Album Review: Metallica, "Metallica"

Consternation ensued amongst the Metallipublic, Bob Rock had been named as the producer! His credits include in THE CULT, MOTLEY CRUE, and BON JOVIi, leading most to believe he would commercialise the METALLICA sound.

Untrue. He's lived up to his name all right, guitars scream, bass rumbles, drums pound, vocals scythe. The band themselves would testify to Justice being over intricate. Rock therefore has given Metallica a focused, in-your-face, no mistake record.

"Enter Sandman," the first single, crunches into life by way of a chunking riff, building into an enormity. James's tongue whiplashing tales of childhood nightmares.

Immediately apparent is the fact that Metallica are now concentrating their efforts on one song at a time, rather than chopping off in all directions. "Holier Than Thou" emphasises this point -- shorter, snappier, the rolling drums hammering Hetfield's sharper lyrics. "The Unforgiven" begins spaghetti western style: heavy verses, softer choruses lead to Hammet's solo, acoustic twiddlings, twisting into total burnout. Hetfield's lyrical observations, this time are more personal: "a tired man they see no longer cares/ that old man then prepares to die regretfully/ that old man here is me."

"Wherever I May Roam" seems like a road anthem, an Indian sitar intro taking it down into the void. The chorus goes something like "rover, nomad, vagabond, call me what you will."

"Don't Tread on Me" again with that western feel, bounces along in fine form. Hold on though... Just as "Through the Never" crashes around at lightning speed, time changes and all, "Nothing Else Matters" rears up. Akin to "Fade to Black," its classical intro seems to be lulling the listener into a false sense of security, but the pace never takes off. This is as close to a ballad as this band have come.

"Of Wolf and Man" picks it up again, courtesy of a scathing riff. I can just see those heads at Donington banging in unison! Comparably "The God That Failed" is merely mid-paced and, as if to justify the finality of the project, the military marching beat of "The Struggle Within" bursts out, a machine-gun solo scattering the masses, Hetfield spitting bullets: "What is it you think you're going to find - hypocrite - boredom sets into the boring mind." A suitably trashing finale.

So, fifth album and Metallica are making a statement, a plain black cover (a la Back in Black and more comically SPINAL TAP's Smell the Glove). Well screw the statements, the acid test being would I splash out cash on this? You bet your ass I would!

Grade A-

Joe Mackett

Riff Raff
August 1991

Revenge...?

Riff Raff was a legendary rock magazine based in London in the late 1980s and 1990s. Edited by the ultimate music biz insider, Mark Crampton, and employing such talents as Mark Blake, Jerry Ewing, Mike Harris, Paul Smith, Chris Collingwood, Alan McCrorie, Simon Robinson, Lyn Guy, Anna Marx, Nick Douglas, Marion Garden, Peter "Grunty" Grant, Joe "The Crow" Mackett, Billy "The Kluck" Kulke, and, lastest and mostest, the incredible Liddell Brothers, Mark (a.k.a. "El Perro") and Colin (a.k.a. "Der Fly"). Unfortunately, Riff Raff was just too R n' R for its own good. A genuine working class rock mag, written, edited, and translated into 16 European languages in a drug-N-Jack-D-fuelled haze, often on the back of motorbikes, with spell checking by our staff of attentive rock bimbos (chosen purely for their blondeness and big knockers), it soon fell behind more trainspotterly, nerdish, and politically correct publications like Q, Kerrang, Mojo, Metal Hammer, and Horse & Hound. This website is an archive and kind of shrine dedicated to the writing of its greatest writers, some of whom, luckily for the Rock Kosmos, still continue to write about music. This is the REVENGE of Riff Raff...Rock on!