St. Anger Critical Analysis (Metallica)

KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL
But actually, though... why does St. Anger sound the way it does? What problems actually led to this disaster of a record? And is it possible to actually like it? Dig into this controversial part of Metallica's history as we analyze the production, track selection, and communication problems that created St. Anger.
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Some sources:
Pitchfork's review of the record: pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5...
The Decibel interview: www.blabbermouth.net/news/meta...
Some Kind of Monster: www.amazon.com/Metallica-Some...
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#metallica #music #videoessay

[@dejannashoku2603]

I really appreciate the effort behind this video and the message it carries. However, music or art in general, is not just about technicality, timekeeping or any of that. It always comes down to your own taste of music or art. I personally love St. Anger, but for my own personal reasons. Not because it has good riffs, or lyrics or whatever, but because it has an honesty to it. It spoke to me, not from a musical level, but on a level that i needed at that time and that's why, to this day, I love this album. I'm not a Metallica fan boy, but their music resonated with me on a different level than some other bands. I love bands like Gojira, Mastodon, Behemoth, Machine Head, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater, Opeth, just to name a few, but Metallica's music is the one that resonates with me the most. So, you can always talk about the production and technicalities behind the music, but it always comes down to what do you feel when you listen to a certain song. Metal was and always will be different than most of the genres because of that. Because no matter how fast you play, how much you scream and growl and sing, it was always about honesty, feel and dare to say what no one else would.

[@MMLCommentaries]

You couldn't be more right, man. I think my biggest issue with this video all these years later is my tone. We all love art for different reasons and I think this video comes off as "this album is bad because it doesn't do x thing". There are obviously technical standards to all forms of art that generally should be followed, but we all have to remember that Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica exists... and people like it. This sort of plays into my most recent video about objectivity, in the sense that literally everything is subject to our own perception of it. I'm glad you like St. Anger, there are things about it I enjoy too. Keep on enjoying the things you love!

[@arnoldoguerrero1304]

Thats how I felt too to this Album, its bad thats so good to some. I have 2 copies of this album, Thats how much I love this album.

[@bdr113080]

Amen. I don’t think it’s fair for people to call Metallica sell else because the definition of selling out is the artist doing something that they really don’t feel/and or want to but they do it just because everyone else wants them to do it. I love bands like Slayer One of the problems in the metal genre that the fans will never admit to is that the fans put the bands in a box and they constantly want their favorite bands to put out the same albums over and over and over again. I love the first five Metallica albums, they are my five favorite rock/metal albums of all time but if I want to hear music like that I just got a listen to those albums I don’t need them to make a clone album of Master of puppets. Music is music and you really cannot say something is good or something as bad as a fact. It’s all objective and all what you personally like. I think when it comes to metal The fans are probably the most close minded of any other genre of music and while they claim they want to rage against societies rules, being a metal fan comes with a rulebook that is more strict than any government or religion. If someone doesn’t like an album that’s more than OK but instead of dedicating years of your life of fighting with people on the Internet about it or writing hate mail to the band just don’t listen to that album And focus on the things you do like.

[@micromints1735]

St. Anger is unironically of the most raw and emotional albums of all time. I give it 1 star and 5 stars at once

[@flightofthebumblebee9529]

It's their "worst" album yet still has at least 4 BANGERS on it.

[@SefniAsheforr]

It is interesting as a an attempt at adapting to modern Metal, which I can respect. But the execution was absolutely garbage. I don’t begrudge any artist from incorporating new ideas and innovations going on in contemporary music, but it’s all in execution and Metallica failed woefully here.

[@AskesisGrappling]

Unpopular opinion: I prefer the original recording to the 2015 rerecord. Why? One reason being because in hindsight it's actually refreshing to have an album thats not perfectly produced. Uncomfortable? Exhausting? Good, it was meant to be. It went a lot further than just going for 'raw'. Like the dessolate and bleak sound of justice it offers a window into state of the people in the band at that period of time. Hell I even like the horrible snare, it fits in the context of the record. (Disclaimer, I finished this paragraph just as you made these points yourself except the snare). I don't think this is a great record, but its not horrible either. It's just unique, honestly and intentionally difficult for the listener, thematically brutal in a sense personal struggle. Same as the drums, if you take the lyrics line by line they're bad but as a whole they generally work within the context of the record. Overall I won't listen to St. Anger often, but when I do I enjoy it for what it is. Honest, uncomfortable, flawed with some questionable decisions but having some good stuff in there and nowhere near as horrible as people make out. Again, unpopular opinion.

[@MMLCommentaries]

Honestly, that opinion is way more prevalent than you might expect. This comment section is a good indication of that! I appreciate how in-depth you went with your reasoning, and in some ways i agree, even if I'll go back to the 2015 remake more often personally. Thanks for watching and responding!

[@AndDeathForAll82]

The re-recording’s vocals are atrocious

[@Lattrodon]

BRUH Bleeding Me is SOOOOOO good tho....

[@MMLCommentaries]

Yeah honestly you're so right. I'm upset that past-me wanted to cut that from Load.

[@flightofthebumblebee9529]

Bleeding Me is probably my favorite Metallica song. Disposable Heroes and Orion and Outlaw Torn are close.

[@inframeout]

People can say whatever they want, but "S&M" is an essential live album when there aren't that many these days, it works as a solid Metallica "Best Of", features James Hetfield's best vocal performance, stellar production, the two best "Post-Reload" Metallica tracks and the best version of their most underrated song "Outlaw Torn". This has been my Metallica minute... P.S. "The Unnamed Feeling" is a sad-boi new metal beast

[@MMLCommentaries]

S&M is one of my favorite metallica albums. Fantastic stuff.

[@ripperplaysclon152]

Yeah, but the autotune-

[@necromora666]

Until I faced death and addiction... I didn't understand this album... But now it's the soundtrack of my life

[@RamHoot]

LOL that animation at 14:27 actually got an irl laugh out of me haha, and KILL KILL KILL, oh man, that was amazing. Those were really great, damn. The whole presentation of this video was really good. All of the on-screen details during sections where music was being demoed were really good. Damn, awesome video!

