Originally Posted by Musicfanatic

You guys can be like a bunch of religious zealots when it comes to this Metallica thing. I am probably one of the biggest fans of the band here, with many others claiming them to be subpar to many other metal acts. But then everyone wants to put down an album because it's different than the others before it. I get that, really I do, but I cannot accept the blatant stupidity that gets thrown around because it isn't a thrash album.

Look at Death Magnetic for modern day thrash. That's what we could have gotten instead of the Black Album, and I for one am glad that they had at least one more great album in them that was journeying towards where their style and vocal maturity was heading. Before we got something that was trying to reenter their old territory, a realm in which they would have been smart in throwing in the towel. I look at the Black Album as their last really great album. My favorite Metallica album? Helk no! That'd be Kill 'Em All. As Fred Hale Sr. was so apt in mentioning.

But to put down the Black Album because it wasn't a conventional choice? It's loaded with great material. Don't Tread On Me, Of Wolf and Man, The Struggle Within, Sad But True, The God That Failed, Through the Never, etc.

No, it's not thrash, I can agree with that. But it's as near a masterpiece as you can get once you look at the changes and possibilities of where they could have gone with it: Death Magnetic, now that's the failure...