The more things change...

As a long-time music fan, one is bound to notice the paths one's favourite bands follow.
Concerning some bands, there isn't so much to notice about it. Great rock giants like Motörhead and AC/DC have pretty much made the same basic album about 10 times at least. That is not necessarily a bad thing, since in the case of those particular bands, it's a GOOD album that they continually release. Just look at the new AC/DC album Black Ice. I mean, who can argue with that ? There might occasionally be a song or two that flirts with a new direction, such as the recent tendency to include a ballad or two on Motörhead's albums, but in general you always know what to expect when you buy one of their albums.

Critics and journalists in music related media generally give favourable reviews to these two bands, while lambasting others for not 'evolving' or 'pushing the envelope'. But sometimes, when a band who's style seems to be set in stone DOES evolve or experiment, the results are sometimes so far from what one expects that critics don't know how to react to it. Case in point, today's blog topic... the evolution of Metallica!

Metallica had their album-debut in 1983, with the album Kill 'em all. Originally scheduled to be called Metal up your ass, they wisely changed the title before release. The album was recorded for a small budget, but the eagerness of the band shines through the sometimes not quite sufficient production. The style was rough thrash based on the band's love of Motörhead and Diamond Head, and it featured some instant Metallica-classics in songs like Seek and destroy and Phantom Lord, later to be covered by a ton of other metal bands. Four of the songs were co-written by recently sacked guitar-shredder Dave Mustaine who would soon release his first album with his own band, Megadeth. He co-wrote two more songs, that would be saved for their first classic album - Ride the lightning.

Ride the lightning was released in 1984 and for many fans this remains the band's greatest achievement. One of those albums that for me must be played end-to-end, it contains some of the best and most recognizable songs of early Metallica. Fade to black with it's fantastic intro, the riff-marathon of For whom the bell tolls, and the smashing instrumental epic The call of Ktulu to name but a few. The style on this album helped define thrash metal to a wider audience, mixing NWOBHM aggression with shredding solos and a melodic approach, and it shows what can be achieved when a band just clicks completely.

They followed it with 1986's Master of Puppets, the last album with awesome bass player Cliff Burton who sadly died in a bus accident shortly after it's release. Burton's death would be instrumental in changing Metallica forever. The album itself is long (near one hour) power display, showing the beginning complexity in Metallica's compositions and bringing thrash metal further classics like Battery, Orion and Damage Inc. So influential was this album that it would later be re-recorded in it's entirety for the magazine Kerrang! by today's crop of metal bands. Neo-prog metallers Dream Theater also recorded and released an live version of the entire album in their 'official bootleg' series.

The first album without Burton, 1988's ... And Justice for all was where the changes brought on by his death would be heard first. Tho the band had found a new bass player in Jason Newstead (ex. Flotsam & Jetsam), the album suffered from a lack of any substantial bass lines, and again an insufficiant production. The album itself was a sprawling behemoth (one hour plus) of complex thrash, at times sounding as bit forced. It can't have been easy for the band to get over losing Burton in such a meaningless accident, and it lead to some creative confusion in the band. The lyrics of the album added to a thrash tradition of anti-government/authority themes and fear of the nuclear threat of the cold war. A hard album to access for Metallica-beginners, it nevertheless contains some classics of it's own, not least the fantastic One.
Following this album the changes would be much more significant. Metallica were about to truly go mainstream.

And they did so with 1991's Metallica (the Black album). It remains to this day the band's best-selling album and it isn't hard to see why. Playing down their thrash roots a bit to make way for a smoother, less complex and above all less threatening sound, they instead focused on a brand of heavy metal that the world at large could easier swallow. Songs like Enter Sandman and Sad but true were still riff-heavy head-bangers, but in a decidedly more pandering way. This album is officially where vintage metallica ended. There were still elements of their old style, but there were also hints of what was to come in the balladry of Nothing else matters that would go on to be a huge hit for the band. And to this day, that song is what most non-fans think of when you say Metallica. The album still has it's share of Metallica classics, but for fans of political thrash-shredding this is where the story ended.

Metallica took a break from recording, returning as a totally different band in 1996 with Load and 1997 with Reload. These two albums look alike, sound alike and will therefore be mentioned together. The reactions of various music media was as different as the albums were to vintage Metallica. I vividly remember reading reviews that doomed the band upon hearing these albums, deeming the new style 'Metallica goes grunge' or 'Metallica ditches thrash for good'. The latter was kind of true, tho it wouldn't be for good. Load and Reload did flirt with grunge but they were so much more. Metallica obviously felt they needed to get with the times, and what came out of it were two very dark brooding albums of rock, blues, mock-country and intro-spective songs dealing with James Hetfield's alcohol abuse.
To me, these albums were initially surprising but the more I listened the more I loved them. Load went all over the place with the country stylings of Mama Said, balladry of Hero of the day and the brooding epic Bleeding me. The band looked, sounded and WERE a darker beast than the denim-clad long-haired thrashers I was used to. Reload followed a year later, and was more of the same basically. Unforgiven II, The Memory Remains and Low Man's lyric continued the grunge-groove-melody theme, and the lyrics were sometimes simple yet relevant.
Many of the songs, as well as some vintage Metallica thrashers would get a symphonic update on the live-with-orchestra S&M from 1999. I really liked this too, and the two new songs -Human and No leaf clover continued the style. I had high hopes for the future of the band as they had obviously found a new creative streak.

But then.. oh dear, but then... In 2003 Metallica returned. As soon as rumors of an impending new album started, everyone were excited about their return. But then they released St. Anger and I dare say it came as a surprise to pretty much everyone. About as far from 'accessible' as it is possible to get, the album featured long and kind of incoherent songs. The production, the drum sound (it sounds like Lars Ulrich is drumming on cardboard boxes throughout) and the complete lack of guitar solos turned many fans off the band completely at the time. Newstead had left the band amidst public arguments over wether he was ever accepted fully as Burton's replacement by the other members of the band, and even more public arguing with Dave Mustaine. I understand that the band had a lot of aggression they needed to release, but this ? It's like an out-stretched middle finger aimed squarely at the fans of the band.
Even though the album received good reviews in some media outlets, the general feeling among the fans of the band is that this is the weakest release ever from the band. I have to say I completely agree.

Because of this, I was not exactly jumping for joy when I heard that Metallica were recording a new album. It did help a bit that there were rumors of Rick Rubin producing. After all, the man had completely resurrected Johnny Cash before his death, and is generally known for bringing out the best in the bands he produces. Then another rumor started circulating. The new album would be kind of like ... And justice for all, it said. That's when I started having a little higher hopes for this new release. In the months and weeks up to the release, my hopes were raised even further when Metallica recorded a great version of Iron Maiden's classic Remember tomorrow for a Kerrang! tribute album. And finally a release date was announced and the first single The Day that never comes was released. Fantastic! The song was a throwback to the good old days of Metallica epics with great guitarplaying and complex but comprehensible song-structures. The release of the album Death Magnetic was highly anticipated and is rightly hailed as a return to glories past for Metallica. Long, but never boring. Hard, but never inaccessibly so, and full of great thrashing songs, if it wasn't for Rubin's modern production and the inclusion of new bass player Rob Trujillo, it could indeed be the logical follow-up to ...And Justice for all.

What is next for Metallica ? Who knows. I hope they continue their new-found style of blending new and old, and re-claim their place on top of Metal's foodchain. After all this is a band that released some of the mandatory classics in the genre, and it is only befitting that they have now released their strongest album in many years. Here's to another 25 years of Metallica!