I have recently heard a new song by Metallica. By now it is common knowledge that this legendary thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California was a strong innovator of the genre along with other thrash giants such as Testament, Exodus and Destruction. What many are growing to accept recently is that Metallica practically died after their break from the Black Album and have been making bad career moves since they became 'the new Metallica' over a decade ago. Their last album St. Anger kept nailing the coffin shut. Metallica was still falling into a large dark hole that Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield with the growing controversy surrounding the band helped to create. When illegally (yes, Lars, downloading) having a song send to me over MSN messenger, I grew increasingly impatient as to what the new song would sound like. Metallica fans were growing impatient during the last three years since the dissapointment of St. Anger. This song, recorded in Berlin and obviously on a cell phone or an mp3 player at a concert, gave me some new hope.

James Hetfield talked for over a minute before Metallica actually started playing the song. I was hearing a lot of people booing but the energy was kept up through Hetfield's little speech. Hetfield explained that the song hadn't even had a title yet and was simply called 'the new song'. Many people laughed over this. James also likes to tell the crowd that he sees familiar faces even though this can't possibly be true. His previously drunken blur of a memory would've wiped that clean. Metallica play a nice little introduction before getting into the song itself. Crunchy riffs played in detuning are given to the crowd as well as a melodic guitar composition before this that sounds slightly reminiscent to anything off of St. Anger. This section of the song is very spot-on and is accepted greatly by the crowd when Hetfield asks 'are you still out there?' The band gets into a fast thrashy introduction once again in detuning consisting of very little notes, seemingly strumming the same string over and over again repeatedly combined with Lars sloppy double-bass drum patterns in the background. Although this is a bit continuous, the fans go crazy over it. I will say once again that this song is better then anything off of St. Anger. The problem is that this will never top any previous songs that Metallica released in their heyday.

Metallica promised that St. Anger would be a return to their thrashier days but didn't live up to that. That promise seems to be fulfilled upon hearing this song. The heavy meaty chord work while keeping a nice melody makes one think of the Black Album. We have guitar solos people! Kirk Hammet belts out a guitar solo much to the pleasure of the individuals who were recording this for the millions of Metallica fans in front of a computer.

There is a lot of down tuned anti-melodic grinding after the solo is finished but 'the new song' is very promising. The chorus work might make someone scream out 'Load!' or 'Reload!' although the bluesy hard rock isn't there. I would say that this song has breathed some new life into the band. Those who have heard this leaked version can now breathe slightly easier in anticipation of the new album now being another St. Anger clone.

Thoughts?

Where can I get it? I want to hear it. It was possibly recorded through a cell phone? Damn, it must have very poor sound quality. It seems that the "new song speech" is a tradition now for James Hetfield since he did the same thing with the song "Fuel" from the "ReLoad" album in the "Cunning Stunts" DVD. If that song is really authentic then it may be hope for those who dream with Metallica's return but we shouldn't drop into conclusions yet for a sole song does not make an album and the rest could be disappointing.

P.S. You are missing some Thrash gods up there.

I must hear it!!! Metallica has never turned me down, IMO there is no bad Metallica song ... their "worst" song is "All Within My Hands" but it's still an okay song.
I MUST HEAR THE NEW SONG!!!

You'll find it here: http://www.metalstorm.ee/forum/topic.php?topic_id=922

Look for God Of Reptiles' posts.

I've heard it, it's bad, but way better than St Anger. There's a fast solo (but not really outstanding) and some heavy riffing (especially right after the solo), but the rest is just a mix between Reload and St Anger. It also suffers from one of the biggest problem on Reload: lengthy songs that shouldn't have been so lengthy (this new song reaches about 8:30).

All in all, I enjoyed only the last 4 minutes, plus the intro/outro.

Written by Darth Satanious on 11.06.2006 at 08:13

P.S. You are missing some Thrash gods up there.

Well, I wrote this for a magazine and they only wanted me to list three so there you have it...

This recording was really of bad quality, yes...that's why you wouldn't be able to give it an honest opinion because of this...you'd have to wait until the album comes out to really say something about it...