[@RamHoot]

Also we need a GIF of that finger whip

[@MMLCommentaries]

KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL

[@MMLCommentaries]

Also, thanks a lot for the compliments, man! I had a lot of fun editing this one, and I used to HATE editing lol

[@korben51]

HOLY MOLY Lambhoot used relatively strong language!!11111!1111!!!!11!!1!12!!!!!!1111111111

[@superanimenerd13]

I need more of these critical analyses of albums! I think you're the only person on YT I've seen delve into the aspects of production and the more technical end of an album instead of just spouting vague platitudes like, "too polished" or "not enough soul". Also the fact that you're not another music vlog channel gets you some major points in my book because I seriously don't like that style.

[@MMLCommentaries]

+Alex Weil I really appreciate it man! I already have another script in the works on another record in a completely different genre. Look forward to other videos which analyze video games, television, and film as well. Thanks again for watching and commenting!

[@stevenbaksh5545]

A generic rock could never release a masterpiece like Low Man's Lyric, The House Jack Built and Were The Wild Things Are and Torn Within is a good song Justice is better than Master my opinion

[@MMLCommentaries]

You're entitled to your opinion. Music is so subjective, man, it's almost like food in a way. I can talk about how bad or good something is for ages but your tastes are your tastes. Really, my goal with videos like this is to try and start a conversation. I have to agree with you on Justice being better than Master, the tracks are more interesting and complex in spite of the production issues

[@stevenbaksh5545]

MML's Commentaries yea blame production issue on James and Lars they did that to mess with Jason what's your opinion on hardwierd album other than the cover I think it is really good like black mixed with Loads add a little Dead Magnetic and a pinch of Justice

[@MMLCommentaries]

While Death Magnetic was horribly mastered, I like the tracks on that one more than Hardwired. Honestly, I feel Hardwired has similar issues to St. Anger in that many of these tracks drag on for too long. It would have been better off if some tracks were cut and others were cut entirely. I like Hardwired, Spit Out the Bone, and Confusion quite a lot. I used to hate ManUNkind but it's grown on me a lot recently. I think it's cool how this record managed to blend all of the different kind of Metallica styles while still sounding like a cohesive work. It has its strengths and weaknesses like any Metallica record, I suppose.

[@stevenbaksh5545]

MML's Commentaries yea my favorite songs from hardwired is Halo On Fire and Moth Into Flame I find Now That We Are Dead is too long 4 and a half minutes it would have been perfect but Lars loves long songs what is your favorite Metallica song and album

[@MMLCommentaries]

+Steven Baksh Favorite Metallica songs are Fuel, Hit the Lights, and Battery. Favorite studio album is probably Kill Em All, favorite album overall is Live S&M.

[@DankoHidalgo]

WAIT YOU DON'T LIKE HARDWIRED... TO SELF-DESTRUCT ALBUM COVER? WTF?

[@MMLCommentaries]

To each their own, I suppose haha

[@prinpak6]

This album was their return to greatness...St Anger was regrettable, Death Magnetic was a big step in the right direction, and Hardwired is once again a Metallica album I don’t skip a single track

[@Vaeren222]

@@MMLCommentaries you're not alone:)

[@Mrnoobestreturns]

Hardwired is flat out has horrible cover art they tried to copy Steven universe corruption or Undertale algimates but they forgot to add the background and just added faces in and looks unfinished which I can say most about hardwired it sounds and looks unfinished

[@MichaelSheaAudio]

And now in 2024, enter St. [b]Anger. 20 minutes shorter, changed some stuff, added some completely new stuff, and went for a more raw feel than St. Anger 2015, but not in the same way as the original. I leaned further into the nu metal/ metalcore side of things and just tried to make it as groovy and as heavy as possible. I had never heard much more than the title track before last year, I'm not even a Metallica fan, so I had no attachment to the album. I could listen to it with fresh ears and pick out what was good and what was bad. While it was unpleasant to listen to, I could hear the potential buried in it. There are good songs in there, they just did everything so poorly that most people would never know. And when it comes to recording, if they wanted a raw sound, they had to play the songs together live, like they did in the rehearsal video. You can mic everything individually, but it's the performance and the mix that makes it raw. The performance makes it real, and just using basic mixing techniques will get the desired sound. What Metallica did was surgery, it's even more complex than recording everything one at a time. You can hear hard cuts in the songs where they pieced things together. It's like they recorded the demos during the writing process, which is fine, but then didn't go back and redo them properly, they just released the demos. St. Anger is unrefined and cringey in the worst ways, but the vision was there, and it was salvageable. Also I don't think the lyrics are as bad as everyone says they are. Some parts are really bad, but the bulk of them are just "fine", and some parts get more hate than they deserve.

[@Doin]

This was an excellent, in depth analysis of the album. In fact, the best review video I've seen unlike the others where someone just sits there and gives a track-by-track run down. When this album came out I never listened to it all the way through as it was hard to get into but it was certainly, at least, far removed from the Load albums (neither of which I have played in their entirety). I hadn't listened to it in many years but recently I watched a 2 hour interview on youtube with James and Joe Rogan from 2016 which was really interesting and worth watching. It made me go back an revisit the Some Kind of Monster documentary. I then went back and revisited St. Anger and I was able to appreciate it and enjoy it properly for the first time. I agree with what you say here - this album really needs to be listened to in the context of what they were all going through at the time. I also agree that some of the lyrics are a bit childish. 'Kill, kill, kill, kill' is more at home on a Cannibal Corpse album.

