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Cinemetal

THE BEST METALLICA SONG FROM THE BAND’S BLEAKEST YEARS?

 Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 3:00pm by

Full confession: other than the mediocre setlist, I didn’t have any real problem with the S&M experiment. Admittedly, a lot of that might have to do with the work of composer Michael Kamen (who, before he died in 2003, also did the music for such films as Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and X-Men); at a time when it seemed that Metallica couldn’t possibly get any more boring, the symphonic touches he added to their back catalog spiced shit up again and, ever so briefly, made me think that maybe the next Metallica album wouldn’t be total drek (Boy oh boy, was I wrong on that one).

And I have contended, and will always contend, that “No Leaf Clover” is the best song Metallica released in the post-Metallica, pre-Death Magnetic era. It sounds like it could be a b-side from the Black Album, which immediately makes it 110% better than anything off of St. Anger or either volume of Load. The song is still Metallica doing pop metal, sure, but it’s not bad pop metal. Which is more than I can say for “The Memory Remains.”

Now that I think about it, the other new song from S&M, “Human,” wasn’t so annoying either. But, man, did Kamen help elevate this from total dog shit:

-AR

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  • John

    Dear Axl,

    Go Fuck your mother.

    Signed

    Everyone

  • Sammy

    I never much cared for this song, but found S&M to be hit and miss. The misses were more of a, “That symphony section sound like it’s playing a different song” and the hits were brilliant.

  • ERiK

    I agree that no leaf clover was pretty cool. I think there are some good songs buried between the load and reload album. If you like no leaf clover, do you not like bleeding me? Bleeding Me is a killer tune.

  • Gordy

    Yeah, Axl, gotta say man, this is some unprofessional shit you’re doing here. I have no respect left for this site. You know what it says under the MetalSucks wikipedia page? Nothing. None exists. Know what it says under the Metallica Wiki page?

    Metallica has won seven Grammy Awards:
    1990: Best Metal Performance – “One”
    1991: Best Metal Performance – “Stone Cold Crazy”
    1992: Best Metal Performance With Vocal – Metallica
    1999: Best Metal Performance – “Better than You”
    2000: Best Hard Rock Performance – “Whiskey in the Jar”
    2001: Best Rock Instrumental Performance – “The Call of Ktulu” with Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony
    2004: Best Metal Performance – “St. Anger”
    MTV Video Music Awards:
    1992: Best Metal Video – “Enter Sandman”
    1996: Best Metal Video – “Until It Sleeps”
    American Music Awards:
    1996: Favorite Artist: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock: Metallica – Load
    1996: Favorite Metal/Hard Rock Song – “Until It Sleeps”
    Billboard Music Awards:
    1997: Billboard Rock and Roll Artist of the Year – Metallica (RIAA Diamond Award)
    1999: Catalogue Artist of the Year – Metallica
    1999: Catalogue Album of the Year – Metallica
    Kerrang! awards:
    2003: Hall of Fame – Metallica

    The band has become one of the most commercially successful and influential heavy metal acts. With 90 million records sold worldwide, including 57 million in the United States, the band has won seven Grammy Awards, and has had four albums peak at number one on the Billboard 200.[1] The band’s 1991 album, Metallica, has sold over 15 million copies, which makes it the 25th highest selling album in the United States.

    You guys don’t have shit to show for yourselves, so don’t be jealous of those who do.

  • TheCount

    Holy shit, could you pussies get of your fucking pedistles (sic?) and stop bitching for five fucking seconds!

    This is their fucking website, not yours, so if you dont like what you see here; tough shit!

  • BlestTilDeth

    The Outlaw Torn from S&M is the best. Kirk’s solo at the climax gives me chills.
    I think No Leaf Clover was one of the first songs Matt Heafy learned on guitar and got him into metal.

  • http://metalworx.filteredwave.com Eric Hanson

    With the exception of the songs written for the event, S & M was terrible. Songs that weren’t written to have string arrangements do not work properly when those string arrangements are added later.

    I also choose “Outlaw Torn,” but from Load.

  • Johnny Ringo

    i agree with Gordy

    i still like reading this site because of the venom you spew at bands that actually deserve to be shit on…but i still think you should fuck your grandparents with no lube for the disrespect you have for metallica

  • http://www.myspace.com/grownfromthecold Luke

    You guys are nuts. “No Leaf Clover” is a great song, and S&M (also great) is the only Metallica album I listened to more than a few times between the Black Album and Death Magnetic. The DVD is even better, the angles feature was awesome. Back when I was drumming a lot, Lars was my god, and I would just watch him during the four songs you could… Everyone hates Lars now, and I realize it’s cool to do so, but grow the fuck up. You fuckers just loooove to complain, and while I agree with you sometimes, I certainly don’t bitch about shit to the extent that you do.

  • tyoung865

    metallica has been a parody of itself since the black album. they deserve criticism…. for any pre-black album-metallica fan it feels as if they shit all over you for their own personal gain. …AJFA was their last great album since then their albums have been jokes and if you truly like their new music, then you and i are fans of 2 totally different bands. 1. Metallica that thrashed… 2. Metallica that “rocked” itself to commercialism. besides this is axl’s website he can say what he wants … you’re the bitches for whining because you don’t agree. news flash… no opinion ever has credibility whether you agree with it or not. its just an opinion and this site is a blog not Newsweek.

