Your greatest musical "let-downs".

[Sephychu]

Metallica's Black Album.

I was a 17-year old metalhead when that album came out and boy, me and my even more metalhead friends at the time were excited. How could the new Metallica album be bad, after their first four albums? We huddled excitedly around the school stereo system before Home Group class (the generic "I'm here, miss" class you go to before you get farmed out to the other classes during the day) as one of us held a cassette of The Black Album in his excited hand, we thought "when the bell rings for class - fuck that shit, Metallica comes first". We listened to the first song... hmmm good opening riff, nice and heavy... one minute later, the same riff is still playing. That's a bit weird. None of the band's usual twists and turns, and yes, while it was still heavy there's a definite pop feel happening as well. We start looking at each other in dismay as the song moves in the predictable pop music verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-fade fashion that we all liked to listen to Metallica to get away from. "Well, it IS the single, let's give them a chance, maybe the next song will be good", we said to each other. The next song comes on. Another bone-crushingly heavy riff... married to a pop song structure. We start sighing. Third song came on, same story. And on and on it went. I swear I saw tears in the eyes of my metal comrades. When the bell rung, nobody was late.

Are you talking about this album? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica_%28album%29

Because I love Sad But True, Enter Sandman, Of Wolf and Man, and Wherever I may Roam. Hoping I get to see at least Enter Sandman live when they're here in Australia later this year.

Yes, yes I am.

I realise lots of people love that album, but for me, Metallica threw away their biggest asset on that recording - their progressive song structures. It's when they became a pop band. I love pop music, but I don't think Metallica do a good job of it. They were a lot better in the 80s when they were playing to their strengths. The recent Death Magnetic is them finally realising this and playing catch-up, but it's too late, the horse has already bolted.

I get what you mean, and I agree with you, for the most part. Some of the tracks on The Black Album just didn't have it, but the others(Enter Sandman, Wherever I May Roam, Sad But True, etc.) were pure gold, in my view.
Also, Death Magnetic is utter genius. Fair enough if you think it's a bit late, but I'm loving that they aren't resting on their laurels, as it were, and instead are producing great new tracks, like Cyanide, All Nightmare Long and Broken, Beat & Scarred.

My biggest musical letdown would probably be Chinese Democracy, or The Resistance. Man, those albums were bad.

 

[Blue Musician]

trivium's crusade album I mean it sounded good (I liked anthem, becoming the dragon, to the rats, and unrepentant) it was good but it just didn't do it for me I know it did help out their clean vocals and I loved shogun (hell I think their best song ever was Kirisute Gomen)

Shogun is one of my favorite albums. Like only one of them I didn't like them as much as the rest.
OT: I'd think Pain's new album. It wasn't bad, but I did felt let down.
But apart from that I cannot remember.

 

[ideitbawx]

I'm really not a fan of NINs Year Zero. I let With Teeth slide because he's getting old but.. I guess I just miss the days of The Fragile and everything before it.

Hell, I even liked Broken more than Year Zero, and there were only like 6 songs on that.

i don't think trent's been quite the same since rehab, but his newer albums have some moments of glory laced with a touch of let-down. half of The Slip was a throw-away, and it was only a 10-song album.

trent even said in interviews that Year Zero was "probably too long", and certain songs towards the end felt kind of shoehorned in. but overall, i was still pleased with how it sounded.

i still say The Fragile and The Downward Spiral were almost perfect. it'd be hard for anyone to top albums like that. though he tries.

EDIT: and, yeah ... Broken was awesome!

 

[jehuty_zero69]

new alice in chains. forced myself to buy it cuz of the absence of Layne may God rest his soul. but i just couldnt bring myself to listen to a song all the way through on it.

Yes, someone who understands. Back when they had Layne they stood out, now with the new vocalist they sound like shitty and generic metal.

Hell yea dude. Layne, while not having the range of Chris Cornell, had power in his voice like no other.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

I've noticed that I've mentioned 'Nas' several times today, and it got me thinking. Nas' first album, Illmatic was quite possibly the greatest debut album ever, however the follow up, It was written had one half-decent track, and even that wasn't as good as the worst track in Illmatic. This was followed by awful albums, Nastradamus, and I am ... The Autobiography, before he pulled it back with the brilliant Stillmatic.

At least most of his albums are much better than stuff that's out now.

I thought The New Danger was a bit of a disappointment after Mos Def's amazing work of art Black On Both Sides, and before that Mos Def and Talib kweli are Blackstar. Although I have learned to like the album, it was a weird change from his usual.

Mos' newest release Supermagic is a hugely underrated album.

It's not so much that it's hideously bad, it's just that coming off Illmatic, it's almost depressing how all that talent went to waste...