@wratchild: Props on the link man

Better than the previous one, that's for sure. But damn, if they were dead, they are a zombie with a moving toe, right now.

The new songs sound more like a ReLoad song ... and that's a little dissapointing since I think ReLoad is their worst album, still good though.

For me, this song is way better than anything released on St. Anger. There's plenty of melody and although some of the instrumental work (and Hetfield's vocals) are sloppy at some points, it does sound promising. The actual fact that they included a solo at all in this song is something to bring a smile to my lips, and although it (and the chorus especially) does sound like something off Load, that's not bad for me. I personally like a lot of the stuff from Load. Yes, it wasn't as good as their old material. Yes, it wasn't really heavy. But it was different and I could quite happily listen to it. Metallica are never going to go back to their 'old days', so we might as well accept that fact and move on. If the rest of this album is as good as this song promises it will be, then it'll be on my wish list in no time. But, I will still download it to see what it's like before buying it.

It's ok. Hetfields vocals suck but Lars uses a double pedal. The solo is far from amazing too but the riffing can be certified as thrash metal. It does drag on a bit but its' much better than 'St Anger'. I hope for them the new album is better than the latest few but I doubt it will be good enough for me to buy immediately.

The end of the day my thoughts can be summed up in two sentences

They will never make another Master Of Puppets. Get over it.

Written by Guest on 11.06.2006 at 07:57

I have recently heard a new song by Metallica. By now it is common knowledge that this legendary thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California was a strong innovator of the genre a lot with other thrash giants such as Testament, Exodus and Destruction.

I just read the intro to this thread, and what I find a bit puzzling is that Destruction seem to hail from LA, California according to you. I never knew that Germany also had a town called Los Angeles and a state called California Last time I checked Germany borders to the east of The Netherlands which as far as I know (I think I should since I live in The Netherlands) is still in Europe.

@Ozman, well that's just a matter of interpretation.

@Horlequism. What if you change it into:

this legendary thrash metal band, from Los Angeles, California, was a strong innovator of the genre a lot with other thrash giants such as Testament..

Doesn't that make it clearer?

Written by wrathchild on 11.06.2006 at 12:42

You'll find it here: http://www.metalstorm.ee/forum/topic.php?topic_id=922

Look for God Of Reptiles' posts.

I've heard it, it's bad, but way better than St Anger. There's a fast solo (but not really outstanding) and some heavy riffing (especially right after the solo), but the rest is just a mix between Reload and St Anger. It also suffers from one of the biggest problem on Reload: lengthy songs that shouldn't have been so lengthy (this new song reaches about 8:30).

All in all, I enjoyed only the last 4 minutes, plus the intro/outro.

Ugh, I hated the new song. It was more nerve-racking than it was enjoyable. Sure, the solo it had was good and the ending was nice; both reminded me of 'Creeping Death', but overall, the new song sucked. Hearing James Hetfield sing makes me want to shove a pencil in my ear. The song was better than the entire album "St. Anger" because I didn't hear Lars Ulrich banging on trash cans like a retarded monkey, but it still didn't change the fact that the rest of the song sucked. To me, Metallica died when Cliff Burton died. Even if the band released material that sounded just like "Kill 'em All", it still wouldn't make up for the terrible mistakes they have made. (This includes: selling out, cutting their hair, the fucking midget Lars Ulrich suing his own fans because they were downloading the band's music, releasing "St. Anger" aka "Worst Metal Album Ever Made", having the ignorant tyrant Bob Rock producing said album, covering up the fact that the album sucked by saying it came from "the new Metallica", etc.)

They would never ever make the same mistake twice...wud never ever make a second st anger...

they will be at least solo in the next album

@Ozman (Scarface): It seems that time you have quoted me recently on anything is to tell me what's wrong with what I'm posting...'what is your major malfunction?'

Let's look at this together Ozman shall we?

