St. Anger: Garbage or underrated?

I gave it another listen and I like it now. It's still in the bottom 3 Metallica albums, but I'd now put it about equal with the Loads instead of dead last.

Hoping Airola sees this so someone else can be on my side...

Lulu is the only thing they've been involved with that I will say is "garbage".

I listened to St. Anger in its entirety again recently and although it's still dead last in my rankings, it's not utter "garbage". Especially compared to Lulu.

My main gripe with St. Anger is still the production. Drums and vocals in-particular.

The songs themselves aren't as bad as I remembered.

So I guess I would have to side with "underrated" at this point, although I still don't think it's on par with the rest of their work.

MagnusPrime wrote:Lulu is the only thing they've been involved with that I will say is "garbage".

I listened to St. Anger in its entirety again recently and although it's still dead last in my rankings, it's not utter "garbage". Especially compared to Lulu.

My main gripe with St. Anger is still the production. Drums and vocals in-particular.

The songs themselves aren't as bad as I remembered.

So I guess I would have to side with "underrated" at this point, although I still don't think it's on par with the rest of their work.

Agree. Production and bloating, as many songs start really good but then by the end it's like "you've played this exact riff and verse 5 times already, just end the darn song." Tbh I only hear the ping-ping snare on about half the songs. But yeah, it's not on par with their other stuff.

The album and time period it came out gives me nostalgia and good but sad memories of me and friend going to the concert during the St Anger tour. We also had a few drinks and what not and watched the Metallica Icons tribute on television which was on a few days before we were off to see them— the tribute when Korn covered One and Snoop Dog did a shocking cover of sad but true and a whole bunch of other artists that probably were never really into Metallica or metal in a big way but pretended to be. Unfortunately that friend took his life in a horrendous way. So I like for those reasons and also don't listen to it for those reasons.

It's not underrated it's exactly where it belongs in comparison to other Metallica efforts. There are a few redeeming qualities on the album so it's not complete and utter garbage.

I think that if St. Anger was deconstructed and reworked, it could be a decent album.

Bro, you've gotta get out there past Metallica if you're putting this much thought into St. Anger

Son of Nun wrote:Bro, you've gotta get out there past Metallica if you're putting this much thought into St. Anger

He will.

It's garbage. Long songs that go nowhere and terrible production. Trying to defend this is like polishing a turd.

As it is, garbage. There are some good ideas present but it would take a lot of work to make it even halfway decent.

Garbage.  Remember, even if you really like a band, they will always disappoint you in some way and will produce some material of poor quality.  That goes for everyone from The Beatles to [fill in the blank].   No amount of parsing or over-analyzing the bad material will make it objectively any better.

Pethead wrote:As it is, garbage. There are some good ideas present but it would take a lot of work to make it even halfway decent.

Exactly. That’s why I said it needs to be deconstructed and reworked (to better use the good ideas).

They went for a garage sound. They made garbage.

Miles better than the last two albums.

It's perhaps Metallica's most aggressive album, and probably the fastest album too.

It's a furious thing with its faults.

Definitely underrated.

Airola wrote:Miles better than the last two albums.

It's perhaps Metallica's most aggressive album, and probably the fastest album too.

It's a furious thing with its faults.

Definitely underrated.

Nothing on Anger is as fast as Fight Fire with Fire, Damage Inc and Dyers Eve.

Death Magnetic is better. Even 72 Seasons is better!

Son of Nun wrote:Bro, you've gotta get out there past Metallica if you're putting this much thought into St. Anger

Believe it or not, Metallica isn't even my favorite band.

Airola wrote:Miles better than the last two albums.

It's perhaps Metallica's most aggressive album, and probably the fastest album too.

It's a furious thing with its faults.

Definitely underrated.

It's underrated, but nowhere near as fast as some of the songs on their peak 3 (though aggressive might be true) And the last two are easily better.

And as a side note, the only "over-analyzing" that contributed to my change in opinion is the lyrics of the title track, I heard an over-analysis and I appreciate the lyrics more even if they're cheesy. I completely get why most people hate it. It's objectively bad music, I just enjoy it.

TZ75 wrote:

Airola wrote:Miles better than the last two albums.

It's perhaps Metallica's most aggressive album, and probably the fastest album too.

It's a furious thing with its faults.

Definitely underrated.

Nothing on Anger is as fast as Fight Fire with Fire, Damage Inc and Dyers Eve.

See, here's the thing:

Even though Stay of Execution has one of the fastest tracks Deliverance has ever made (Entombed) no-one can say it's the fastest album by Deliverance because it's just one track that gets fast.
On St. Anger almost every single song goes into a fast thrash beat at some point, and those few that don't have fast moments in other ways. The ratio of songs that do that is probably higher than in any other Metallica album.
Sometimes the songs have slooow riffs going on but Lars starts banging on the snare drum (or a tin bucket) like there's no tomorrow.

