This album received a ton of backlash of being a bad Metallica album but it's one of my favorite albums, I am a Lifelong fan of Metallica no matter what styles of music they explore I will still check it out at least but they never disappoint me.
I totally agree. If you take this album for what it is as opposed to comparing it to the lightning-justice era, you will see just how well written this record truly is. I think this is some of James’s best work from a lyrical standpoint. This song, The Outlaw Torn, and Hero are really a testament to that.
This is one of those songs that is better live than the studio version, especially the Woodstock 99 song that someone already mentioned there and the S&M 1 version.
If all the band members hadn’t cut their hair, I think this album would have been held in much higher regard. There is some phenomenal songwriting on this record.
may I suggest if you haven't done your live reaction yet for bleeding me for the 2022 Copenhagen performance; it was the first time they had put this back in a setlist in a while and it was perfection. I really enjoy the live followups you do to reactions. Their live shows and James vocals from the late 80s early 90s were peak in tune mixed with his growl, the late 90s gave birth to his wolf howl of a voice, the 08-13 a thing of its own to behold, but the last two years have given way maybe not to the fastest versions of their songs, but has birthed new intros to nearly every song and James' vocals being a mix of howl and gravel but being more in tune than ever. 1989 is favorite lives for the old stuff, 1999 for the howl combined with speed, today for an all around new and perfect experience. MetallicA is still around bc they are great, so was acdc until almost just this year, but MetallicA stayed relevant, more than any band from any era bc they evolved but still gave the once fans now haters something to chew on at their shows, and they constantly evolved. there are no two MetallicA albums that are the same, even load and reload and they were written at the same time though not recorded and produced together. Still very different albums. Still very great albums. There will not just never be another MetallicA, there will never be another band to make an impact on 4+ generations with new albums not even counting the record sales pre iTunes/YT. They are utterly unique no matter how much haters say they copied mustaine, copied misfits, copied this copied that. They are alone at the top, with the best song writer to ever live with the finest male hard rock metal vocals ever, and possibly the most consistently in tune vocals of any 4+ decade live performer if not of any live performer period. James Hetfield is a one in a billion human that rose from tragedy to scene king, to super infamy, to superstar, to alcoholic to drug addict to father to husband and back again back to superstar all while not letting his constant rise and fall destroy the brotherhood that is MetallicA though it came close once or twice and recently stabilizing into what seems to be a solid man all around. James has given me hope and an outlet for youthful rage into the pains of becoming a man and life into my 30s now nearly 40 in 7 months, all as I could not see God or where He fit into my life. I have been walking with God for nearly 4 yrs, and I still love James and MetallicA, I have been listening to bleeding me for a week as my father who has had cancer two years and lung disease from factory work had unrelated kidney failure last Wed due to medications being mixed that shouldn't have by his doctors. He woke up with brain swelling and brain damage after his kidneys were flushed and jumpstarted for lack of a better term on my behalf. He cannot correctly speak, one or two words at a time, and is being transferred tomorrow to a different hospital in the morning to begin moving his legs and arms again and hopefully learning how to speak or communicate enough so that we can eventually care for him at home. 74 yrs old isnt young, but it's not super old either, he once told me if anyone ever tries to put him in a nursing home to roll him down the side of the Mt instead, lol, I believe he meant it. The weak before my mother 72 had a mini stroke and returned to somewhat normal shortly after, yet she has been suffering these a while now. So all of this said to say, this song of all MetallicA songs brings me comfort in the dark times, in the hard times to encourage me to press on and serve my parents as they sacrificed so much to raise me and my two brothers forsaking their own needs. I am honored to return the favor, that good loving parents deserve from their children when they become old and sick.