Yeah that's true...I mean I don't think Illmatic had any even remotely bad songs. Off course coming off that album would be hard no matter what...but I agree, he could've done much better. His Untitled album (well it did have a title until they made him pull it) had some really good songs, but it seemed he went the more main-stream road. I've heard some songs from the Damian Marley collab, Distant Relatives, but not enough to give an opinion of it.

Yeah, I've heard that those two are ok. My way of thinking of Illmatic is 9 classics and an Intro. I mean probably my top 3 favourite rap songs are on it, and I would definitely cite it as my favorite ever album

 

[Aggressor and Usurper]

When Five Finger Death Punch got on the cover of Metal Hammer.

Am I the only person who realizes that they're the worst metal band to ever have shit on the earth?

But in terms of albums, Christopher Lee was pretty awful. Absolutely no metal at all.

Metallica's Death Magnetic was a piece of shit. Not St. Anger, just Death.

I am the only person in the world who loves that album. >_>

 

[Xeros]

I can't really say. I don't think I've ever been let-down by a band.

For Metallica:

I actually liked The Black Album, I'd put Death Magnetic as one of their best, and I liked enough songs off of Load, Reload, and St. Anger to personally say that they were not bad albums.

I am the only person in the world who loves that album. >_>

Nope, that's one of my favorite albums from them.

 

[Aggressor and Usurper]

I can't really say. I don't think I've ever been let-down by a band.

For Metallica:

I actually liked The Black Album, I'd put Death Magnetic as one of their best, and I liked enough songs off of Load, Reload, and St. Anger to personally say that they were not bad albums.

I am the only person in the world who loves that album. >_>

Nope, that's one of my favorite albums from them.

FINALLY! I love it to bits. It's the album that got me into metal.

 

[nick n stuff]

Megadeth's Risk or So Far So Good So What

but the rest of their back catalogue more than makes up for it

 

[nick n stuff]

definatly Chinese Democracy, just admit axel guns N' roses are dead.

seconded. i'm so glad i tried it before i went to purchase... i saved £10 that day.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Also, Linkin Park's Minutes To Midnight... Not good at all.

Why yes, yet another person agreeing with you on this. Minutes to Midnight was my biggest musical disappointment.

Following close behind actually is again, Linkin Park, but for an entirely different reason.

After hearing about Linkin Park releasing their new game, 8-Bit Rebellion or something, I shrugged it off. But upon hearing it had an unreleased song coming out with it, I was interested. Once hearing the teaser to it, I was thrilled!


Listen to it! It sounds like old Linkin Park! It sounds great! It's what I've been waiting for! I wait eagerly for the day for the game to be released so I could pirate listen to the song and have it sitting proud with my other Linkin Park tracks. Then it's released.


The hell is this?! The teaser is literally ALL the rap they have in it. The rest of it is singing the lyrics in a very dull manner. The teaser pretty well lied, making it seem as though it would be back to incorporating the rap and the music, and making their unique style of the two. In the end (see what I did there?) it was nothing but a disappointment for me.

 

[BonsaiK]

Metallica's Black Album.

I was a 17-year old metalhead when that album came out and boy, me and my even more metalhead friends at the time were excited. How could the new Metallica album be bad, after their first four albums? We huddled excitedly around the school stereo system before Home Group class (the generic "I'm here, miss" class you go to before you get farmed out to the other classes during the day) as one of us held a cassette of The Black Album in his excited hand, we thought "when the bell rings for class - fuck that shit, Metallica comes first". We listened to the first song... hmmm good opening riff, nice and heavy... one minute later, the same riff is still playing. That's a bit weird. None of the band's usual twists and turns, and yes, while it was still heavy there's a definite pop feel happening as well. We start looking at each other in dismay as the song moves in the predictable pop music verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-fade fashion that we all liked to listen to Metallica to get away from. "Well, it IS the single, let's give them a chance, maybe the next song will be good", we said to each other. The next song comes on. Another bone-crushingly heavy riff... married to a pop song structure. We start sighing. Third song came on, same story. And on and on it went. I swear I saw tears in the eyes of my metal comrades. When the bell rung, nobody was late.

Are you talking about this album? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica_%28album%29

Because I love Sad But True, Enter Sandman, Of Wolf and Man, and Wherever I may Roam. Hoping I get to see at least Enter Sandman live when they're here in Australia later this year.

Yes, yes I am.

I realise lots of people love that album, but for me, Metallica threw away their biggest asset on that recording - their progressive song structures. It's when they became a pop band. I love pop music, but I don't think Metallica do a good job of it. They were a lot better in the 80s when they were playing to their strengths. The recent Death Magnetic is them finally realising this and playing catch-up, but it's too late, the horse has already bolted.

I get what you mean, and I agree with you, for the most part. Some of the tracks on The Black Album just didn't have it, but the others(Enter Sandman, Wherever I May Roam, Sad But True, etc.) were pure gold, in my view.
Also, Death Magnetic is utter genius. Fair enough if you think it's a bit late, but I'm loving that they aren't resting on their laurels, as it were, and instead are producing great new tracks, like Cyanide, All Nightmare Long and Broken, Beat & Scarred.