[@Icredivm]

I really hope you still read these comment: I like St. Anger. I really like St. Anger. Not as a guilty pleasure, but for real, I. Like. St. Anger. The thing is, I actually like St. Anger for all (or most) parts, which you said are the problems of this record. I like the BANGing Snares, I like the KILL KILL KILL part of All Within My Hands and literally everything else, what you said, was bad from a technical standpoint. But the thing is: I havent played any instrument ever, I didnt really paid attention in music classes in school and I'm from germany, so the english lyrics were more transmitters of emotion than actual words for me (10 years ago now. Today I can understand what he is actual singing now). Do I have bad taste in music, if I actual like St. Anger, as I cant here what is bad, even after getting showed what was bad? I mean, I would also argue St. Anger is a mediocre Metallica Album, but not a bad Metal Album. Maybe it is my taste in music, ranging from Metallica and Iron Maiden over Rammstein and Heaven Shall Burn to Baby Metal and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. I can and will forgive a change in style, if there still is music I like listen to and I guess St. Anger was a daily driver for me back in the day and still is something I come back to.

[@kristismith3662]

Well it's your opinion so I won't judge

[@D-J-Q]

Saint anger is not my favorite album from Metallica however my favorite songs from it are saint anger, dirty window (really liked it), my world and shoot me again. At first I hated the drums big time but once I got used to it I didn't mind.

[@13rucifer]

"I really like St. Anger... [and] Baby Metal..." pretty safe to say you've got some shitty tastebuds man lol

[@hyperbiscuit2284]

Loved the review. Personally, I like St. Anger, but this isn't my review. Now, my question for you is, what would be your opinion of St. Anger if Metallica didn't exist, and it was made by some random band. Basically, judge the album without using other Metallica albums as evidence or reasons why the album is bad. Your review did nothing wrong, I just think that music should be rated independently from other music, and the final decider should be whether or not you enjoyed the music. Technicalities shouldn't be the deciding factor. But that's just my opinion. Rock on!!! \m/ \m/ Also, I love the snare drum sound.

[@MMLCommentaries]

Glad you enjoyed the video, even if it wasn't for you. I wouldn't call what I did here a "review", hence why I didn't use that label in the title (check out my video titled "On Reviews" for more info on that). My goal with this video wasn't really to share my opinion on the album so much as look more analytically at what led to this album being so commercially and critically panned. That's why I went into all the technical and historical stuff. The idea was to look at the development of the album and see what went wrong. My belief is that quality and taste are two completely different things which shouldn't be conflated. I like this album, but this album is also not good. It's possible to like bad things, and it's possible to hate good things. If it wasn't Metallica, I'd probably view the album the same way, although it's possible I wouldn't have heard of it or listened to it given the poor public reception.

[@hyperbiscuit2284]

That actually makes a lot of sense. I've never been one to notice quality, at least not sound quality. I've heard that Death Magnetic is loud and has too much gain, but whenever I listen to it, it just sounds like every other distorted guitar sound. So I'm probably not the best person to judge quality. But thanks for explaining, and I enjoyed your critical analysis. Also, I like the guitar sound of the 2015 version, but I truly and honestly prefer Lars' "garbage can" snare drum. Don't know why, but I do. Also, I find that this record is different because everyone participated in writing it. They mention in the documentary that before, they would each right their own parts, Lars would do the drums, James would do riffs and lyrics, Kirk did solos, and the bassist did the bass parts. And unless you were the drummer, you weren't really aloud to mess with the drum parts. But on this record, everyone wrote lyrics, everyone wrote drums, etc.. This album gave Kirk and Bob a lot more freedom in the writing process. And that's not a problem, that's just why the album would sound different to people.

[@YavuzErol]

As soon as you crossed out Bleeding Me at 03:57, I knew that our opinions would clash for the most part

[@pantelistzecheridis2286]

true,felt the same

[@user-bq2xc2fl6l]

I got Ride in 1984 shortly after it was released. I got Kill 'em All for Christmas later that year.Up to a point I got every Metallica record as quick as I could as they came out after that. Puppets thru Justice were so great and so heavy that I swear I would forget to breathe sometimes while I was listening to them. The $5.98 ep still does that to me sometimes. Those early releases just had this mystique about them that is hard to explain. To me the only band that came close to touching Metallica for me was Slayer. Particularly Seasons in the Abyss. Slayer by the by, would end up becoming my favorite thrash band when almost every other started to "experiment" and see themselves as "serious artists". Slayer stuck to their story. Anyone who tries to call Diabolus and God Hates Us All nu metal albums needs to go listen to the albums that the rest of the Big 4 put out around the same time.They need to then listen to whatever Nu Metal abortions came out during the same period. Slayer was the closest thing to thrash metal that existed on a major label at the time. They did throw in a little Pantera groove, but I digress. When the Black Album arrived I got it ASAP. I'm not going to say I hated it, but I will say that it kind of confused me. It was still heavy and production was was awesome. Jason's bass sounded like it was 10 feet wide and Lars's drums were more precise and less chaotic. I can't say the same for Kirk because that was the point where he to seriously abuse the wah pedal. Something though was lacking. The dangerous quality that everything before it had displayed seemed to be gone. I bought Load and Reload soon after they both dropped and it took years for anything off of either to really grow on me. I wanted to like them so I would go back and listen to them every now and then. I still don't love them, but I finally heard them enough to see their charm. Music from a domesticated, defanged and declawed, Metallica was better I reasoned, than no Metallica. I was probably balls deep in some Swedish Death and Black Metal when St. Anger came around. I actually saw Some Kind of Monster before I heard the album and was shocked to see my once down to earth, Crush, Kill, Destroy, "We need some more fucking beer" heroes had become spoiled rich assholes. It wasn't because they were rich. It was because what they were now calling major problems would have been like any givenMonday to most people with a day job and a mortgage. I finally bought and endured a few listens before deciding if I thought it was as bad as most everyone said it was. It was worse. How the band that wrote the soundtrack to the first 20 or more years of my life could think that piece of shit was anything other than terrible will always be beyond me. The band that once required Elektra Records to include a sticker on the front cover of Garage Days warning it's fans not to pay more than $5.98 for it was now charging full price for this unlistenable piece of garbage? suspect pressure from the record company to give them something to put our played a pretty large role. Music companies care about "product". They don't give a moldy shit about music. The bedhead guy in the Bill Cosby sweaters probably had a role to play as well. It seems like he was in their heads much like Eugene Landy got in Brian Wilson's a couple of decades earlier. Thank God they sent him packing before he had time to do a complete Landy on Lars, or more probably James, as he seemed to be the most venerable at the time. All I know for sure is that the guys that taught the metal world what heavy was seemed to be gone for good. And then Came Hardwired. I know I'm skipping Death Magnetic but except for the fact that it showed a band that was at least trying to get back to what they once did so well, it is a completely skippable album. To me at least. Hardwired isn't perfect. It could have been with the right producer who also moonlighted as an editor. It's still a better album than most ever dared possible. It proved at least that those two kids that met through a classified ad are still in there, and they can still write and play beautifully angry and fucked up thrash metal if they want to. If they hung it up tomorrow at least they would go out having created the most convincing follow up to Justice that we are likely to get this far down the road.