"this legendary thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California was a strong innovator of the genre along with other thrash giants such as Testament, Exodus and Destruction"

You see.....I used the words 'with other thrash giants' after I typed 'Los Angeles, California' therefore seperating those two ideas in that sentence...

gawd

@Nervel: Dude...I'm an editor by profession and in all the classes I took in university I was always told that the amount of commas that you put in that sentence structure break it up into too many fragments and the reader trips over every passage...

@Horlequism. Don't feel offended man! I didn't knew that.

Written by Guest on 11.06.2006 at 20:34

Written by Darth Satanious on 11.06.2006 at 08:13

P.S. You are missing some Thrash gods up there.

Well, I wrote this for a magazine and they only wanted me to list three so there you have it...

This recording was really of bad quality, yes...that's why you wouldn't be able to give it an honest opinion because of this...you'd have to wait until the album comes out to really say something about it...

Writing an article for a magazine? That is pretty grim. I downloaded the song through Limewire and the sound quality is not as bad as I expected. Several Black Metal recordings sound worse than this by far I would say.

To me, even considering the decline of quality of Metallica's latest releases, James have had a great stage presence during shows and he knows how to attract the people's attention to him. I would say this trait in him has appeared because of his arrogance which gives him confidence in stage (may be a double edge sword which manifests in a wrong way through his music) and, of course, the time he has spent in stage, the experience he has acquired through the years.

About the song, it is indeed something that could have fit the "St. Anger" album perfectly. The only thing that would make it differ from the tracks there is the solo for we all know that they were completely absent in "St. Anger" and I personally think that this fact was the main reason for making this album so plain and boring.

I am wondering if Metallica still remembers about their first records since they promised to have a "Ride The Lightining" approach in their new material and I don't see the slightest of it in this song. Anyways, I think that it is too unlikely to have Metallica returing to those Thrash days and their splendor. They seem to be too fond of their new style and James' vocals won't ever be the same, they won't have that aggressiveness they used to have.

P.S. I wanted to beat the shit out of the guys who started talking during the solo.

Written by Darth Satanious on 16.06.2006 at 18:12


P.S. I wanted to beat the shit out of the guys who started talking during the solo.

Never mind that-the fact that he kept on moving whatever-the-hell-he-was-recording-on around was enough to make me punch the monitor. Is it that hard to hold a mobile in one position?! :p

And as to many of the people who remain very critical about this song, think on this; it's a bootleg-quality song from a live performance-the album version will probably sound much better, as Lars' drumming will (hopefully) be faded better in the mix, Kirk will be up front and Hetfield MAY ACTUALLY be in tune.

And @Insineratehymn: Let's face it, Bob Rock was the worst producer Metallica could have chosen, so now that he's gone, the production and quality of songs might actually improve. Ever since the Black Album Metallica have made the mistake of asking Rock time and again to produce their albums, knowing full well their bad experiences with him. After the BA they said they would never use him again, but then, we know what hypocrites they are....:(

Written by RavenLord on 16.06.2006 at 18:51

Written by Darth Satanious on 16.06.2006 at 18:12


P.S. I wanted to beat the shit out of the guys who started talking during the solo.

Never mind that-the fact that he kept on moving whatever-the-hell-he-was-recording-on around was enough to make me punch the monitor. Is it that hard to hold a mobile in one position?! :p

And as to many of the people who remain very critical about this song, think on this; it's a bootleg-quality song from a live performance-the album version will probably sound much better, as Lars' drumming will (hopefully) be faded better in the mix, Kirk will be up front and Hetfield MAY ACTUALLY be in tune.

If one of the voices that appeared during the solo was from the one recording the song I will forgive him then since he, with his initiative of recording that song, has let thousands of people who were not there at that show to have a hint of what the band is coming up with. So I wouldn't go too hard on him at all. The quality of the song is not that bad, I have heard worse. About being a live version, I have to say that I like almost all songs from Metallica (except "One") in their live versions. For a reason I like better how Hetfield sings some of the old songs these days than how they appear in the recordings; he seems to give more emotion to some of those songs now as he has done with "Fade To Black". Now, with their more aggressive songs it is not the same. Their newer stuff sounds better live than in the record.