  • ERiK

    I disagree, keep on Bashing Metallica, they deserve every insult! I think they’ve written maybe 10 good tunes over the last 15 years if you count some cover songs, but they are the most spoiled and over-rated band out now.

  • Bermuda Jay

    The comments today have been awesome. “Your opinon is different than mine? FUCK YOU!” It’s good to see that this kind of well thought out discourse has made its way over from the political arena. Anyway, I think you could cut together a decent hard rock album from Load/Reload:

    King Nothing
    Ain’t My Bitch
    Low Man’s Lyric
    Fixxxer
    The Memory Remains
    Where The Wild Things Are
    Wasting My Hate
    Ronnie
    Bleeding Me

    Those tracks are solid, if over long at an average of 7 minutes each. I wasn’t really into either of the new tracks on S&M (were there two? I don’t care enough to fact check) or the Mission Impossible thing. There was nothing on St. Anger that I would include on anything other than a “torment my captives with shitty music” compilation.

  • blah

    where the wild things are and low man’s lyric are two of the best songs from this period, not to mention two of their best songs period.

    other great load-era songs: fixxxer, the outlaw torn, memory remains, bleeding me, house that jack built, devil’s dance.

    no leaf clover is good, but minus human is far superior.

    unnamed feeling is the only half decent song from st anger.

  • http://www.metalsucks.net Vince Neilstein

    Their cover of Seger’s “Turn the Page.” Excellent.

  • Jim Gilletowicz

    Three things:

    1. I’d be willing to bet that Gordy and Johnny Ringo know what their respective shit smells and tastes like on the cock of the other.

    2. Vince, I respect your opinion, so I will for get that you posted that.

    3. Bleeding fucking me is a stoners dream and my pick for best ‘post black album’ song from Metallica.

  • iwrestledaferretonce

    Bye Gordy!!!

    Is it just coincidence that those awards stared rolling in when they were beginning to commercialize? And just like that silly thread with Distubed, since when do awards and multi-platinum sales mean a band has acheived greatness?

    There were, are, and will be bands that outshine Metallicasucks that will never get the recognition they deserve, or the sales, or the awards.

    If the MTV awards meant anything, Slipknot would have won for Pychosocial instead of that bullshit, dumbed down Linkin Park crap. I could give two shits about MTV, or it’s influence on pop culture, but when a band writes a superb song, but won’t wuss out to global media monopolies, I have to applaud that. Slipknot didn’t win, but I’m sure they don’t care, they still got their “win” with #1 sales during release week.

    Gordy, John — If you don’t respect Metalsucks, I’m sure Tiger Beat has a blog on which you two can rant, and everyone will just suck up to you and smooch your fuckin asses.

  • iolanach

    So, according to Gordy, Michael Jackson is the greatest musician of all time.

    Well, didn’t he sell a shitload of albums and win tons of awards?

  • Bermuda Jay

    As far as the “new” covers on Garage Inc went, I really only liked Astronomy and Whiskey In The Jar, probably because I liked both of those songs already.

  • gumplunger

    Actually, I completely agree with Axl.

  • Blackthorned

    Good to see No Leaf Clover getting appreciation from Axl.

    I always thought that song was going to signal good things to follow for Metallica actually. It was the first song of theirs since the Black Album that I really enjoyed – strong melodies, Hetfield singing with some conviction. Then came St Anger.

  • dthrasher

    I’d have to say “Ain’t My Bitch” solely for the reason that the first time i heard it my friend and i immediately agreed that it perfectly summed up our heinous bitch of a boss at the time and we always used to hum it around her.

  • Nick

    if i had to pick just one, i’d actually pick the title track of “St. Anger” (if I could edit out the “push it out”s in the bridges)…i dunno, everyone hates on the album, but i still think tracks 2, 3, and 4 could have been a “killer EP” release…the intro and one of the few times that snare actually sounds kinda of good or “in place” because it’s so damn rickety…sounds like a riot’s gonna start when they ramp up speed wise…

    that said here’s also my Load v2.0 list (the way Load should’ve released sans ReLoad):

    01. 2 x 4
    02. House That Jack Built
    03. Bleeding Me
    04. The Outlaw Torn
    05. Ronnie
    06. Memory Remains
    07. Devil’s Dance
    08. Carpe Diem Baby
    09. Where The Wild Things Are
    10. Fixxer

    Metallica ideally could put out a boxset called “the Crap Years”…call the above “Disc Good”, the other songs i left off “Disc Bad”, and then a 3rd disc called “Disc Just Okay, and include the S&M originals, along with trax 2 thru 4 on St. Anger”…

    also btw, i mean this sincerely, DM is a bonafide 9…i just wish Shine/Holy Revolver riffs would have made the cut instead of the abysmal “main” riff of My Apocalypse…I actually Unforgiven III, but that cheezy intro riff for My Apocalypse…wtf

  • vance almighty

    the outlaw torn is the best song they’ve ever written, so i’ll choose that.