The Ninth Album: Is there hope left for Metallica?
July 22, 2007
In either very late 2007 or early 2008, Metallica will be releasing their long awaited ninth studio album. While many metal heads are eagerly anticipating this release, there are also just as many who are somewhat concerned by its impending outcomes based upon the band's recent history. This is a history that is perceived by many as a band losing sight of both their roots and their fan base.
During the 1980's, Metallica had firmly established themselves as one of the major pioneers of the thrash metal scene - a movement that brought creativity in the realm of heavy metal to a new level; a movement that pushed metal to get heavier. They pushed this solidarity forward along with other bands such as Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament, and Overkill.
At first, though, it was not an easy establishment to push. The 1980's heavy metal scene was dominated by the early beginnings of hair metal: bands like Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, and W.A.S.P. were stomping their popularity among the masses, and this legacy would be followed through by bands like RATT, Poison, and Bon Jovi during the later part of the decade.
Metallica and the thrash scene, on the other hand, was clearly more of an underground attitude and feel. They were truly the alternative metal of the era: the music that metal heads were looking for once they tired of the hair metal evolution. The thrash scene was a breath of fresh air.
It was during this time that Metallica began working with producer Flemming Rasmussen. Rasmussen took the band's sheer raw energy in the studio, and fine tuned it; capitalizing on individual talents of the band members (such as Cliff Burton's clear talent for identifying and developing melodies that would fit seamlessly into the harder edged sound of the band).
It is this era of the 1980's that the Metallica fans look back on as the glory days of the band. The recordings the band made are still considered to be ground-breaking and classics; clearly crafted with passion and intelligence.
However, it was not until the 1990's that Metallica broke through into international stardom and metallic domination. 1991's The Black Album saw the band leave Rasmussen, and begin work with producer Bob Rock, who was perhaps more well known at that point in time for his work on the Motley Crue album, Dr. Feelgood.
The resulting album, while initially generating a mixed reception among long time fans, was a far more polished Metallica. Bob Rock had taken the band's historic legacy of passionate and intelligent raw energy; and sanded it down - making it more polished and refined. The Black Album became their biggest selling album of all time, resulting in (finally) international recognition, a 3 years tour schedule, and made the band extremely rich.
It was at this point that many fans believed that the band went downhill.
Five years after the release of The Black Album, Metallica's next studio offering, again with Bob Rock was Load. The Metallica logo had changed. The band no longer had long hair. They looked more business-like and artsy in their photographs, than the angry raw metal heads they had been in the past. & the music was no longer identifiable as even being close to the thrash metal of old.
This trend continued through the 1990's. While Metallica kept selling music and making money; and making more fans - their sound and image was becoming much more distant from its original intent and vision during the 1980's... an evolution that was slowly losing them their long term fan base.
Much later, after the Napster controversy had died down, in 2003, drummer Lars Ulrich stated during an interview that the band's next album was heavier and much rawer than anything they previously had done during the 1990's. Fan anticipation soared for the album that would become known at Saint Anger.
The result was not what fans expected. While the heavier sounding Metallica was welcomed; the album's recording was mired in controversy and experimental techniques for the band. The band had lost bassist Jason Newsted, and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield was admitted to rehab during the recording process. The band was attached by outsiders: a psychiatrist and a film crew; during the recording process also. The recording process was more of a copy-and-paste Pro Tools experiment for the band; and while Saint Anger was indeed heavier, it lacked cohesiveness, as well as effective mixing.
And now, in anticipation of their upcoming album release, fans are hoping that it is a return to the Metallica of old; rather than the polished Metallica or the experimental Saint Anger Metallica.
So, let's take a look at some of the promising signs about the Ninth Album, as well as some of the concerns raised by fans:
The Promising Signs:
Rick Rubin:
The ninth Metallica studio album is being produced by Rick Rubin. This fact in itself is a massive promising sign for Metallica fans. Rubin is well known for his work with metal bands such as Slayer, Danzig, and Slipknot, as well as artists such as Johnny Cash (as an example of some of his work with Cash: check out Cash's Nine Inch Nails cover here - quite amazing). While former Metallica producer, Bob Rock, was more known for bringing more polish and smoothing to the sound of a band, Rick Rubin has more of a stripped-down, back-to-basics work ethic. What is even more promising is some of the current feedback coming from the current band members about the new collaboration. Lars Ulrich recently stated that having Rubin as producer was helping them to be more self-critical and that he had forced the band to think much deeper about "the big picture" of Metallica.
A Solid Line-up with no outsiders:
The recording of Saint Anger was mired by the fact that the band had lost bassist Jason Newsted, the admission to rehab for James Hetfield, as well as some of the personality conflicts that arose. When you couple that with a film crew looking for dirt, and a psychiatrist interfering with the creative process, then you have a recipe for disaster. Indeed, if you watch the footage from the documentary Some Kind of Monster, the Metallica you see is a band very lost and very far from their roots. This time, the band has a solid line-up, the producer, and no outside influences. This in itself would be a big promising sign for the development of the album.
Rob Trujillo: Rob Trujillo has been a solid bassist in the metal scene since the 1990's. He ha been a part of Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society, and Suicidal Tendencies. His style of playing is diverse and solid - but just as importantly, his stage presence during performances is a welcome addition to Metallica. From most reports, it would seem the band have been very inclusive with Trujillo as far as collaboration is concerned. His presence in the band has helped solidify the line-up. Additionally, he seems to be brutally honest with fans about the development of the album, saying things such as "Lars remembered to tune his snare drum properly this time!" (A reference to the drum sound in Saint Anger).
