The Darkest Canuck Wrote:BDS28 Wrote:The Darkest Canuck Wrote:The Darkest Canuck Wrote:Gravity is the biggest piece of crap I've ever heard (worse than St. Anger IMO, at least St. Anger had a few good riffs here and there), and it's no surprise, because Mike Turner was the driving creative force behind that band, without him, it's just Raine whining about things in an over-dramatic fashion, against uniinspired sub-par post-grunge alt-rock.
the only thing amazing about OLP, is how far they've fallen...
seriously, i was a HUGE fan, from 94-2004...it was a decent run, actually no, it was a great run. But that's in the past now, and really, they should've called it quits awhile ago, or just became "Raine Maida and the Used-ta-Rock's", because everything they've done since Turner was booted, has been an insult to what was once a damn fine rock & roll band...
they're a neutered, watered-down, dumbed-down, assed-up, heartless, bastardized, pre-packaged, plastic-craptastic version of their former selves...
Metallica are just embarassing themselves...but they're Metallica, and they've earned the right to embarass themselves...like Michael Jackson...
OLP are just milking it...and in the words's of Dave Chappelle/Rick James:
"...4-thumbs down! THE MILK'S GONE BAAAAAAAAAAAD"!
Just because you didn't like Gravity or Healthy in Paranoid Times does not mean that what OLP does now his horrible.
I don't think those are their best albums, but HIPT has some good stuff on there. But besides, they have become 10 times a better live band than they were in the Mike Turner days, and live performances are a hundred times more important than polished studio work if you ask me.
As far as Metallica is concerned, I think that's a pretty fucking ignorant comment from you. Where do you get off saying they are embarrassing themselves? Just because you didn't like St. Anger? NO ONE LIKED ST. ANGER!
Metallica themselves don't even like it. It was a seriously fucked up period for them. Jason quit, James was so fucked up that he was close to death, Kirk was starting a family and also on a lot of fucked up drugs at the end of the 90s. Aside from St. Anger, Metallica has done NOTHING embarrassing. And don't give me the "Sellouts" theory because every band sells shirts and posters and tons of bands have their songs on Guitar Hero.
I have seen 11 Metallica concerts since St. Anger came out, and they were better with each one. They are just now scratching the surface of their chemistry potential with Rob in the band. Their shows this past summer and the way they pulled off songs like Orion (in full), Whiplash and ...And Justice For All, you would swear you were watching them in 1989.
They are still an incredible amazing band. They always have been. I don't give a shit what the internet community and what the people who post on Blabbermouth.net say. Ever since the Napster issue everyone has found it to be the cool thing to slag Metallica and call them sellouts. I think some of the shit on Load and Reload is brilliant. Don't even get me started on how godly S&M is. They had full rights to protect their interest in the Napster incident. Music downloaders may not like it, but the reality is that we all do steal music and they have a right to be angry.
That being said, people are extremely mistaken on what Metallica's stance was. Everyone just assumed they were against the Mp3 revolution. That was not at all the case. Metallica has always been at the forefront of technological advancements for their fans. They were one of the first to offer fully downloadable shows (like The Hip did for those London and Toronto shows), except Metallica offers EVERY SINGLE SHOW to be downloaded. Even when they play new material that otherwise would have to be bought on a new album! Heck, Metallica has always had a tapers section where any fan could come and set up their recording gear for bootlegs at every concert since like 1985. Just like some of you guys record all these Hip shows, Metallica has been encouraging that for decades.
In Reality, Metallica's real issue with Napster wasn't that you could download any of their songs, but that people had leaked out unfinished versions of new songs they were recording. Because of Napster's ability, this unfinished material was able to travel around the world and multiply in minutes. How would you feel if you were recording a new song and it was so far from being finished or even mixed, and you had just tried out basically humming along a couple new lyrics in the chorus that you just wanted to try out, and then you go home and find that work you did was all over the internet? Obviously there was a bigger issue. Obviously there was some sort of security problem at the studio they were recording at, but the point is that they went after Napster to protect personal, private material. Would a famous painter like photocopies of his next masterpiece to be passed around the world and every art gallery when he was only 1/4 done it? They were extremely baffled to see some work that they had only put a couple days worth of writing into, being listened to by everyone so soon. Like it or not, music is art. And the musicians are artists. I play drums, I play with friends of mine. We aren't professionals, we don't make money off of it... Heck we aren't even good! But the music is still art to me. It's effort, it's emotion, it's art. That should be respected. It's one thing that these professionals take all of their talent and emotions and put it on a cd for the whole world to enjoy, it's another to exploit that and publicize private, nowhere close to being finished versions of it.
And don't even get me started on their fanclub and the way they treat their fans. There is no question at all that Metallica has the #1 fanclub in all of professional music. I don't think any band does more for their fans. It's just tough to do when you have a billion fans everywhere. The sheer content level of their fanclub, the fanclub advantages... the fact that they hang out with, sign autographs and relax with about 75 fanclub members backstage before EVERY SINGLE SHOW is amazing. Consider their size as a band, as a product and think about doing that on every show, right before you go on stage, every night, hundreds of nights a year.
Think about that and tell me that what they do is embarrassing.
Or better yet, why don't you go to their next show that comes by you and get a nice front row seat.
And then tell me that it was embarrassing.