[@MetalMan1245]

St. Anger is definitely not a mechanical success in any sense. But that's what I love about the entire entertainment industry, it doesn't need to be quality content. It just needs to content that people enjoy. I personally enjoy St. Anger. And while the 2015 Re-Recording is also really good, I prefer to listen to them side by side, because the original just has an aura to it that isn't there in the 2015 version (in addition to the fact that the vocals aren't good, a forgivable, yet still present, fact) which is why I love them both. The same goes for Death Magnetic (the following EP) and Hardwired. They're not necessarily a mechanical success (although that's really debatable) but they are really enjoyable to listen to if you just lay back and listen. Thank you for this.

[@MMLCommentaries]

That's really the coolest thing about all art, but especially music. Quality isn't a real thing, it's all subjective. If you like it then that's all that matters at the end of the day.

[@tjchisholm7316]

How could you say Back to the Front is an unimportant part of Disposable Heros. That line is so catchy and ties the whole song together.

[@flightofthebumblebee9529]

That line and that song is was made me a fan when I was 10 yrs old in 1990

[@JM-co6rf]

Metallica lyrics are one of their STRONGEST suits.

[@jaymz]

the dvd for st anger live in studio has a better “raw” sound that you were talking about. by the way, skom was filmed in 2001-2003 but was released in 2004.

[@The_JustJoshing]

Truly an incredible video. You had a lot of great points and I love how you just dissected everything. Great job.

[@ChannelEleven59]

Good analysis. I don't agree with everything. But it was well thought out and your opinions. Kudos!

[@MMLCommentaries]

John 4.5 Thanks man!

[@robinanwaldt]

6:15 Kreator‘s „Hordes of Chaos“ was recorded that way and it‘s just awesome.

[@bdr113080]

I completely agree with what you said about the load albums. I don’t know if I can be qualified as a metalhead because while I love heavy-metal music I also listen to hip-hop, blues, jazz, 80s pop, and basically everything but country. I think to be a metalhead I think in the rulebook somewhere you are only allowed to listen to metal music. I really like load and reload but I don’t like them as much as I like the first five albums. But you are 100% correct in your statement about trimming the fat. I think load/reload should’ve just been one album called Load and I think if you took Fuel, King Nothing , Until it Sleeps, The Memory Remains, Bleeding Me, 2x4, Ain’t My Bitch, The Unforgiven 2 and maybe two or three more of the tracks that people enjoy in just let that be the album I think that that would’ve been a better experience for fans and on top of that the touring for this fictional album we are talking about would be finished up sometime at the end of 1997. That means that The whole load experience, the making of the record, the rollout, the music videos, and the touring would all be done and the boys could probably start writing a new album in 1998. I think if they would’ve started writing a new album in 1998 and now that that fictional album has been put out there, Who knows how things could’ve played out differently you can’t really say they sold out with the album because The only album that load out sold was Kill Em All. Hell maybe if that was the case something might’ve happened in Jason would’ve never of quit the band and maybe we would’ve never gotten St. Anger. Either way the boys are still my favorite band of all time.

[@DanielSantosAnalysis]

"Any album you want me to talk about" City by Strapping Young Lad.

[@BruceSwane]

Whilst I don't necessarily agree with all the opinions on Metallica's back catalogue, this video was fantastic; both informative and funny. And, about half way through I thought of commenting "Have you heard Saint Anger 2015?", then you linked to it! This video should have far more views, it's a fascinating half hour of content.

[@javierdiazsantana]

Worth saying this, Saint Anger is the only record i like to get completely high while listening to it. I love digging it in Halloween (I guess i relate the lyrics, the time i knew the record and the artwork with that festivity) while drinking a very considerable amount of mezcal, a typical mexican distillate, which has to a certain degree, hallucinogen properties. In rural and ethnic mexican culture (I am from Mexico btw) the consumption of these types of substances is done to have a trip where you are showed your true self, or things you need to correct in your life, stuff, whenever i dig St. Anger while drunken - high on mezcal, i think of some pretty crazy stuff and even recall my girlfriend from back in the day when i dug heavy metal. I am pretty sure no other record would give me that trip, St. Anger just has an emotional relevance in my life, i really love it, i would tune my guitar to Drop C and i would riff as back in the day bangers like Frantic, Purify... Oh my, in less than a month i will have once again a trip with St. Anger

[@lostandtravellingwhentimes9260]

Fuel and frantic sound absolutely nothing alike and I have no idea what you were trying to say with that section of this video.

[@dustinmiller1485]

On 'A Year and a half in the life of Metallica' it shows them tracking drums first, which is what I believe they've always done, St. Anger being the exception. I'm pretty sure a lot of metal bands track the drums first, seeing that the drummer is the true time keeper. He lays the foundation.

[@TheJokesterSCR]

Thank you. I can't believe this dude says the bassist keeps time, LOL! I've never heard ANYBODY suggest such a thing. But, I've only been playing and writing music for 20 years, so what would I know...

[@standinstann]

I remember hearing it for the first time, frozen in utter shock at how bad everything sounded. Even more painful was the fact that, (in my opinion anyway) a lot of the actual *songs* were good, it was the recording that just killed them before they had a chance. I was so greatfum to the 2015 project for giving them their due. Over the years I grew to apreceate the actual 2003 version for just the reasons you meantioned. It was indicative of what those guys were going through. Good shit. Subscribed.

