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Classic Albums - Metallica: Metallica DVD (2001)
7.5
A
pioneering achievement. A confirmation of their laughable stupidity. The starting
point of the downward spiral. A plodding example of corporate sloth. A damn
fine heavy rock album. Whatever your opinion of Metallica's eponymous fifth
full-length (better known as The Black Album) is, we're dealing with
something that's at least a small cultural phenomenon of its own. Even though
Metallica were already the reigning kings of speed/thrash, respected all over
the globe and imitated by hordes of less-gifted musicians, mass success still
eluded them. Metallica were huge, but still a cult phenomenon. It all changed
in 1991, the year when grunge broke and the 80's metal tradition of metal
was given an almost lethal blow. Few bands managed to survive, but Metallica
was one of 'em and if possible, they outsold all the Seattle bands that became
rock royalty in a few months' time. Of course, classic albums (or those which
are regarded as such) don't become classic by themselves, as also The Black
Album got the stellar production and the accessible songs, and was released
at the right moment. Heavy metal had become increasingly popular in the late
80s, with several bands (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer being the
most important ones) growing out of obscurity and ruling the waves of their
own sub-culture. Metallica was the first (and arguably the only) of those
groundbreaking bands to really settle into the mainstream. The album's five
singles ("Enter Sandman," "Sad But True," "The Unforgiven," "Wherever I May
Roam" and "Nothing Else Matters") all became hits and - unavoidably - also
the focus of this retrospective DVD. These five songs are catchy ("Enter Sandman"),
driven by corpulently effective riffs ("Sad But True," "Wherever I May Roam")
or a balance of heavy vs. sensitive (the other two). It was the first
time a formerly bad-ass metal band released an album you could rock out to
with your buddies and make out to with your girlfriends ('cause they'd love
"Nothing Else Matters"!). The question whether this simplified direction was
a case of a band selling out or one anxiously trying to break free from its
chains remains a controversial issue, and the DVD doesn't ignore this question.
On the one hand, the whole project had become a corporate enterprise (the
mixing in itself took longer than the entire recording process of many a rock
& roll classic), a self-important, self-indulgent waste of money, studio time
and battle of egos, but it also builds a credible case for the band trying
to go beyond the self-imposed confines of metal, by incorporating more melody,
ignoring the faster-faster-faster!!! rules and using a more personal
approach. In a way, they certainly succeeded in the latter: the simpler, stretched-out
songs (all of the singles crossed the five minute-mark) appealed to millions
of people who treated it as pure gold. The DVD does a good job of telling
you why these big rock songs wrapped in this big multi-million
dollar production became radio/TV/stadium-staples, although I can't imagine
anyone still feeling the need to play that album - especially its plodding
second half. Also: the release turned Metallica into gin-u-whine rock stars,
an evolution not all egos were capable of dealing with. During the interviews,
bass player Jason Newstedt (who'd soon leave the band) and guitarist Kirk
Hammett still come off as reasonable, sensible persons, but the band's tandem
of Hetfield and Ulrich is something completely different: the former's self-centredness
can be grating, but the real icing on the cake (or is that the cherry on the
pie) is Ulrich, whose cringe-inducing delusions of grandeur and annoying little
ticks (you'd like to hit his fingertips with a drum stick for each misplaced,
nasal uhm) both want you to turn him into a scientific study object,
as well as kill him with your bare hands.
The extras that come with the documentary are pretty interesting, dealing with the band's song-writing tradition, the monstrous job of recording the drum parts in a pre-digital era (they used the cut & paste-technique, i.e. creating the ideal drum track, using parts of dozens other ones), struggles within the band and with producer Bob Rock (who'd become the band's fifth member), last minute-mixing problems, Hetfield's therapeutic lyrics ("The God That Failed") and Newstedt's contribution to the album ("My Friend of Misery"). It's not surprising that the only reasonable guy in the band (this DVD, other interviews and the magnificent documentary Some Kind of Monster paint a picture of Hammett as a cardboard figure, albeit a nice cardboard figure), and the one who was never really treated as equal as the others, would eventually leave the band, follow his instincts and join a more credible (at that point) band like Voivod. But anyway, for a while in 1991, Metallica were the reigning kings of rock & roll, and this DVD does a good job at telling you how that happened.
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