Metallica St. Anger- Throwback Album Of The Week

Today we are looking at an album considered to be one of the worst of all time. Not only is this album considered objectively bad, but even more disappointingly it comes from one of the greatest Metal bands of all time. Today we are looking at St. Anger by Metallica.

The biggest issues on this album have very little to do with the music, with production and runtime being the biggest issues here. Metallica decided to take a very lo-fi approach to this album, attempting to convey the anger and frustration present during its recording. Because of their dedication to keeping it as raw as possible none of the songs are polished beyond their simplest forms, featuring no solos and a raw Garage Rock aesthetic.

Unfortunately these choices, while keeping the music very raw sounding also doesn't cover up mistakes or disguise bad choices, like Lars Ulrich's loose snare sound. While a loose snare sound on it's own isn't bad, the recording techniques used mean that not only can you hear this horrible pinging noise every time Lars hits the snare, but you can hear the loose snares rattling in the background of most of the songs. This album also features some of the least complex bass playing to ever appear on a Metallica album since producer Bob Rock actually played the bass for this album.

These recording issues and bad drum sounds are only exacerbated by the length of a lot of these songs. Simple and straightforward tracks like St. Anger and Some Kind of Monster are stretched to over 7 minutes when they should only be 4 at most. They keep the same length from their usual songs without having the complex layers. And just to add insult to injury, not only is the music not of a particularly high quality, it also sounds extremely dated as the band sound like they were trying way to hard to fit in with the Nu Metal trends of 2003.

    Despite these numerous issues, I'd still recommend the tracks Some Kind of Monster and St. Anger. While they should only be about 4 minutes long, they are both pretty good songs and, for me at least, overcome the recording issues. Even with a few tracks that I actually like on this album, it’s still the worst Metallica album of all time. While a lot of people don’t like the style of Load and Reload, St. Anger is objectively a horrible album.

Why Would You Want To Buy This?Like Seriously...
Just...Why...?

Issues: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

    Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if Justin Timberlake, DJ Lethal and Emmure had a side project together? If so then Issues is your band. Issues is a Nu Metalcore band that incorporate an array of weird influences that include Pop, R&B, Rap, Metalcore, Djent and Nu Metal. While all of these genres should not, under any circumstances work together, they surprisingly do. Certain tracks go back and forth between heavier, harsh vocal driven bits and poppier sections while others have the boy band vocals and harsh vocals laid over top of a metal band with scratching and keyboard.

    At the heart of the mixture of Pop and Metal are co-lead singers Tyler Carter and Michael Bohn. Issues is actually the third band that both Carter and Bohn have sang with, having previously worked as a duo in bands A Path Less Traveled and Woe, Is Me. Their chemistry shows throughout the album as they are able to make the transitions between and layering of Carter’s soft clean vocals and Bohn’s primal snarling work well.

    Life Of A Nine is the track that features the band going through all of the genres they mix at a fairly rapid pace. The song starts off mid-breakdown then picks up tempo as Carter raps the pre chorus and then the chorus goes full pop, complete with shimmering synths around Carter’s clean vocals. One of the things I do have to give these guys is for all of the potential to be a novelty act they take their music seriously, having solid guitar work and generally well written lyrics. Even the bassist and drummer seem to hold their own for most of the album.

    If Life Of A Nine has the most noticeable shifts of genre mid song then The Langdon House might be the most cohesive combination. This track does feel more like a standard Nu Metal track than anything else on the album, but it also mixes in the heavier Djent elements and pop vocals. This track also features some of the best rapping from Carter and even some harsh vocals towards the end of his verse. I give their drummer Josh Manuel a lot of credit here as he manages to pull off some fills in between the vocals on the softer sections without it sounding forced.

    The rest of the album is much the same, seeing how many ways they can mix Rap, Metal and Pop over the course of the album. Late is more of a commercial Rock song throughout and the closing track Disappear features an acapella Gospel choir at the end, but other than that the rest is pretty similar. If you’re wondering where the idea of mixing Top 40 and Metal came from, apparently it was inspired by Nu Metal. Members of the band have said that they want to do with R&B and Top 40 what Nu Metal did with Rap music. So there you go, it’s Linkin Park’s fault again.

    Overall this album is actually really good, there really isn’t a track on this album that I dislike. Despite the novelty of blending Pop and Metal this album is cohesive, certainly more cohesive than it has any right to be. A few of the transitions are jarring, such as Stingray Affliction’s bridge, but even those shifts don’t feel any more out of place than an ambient part of a Periphery song. I found myself enjoying this album way more than I ever thought I would and I’m curious to go listen to their second album Headspace now.

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Islander Power Under Control: An Album A Day

An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

  

   Islander are an interesting band; their first album, Violence and Destruction was almost entirely one of nu metal revival, complete with a guest spot by POD front man Sonny Sandoval. But after literally the entire band left except for lead singer Mikey Carvajal, Islander’s sound also evolved, incorporating punk, alternative, ska punk, hip hop and modern metal into their sound. The album that came out of this mixing of genres was Power Under Control, which for my money is head and shoulders better than their debut.

    The lineup for this album consisted of JR Bareis on guitar, Arin Illejay on drums and Ezekiel Vasquez playing bass. Bareis is the current lead singer and guitarist for KoRn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch’s solo project, Illejay was the second drummer for Avenged Sevenfold and Vasquez was the bass player for alt rockers ForeverAtLast. Given the eclectic styles and influences each of these artists brings, not to mention the clear Deftones influence on Carvajal, it’s no wonder the album contains so many genres.

