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by creativepig 06/06/2003, 8:30pm PDT |
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Metallica - St. Anger
Oh dear god yes, it's as bad as you've heard. And I even liked Load. Remember when Newstead joined and everyone said it wasn't the same without Cliff? Then we all realized he wasn't so bad if the album was produced properly? Well, he's gone, too. Now remember at the end of Encino Man, that song that was playing while Pauly Shore and Rudy were dancing at the prom? The bass player from that band is now the bass player for Metallica. Which isn't really a problem, aside from the absurdity, except that this Rob guy finger-plucks, which removes from the bass part any sense of punch or ultimately rhythm. On top of that, imagine an out-of-place-sounding and really annoying snare and no apparent lead guitar. Did Kirk Hammett get demoted to backup vocalist?
And finally imagine the lyrical snippet, "My lifestyle determines my deathstyle." Gay as that is, in passing, it could have been forgiven. Unfortunately, Metallica has outdone Bon Jovi's "Like Frankie said, I did it my way," and repeated the above to create a chorus.
This disc has no highlights.
Marilyn Manson - The Golden Age of Grotesque
Unlike Metallica's, this album doesn't suffer from the loss of a bass player. After the plodding horror that was Holy Wood, it's nice to see this disc recapture some of the energy of Portrait of an American Family. In fact, Grotesque takes that energy and the upbeat feel of 'Rock is Dead' and 'I Don't Like the Drugs' from Mechanical Animals to create something that's not much like previous Manson at all. In fact, I wasn't sure about liking this one to start with, but it's grown on me rather quickly.
Lyrically, the album is quite simplistic (bordering on juvenile in some places), but unless you believed "We hate love / We love hate" in your heart as you sang along there, Azreal, who gives a fuck? It's mostly unintelligible, anyway. Musically, however, I like what's been done with the burlesque theme, whether from novelty or my personal soft spot for weird juxtapositions like that. And the inclusion of both treble and mid-range means listening to the whole album at once won't make you physically ill like Holy Wood did.
Highlights: 'Doll Dagga Buzz Buzz Ziggety Zag'--probably my favourite, heavy inclusion of the burlesque influence; 'Vodevil'--pronounced "vaudeville" (okay, some of the song titles are kind of Manson-pretentious), just a solid tune.
Lows: '(S)aint'--about the lyrics, "drop the 'S' because I'm an Ain't," finally goes farther than the music makes up for, ugh.
cp |
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