[@bdr113080]

I think Bob rock in the black album get way too much shit. I think it’s hilarious when I see fans that are under the age of 50 saying that the early 80s stuff is what got them into Metallica. That might’ve been the first record you heard of them but if it wasn’t for the black album you would’ve probably never heard of him. The black album is what got so many fans not only into Metallica but into other bands like Pantera, Slayer, Megadeth, White Zombie, etc. that’s the album that I heard when I was 12 years old that really got me into rock music and metal. I went to the local record store and only had enough money to buy one album and there were no copies of the black album so I bought ride the lightning and loved it! Notice I didn’t say I heard ride the lightning somewhere and ran out and bought the album. Nope I just happen to walk in the room when the TV was on MTV and enter Sandman was starting and that changed my life forever.

[@et0363]

Just for the record, an album would never ever under any circumstance be recorded with 1 microphone. Even for a “raw” sounding live album, you would always have multiple audio inputs. Your drum diagram even does not show one very important component to this which are the overheads

[@MMLCommentaries]

You are 100% correct; when I made this video I knew virtually nothing about audio. Today I disagree with most of what I said in that section

[@stevenbaksh5545]

St Anger is ok to me

[@danielfoerster3416]

I always thought Amber was a person, but i think the song is refering to beer? like how it's amber colored?

[@strangecousinwst]

Jimi hendrix also didn't use a metronome, he speed things up and slowed things down, and guess what... Maybe you're just thinking too much inside the box, and think there's a "right" way to do things, that's why every record sounds the same nowadays

[@MMLCommentaries]

Yes totally agree with you! Not a fan of this video in hindsight at all.

[@ShangriLaSlayer]

I really enjoyed this review. I'm kinda in the same boat as you when it comes to St. Anger. I think of it as a guilty pleasure and I do go and listen to it every now and then. even if it does have it's very VERY apparent flaws.

[@MMLCommentaries]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Check out some of my more recent stuff... it's way better than this in terms of writing and production quality

[@Octavian2]

A DVD came with the cd of them performing the album in studio. It's a much cleaner refined sound on it

[@Zawmbbeh]

ok... so i like AJFA, RTL, and MoP... but i like invisible kid too...

[@ogloc4478]

The riff at the end of that song is so damn heavy it’s crazy

[@salvadoralvizo2478]

Bleeding Me is one of the best Metallica songs and I will die on that hill.

[@mcshizzl2666]

Couldn't put my finger on why Saint Anger feels "off". After mentioning that the timing is off, that makes a whole lot of sense.

[@FredOldman]

hey man, as a producer i disagree with the concept that the bass is the one that keeps the tempo for the band, thats acctually the drummer job, and normally a record production goes, drums, bass, (sometimes drums and bass toghether) then guitars and finally vocals. nice analysis tho. keep it up!

[@MMLCommentaries]

That's correct; I didn't know as much back when I made this video as I thought I did 👍 Thanks for watching!

[@FredOldman]

@@MMLCommentaries hehe no worries, i just wanted to clear it out, sorry if it was already mentioned in other comments. got here through the qotsa video (where it hurted how u said kyuss,) but it was a really nice one! wish u well from argentina bro.

[@timhuff5624]

Have you heard spit out the bone off hardwired?

[@gianlucatixson6621]

I feel like the 2015 work is good but I feel like its missing something, idk the bad sound of the original album haves something

[@MMLCommentaries]

A lot of people agree with you there, and I can totally understand that!

[@moko9hoko]

So you say that metal fans arent sitting there criticizing/critiquing small parts and how they sound then you criticize the tempo of frantic not being consistent....

[@metallurgy1291]

You are clearly not a Metallica fan. I’ve been a fan of Metallica since 1985. You’re clearly very young. Which has nothing to do with your being a metal fan, but St. Anger, in my opinion, is one of their best releases. Lyrically St Anger has some of James best thought processes ever recorded. Just because it’s not what YOU would call a traditional heavy metal record does it imply that it lacks substance. You go on to include a song called “Temptation” that doesn’t even appear on the album. I’m of the opinion that you have WAY TOO MUCH TIME on your hands? and you’re probably an economically privileged human being that can afford to make these types of you tube videos in the first place? All that aside I’ll give you an A for your effort on your in depth analysis of the record. And to all the Jason Newbled (as in menstrual cycle) trolls. He sucks!!! He always has. And I’m SO SO glad that he’s no longer in the band.

[@MMLCommentaries]

Hey, I'll admit, I've always been more of a Slayer fan myself, and I haven't even been alive since 1985, let alone a Metallica fan for that long. I would definitely approach this video differently if I were making it today, but the video is what it is at this point, and I learned from the experience and grew as both a writer and video producer as a result. I wouldn't argue that the record lacks substance, just moreso that a number of factors which played into how this record was made directly harmed the quality of the final product. It's not a bad album, but I'd definitely say that it's the worst of their core discography. And I agree, Rob is a much better fit for Metallica than Jason was. Cliff was the real legend, though... no topping the master.

[@metallurgy1291]

MML's Commentaries Hey bro. Thank you for taking the time to reply. I realize that I may have been a little harsh on your review but I really do appreciate the criticism. I wish more guys had the guts to do this sort of thing. I just get a little sensitive when it comes to my all time favorite band Metallica. No hard feelings. Thanks again 🤘🏻

[@diejobWHO]

This video should have garnered hundreds of thousands of views at least. So well documented and put together. Great stuff!

[@joj8300]

What live shows is the footage from the beginning of the video from?

[@veeeerybadplayer]

This footage is from "Through The Never"

[@ThierryRocksTV]

I didn't mind the cover for Hardwired but they could've at least coloured the background instead of leaving it white...

[@MMLCommentaries]

I'm not sure how I feel about the background, honestly. I really like simple album covers, so something in the background might have been distracting, but I can see how you might think of its whiteness as being lazy on the designers' part. The main thing for me is that the face-mashing just looks stupid and doesn't relate to the content of the album whatsoever. Even St. Anger's album cover had some relation to the feeling of naked frustration they were trying to convey.

