During my sojourn south this summer, I did what I now consider an important tradition for my writing retreats: I bought a new album.
Now, I should say that when I say "new", I don't mean "newly released" or even, necessarily, new to me. I mean, I buy what I'm interested in hearing at the time, regardless of its newness. In this case, I picked up Metallica by, no surprise here, Metallica.
I've always liked the radio friendly, but I was curious to see if there was something more on the album itself. And though I listened to a podcast about the album Master of Puppets, I wasn't sure if I wanted their earlier stuff, middle of the road, or new sounds. I went with the safe bet and snagged their self-titled (often called "the Black album").
I regret it not.
The album is fantastic, but that's old news. (The thing came out in, what, '91?) The cuts that didn't make it to mainstream radio aren't surprises ("Through the Never" and "Don't Tread On Me" are satisfyingly adequate as far as songs go, but they pale compared to the "popular" songs), but being able to listen more carefully to the familiar ones is really satisfying.
Here's the thing: I'm not a metalhead. I like some metal--but not scream or death, because they're too samey and dark. I like speed well enough, but not to the point that I'd buy albums of anyone. So I'll admit that my palate is not particularly refined when it comes to metal generically, but I do like elements of metal--particularly the incredibly tight rhythm guitars and, of course, the face-melting solos. When a band that is so proficient at these aspects of metal branch into other tempos and sonic exploration, I can really get into it.
That's what the Black album is for me. There are some staples of metal in cuts like "Holier Than Thou" and "The God that Failed" (which reminds me of this Strong Bad Email), but it's not as hard hitting as some of their tracks from Master of Puppets. I don't know what heavy heavy metal fans feel in terms of the variegated approach, but I like the mix. There's some muscle behind almost all of the songs, but they aren't all on steroids. The nuance of some of the tracks is really impressive, and that's what I've been enjoying as I've played the disc more and more often.
In fact, my three boys are in love with the Black album. My four year-old asks for "Never-Neverland" on a pretty much daily basis, and he'll sing along with the chorus to almost any of the songs. Any one of them will burst out with a "You label me/I'll label you!" and the rest will join in.
So, yeah. Metallica rocks.