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Is it true that “all publicity is good publicity”? At least one poll has concluded that American voters suffer from “Obama fatigue” due to nonstop coverage. Is there such a thing as too much publicity? Personally, over-exposure on Blabbermouth, metal’s CNN, has almost completely turned me off to the following: KISS, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N’ Roses, ex-Guns N’ Roses members, Megadeth, ex-Megadeth members, and innumerable pseudo-controversies (e.g., metal vs. emo, metal causing crimes, censorship, Ted Nugent).
What bothers me most is the coverage in anticipation of Metallica’s new record, Death Magnetic. Yes, they were once the world’s biggest and best metal band. Now they’re just the biggest. How they remained that way, even after numerous debacles – haircuts, makeup, Napster, every record after the Black Album – is beyond me. Some Kind of Monster probably kept them in the game. But the price was fatal. The film revealed them as humans, which worked marvelously for the film. But we discovered Lars Ulrich was not only a mediocre drummer, he’s also a rich crybaby. Once-mighty James Hetfield had serious emotional issues. Their mystique was gone.
This is crucial for metal, one of the most image-obsessed (and thus image-rich) artforms. Every great metal band has an aura, whether onstage or on record. It is a sum greater than its parts. Slayer aren’t necessarily gods. Offstage, each member seems generally down-to-earth. But onstage, they form that thing called Slayer, which brings to mind images, words, sounds, perhaps even physical sensations. Slayer get plenty of press; some of it’s silly, like the attention on Tom Araya’s family at the Grammys. But it hasn’t altered the fact that the name “Slayer” demands respect.
Metallica are another matter. You’d think that MoveOn.org were doing their publicity. With the Presidential election of 2004, MoveOn.org filled my inbox so frequently that I ended up hating them, even though I was on their side. Metallica are the same way. They made four of the best metal records ever; they are why I got into metal. Even after their missteps, I’m still curious (if morbidly) to see what they’ll bring. But I’m so sick of how the metal world has licked up every last bit of Metallica news like a desperate junkie. Here’s a 15-second clip: a riff! Here’s another! Now, a blow-by-blow description of the packaging! It’s embarrassing. Peeking in at someone dressing cheapens the actual outfit.
In the era of VH1, people inevitably want to know more about their heroes, especially fallen ones. But enough is enough. Some Kind of Monster already pushed the limits of over-exposure. The best press for Metallica’s new album would have been none. That way, they would have created it on their own terms. Not with cameras staring into the studio. Not with bloggers weighing in on every breath and fart. I realize I’m asking the impossible. Metallica can never again be a garage band. There’s too much money invested in them not to have a publicity blitz. But, man, is it distasteful. There’s no aura, only a fire hose of recycled commentary and bad fonts. What would the old Metallica, the one who refused to make an MTV video, think?
I will listen to Death Magnetic out of completism and professional obligation. But I will not do so out of curiosity. The press sucked that away several hundred blog posts ago. I haven’t even heard it, and I’m tired of it. It won’t stop calling. I’ll return its call in due time. Right now, though, I just want to tell Metallica: please go away.
You make several good points, but I think it’s gotten to the point where Metallica’s damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. Whatever way they approached the promotion of their new album would have been heavily criticized by the music media, who after all those debacles between 1999 and 2003, are just waiting to pounce. They go to extreme measures to prevent an album from leaking, people bitch. They try to throw fans a bone by showing studio diaries, artwork, and releasing streaming tracks, something EVERY SINGLE METAL BAND does these days, and people bitch. Talk about an olive branch being torn apart by woodpeckers of mistrust. Yikes.
I have to say, I can’t bring myself to climb on that bandwagon with my fellow metal writers who are ready to stone this band further. I remain genuinely interested, even though the three new tracks indicate the new record is going to have its share of snags, unquestionably. It’s not the case of simply being a fanboy (I haven’t listened to St. Anger in five years, haven’t dragged out Load/Reload in a decade, I loathe the black album), I just don’t think I can ever be that jaded.
Metallica, the people in them and their private lives have seemingly become public domain. It’s their own fault but that doesn’t mean we have to play that game as listeners of HM. Having been expended as musicians, selling themselves is how they sell records now. I agree with you, the mystique is needed for HM, and Metallica have thoroughly been demystified. I still think it’s a mistake to consider them people we “know” just because we’ve seen them on TV and that in personal, human terms, they might be completely different. As artists however, they’ve long been bankrupt and it is only with a strong sense of schadenfreude that most follow their artistic exploits – myself included, though I try to limit it.
