Moderation Poll

[jowwy]

See "How big is a knats tadger?"

I couldnt give a fark…….

 

[AndyRM]

I love it but I'd put ...And Justice For All slightly above it - first Metallica album I bought & at the time the most bleak, hostile, wilfully difficult music I'd ever heard. Would have been better with audible bass (or if Cliff was still there), but one of those musical turning-points for me.

You want to get some black metal into you. That's truly bleak. Tricky scene, there are bands with some reprehensible views, which often you only realise after you've listened to them and then you're like "Well, I'm walking away from these, whoops!" For example, I had an album by a band called Ad Hominem, called Dictator - A Monument to Glory, which is literally about Hitler. And while it's an absolute banger, I was like "I really shouldn't be listening to this."

As for Metallica? Pfft. Lightweight nonsense, and take themselves far too seriously. Of the 'Big Four' they are the weakest. Saw them live once, on the Death Magnetic tour, and at one point they had these huge black balloons drop onto the stage and they had to stop because it was hitting their instruments. It was hilarious.

 

[Xipe Totec]

You want to get some black metal into you. That's truly bleak. Tricky scene, there are bands with some reprehensible views, which often you only realise after you've listened to them and then you're like "Well, I'm walking away from these, whoops!" For example, I had an album by a band called Ad Hominem, called Dictator - A Monument to Glory, which is literally about Hitler. And while it's an absolute banger, I was like "I really shouldn't be listening to this."

As for Metallica? Pfft. Lightweight nonsense, and take themselves far too seriously. Of the 'Big Four' they are the weakest. Saw them live once, on the Death Magnetic tour, and at one point they had these huge black balloons drop onto the stage and they had to stop because it was hitting their instruments. It was hilarious.

My Metallica reminiscences date back to 1987, having become disillusioned with metal in the early 80s when the genre was subsumed by hairspray, spandex & 3-part pop vocal harmonies. And Justice For All got me back into 'proper' metal & imo it's Metallica's finest moment, audible bass or not. Arguably it's the first mainstream prog-metal album & it's a shame they didn't continue in that direction.

I've only seen them twice - in 1991 touring The Black Album & subsequently on the same tour you saw them. I was quite surprised (and underwhelmed) that a band that created such dark, negative music had a good-time, party-band stage persona, and having seen Slayer & Anthrax a few times I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. Never got into Megadeth, I can't get past laughing at Mustaine sounding like a 6-year old having a strop.

Likewise the Black Metal genre - too many comedy barriers for me. Corpse paint, church-burning, taking its name from an album by a piss-poor bunch of Geordie Motorhead knockoffs all makes it a bit silly & hard to take seriously. Also - and I know there are many sub-genres - but from an outsider's perspective the NSBM stigma taints the whole scene.

Anyway, time to go go kill Euronymous!

 

[AndyRM]

My Metallica reminiscences date back to 1987, having become disillusioned with metal in the early 80s when the genre was subsumed by hairspray, spandex & 3-part pop vocal harmonies. And Justice For All got me back into 'proper' metal & imo it's Metallica's finest moment, audible bass or not. Arguably it's the first mainstream prog-metal album & it's a shame they didn't continue in that direction.

I've only seen them twice - in 1991 touring The Black Album & subsequently on the same tour you saw them. I was quite surprised (and underwhelmed) that a band that created such dark, negative music had a good-time, party-band stage persona, and having seen Slayer & Anthrax a few times I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. Never got into Megadeth, I can't get past laughing at Mustaine sounding like a 6-year old having a strop.

Likewise the Black Metal genre - too many comedy barriers for me. Corpse paint, church-burning, taking its name from an album by a piss-poor bunch of Geordie Motorhead knockoffs all makes it a bit silly & hard to take seriously. Also - and I know there are many sub-genres - but from an outsider's perspective the NSBM stigma taints the whole scene.

Anyway, time to go go kill Euronymous!

You're not wrong about Mustaine. Does take himself very, very seriously too, which is something I've never understood about metal. It's a ridiculous genre and bands that have fun with it are great. Manowar for example, utterly ludicrous.

I know what you mean about black metal. It's not for everyone, is very much an acquired taste and the whole NSBM thing is massively problematic. Also it most bands sound like they've been recorded in a bin full of wasps at the bottom of the ocean on a Nokia 3310. There are times when I consider not bothering with it, but I'm a Satanist so I kind of feel it comes with the territory. Leave no cross unturned, leave no church unburned.

If I could make a musical recommendation in the genre - Rotting Christ. Who, despite their name, as actually pretty pleasant. I was so confused the first time I listened to them. They're Greek, and I was wearing one of their shirts when I went on holiday there once. Went on this random boat trip, one of the crew came up to me and said he was into them too and invited me and my (ex) wife over for dinner. We spent the night listening to metal and talking bollocks about it. Both of our wives were thoroughly fed up after about an hour.

 

[AndyRM]

Actually, thinking about it, Mustaine threw a massive hissy fit and refused to play at a festival if Rotting Christ were playing. They ended up cancelling.