St. Anger is kind of like if Master of Puppets was filled with tracks like Disposable Heroes that might be mostly a slow/mid-paced song but takes fast spurts every now and then. I don't mean to say that any of the songs in St. Anger are even nearly as good as that track, lol  But my point is that St. Anger has surprisingly many sudden fast thrash moments throughout the record.

The fact that the poll is this close is frankly shocking to me.

Also, fast and aggressive isn’t a barometer of quality.

Pethead wrote:Also, fast and aggressive isn’t a barometer of quality.

Depends on the album and depends on the listener.

No-one is going to question me if I say I like the speed and aggressiveness of Battery. No-one is going to question if I can use those elements as something that makes the song good for me. But suddenly if I say I love the speed and aggressiveness of All Within My Hands people are starting to have an issue.


The fact that this is such a big issue for people is triggering me so much that I'm going to blast my list of Metallica albums in the order of quality again here, with zero shame, hahaha, weep and suffer you all!   


01. Master of Puppets | (1986) | 4,06
02. Ride the Lightning | (1984) | 3,75
03. ...And Justice for All | (1988) | 3,39
04. St. Anger | (2003) | 3,32
05. Metallica | (1991) | 3,29
06. Death Magnetic | (2008) | 3,20
07. Kill 'Em All | (1983) | 2,90
08. Reload | (1997) | 2,81
09. Load | (1996) | 2,68
10. Hardwired... to Self-Destruct | (2016) | 2,67

This list was done before 72 Seasons. I haven't scored it yet but I like it less than Hardwired so it would probably be in the 11th position.

Because those aren’t good songs just because they’re fast and aggressive. They’re fast and aggressive and are good songs, as well.

If you like it, fine, but it’s definitely gonna surprise people. Just like when I say Turbo>British Steel. (Which it is).

Pethead wrote:Because those aren’t good songs just because they’re fast and aggressive. They’re fast and aggressive and are good songs, as well.

As is All Within My Hands. One of the best Metallica songs. Five stars, no question. Sweet Amber is a four star song, easily.


Ok, here it goes, all St. Anger songs rated. Five stars being the max.

Frantic ***½
St. Anger ***½
Some Kind of Monster ***
Dirty Window ***
Invisible Kid ***
My World ***
Shoot Me Again ***½
Sweet Amber ****
The Unnamed Feeling **½
Purify **½
All Within My Hands *****

All I can say is I shall pray for you.

For comparison, here's the same for the other Metallica albums (minus 72 Seasons):


KILL EM ALL
Hit the Lights ***
The Four Horsemen ***½
Motorbreath ***
Jump in the Fire **½
(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth **
Whiplash **½
Phantom Lord ***
No Remorse ***
Seek & Destroy ***½
Metal Militia ***


RIDE THE LIGHTNING
Fight Fire with Fire *****
Ride the Lightning ***
For Whom the Bell Tolls ***
Fade to Black *****
Trapped Under Ice ***
Escape ***
Creeping Death ****
The Call of Ktulu ****



MASTER OF PUPPETS
Battery *****
Master of Puppets *****
The Thing That Should Not Be **½
Welcome Home (Sanitarium) ***½
Disposable Heroes ****
Leper Messiah ****
Orion ***½
Damage, Inc. *****





AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
Blackened ****
...And Justice for All **
Eye of the Beholder **
One *****
The Shortest Straw ***½
Harvester of Sorrow **
The Frayed Ends of Sanity ***½
To Live Is to Die ***½
Dyers Eve *****



METALLICA
Enter Sandman ****
Sad But True ***
Holier than Thou **½
The Unforgiven *****
Wherever I May Roam ***½
Don't Tread on Me **½
Through the Never ***
Nothing Else Matters *****
Of Wolf and Man **½
The God That Failed **½
My Friend of Misery ***
The Struggle Within ***



LOAD
Ain't My smurfette ***
2 X 4 **½
The House Jack Built ***
Until It Sleeps ***½
King Nothing **½
Hero of the Day **½
Bleeding Me **½
Cure **
Poor Twisted Me **½
Wasting My Hate ***½
Mama Said **½
Thorn Within **½
Ronnie **½
The Outlaw Torn **½





RELOAD
Fuel *****
The Memory Remains **½
Devil's Dance **
The Unforgiven II ****
Better than You **½
Slither **
Carpe Diem Baby **½
Bad Seed **
Where the Wild Things Are **½
Prince Charming ***½
Low Man's Lyric ***
Attitude **
Fixxxer ***



DEATH MAGNETIC
That Was Just Your Life ***
The End of the Line ***
Broken, Beat & Scarred ***
The Day That Never Comes ***½
All Nightmare Long ****
Cyanide **½
The Unforgiven III ****
The Judas Kiss **½
Suicide & Redemption **½
My Apocalypse ****



HARDWIRED
Hardwired ***
Atlas, Rise! **½
Now That We're Dead **½
Moth into Flame ***
Dream No More **½
Halo on Fire ***½
Confusion **½
ManUNkind **
Here Comes Revenge **½
Am I Savage? **½
Murder One **
Spit Out the Bone ***½