In April 2001, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, whose Paradise Misplaced trilogy of documentaries had used Metallica’s music on their soundtracks, started filming the recording classes. However in July, Hetfield went into rehab, and the album and the band have been placed on pause for practically a 12 months. He got here out of rehab in December 2001 however sharply restricted the variety of hours per day he was prepared to dedicate to music. They resumed work in April 2002 and at last accomplished the file a 12 months later, in April 2003. It was recorded with producer Bob Rock enjoying bass; Robert Trujillo was employed afterward and has remained with the band ever since, their longest-serving bassist.

All of that is lined in exhaustive element within the film Metallica: Some Variety Of Monster, which I’ve solely seen in full as soon as. It’s a deeply uncomfortable factor to look at should you choose to consider Metallica as larger-than-life steel gods blasting out riffs in packed arenas. The important thing to separating the artwork from the artist is just not understanding a lot in regards to the artist, in spite of everything, and the extra you realize about Metallica, the extra you could find your self feeling sorry for them. In 2001, they didn’t appear to love themselves very a lot, nor did they like one another very a lot. To be able to work a few of that stuff out they employed a “efficiency coach,” Phil Towle, who over the course of two years or so of group remedy classes developed a bizarre parasocial relationship with them to the purpose that — on movie, anyway — it begins to appear like he considers himself a fifth member of the band. In some methods, this mirrors the connection a number of older Metallica followers have with them, which is what permits folks to shrug off every thing from the ’90s onward as inferior to the primary 4 albums. However who cares? Fuck that man, and fuck these followers.

Listening to St. Anger 20 years later — actually listening to it, as an alternative of filtering it by way of the media narrative of the time or treating it just like the soundtrack to the documentary — reveals it as a purgation. Hetfield had so much to get out of his system, and it got here out bloody and uncooked. It’s astonishing that this album was the product of practically two years of classes, as a result of it feels like they recorded it in a couple of week. Hetfield’s vocals are each tough — describing them as “off-key” would indicate {that a} key was discernible within the first place — and radically experimental. He sings in types he’s by no means tried on some other Metallica album, leaping from whispers to roars to post-grunge howling and overdubbing a number of vocal tracks so he’s not solely harmonizing with himself, however lecturing himself, combating with himself, shouting at himself, mocking himself. Taken as an entire, it’s a genuinely unhinged efficiency, nearer to David Yow, or Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, than a traditional rock/steel frontman.

The lyrics are wild, too. Hetfield’s at all times had a darkish and introspective facet, going all the way in which again to “Fade To Black” on Experience The Lightning, however for the band’s first 4 albums he principally saved it hidden, selecting as an alternative to discover large manly themes like struggle, drug dependancy, madness, the corruption of the justice system, and so forth. Finally, the shell began to crack, although; “Dyers Eve,” the final observe on …And Justice For All, was a stinging indictment of his dad and mom’ Christian Science religion, a subject he returned to on “The God That Failed” from Metallica.

However St. Anger songs like “Soiled Window” and “Invisible Child” are the place Hetfield turns his blade on himself. On “Soiled Window,” he assaults and even mocks his personal judgmental nature, whereas on “Invisible Child” he paints a portrait of himself as a susceptible little one hiding behind a masks of toughness (“Invisible child, suspicious of your contact, don’t need no crutch, however it’s all an excessive amount of”). There are some strains that might have used a second cross, just like the oft-mocked “my life-style determines my deathstyle” from album opener “Frantic,” however general St. Anger is a street map of Hetfield’s private points, conveyed with the depth of a breakdown. It’s superb he was in a position to sing these strains in public. (It’s notable that after the preliminary tour in help of St. Anger, most of its songs disappeared from the reside set without end.)

The music is simply as boundary-breaking — by Metallica requirements — because the lyrics. On the time of the album’s launch, many followers and critics known as out Ulrich’s use of a particularly sharp, ringing snare drum. However that was the way in which snare drums sounded all by way of the Nineteen Nineties! Take heed to Soundgarden’s Superunknown; take heed to Helmet’s Betty; take heed to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Now I Received Fear; take heed to the goddamn Spin Docs. (OK, don’t take heed to the Spin Docs.) Ulrich could have pushed it somewhat farther within the path of Unsane or Ministry than some steel followers have been ready to take care of, however truthfully, it’s not that excessive, and it matches the widely punishing nature of the remainder of the music.

St. Anger is intentionally ugly, however it’s additionally actually assorted. Hetfield, Hammett, Ulrich, and even Bob Rock are throwing all types of issues on the wall. “Frantic” and “Soiled Window” sound like Filth Pig-era Ministry. There’s an unbelievably nasty-sounding guitar riff about 45 seconds into “Some Variety Of Monster,” like an MP3 of John McLaughlin circa 1972 enjoying out of a flip telephone. “Invisible Child” is sludgy noise-rock with an virtually rockabilly edge to its riffing, as if the Reverend Horton Warmth had joined Killdozer. There are moments on this album that incorporate every thing from doom to shoegaze (on “All Inside My Palms”) to the bluesy boogie-rock of the Load and ReLoad period. There are even some bursts of straight-up noise, and surprisingly, on condition that he’s solely there as a result of the band didn’t have a bassist on the time, Rock does rather more than simply thicken the album’s low finish. Hetfield and Hammett are throwing actually nasty, jagged riffs at one another from the far left and proper of the stereo area, and Rock’s bass is usually dominant within the center, an unsightly, virtually postpunk rumble and roar. Take heed to him on “Shoot Me Once more.” Take heed to him on the finish of “My World.”

Now, I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t like this album when it got here out. I wrote a particularly unfavourable evaluate for the Cleveland Scene, which was then syndicated all through the New Instances chain of alt-weeklies, so it wound up operating in one thing like a dozen cities throughout the nation. It ended like this:

St. Anger introduces the fourth model of Metallica. There was the Metallica that took thrash steel aboveground, from Kill ’Em All by way of …And Justice For All; the Metallica that acquired arena- and radio-friendly for the Black Album; the Metallica that embraced boogie-rock and Marianne Faithfull on Load and ReLoad; and now, there’s this Lazarus Metallica, which needs to be exhausting and heavy once more, the way in which it was within the previous days. However that was a very long time in the past — they usually have been fairly drunk. Steel’s gotten sooner, tougher and grittier of their absence, and the brand new, middle-aged Metallica can’t compete…They’re dressing up in previous, ill-fitting garments and hoping steel followers received’t have the ability to inform the distinction. Effectively, we will.

I used to be improper again then (and that line about being drunk was fairly dickish, all issues thought of). I used to be judging St. Anger based mostly on what I needed it to be, as an alternative of what it was. It’s by no means going to be my favourite Metallica album, as a result of it’s simply too punishing to get by way of — 11 tracks, 75 minutes, and yeah, I want it had simply one fucking guitar solo — however if you dive into it and pay attention fastidiously, as I’ve been doing for a couple of week now, it’s a hell of a factor. It has extra in frequent with ugly, hostile information like Filth Pig or Helmet’s Aftertaste or the Jesus Lizard’s Shot (examine the beginnings of “Thumper” and “Frantic”) than with any of the band’s putative friends. Megadeth and Anthrax would by no means have made an album this ugly and alienating. They didn’t have it in them. And the loss of life steel bands that got here up within the wake of thrash might need been heavier and extra dissonant, however the emotional vulnerability, the uncooked terror that emerges in Hetfield’s voice right here, was utterly out of attain for them. I don’t love St. Anger, as a result of it’s intentionally unlovable. However I respect the hell out of it as a gesture. Which is greater than I can say about fuckin’ Lulu.