I took the bait and listened to one streaming track the other day and decided that I’m done. I haven’t really even remotely cared about ‘em since the black album, and they’re never going to be good again, no matter the hype, no matter what. I’m just not interested anymore, and I’m okay with that.
This is a very well-articulated post. Nice to see an point of view that goes beyond “Metallica is fuckin’ gay!”
I’m going to give these guys the benefit of the doubt for now, with the realization that they are not, nor will they ever be, as hungry as they were in the 80’s, so they’ll never crank out an album as good as those first 4 or 5 (depending on your POV) again. I have my gripes with “The Day That Never Comes” but must admit that it’s growing on me. It’s an obvious “Fade to Black” + “Unforgiven II” + “One” move, but I do like it. “Cyanide” hasn’t really gotten to me yet, but “My Apocalypse” won me over instantly.
That said, Lars has become a very sloppy drummer. He always sort of was, but I revisited “..And Justice for All” recently, and he sounds great on that one, so that’s a little heartbreaking.
Oh, and “Love is a Four Letter Word”?!?!? Really, James? REALLY?!? Ouch.
Aside from the question of metallica, I just have to say that this post was extremely well written. Kudos
I’ve got professional reasons for being interested in Metallica (and for wanting other people to be interested in Metallica), but even putting that aside for a moment, I’m with Adrien on this one. After the way St. Anger shook out, there was no way they could win this time around – every move they made was gonna be second-guessed, analyzed to death, and read like the fucking Torah. It’s impossible for Metallica to exist as just a band at this point.
What’s intriguing to me is that there’s a counter-example out there right now: AC/DC. They’ve got a new album coming a month after Metallica’s, and what do you know about it? The title, the cover art, the fact that it will only be sold at Wal-Mart and on the band’s own website, and one song. AC/DC have very similar sales figures to Metallica, I’d bet, and yet they don’t come in for the same level of hyper-criticism. They’ve somehow managed to continue to exist as just a band, even though it’s been eight years, compared with Metallica’s five, since their last studio release.
Personally, I think they’ve done it at least in part by avoiding the press. Without talking out of school too much, I can tell you that getting interview access to AC/DC has been almost ridiculously difficult. And it’s not like the band places extravagant demands in exchange for access: They just simply say no to requests.
One more thing: Maybe it’s just because my expectations aren’t too high, maybe it’s because I recently went back and spent a couple of weeks listening to St. Anger over and over and finally came to the realization/decision that this is what they want to sound like now, and that’s fine, but I kinda like two of the three new Metallica songs I’ve heard – the only one that bugs me is “The Day That Never Comes.” The other two are perfectly serviceable hard rock/metal songs. If I wanna listen to revisited ’80s thrash I’ll listen to Hatchet or Warbringer. I’m willing to listen to Metallica being Metallica circa 2008, and judge the new stuff purely on that basis.
pdf, hi. If I may ask, what are you professional reasons for wanting other people to be interested in Metallica?
I’m the editor-in-chief of Metal Edge magazine.
I see. How does that make it to your advantage that people are interested in Metallica though?
If we publish an article on them, people will buy the magazine to read it. At least, that’s the business plan.
Helm, if a magazine covers a band, it’s in the magazine’s interest that people are interested in the band. Metal Edge is undoubtedly covering Metallica, ergo…
PDF, that’s a good point about AC/DC. There’s a band that kind of doesn’t even have a mystique (at least the Brian Johnson era), yet retains some degree of inscrutability due to the limited information outflow you described. The Walmart thing bothers me immensely, but that’s another issue. The identity and integrity of the AC/DC brand remains intact, for the most part.
Adrien, I’m more than willing to give Metallica another chance, musically. It’s just that they’re doing their damnedest to turn me off from doing so.
I’m not going to even bother.
pdf, if people aren’t interested in Metallica, their new album, coverage of their lives, whatever, you can just as well cover some other band that they’d be interested in. It doesn’t seem to me that there should be any stake for you professionally in Metallica’s wellbeing. I might be misunderstanding the initial comment, but it seems backwards to me.
Metallica are done. They can only try to be something they’re not, i.e., their old selves.
this the best thing ever, I havent dug um since the whole Napster thing.
There are many people in the metal scene who can not reflect on the Metallica material without thinking…”um, I’m now writing better songs than Metallica are.” Sadness ensues. They are an utter failure at being a band, outside of the music. Poor whatever me. Enough.
I went to high school with Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” t-shirts roaming the hallways. The anticipation regarding “…and Justice for All” was unreal back then. The local radio station had a thrash countdown to the day of the release. Metallica was at the top of their game.