[@ThierryRocksTV]

MML's Commentaries I like the thermal vision effect it has with the oranges and blues but the clustered faces doesn't really fit the album's tone you're right. The font design is cool though in the logo.

[@MMLCommentaries]

Yeah the logo change is probably the thing I like most about the album cover, haha

[@ThierryRocksTV]

MML's Commentaries Also what are your opinions on the actual album as a whole?

[@MMLCommentaries]

Demon Rantz It's sort of hit-and-miss throughout. They fall into a rut of repeating pretty basic riffs in a lot of songs instead of changing it up like they did in earlier thrash albums or even St. Anger. The song structure is super-basic, which isn't a compliment for the people who made songs like Master of Puppets and Blackened. Unlike most critics I prefer the second disk to the first because they do change things up musically more often. Confusion and Spit Out the Bone are the best tracks on the whole thing. The second disk also has some really awful tracks on there tho, like ManUNkind and Am I Savage. I also think they should have cut down the length of most of these tracks. Hardwired had a pretty good length.

[@Bat-Georgi]

I disagree with the "Love is control, I'll die if I let go" lyric being bad. That shit goes hard, especially if you've ever loved something or someone enough to obsess over it/them.

[@bdr113080]

30:20 you don’t want them to play it safe if you would rather have them be honest and fail? That is exactly what slayer, Megadeth and anthrax and 90% of the metal community do. Sure they will never have an album that a lot of fans don’t like but they also haven’t had many albums that get that high praise pass the mid 90s. I’m not saying they haven’t made good albums but when you talk about the big four or Pantera everyone always talks about how great the first three or four albums were. But now they’re put in a box and if they try to do anything different than what they have done before they know their fans will turn on them. I think slayer and Megadeth have put out some great albums in the 2000s and even the 2000 teens but you never hear metal fans talk about how good that those albums were. I would rather listen to a band like Metallica who just puts out what they are feeling at the time and doesn’t give a fuck about what anyone else thinks then listen to bands that are scared to death to try anything new.

[@lostandtravellingwhentimes9260]

There’s a bit of bad research here. Lars didn’t intentionally turn of the snares and then convince the band to keep it that way. He forgot to hook them back up after a day in the studio and decided to go with it. The band then unanimously decided to go with that sound for the recordings.

[@Nightowl333]

I am still so dumbfounded, confused daily, how professional musicians and an accomplished producer listened to the sound (specifically the “drum” sound) of St Anger and said yes, that’s it, that sounds good. WHAT THE F***? How did their management even allow it to be released? I could have written a better album than that with my high school rock band I used to play with 15 years ago. I am so mesmerized I have to keep watching SKOM in disbelief that album really happened. What a train wreck. St Anger is truly the 9th wonder of the world.

[@thetruthisoutthere5173]

St anget was just a specific lapse of a band in distress. It is a truly amazing album, and a miracle that they are still togheter after everything they've been through. Get your head out of your butt and enjoy things for what they are.

[@ColgateEagle]

In my opinion I'm not a fan of the 2015 one... It sounds too basic... It sounds like every metal band ever in all honesty and thats why I listen to St. Anger! It sounds unique enough to the point where I like it!

[@katekrylov]

All those elaborate speculations are for those who are happy not to know or ever experience the real feelings and emotions that inspired the record. They made it the way it sounds intentionally, consciously and it's also the part of the message.

[@rmatt498]

I tend to play guitar better when I’m either playing with my bassist friend or playing along to a bass boosted mix of a song

[@rattailtony2900]

This needs to be shown in any class dealing with music production or anything like that. It's probably the most informative review of St. Anger I've ever seen, great work!

[@MMLCommentaries]

It definitely isn't perfect, but I appreciate the compliment nonetheless.

[@bilams]

3:51 i definitely do not agree with until it sleeps, unforgiven 2, where the wild things are and prince charming being filler.

[@MMLCommentaries]

I agree! My opinions have changed a lot over the years. Until it Sleeps and Prince Charming are quite good

[@TheAtomicPunk-fr7dm]

there are a lot of songs that are hidden gems on this album. i love this album but specifically the unnamed feeling stands out. the lyrics are something else and in my opinion, some of james' best lyrics. he puts a whole bunch of emotion in it.

[@richardmoores]

Yea the unnamed feeling is my favourite of this album

[@reservedhogs4735]

Generally a good review, but there's some incredibly bad takes here. "The only thing wrong with AJFA is the lack of bass" - No, there's also the fact that the songs were drawn out as hell and that the drums and guitars both sounded like garbage "The bass is only there to keep time" - Keeping time is primarily the drummer's job. The bass also keeps time, but is mainly there to provide some low end and to harmonize with the guitar. "The bass is the most important instrument" - What would you rather listen to? A metal album with no bass, or a metal album with no guitars? What about a metal album with no drums? "The drum sound is bad because they used too many microphones" - They actually used a lot fewer microphones than on previous records. The reason the drums sound like shit is because they only spent 15 minutes setting up, mixing and tweaking the drums. "Sweet Amber is the best track on the album, with the best lyrics" - Not as long as Dirty Window exists." "Poor communication is the least important issue with St. Anger" - You rightly mention that it was the cause of all the other problems, but you still list it as the least important?

[@MMLCommentaries]

I agree with you! I don't really like this video much anymore because of how much I disagree with it now, among other reasons. Thanks for watching, though. I appreciate the support and input!

[@BAVBAVBAV]

Yeah idk man, St Anger is my favorite record from them and some people just don't get it. I love the production and energy of the whole thing.

[@JM-co6rf]

this guy doesn't know as much about music production as he thinks

[@MMLCommentaries]

Correct! In hindsight this video is garbage.

[@meabobo]

imo the main issue was the snare. that snare was a turned off. and that St. Anger 2015 doesnt make things better because it doesnt had the spark. believe it or not, the spark does exist. and that recreation doesnt have it all.

