Metallica is one of those household names when it comes to rock and metal music, one of the most successful and lauded bands to ever grace the music scene. At this point in their career they had released 4 landmark albums mostly of the thrash metal genre, and were becoming a musical force to be reckoned with. Releasing albums full of thrash injected with melody and emotion, searing riffs, blistering solos and bleak toned lyrics, even venturing towards progressive in their outing titled ...And Justice For All.
Enter Bob Rock, who suggests to them they should aim for higher commercial heights, that the way to reach their true potential was to strip their sound down and opt for a more accessible and radio friendly approach. Instead of continuing to progress their sound they stepped back, and did something a little more personal, a little more emotive, and a little bit subpar. Don't get me wrong this isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, however this was the first album that showed symptoms of them selling out. While this album has absolute classic tracks such as Enter Sandman, Sad But True and The Unforgiving, there is also moments of inconsistency and filler tracks.
The basic sound of this album is pretty much a hard rock sound with a more metallic edge to it. Midpaced, Wah laden guitars play many a palm muted riff, and there are also a great deal of very blues inspired pentatonic soloing. They added more of the softer toned ballads in such as The Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters, both of which are great in my opinion. The guitars have gotten less complex with this release and have more of a alternative/hard rock sound...lots of wah pedal. The drums are pretty much just there keeping the beat and not doing anything special and the bass is kind of just in the background doing some rhythm work.
James vocals have gotten a good deal deeper than previous releases and he utilizes more of a grungy singing style moreso than his usual thrash metal shout/singing. This is also the beginning of his use of the kind of cheesy vocal accents ( oooh aaaah YEEA HEAAh).
The album starts off on a very positive note with the extremely catchy and enjoyable track Enter Sandman, a midpaced riffy affair about nightmarish images and childhood fears. Sad But True is a bit more groovy and midpaced which also happens to deal with personal struggles. The Next track Holier Than Thou is the first filler track, it pretty much just plods along and doesn't really accomplish anything. Then we get to my two personal standout tracks on this...The Unforgiven and Wherever I May Roam, the two that accomplish the goal that was intended...to make more accessible music and still manage to be awesome musically. The rest of the album is kind of just there, tracks blend into one another and the whole affair gets very tedious. Nothing Else Matters brings a more positive note showing that Metallica knows how to do emotional songwriting and do it well, but the last couple of tracks are just right back to that samey filler vibe. So while this album has its definite high points I think it ultimately fails at being what it was supposed to be i.e Metallica reaching their full potential on a record. It's a step down from classics like Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.
Final Score 66/100
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