Metallica‘s controversial St. Anger album has been re-recorded in its entirety by two fans who have called the project #STANGER2015.
The fans, going by the names Chris D. and Dave C., issued a statement saying: “Recorded during a turbulent time in the bands career, ‘St. Anger’ has always divided opinion. Some longtime fans were turned off by the drop tuned riffs and raw production, whilst some listeners embraced it, myself included. #STANGER2015 is for the listeners who weren’t so fond on the record back when it was released in 2003.”
The pair added, “Recorded from the ground up, the album has been shortened by 15 minutes, yet every riff and lyric is intact, resulting in a more concise and focused record. The production is also more conventional, and we hope that METALLICA fans appreciate this new version of an album that is always looked at as an anomaly in the incredible career of the world’s biggest metal band, METALLICA.”
The statement concluded, “Absolutely no money has been made from this project, and it has been created out of love for one of our favorite bands of all time. There will be no download links or alternative streaming options aside from this singular YouTube video.”
METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich admitted to The Pulse Of Radio a while back that the band was surprised by the hostile reaction to St. Anger by many fans. “It threw us a little bit, sure, ’cause the whole thing was to just keep it as raw as possible,” he said. “And I’d like to think that we accomplished that, to the point of obviously a little too raw for some people, and that’s okay. I mean, it is what it is. I have not one regret about it. I’m proud of it, proud that we had the balls to see it through.”
St. Anger was released in June 2003 at the end of a turbulent two-year period in which bassist Jason Newsted left the group, frontman James Hetfield went for a lengthy stay in rehab, and the entire band threatened to break apart. The album’s raw, lo-fi production, lack of guitar solos and unorthodox sound were not well-received by many of the group’s fans, who still often cite it as METALLICA‘s worst record. St. Anger has nevertheless sold more than six million copies worldwide, although fans have generally not warmed up to it in the 12 years since its release.
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This is almost better than Metallica! I actually loved the St Anger album. Once you get over the ‘tinny’ snare, the sound is great – very raw. The Some Kind of Monster documentary was really good too.
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I agree, Kenny. The album has a great one-two punch with the two first songs “Frantic” and “St. Anger”. My appreciation for the album as a whole came from watching the documentary.
I have a ltd.ed. which comes with a DVD of the band performing the entire album live in the studio. That sounds phenomenal and is still my favourite version of the album.
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