Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 30, 2008 10:19:49 GMT -5
When I was away out with the family over the weekend, you know I spent a lot of time with the grandkids and forcefed all the tweeny-bopper junk, but I also spent some time with the older kids and found out one of them was a metal-head like I am and had a quite impressive collection (I still had more and knew of more, but his wasn't anything to sneeze at either) and one of the things in his collection was that he had the Black Album from Metallica. After explaining to him what I thought of the album, he immediately put it on and made me listen to it all the way through. When it was done, I came to a conclusion:
"Enter Sandman" was the worst choice possible to launch as the first single off the album.
I actually ended up liking the album a lot, mainly because I forgot some songs on there were actually good and were just as good as what I was listening to myself. Yes, it's flawed (the latter half is just aimless and on there merely to add up to a respectable running total and the pop-friendly production does it no favors) but I came away with it a positive experience.
Talking about it afterwards, which included a history of Metallica up until then as well as watching the VH1 Classic Albums episode about it, something became apparent. I thought most of the hardcore Metallica fans at the time might've liked it had the first single off the album been a different song.
The fact that Metallica was known up until then as being one of the fastest bands on the planet was what most of the non-metal fans knew of them, since that's what was mostly covered about them in magazines and from rumors that were going out, from the infamous one where they were blowing Ozzy off the stage during the Master of Puppets/Ultimate Sin tour to the "One" video, they were known as being an incredibly fast band to the media, and with all the chart success they had it became inevitable that people were going to find out about them.
Which is where The Black Album comes in. The pop-friendly production does have something to do with that, and the songs are incredibly simple compared to what has come before, but I still think it could've worked for them. They mentioned on the documentary about making "Through the Never" their first single, and I agree with them: it's a faster, more traditional-sounding song that could've won over those on the fence about them by being a non-threatening song but still having what they were about in the past. Had I been them, I would've used that as the first single, using it to show the older fans the new style change which still had the roots in the past while also showing the pop-world what was to await them on the album. Then, after that has gone away, use "Enter Sandman" and let it explode, which wouldn't have mattered much since the metalheads are already aware of the fact that the album is still close enough for the past to let them feel comfortable with the change while the converted masses have their pop-single.
What do you think?
"Enter Sandman" was the worst choice possible to launch as the first single off the album.
I actually ended up liking the album a lot, mainly because I forgot some songs on there were actually good and were just as good as what I was listening to myself. Yes, it's flawed (the latter half is just aimless and on there merely to add up to a respectable running total and the pop-friendly production does it no favors) but I came away with it a positive experience.
Talking about it afterwards, which included a history of Metallica up until then as well as watching the VH1 Classic Albums episode about it, something became apparent. I thought most of the hardcore Metallica fans at the time might've liked it had the first single off the album been a different song.
The fact that Metallica was known up until then as being one of the fastest bands on the planet was what most of the non-metal fans knew of them, since that's what was mostly covered about them in magazines and from rumors that were going out, from the infamous one where they were blowing Ozzy off the stage during the Master of Puppets/Ultimate Sin tour to the "One" video, they were known as being an incredibly fast band to the media, and with all the chart success they had it became inevitable that people were going to find out about them.
Which is where The Black Album comes in. The pop-friendly production does have something to do with that, and the songs are incredibly simple compared to what has come before, but I still think it could've worked for them. They mentioned on the documentary about making "Through the Never" their first single, and I agree with them: it's a faster, more traditional-sounding song that could've won over those on the fence about them by being a non-threatening song but still having what they were about in the past. Had I been them, I would've used that as the first single, using it to show the older fans the new style change which still had the roots in the past while also showing the pop-world what was to await them on the album. Then, after that has gone away, use "Enter Sandman" and let it explode, which wouldn't have mattered much since the metalheads are already aware of the fact that the album is still close enough for the past to let them feel comfortable with the change while the converted masses have their pop-single.
What do you think?
