PRECIS FOR METALLICA
Feb. 13th, 2008 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fannishlissSo I went to this website called Last.fm, which very sweetly played La Cara a La Pared by Lhasa for me, but then wouldn't play Sad but True by Metallica! and didn't have a profile for Metallica! so I spent a while and made one for them. It's nice and facty.
I appended a personal review of a random favorite, Until it Sleeps.
Metallica are a heavy metal group with great popular success, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide, including four number one albums. Lead singer James Hetfield also plays rhythm guitar and writes the lyrics. Drummer is Lars Ulrich. Lead Guitar is Kirk Hammett. Bass player is Rob Trujillo.
Metallica's sound is composed of heavy guitar and drums with Hetfield's aggressive vocals. Metallica have ranged from speed metal as can be heard in their classic, One, and in their newest songs from St. Anger, to slow, almost country songs, like Mama Said, or their cover of Turn the Page. Whatever the tempo or the dynamic, Metallica songs are characterized by intensity and expert musicianship.
Albums include: Kill 'Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984); Master of Puppets (1986); ...And Justice for All (1988); Metallica (1991) also known as the Black Album; Load (1996); ReLoad (1997); Garage, Inc. (1998), a double length album of covers; S&M (1999), with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, directed by Michael Kamen; and St. Anger (2003) with its accompanying documentary Some Kind of Monster. Metallica, Load, ReLoad, and St. Anger have all reached number one on the Billboard charts, while Garage, Inc. and S&M both entered at number two. A DVD, The Videos 1989-2004, came out in 2006.
Former members of Metallica include original bassist Ron McGovney, lead guitarist Dave Mustaine of Megadeth (1981-83), Jason Newsted who was bassist from 1986 - 2001, and Cliff Burton, bassist from 1982 to 1986, who died when the band's tourbus overturned during the Master of Puppets tour.
ME PERSONALLY:
Although I am not a black t shirt wearing guy living out of my parents' basement, I love Metallica. Actually I'm a music teacher and classically trained singer! tho I actually do wear black t shirts a lot. And although I am a poet, my lyricism fails me when it comes to Metallica. I just start saying how awesome, and sweet, and headbanging it all is. ...
Ok, so I went over to youtube just to listen to a favorite, in order to get a little more lyrical.... Until it sleeps. (Plus I dig the makeup on Lars and Kirk!)
What is great about this song is how beautifully it starts with the fretless bass and the guitar on chorus, and Hetfield's really simple and sweet delivery. As the emotional content of the lyrics begins to build the vocals and the guitars get harsher, and then everything drops down again for the second verse. Hetfield is a true master of tone in the voice. He can go from pure to harsh at the drop of a hat and always performs to the best effect for the lyrics, which are deceptively simple, yet poetic and complicated. For example:
Just like the curse, just like the stray, you feed it once, and now it stays...
The keyword is curse. You don't feed a curse, you feed a stray. But inside Curse is Cur. A Cur is a stray, but it is also more implicated in its outcast status -- it didn't just wander off, it was probably badly behaved as well! Hetfield never says cur, but by linking curse and stray the idea of cur is embedded in the line. So then, the ideas of sin and redemption and falling repeatedly into sin, the grip and stain of sin, are re-emphasized by the problem of the Cur -- it's not cursed by an outside source, it's not lost, but it makes bad choices!
And listen to Hetfied's performative choices in this next verse:
so tell me why you've chosen me, don't want your grip don't want your greed, don't want it!
In the first phrase his voice almost breaks on the cry in the word why -- he keeps it simple but plaintive. Then of course with the word grip he unleashes his most gravelly angry voice! and listen to the delicious contract between the melisma in the word greed with the punch of don't want it driving through into the chorus.
Then there's an emotional honesty in the chorus, that may be a touch melodramatic, but so much more moving than merely confessional:
I'll tear me open, make you gone! No more can you hurt anyone! and the fear still shakes me, so hold me until it sleeps!
plus listen how the guitar solo makes you long for the moment when Hetfield re-enters with don't want it, no!
Yeah, Dean Winchester totally loves this song. It's one long classic "No!"