The Sound and Style:
Granted, every band that has an upcoming album release promotes it as their "best effort yet", but when you have Rob Trujillo comparing the sound and style of the ninth album to Master of Puppets, and Kirk Hammett referring to it as a cross between ...& Justice for all and The Black Album; an idea emerges that this new effort is not some kind of Saint Anger II. Indeed, it would appear that Metallica are making an effort to capture some of the heavier and speedier elements of their earlier material and combining it with the more harder worked and melodic sound from the Black Album.
The Return of the Guitar Solo:
I am sure that it is much to the happiness of Kirk Hammett, but the Ninth Album is said to be the return of the band's signature guitar solos; something that was noticeably absent on Saint Anger. With reports of more guitar solos and more double bass on the drums, it's an encouraging sign to fans.
Tuning:
Tuning, to many people, this might not appear to be such a big deal, but in reality for musicians, the tuning your band adopts has a very significant impact on the sound and song development of the music. In the case of Metallica, all of their 1990's albums were recorded in E flat tuning; as opposed to the standard E tuning they used on their earlier albums. At the insistence of producer Rick Rubin, the band has returned to their standard E tuning - a slight change that will, no doubt, have significant effect upon the song development and sound of this new album.
No "Bloat":
One of the problems and criticisms that Metallica faced with the Load and Reload albums was the sheer amount of material they had released. Many saw it as simply filler material. Indeed, the impact of one single Load album with a carefully selected track listing may have been more productive for the band. For The Ninth Album, Metallica started with a massive amount of songs, riffs, and ideas. That was evolved into a list of about 25 songs. From there, the band recorded 14 of those songs, and (according to Kirk Hammett) will be whittling down that list to 9 or 10 for the final album release. This would be a positive move for the band, as being overly selective with the chosen material will eliminate the "bloat" and filler material crammed onto some of the 1990's releases.
The Concerns:
The album cover and logo:
During the 1990's, Metallica abandoned their traditional logo on their album covers. The artwork on their earlier albums was also more elaborate and thought out as well. While the logo and cover have little to do with the sound and feel of an album, the design does go a long way with fans. It would be to Metallica's benefit if they returned to this style of a carefully thought out cover design with the use of the band's classic logo.
The lyrics:
The earlier Metallica lyrics, written by James Hetfield, were amazing perspective pieces, carefully crafted and fueled by the aspects of life that made the band angry. After The Black Album, Hetfield abandoned this approach, and became more self-introspective with his lyrics. This approach caught a lot of fans off guard; and while some of Metallica's songs did benefit from this changed approach, the traditional lyrical feel of Metallica was sorely missed. One would hope that at least some of the elements of the Ninth Album grab onto some of the earlier feel of lyrics established by the band in their thrash metal pioneering days.
Dealing with file sharing:
Metallica's track record in dealing with the issue of file-sharing online has been very poor. From the days of the Napster controversy to their sales tactics with Saint Anger, it would appear that the band might be approaching the whole issue from the wrong angle. Indeed, the Napster controversy did nothing for them but tarnish their image in the eyes of the fans. Metallica need to take a long hard look at what other bands, such as Nine Inch Nails and Bon Jovi, are doing with the online phenomenon: they are embracing it. NIN released some of their unmixed material to Bit Torrent networks to encourage fans to come up with their own unique remixes of the material. Bon Jovi, when selling their music online, was offering reservation bonuses for upcoming concerts. Online music is not going away; even the Bit Torrent scene, so the band would be benefited from embracing the phenomenon as opposed to fighting it.
All in all, Metallica have a lot riding on this album. From reading some of their interviews of late, it seems clear that the band have some concerns about how distanced their hardcore fan base has become. It is time for Metallica to let go of their ambitious 1990's sound, and get back to what it's always been about: METAL.
In 2006, Metallica previewed two new songs live in concert. Since that point, only elements and riffs from these two songs have been incorporated into the recorded material for The Ninth Album. Here are the two songs, as they were in 2006...
It was during this time that 
Five years after the release of 
The result was not what fans expected. While the heavier sounding Metallica was welcomed; the album's recording was mired in controversy and experimental techniques for the band. The band had lost bassist 
The ninth Metallica studio album is being produced by Rick Rubin. This fact in itself is a massive promising sign for 
The recording of Saint Anger was mired by the fact that the band had lost bassist Jason Newsted, the admission to rehab for James Hetfield, as well as some of the personality conflicts that arose. When you couple that with a film crew looking for dirt, and a psychiatrist interfering with the creative process, then you have a recipe for disaster. Indeed, if you watch the footage from the documentary Some Kind of Monster, the Metallica you see is a band very lost and very far from their roots. This time, the band has a solid line-up, the producer, and no outside influences. This in itself would be a big promising sign for the development of the album.
Granted, every band that has an upcoming album release promotes it as their "best effort yet", but when you have Rob Trujillo comparing the sound and style of the ninth album to Master of Puppets, and Kirk Hammett referring to it as a cross between ...& Justice for all and The Black Album; an idea emerges that this new effort is not some kind of Saint Anger II. Indeed, it would appear that 
I am sure that it is much to the happiness of Kirk Hammett, but the Ninth Album is said to be the return of the band's signature guitar solos; something that was noticeably absent on 
Tuning, to many people, this might not appear to be such a big deal, but in reality for musicians, the tuning your band adopts has a very significant impact on the sound and song development of the music. In the case of Metallica, all of their 1990's albums were recorded in E flat tuning; as opposed to the standard E tuning they used on their earlier albums. At the insistence of producer 
One of the problems and criticisms that Metallica faced with the Load and Reload albums was the sheer amount of material they had released. Many saw it as simply filler material. Indeed, the impact of one single Load album with a carefully selected track listing may have been more productive for the band. For 
The earlier 
Metallica's track record in dealing with the issue of 