[@ir0nri0lu99]

I might be a little biased here because St. anger is my favorite album, but I feel like the drumming is great. To me, it’s the best drumming from all albums. His raw emotion and energy is something that makes me love this album even more. Of course I don’t think this album is great but it’s still my favorite album. I even like the snare, the snare works with what the album is in my opinion.

[@Mrnoobestreturns]

I pretty much like most of St Anger 1 metalica is a American metal band so the bad lyrics is good in my eyes because it fits well in St Anger and any other metalica band America is chaotic as hell so is St Anger 2 St anger saved metalica because if this album did not release it would of ended years ago because nearly the entire band started hating working to make songs with them and wanted to quit 3 that album message aged insanely well after 10 years it’s about mid life crisis Frantic is a prologue about a maniac sick and tired of life and wants to rush things and go back to prison how did this happen well St anger the beginning is a person pretty much in the American prison and has done nothing but made him more mad for many reasons they don’t fix they punish Some kind of monster now they question that everything they have done is what a monster or a human would do due to what the guy has gone through And so on this is just the beginning of St Anger

[@TheJokesterSCR]

That's not saying much. Lars has never been a great drummer. I respect and really like most of Metallica's earlier stuff, but Lars is basic AF. Even his more energetic drums are super easy/basic.

[@TheJokesterSCR]

Are you sure you record bands? Drums ALWAYS have mics on every drum and normally overheads to get the cymbals. Oh, and drums almost always get recorded first. Hell, all 4 people I've recorded with even had dedicated mics for the hi-hats and the ride cymbal. Lastly... drums are THE backbone of the band and the bass follows the drums, not the other way around. I'm so confused by what you're saying LOL!

[@MMLCommentaries]

Yeah I made this video a long time ago and can't say I stand by a lot of what I said in this video. Thanks for watching anyway!

[@FilmThePoliceFTP]

It’s funny... as a guitar player, I have grown to appreciate the bass the more I mature in life. I am actually thinking about picking up the bass and learning it more seriously.

[@patrickhamning1734]

What a cool and informative video. Thank you!!!!

[@joehobbs3277]

Saint anger is definatly an album that once you hate it you really hate it but if you like it you really like it I remember standing in line for ages at my local music store and not being to familia about the problems Metallica had and Jason leaving the band as well I was just happy to be getting a new metallca album that said when I got home and put it on boy did I hate the hell out of it. But then I went back and listened to it a couple of years back and now that I’m older I can certainly identify with a lot of the songs and can appriciate what Metallica were going for even if the sound still annoys me to this day

[@unmitigated-claustrophobia]

I wonder if they had hired Ross Robinson to produce and had a bass player for the album. Maybe I wouldn't hear "along a lonesome highway" so often lol

[@a.wagner7985]

I actually really enjoyed hardwired to self destruct, its obviously Not as good as the first 6 albums, however i really liked it, the only problem that i really found was not hearing Trujillo

[@MMLCommentaries]

The Real Toast Seriously, three decades later and there's still no bass hahaha

[@funghoul9124]

i kno this is old at this point but do you play music? just wondering if your a musician looking at this from that perspective

[@MMLCommentaries]

I can play keyboard, I minored in music back in college... but I wouldn't call myself a practicing musician, nah. Closest I got was a few non-starter bands back in college and high school!

[@tiagometallica007]

The lyrics only sound cringy because of the instrumental behind it. If you listen to the acoustic version of AWMH it sounds amazing

[@gregfalc]

Cool video, although I disagree with the point about slowing down and speeding up as an amateur mistake. Yes, that absolutely happens, however small tempo fluctuations are very often deliberate in professional recordings. If you watch the recording of the Black Album in "A Year & a Half in the Life of Metallica", you will see how they set the metronome to vary 1 BPM between the verse and chorus of Wherever I May Roam - just because that subtle change helped them achieve the shift in dynamics. So I'm pretty sure it was deliberate in Frantic as well, especially how there is so much copy&paste done here. I understand the point about this being NOT raw though. Oh, and I would say that besides timekeeping, the most important job of the bass is to provide the low end of the band together with the drums. :)

[@MMLCommentaries]

Grzegorz Sokólski I wouldn’t call the tempo fluctuations intentional just because of how inconsistent they are, but I definitely overgeneralized in this video. Totally agree that slight tempo changes like what you explained with WIMR can work to enhance a piece at times. And yeah, that low end role of the bass is super important. Justice is proof of that.

[@Flopperhead]

I think your example for the snare in Dirty Window is actually one of the better examples. In that short clip, it actually sounds 'sharp' in the mix. Several other times throughout the album, however, it is so pathetic and horrid sounding in the mix.

[@sergiocortez7600]

Dude. Honestly. Thank you very frikin much for THIS ---> 16:05

[@MMLCommentaries]

No problem! Still love that version of the album to this day

[@NegiTaiMetal011]

I admit I was a kid getting into metal at that time (2003), so I used to like St Anger, but over the following few years I recognize it's flaws and grew to dislike it. So yeah, the production sounds and how it is nu metal-influenced killed it for me. Of course I listened to the re-recorded St Anger, which made it more bearable for me and I like it, but don't expect me to listen to it constantly. I definitely admire and agree your critical take on this bad album; it's surely bad, but Lulu is worse. The only song I like is the title track.

[@diabeticmonkey]

Why oh why did you have to bring up 3IOB? God, I miss that band

[@darrenstuart3907]

Interesting video, thanks for putting it together. I agree with a lot and also disagree with a lot of what you were saying. I think a lot of the things you pick them up on being bad were done intentionally as that's what they wanted it to sound like. Things like the inconsistent tempo or Hetfield's voice cracking, I'm pretty sure that will have been a conscious decision to not correct that. The guitar tone I hate, but its quite a standard guitar tone for that kind of "nu metal" era. I still don't like Metallica's guitar tone, the Black album was the last time their guitars sounded good. It's a marmite album for sure, for me its not so much the sound of it, which is an acquired taste, I just don't like most of the songs, they are too long, all sound the same and it gets boring very quickly. Compared to their most recent albums where I don't like the sound of them but a lot of the songs are actually really good and if, thanks to the wonder of youtube and guys recreating them with a vintage Metallica sound, you can get to appreciate that.