    The first thing I can say about Islander is that Carvajal is one of the greatest front men in the modern rock and metal scenes. First off, this guy have like 15 different ways of singing, ranging from death growls and screaming to legitimately good rap vocals, amazing cleans and a unique style that borrows from Che without being a rip off. On top of that, Carvajal owns every crowd that he plays in front of live, combining raw charisma with singing ability and a knack for never looking lost during instrumental breaks.

    The album as a whole is something that must be experienced in one sitting, while many songs are great on their own they all work better within the context of the album. Tracks like Darkness, Bad Guy, Think It Over and Casket work great as stand alone songs, but work way better within the semi narrative of the album. While there is no definite story, the placement of each song seems to have a general flow from a sinner lost in darkness to someone who has found meaning in life.

    Islander, similarly to Twenty One Pilots have songs that are filled with vague Christian themes and spiritual elements. These themes likely stem from Carvajal’s faith, who like Tyler Joseph is not interested in making Christian Rock music but doesn’t shy away from putting those themes into his lyrics. This is one of the better bands at writing songs that can be enjoyed both from a Christian perspective or just from rock or metal fan perspective.

    Some of the best moments on this album come from songs like Devil Red, Beelzebub and Casket that haphazardly switch from alternative rock tracks into full on metal songs before switching back again. The sharp contrast between Beelzebub’s xylophone driven sound to the harsh vocals and metal guitar on the climax is amazing and perfectly sums up the feel of this album. There are also elements of reggae and ska punk on this album that are played much straighter than the Papa Roach/ POD esque reggae nu metal of their first album.

    Calling this album nu metal doesn’t really feel right, but ultimately I don’t know what else to label this as. I feel like the Deftones’ influence is definitely felt here in the way that the album has an almost progressive feel that is too big for the nu metal moniker. Power Under Control also features some really slick production that allows soft tracks like Bad Guy to feel just as powerful as Green Slime Man or Darkness.

    This album overall is a masterpiece and a testament to what a creative and talented band can do with the much maligned nu metal genre. I truly believe if this album had came out in 2001 that Islander would be one of the biggest bands of the nu metal scene. It will be interesting to see if we get a third album from these guys and what it sounds like, especially since Carvajal and the rest of the band that were on this album have amicable split.

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Linkin Park One More Light: An Album A Day

An album a day is posted 5 days a week, Monday through Friday



Here's an album that hasn't generated any controversy...

Maybe it's just me, but I really feel like Linkin Park caught way too much hell for this album. Is it the best album they've ever done? No, not by a long shot, but I cannot understand the outrage from some Linkin Park fans. As a longtime fan of Linkin Park myself, I’ve been seeing the same comments about the band being a sellout or needing to go back to their nu-metal roots since A Thousand Suns (and trust me, it goes back further than that.)

The thing is, they did exactly that on their last album The Hunting Party, which is a nu-metal album that is heavier than anything they’ve ever done. And the response to the album was okay, but that was all it was. Where previous albums had brought in new fans or broadened their sound, The Hunting Party was a niche album pandering to fans who would still rather listen to Hybrid Theory on repeat than hear anything new.

And that is why I can understand the frustration that spawned the comments Chester Bennington has made towards fans of the old Linkin Park. The band literally just made an album geared specifically for them and they still wanna call Linkin Park sellouts and say they don’t care about their fans.

Now that all the background is out of the way, how does the actual album hold up? Because regardless of obnoxious “fans” and backstory on the album, the only thing that matters is the music. Honestly, it’s average; some tracks are really good, some tracks are okay and a few tracks are just a boring waste of time.

The best tracks are Good Goodbye, Talking To Myself, Heavy and Sharp Edges. Good Goodbye is the song that I wish more of this album was formatted like, it is the only track to feature rapping and overall has a modern trap feel. This song would fit very well on Living Things with the ambient synths in the background with an aggressive rap beat on top. The guest verses work well with Stormzy’s verse particularly well done.

Talking To Myself features one of the only cases of lead guitar playing on the album and is a strong alternative rock song. The chorus reminds me of Handclap by Fitz And The Tantrums (another rock band to take a dip into pop) and overall this track is what Linkin Park doing pop rock can sound like at their best. This and Heavy are tied for the best overall pop track on the album, with this being more of the Imagine Dragons leaning side of pop rock and Heavy being closer to Kiiara's style mixed with twenty one pilots.

Sharp Edges is the closing track and is one of the weirder moments on this album, but I really enjoy it. It has an indie folk sound similar to Ed Sheeran and at times has an almost country feel. While it is not something I would expect from Linkin Park, I find myself really loving this track for what it is; and that is kind of the best way I can sum up this album.

While there are some real duds (Halfway Right, Battle Symphony) I generally enjoy the album for what it is. Something I learned a while back with Linkin Park is you have to approach each album as its own entity, because after Meteora they have not made two albums with the same style. As a 2010’s pop rock album it’s pretty good, definitely in the top 20 pop albums of the decade.

But as a Linkin Park album this is definitely the worst one they have done. The style of this album is so much weaker than anything they have ever tried before that it simply doesn't match up. When compared to all the other genres Linkin Park has covered on past albums, 2010’s pop rock just can’t stand up.
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