did thier business quietly. They were very, VERY careful not to insult thier fans, and more emphasized prevention than, I don't know, "I HATE YOU STUPID METALHEADS!!!! DIE!!!!!!!!"

I'm curious to know if they've helped develop new talent, bands, produced for anyone, or done anything constructive to help the flow of good, new music into the world. For instance, you hear of Prince working with new artists all the time; same with Trent Reznor, Eminem, and several others, but you never hear of any Mettalica members getting thier hands dirty.

They are the ultimate metal poseurs nowadays.



ETA: Ok, on that Rotten Reviews site, James Hetfield is sporting some highlights that would make a gay Cali surfer boy purple with envy. Come on now...HIGHLIGHTS?!?

[celerydunk]

That took quite a pair to just quit a hugely popular band like that.

Lots of people leave bands that are a lot more successful.

Money can warp the most pure minds. I think that thier Napster crusade was a bit over-the-top. I believe they were even calling their fans nasty names and what-have-you, which is bullshit. I think that some people don't like to remember where thier money and fame came from, or on what foundation it was built. Don't get me wrong- they completely have the right to be put out by downloading.

I agree - they insulted their fans. And they also showed how out of touch they are. Most other artists acknowledged that the price of cds had a lot to do with it.

Anyone remember the joke SNL did about how Metallica were going around suing everyone?