[@Aaron_Berry]

I'm 14 years old and the only album I like by Metallica is St Anger and that's not a joke. I hate the rest of their albums because I just don't like Thrash Metal, My favorite genres of metal are Nu Metal and Metalcore, and St Anger sounded like Nu Metal to me.

[@MMLCommentaries]

That was sort of their goal with this album. They were afraid of their waning relevance and wanted to adapt Metallica to then-modern metal trends. I think #StAnger2015 proves that, at least on a basic level, they had the ability to make that work.

[@Aaron_Berry]

the reason his snare drum sounded like that is because he turned the snare off, if you look on the side of a snare drum, you can see a little knob that you press down to turn the snare drum on and off. this is commonly done in Nu Metal bands, for example, check out this Nu Metal song, they turned the snare off in this Nu Metal song: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpXMkH6fdsygh5Y&

[@MMLCommentaries]

I'm pretty sure I explain that exact thing in the video, albeit with a bit less detail.

[@gruesomewolfgaming4735]

I move Where the Wild Things Are. It could have been bigger if it was on a single album with the filler from load and reload cut

[@roldanrosario243]

Nah. It was supposed to sound like that. The issue with the album was that every track was 2 to 3 minutes too long.

[@pavlokozhevnikov6067]

Holy crap that is a well done analysis of St. Anger and metallica in general.

[@paradigmshiftz7]

I agree and disagree with some stuff youve said. Production is definitely the biggest problem from St. Anger, strongly agree. Lyrics on St. Anger suck, disagree to a certain extent. The thing is, with the lyrics you gotta find out what the meaning behind them is, because the meaning behind most of them isnt blatantly obvious; and once you do, it starts to make a bit more sense (but the sucka in My World is really cringy, no excuse for that 😂) The only question I have is, do you prefer how the album sounds or how the live rehearsals sound?

[@chivAvatar14]

If you listen deep enough, you'll liked it , trust me!! 😏

[@JustZaker]

10:53 kirk hammett does not record the riffs, james hetfield does

[@lxealish76]

A CrItIcAl at deAth MAgNetic

[@JaySway17]

St. Anger is a great album. It's just misunderstood. Your review is very much proof of that.

[@hatwearinggamer]

Classic iPods

[@MMLCommentaries]

Dude I got the iPod Classic a month before they discontinued it. Best purchase ever

[@user-ez05ob0WqQ]

I always called this one 'Nu-Metallica'

[@TheOneTrueAJ]

I wondered why this was so bad. Thank you for the explanations. Funny. And sad.

[@craigusselman546]

st anger green remix is actually tolerable because its mixed like a normal fucking record.

[@gs032009]

MML, a few comments are in order: -good job on your analysis. Load and reload were rubbish and sadly St.Anger did not improve on these, I knew this, fans knew this, and you only helped substantiate this point and conclusion. Despite the re-recording by the band you mention it is still bad. -The great bands from the sixties, throughout the seventies, till the eighties, until modern guitar-led music began to go downhill, recorded live in the studio, or almost-live in the studio, and then added the overdubs, took out sections or added sections, mostly vocals, which makes sense, it is line with what you suggest as the recording method, the bass-drums-guitars-vocals sequence. On to the next point. -I must disagree a little bit with what you said about the bass-guitar. The most important instrument(s) in the creation and recording of this genre of music is the rhythm section, the drums combined with the bass, truly married and joined. And if you must split the recording into stages, then start with the bass and drums, add the rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and then vocals, or vocals and overdubs of lead guitar. -Metallica, should stop using clipping in their albums, and you will surely agree with this point! Metallica should also take a closer look at their heritage and what great bands preceded them and carved the DNA for this genre and for their existence, and record live-in-the-studio, as their predecessors did, if the first take goes wrong play 10 takes until it's right. Don't be lazy, don't be complacent.

[@MRB16th]

There only issues with this album for me were a) Lars' busted snare and the guitars sound absolutely awful, and b) Metallica and Bob Rock tried to cram 75 minutes into a 50-60 minute album (Invisible Kid, My World, Purify and All Within My Hands were dragged out beyond belief). For what it's worth, I put Load and Reload into a triple album I call Loaded.

[@maxpalmer3212]

I herd somewhere that James wrote sweet amber for his wife

[@TheHeatnik]

MML, the defender of the bass, the protector of the low-end. The man who will stand up for us bassists in the studio.

[@TheJokesterSCR]

Even though he's completely wrong. The DRUMS keep the tempo and the rest of the instruments follow. That's common knowledge. I don't shit on bassists like some people do because they're every bit as important as the rest of the instruments, but this dude has no idea what he's talking about. Even suggesting that any sound engineer worth their salt would not mic up every drum. Hell, the 4 different people I've recorded with even had dedicated mics for the hi-hats and ride cymbals. Of course every drum is supposed to be mic'd up.

[@freexaxplays7746]

This was probably your best edited video. Very informative too. This video was a lot easier to follow than your previous ones in my opinion. That's all I really have to say. To be honest, I can't stand Metallica. Out of the four that you mentioned at the end, Megadeth is the only one that I can really get into.

[@MMLCommentaries]

FreeXaxPlays thanks a lot man! I spent a lot more time on editing this one. Also, Megadeth is a pretty solid band. I think I like Metallica the most, followed by Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax last. Dave Mustaine used to be in Metallica, you know!

[@moko9hoko]

Re-recording st. anger to sound like "traditional" Metallica completely defeats the purpose of st. anger in the first place.

[@allanlimaverde6201]

I think those guys from St Anger 2015 did a nice job but their result sounds like generic metal sound. All the "mistakes" in St Anger confer it a unique personality. And I like Lars' snare sound, it fits the album vibes better (aka he was right)

[@RBKluuzGH]

I think the drums in St. Anger are unique and I love them. Find another band that has a sound EXACTLY like those drums. You cant.