It took three years for them to release another album. I got sick of waiting and moved on. I think a lot of people did. That might sound fickle but being a teenager at the time I wasn’t about to wait three years for a new album.
I think a lot of the frustration the band has is the very long wait they have since “St Anger” was released. People get bored with music and they move on. That might explain the media blitz Metallica is putting on trying to remind people that they are still there.
Is old Metallica really that good in retrospect? It’s just pretty tame thrash. I think part of the reason so many of us started out with Metallica is because it is so safe and accessible to kids.
Metallica has never altered this aspect of themselves, but it sounds as though they became very fragile people at some period in the ’90s. Self-awareness and sobriety are things they never came to grips with.
It’s also very sad that they even care what people/fans think about them. “Load” is actually way better and more honest than anything else they’ve done since “AJFA”. I’m constantly surprised that people don’t recognize that the “Black Album” was one of the most commercial pieces of phoned-in nonsense they’ve ever done.
They should’ve called it a day and quit while they were ahead. Metallica hasn’t had fun, been fun, or been comfortable with themselves for ages. I’m surprised anyone would even read articles about them anymore.
D’oh!
Old Metallica “pretty tame thrash?” Good grief….
The album leaked last night. I’m listening to it for the third time right now, and you know what? It’s fucking great. I’m gonna post a full review on my blog (and on METAL EDGE’s website), but if you haven’t heard it, do so. It’s really, really good. Even “The Day That Never Comes,” which I didn’t like much as a stand-alone, works in context. Seriously.
Phil Freeman’s (pdf) review is here:
http://runningthevoodoodown.blogspot.com/2008/09/metallica-fuck-you-its-great.html
I don’t know if the album is great or not from a few listens, but it’s definitely not absolute dross like St.Anger. Sounds pretty toothless to me and it’s mostly Hetfield’s fault, but I’ll give it a few listens more.
Phil Freeman seems to have made up his mind about it pretty fast, though.
Also I guess my question about magazine coverage must have been pretty dumb to be completely ignored.
Old Metallica is tame thrash compared to what is around today. Death, grindcore and black metal bands weren’t at saturation point back then. I’ve listened to the leaked album and can’t help but think they’ve been listening to the return records by fellow Bay Area 80’s thrash metallers Testament, Death Angel and Exodus. My Apocalypse sounds like Mr Rubin forced them to imitate his favourite thrash metal band. I can’t help thinking they should do away with vocals.
I’m with Helm. It’s going to take me a while to decide whether this is great.
I’m a Metallica fan from a while back, and I have no problem with the release of a new album, and out of curiosity or hope, I’m going to listen to it. When I try to articulate my response, however, I’m not going to have a thesaurus on hand, nor am I going to throw in random words from other languages. Sorry, Cosmo, see how you disparaged TOOL for doing the same thing.
Your style of reviewing is purely to promote yourself, and has virtually nothing to do with the actual music released. Maybe, as real journalists do, you should be objective. I know this is a hard thing to do; it means you have to drop everything you hold dear and start afresh.
Please, please, do us all a favour and stop reviewing anything. Your subjective views are you own. If you want to keep them subjective (and extraordinarily masturbatory), please keep to yourself.
tristan,
Would you feel the same way if I reviewed the album positively? I would have used the same subjective set of ears – mine – that I used for the review I wrote.
Also, perhaps you confuse me with someone else. I have never written about Tool and likely never will.
tristan – you are completely out of line. if you don’t want cosmo’s opinion, don’t read his reviews. i don’t always agree with him either, but he’s one of the most thoughtful and insightful people writing on metal today.
cosmo – i read your pitchfork review, and i am really concerned… i will give it a chance, but i’m worried. i will say, however, that i got my hands on the track “all nightmare long,” and i really like it a lot. it’s not the most original thing i’ve heard by a longshot, but it’s a quality metal song with nice metallica hallmarks.
anyway cosmo, keep up what you’re doing and don’t listen to fools like tristan.
Thought this would add to the conversation, if you haven't seen it yet.
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/images/one?id=683165&size;=f
Thanks, xoxobra. The first time I saw that image+text, I laughed for a long, long time. In fact, I’m still laughing.
xoxobra – that picture is freaking brilliant.
Dear Friends, Happy Fool’s Day!
When I was younger I hated going to weddings; it seemed that all of my aunts and the grandmotherly types used to come up to me, poke me in the ribs and cackle, “You’re next.”
They stopped that kind of thing after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.
Happy April Fool’s Day!