Rate the Lightning
Here's hoping this becomes a meme.
Rate all Metallica studio albums in order of awesomeness. 'Garage inc.' is not included since it is a covers album, even though I think it's great. For the same reason, 'Garage days revisited' and 'S&M' are also excluded. Here goes:
1 - Master of puppets
2 - Kill 'em all
3 - Load
4 - Reload
5 - Ride the lightning
6 - Black album
7 - Death magnetic
8 - And justice for all
9 - (empty)
Additional comments:
I haven't included 'St. anger' in the count because I never listened to the whole thing. I think the title track is ok. Not too crazy about 'Frantic'. I find the production quality of the album, meaning the way it sounds overall, to be very lacking. The drums, particularly, sound like SHIT. The snare drum sounds like a tin can. Horrible. That is more or less the reason I never bothered with this album.
Master of puppets is without the shadow of a doubt the best album here. Great riffs and overall guitar work, songs are not overly complicated, rocking from beginning to end, consistent in its direction, not a single weak track. My favorite Metallica song, 'Orion', is here, as well as the next best song on the album and one of the best Metallica tracks ever, 'The thing that should not be', which could easily be branded one of the heaviest songs in the universe.
Kill 'em all is just rocking, no matter what anyone says about it.
The Load and Reload albums are much maligned by a big portion of the Metallica fanbase. I think this is unfair, because on a musical level (which is the only important level when talking records) I think they are both very good, though Load is superior. The rock/blues direction the band took during this period was very fruitful and gave way to great, well composed songs, as well as great riffs. Hammett joined the Ulrich/Hetfield composition team beginning with Load and I credit him for much of the greatness of the riffs in these albums. I'm actually sad that they pretty much blew their rock/blues wad with these albums and never came back to it. Not only did Metallica sound comfortable playing it, Hetfield's singing style complemented it well.
Ride the lightning is a good album with good tracks but for some reason it doesn't appeal that much to me as a complete product. I don't listen to it very often anymore.
The black album has some great tracks but to me it's pretty much overrated.
And justice for all just lacks in the song composition department. The songs are too long, too baroque, and this just plain turns me off. I see this album as being all over the place and just failing at being concise. I share many of Ulrich's opinions about this album. 'One' is a good track, though.
To finish, Death magnetic. I think the song composition factor is lacking here. There are some great riffs here, but the songs overextend themselves, and are too long for their own good. Listening to this album, I am tempted to think that perhaps their next album will be good. Then again, it could just as well also be pretty much average and mediocre. You never know. 'Broken, beat and scarred' is a very good track with a great main riff and the best track on the album. I also like the instrumental track 'Suicide and redemption'.
Rate all Metallica studio albums in order of awesomeness. 'Garage inc.' is not included since it is a covers album, even though I think it's great. For the same reason, 'Garage days revisited' and 'S&M' are also excluded. Here goes:
1 - Master of puppets
2 - Kill 'em all
3 - Load
4 - Reload
5 - Ride the lightning
6 - Black album
7 - Death magnetic
8 - And justice for all
9 - (empty)
Additional comments:
I haven't included 'St. anger' in the count because I never listened to the whole thing. I think the title track is ok. Not too crazy about 'Frantic'. I find the production quality of the album, meaning the way it sounds overall, to be very lacking. The drums, particularly, sound like SHIT. The snare drum sounds like a tin can. Horrible. That is more or less the reason I never bothered with this album.
Master of puppets is without the shadow of a doubt the best album here. Great riffs and overall guitar work, songs are not overly complicated, rocking from beginning to end, consistent in its direction, not a single weak track. My favorite Metallica song, 'Orion', is here, as well as the next best song on the album and one of the best Metallica tracks ever, 'The thing that should not be', which could easily be branded one of the heaviest songs in the universe.
Kill 'em all is just rocking, no matter what anyone says about it.
The Load and Reload albums are much maligned by a big portion of the Metallica fanbase. I think this is unfair, because on a musical level (which is the only important level when talking records) I think they are both very good, though Load is superior. The rock/blues direction the band took during this period was very fruitful and gave way to great, well composed songs, as well as great riffs. Hammett joined the Ulrich/Hetfield composition team beginning with Load and I credit him for much of the greatness of the riffs in these albums. I'm actually sad that they pretty much blew their rock/blues wad with these albums and never came back to it. Not only did Metallica sound comfortable playing it, Hetfield's singing style complemented it well.
Ride the lightning is a good album with good tracks but for some reason it doesn't appeal that much to me as a complete product. I don't listen to it very often anymore.
The black album has some great tracks but to me it's pretty much overrated.
And justice for all just lacks in the song composition department. The songs are too long, too baroque, and this just plain turns me off. I see this album as being all over the place and just failing at being concise. I share many of Ulrich's opinions about this album. 'One' is a good track, though.
To finish, Death magnetic. I think the song composition factor is lacking here. There are some great riffs here, but the songs overextend themselves, and are too long for their own good. Listening to this album, I am tempted to think that perhaps their next album will be good. Then again, it could just as well also be pretty much average and mediocre. You never know. 'Broken, beat and scarred' is a very good track with a great main riff and the best track on the album. I also like the instrumental track 'Suicide and redemption'.