I guess it's not that I have nothing to say about Metallica. It's just that, at least in their best songs, every second represents an infinite number of perfect choices!
I appended a personal review of a random favorite, Until it Sleeps.
Metallica are a heavy metal group with great popular success, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide, including four number one albums. Lead singer James Hetfield also plays rhythm guitar and writes the lyrics. Drummer is Lars Ulrich. Lead Guitar is Kirk Hammett. Bass player is Rob Trujillo.
Metallica's sound is composed of heavy guitar and drums with Hetfield's aggressive vocals. Metallica have ranged from speed metal as can be heard in their classic, One, and in their newest songs from St. Anger, to slow, almost country songs, like Mama Said, or their cover of Turn the Page. Whatever the tempo or the dynamic, Metallica songs are characterized by intensity and expert musicianship.
Albums include: Kill 'Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984); Master of Puppets (1986); ...And Justice for All (1988); Metallica (1991) also known as the Black Album; Load (1996); ReLoad (1997); Garage, Inc. (1998), a double length album of covers; S&M (1999), with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, directed by Michael Kamen; and St. Anger (2003) with its accompanying documentary Some Kind of Monster. Metallica, Load, ReLoad, and St. Anger have all reached number one on the Billboard charts, while Garage, Inc. and S&M both entered at number two. A DVD, The Videos 1989-2004, came out in 2006.
Former members of Metallica include original bassist Ron McGovney, lead guitarist Dave Mustaine of Megadeth (1981-83), Jason Newsted who was bassist from 1986 - 2001, and Cliff Burton, bassist from 1982 to 1986, who died when the band's tourbus overturned during the Master of Puppets tour.
ME PERSONALLY:
Although I am not a black t shirt wearing guy living out of my parents' basement, I love Metallica. Actually I'm a music teacher and classically trained singer! tho I actually do wear black t shirts a lot. And although I am a poet, my lyricism fails me when it comes to Metallica. I just start saying how awesome, and sweet, and headbanging it all is. ...
Ok, so I went over to youtube just to listen to a favorite, in order to get a little more lyrical.... Until it sleeps. (Plus I dig the makeup on Lars and Kirk!)
What is great about this song is how beautifully it starts with the fretless bass and the guitar on chorus, and Hetfield's really simple and sweet delivery. As the emotional content of the lyrics begins to build the vocals and the guitars get harsher, and then everything drops down again for the second verse. Hetfield is a true master of tone in the voice. He can go from pure to harsh at the drop of a hat and always performs to the best effect for the lyrics, which are deceptively simple, yet poetic and complicated. For example:
Just like the curse, just like the stray, you feed it once, and now it stays...
The keyword is curse. You don't feed a curse, you feed a stray. But inside Curse is Cur. A Cur is a stray, but it is also more implicated in its outcast status -- it didn't just wander off, it was probably badly behaved as well! Hetfield never says cur, but by linking curse and stray the idea of cur is embedded in the line. So then, the ideas of sin and redemption and falling repeatedly into sin, the grip and stain of sin, are re-emphasized by the problem of the Cur -- it's not cursed by an outside source, it's not lost, but it makes bad choices!
And listen to Hetfied's performative choices in this next verse:
so tell me why you've chosen me, don't want your grip don't want your greed, don't want it!
In the first phrase his voice almost breaks on the cry in the word why -- he keeps it simple but plaintive. Then of course with the word grip he unleashes his most gravelly angry voice! and listen to the delicious contract between the melisma in the word greed with the punch of don't want it driving through into the chorus.
Then there's an emotional honesty in the chorus, that may be a touch melodramatic, but so much more moving than merely confessional:
I'll tear me open, make you gone! No more can you hurt anyone! and the fear still shakes me, so hold me until it sleeps!
plus listen how the guitar solo makes you long for the moment when Hetfield re-enters with don't want it, no!
Yeah, Dean Winchester totally loves this song. It's one long classic "No!"
I guess it's not that I have nothing to say about Metallica. It's just that, at least in their best songs, every second represents an infinite number of perfect choices!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 09:23 pm (UTC)