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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Frayed Ends of Sanity

Simply put, Metallica is my all-time favorite band. It's popular to criticize Metallica. I can go to any message board and if Metallica is mentioned, few support the band. This is my interpretation of the general criticisms I've read that are written about Metallica. Some I agree with; others are simply out of touch with reality.
Here's my list:
  1. they are rich snobs
  2. they turned on their fans during the whole Napster hoopla
  3. they tour too much, followed by too many tour dates in Europe and not enough in North America
  4. they made a movie to get even more money
  5. they played Antarctica but because they didn't play "Trapped Under Ice" they suck 
  6. they keep finding excuses to delay the work on their 10th studio release 
  7. they are irrelevant to heavy metal
  8. they can choose any producer for their 10th release because "Lords of Summer" sucks 
  9. they should have combined Load / Reload into a single release
  10. they should offer refunds to those that bought St. Anger because the snare drum sound / tone is awful
  11. they would be criticized by Cliff Burton if he were alive - Cliff would be ashamed of what they've done
  12. they should replace Lars because he is an awful drummer - he looks too much like Billy Joel
  13. they haven't written a decent album since (fill_in_the_blank). Popular choices include:
    • Cliff Burton died
    • they had Bob Rock produce their albums, suggesting that he ruined the band between the Black album taking the band mainstream and not doing enough work to make St. Anger sound better
    • Master of Puppets or And Justice for All - the line in the sand between the two eras of "good Metallica" and "bad Metallica" is hotly debated. 
Of course there's more - perhaps I'll begin collecting them for a page on this blog. 
Despite all of that, I'm a disciple, a sheep, a mindless puddle of ooze when it comes to Metallica so the fact that the following two videos are of Metallica playing "The Frayed Ends of Sanity", first during soundcheck and then in concert, in its entirety for the first time ever, is a big deal to me. I love this song and it has always been my all-time favorite Metallica song since I first heard it in 1989.


During the Concert

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