Black metal songs being worse then this recording? hrm...questionable, that is...because the recording is bad...it actually sounds like it's in his pocket...because he's moving around, the device is shaking around against the material of his pants...I'm pretty sure that the dude wouldn't be able to have the thing up in the air recording or else security would surely come over and bust his sorry ass...yes, they talked during the solo! that pissed me off too...like...wtf...I wanted to hear the solo...jesus christ, if you're going to talk during the middle of something like that then why even bother to put it online in the first place...

GAWD

haha. i listened to the song out of curiosity, as i have spend a LOT of money buying all the Metallica albums a long long time ago
i think this will be the first one that i am not going to buy. this new song doesnt seem all too fantastic, not much better then anything from 'St. Anger' in my opinion. but oh well

Heard this song, i can sum up my impression about the song and the band in two words

"Dying, Slow"

Written by Guest on 15.06.2006 at 18:45

@Ozman (Scarface): It seems that time you have quoted me recently on anything is to tell me what's wrong with what I'm posting...'what is your major malfunction?'

Let's look at this together Ozman shall we?

"this legendary thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California was a strong innovator of the genre along with other thrash giants such as Testament, Exodus and Destruction"

You see.....I used the words 'with other thrash giants' after I typed 'Los Angeles, California' therefore seperating those two ideas in that sentence...

I later thought of the possibility you just stated. The problem here being of course that both Testament and Exodus are from the Bay Area. I think that's what fooled me into thinking you somehow thought Destruction were from LA.

oh btw Metallica are of course originally from San Francisco but got popular when they moved to LA so that Cliff would play bass for them because Cliff refused to move to the glam cpitol of the world

@Ozman: Um...dude...I'm pretty sure that Hetfield and Ulrich started out in LA and moved up to San Fran because Cliff was there...

Written by Guest on 19.06.2006 at 21:54

@Ozman: Um...dude...I'm pretty sure that Hetfield and Ulrich started out in LA and moved up to San Fran because Cliff was there...

Jesus, the knock on my head must have totally messed me up...

Of course they started out in LA and moved so Sf (that is where the Bay Area is) and LA is of course the capitol of glam.

So, let this be a warning to you all... NEVER cycle when totally drunk for a fall will apparently knock all sense, that was left, out of your emaining braincells.

My apologies for getting all those things mixed up.

Well...I know that San Fran is where the Bay Area is and LA is the capital of glam...I'm kinda confused myself hahaha

Ozman dude, I think you're way too sensitive and shit...I don't really know if you're being sarsastic but it doesn't help in this situation...please don't come into my thread and be a grouch...

Anyway...moving on...

Written by Guest on 15.06.2006 at 11:34

The end of the day my thoughts can be summed up in two sentences

They will never make another Master Of Puppets. Get over it.

Thanks God they never will! I will see the new song, but I don't expect anything good... The last good Metallica album was Kill'em All...

@Largos: Thank God they never will? Why? You don't want them to make another Master Of Puppets? I mean, isn't that what everyone wants?

I'd love another Master of Puppets, but I think the question should be can Metallica do another MOP without Cliff?

Written by Guest on 16.06.2006 at 20:30

Black metal songs being worse then this recording? hrm...questionable, that is...because the recording is bad...it actually sounds like it's in his pocket...because he's moving around, the device is shaking around against the material of his pants...I'm pretty sure that the dude wouldn't be able to have the thing up in the air recording or else security would surely come over and bust his sorry ass...yes, they talked during the solo! that pissed me off too...like...wtf...I wanted to hear the solo...jesus christ, if you're going to talk during the middle of something like that then why even bother to put it online in the first place...

GAWD

It must have been because of how clear Metallica's sound is in comparison to the raw sound of Black Metal. It is a shitty recording but because of their sound it is easy to appreciate in spite of it. If we get to listen to Emperor's "I Am the Black Wizards", for example, it is hard to appreciate the guitar riff at the beginning which is easily to notice during other live recordings from them. Albums like this still have a charm of their own so I am not complaining. Anyways, what makes this recording be heard more clearly than some Black Metal ones would be the difference of speed and aggressiveness in their styles not the recording itself.