My biggest musical letdown would probably be Chinese Democracy, or The Resistance. Man, those albums were bad.

Death Magnetic didn't impress me. 50 years olds pretending they're 20 year olds - it's a good try but it's just not the same, they'll never recapture that lost energy. The time for them to try and make that album and fly the flag for extreme metal was 1991 but instead they decided at that time to be a pop band, they can't go back to being "Metal Thrashing Mad" now. The quality of the songs isn't there on Death Magnetic, and Rick Rubin's production is truly awful. Mind you every Metallica album except Load/Reload has had poor production issues.

I wasn't disappointed by Chinese Democracy when it came out because I heard pre-release and demo version of the tracks years before that album hit the shelves, and they were awful, so when that turdball hit the shelves I knew exactly what to expect. Taking over two years to make an album is always a bad sign. One year is pushing it even if you're a Michael Jackson-style perfectionist, any more than that and someone is snorting up the advance money or being a mentally unstable prima-donna.

 

[Sephychu]

Metallica's Black Album.

I was a 17-year old metalhead when that album came out and boy, me and my even more metalhead friends at the time were excited. How could the new Metallica album be bad, after their first four albums? We huddled excitedly around the school stereo system before Home Group class (the generic "I'm here, miss" class you go to before you get farmed out to the other classes during the day) as one of us held a cassette of The Black Album in his excited hand, we thought "when the bell rings for class - fuck that shit, Metallica comes first". We listened to the first song... hmmm good opening riff, nice and heavy... one minute later, the same riff is still playing. That's a bit weird. None of the band's usual twists and turns, and yes, while it was still heavy there's a definite pop feel happening as well. We start looking at each other in dismay as the song moves in the predictable pop music verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-fade fashion that we all liked to listen to Metallica to get away from. "Well, it IS the single, let's give them a chance, maybe the next song will be good", we said to each other. The next song comes on. Another bone-crushingly heavy riff... married to a pop song structure. We start sighing. Third song came on, same story. And on and on it went. I swear I saw tears in the eyes of my metal comrades. When the bell rung, nobody was late.

Are you talking about this album? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica_%28album%29

Because I love Sad But True, Enter Sandman, Of Wolf and Man, and Wherever I may Roam. Hoping I get to see at least Enter Sandman live when they're here in Australia later this year.

Yes, yes I am.

I realise lots of people love that album, but for me, Metallica threw away their biggest asset on that recording - their progressive song structures. It's when they became a pop band. I love pop music, but I don't think Metallica do a good job of it. They were a lot better in the 80s when they were playing to their strengths. The recent Death Magnetic is them finally realising this and playing catch-up, but it's too late, the horse has already bolted.

I get what you mean, and I agree with you, for the most part. Some of the tracks on The Black Album just didn't have it, but the others(Enter Sandman, Wherever I May Roam, Sad But True, etc.) were pure gold, in my view.
Also, Death Magnetic is utter genius. Fair enough if you think it's a bit late, but I'm loving that they aren't resting on their laurels, as it were, and instead are producing great new tracks, like Cyanide, All Nightmare Long and Broken, Beat & Scarred.

My biggest musical letdown would probably be Chinese Democracy, or The Resistance. Man, those albums were bad.

Death Magnetic didn't impress me. 50 years olds pretending they're 20 year olds - it's a good try but it's just not the same, they'll never recapture that lost energy. The time for them to try and make that album and fly the flag for extreme metal was 1991 but instead they decided at that time to be a pop band, they can't go back to being "Metal Thrashing Mad" now. The quality of the songs isn't there on Death Magnetic, and Rick Rubin's production is truly awful. Mind you every Metallica album except Load/Reload has had poor production issues.

I wasn't disappointed by Chinese Democracy when it came out because I heard pre-release and demo version of the tracks years before that album hit the shelves, and they were awful, so when that turdball hit the shelves I knew exactly what to expect. Taking over two years to make an album is always a bad sign. One year is pushing it even if you're a Michael Jackson-style perfectionist, any more than that and someone is snorting up the advance money or being a mentally unstable prima-donna.

While sometimes it does seem that they're trying to get back to their old ways, I think that Hetfield has more than come to terms with the changes to his vocal ability, and the album has some of the best rhythm changes of any Metallica album. Combined with the awesome solos of, say, The Day That Never Comes, I think it's a stunning return to form, and all the changes that come with age are, in my eyes, made up for by their skills and minor changes in style. Cyanide is as fearsome a track as any.

I suppose I really knew Chinese Democracy was going to be utter pants, but a small part of me always wanted it to be good. I suppose that stopped happening after Chinese Democracy. Thus Chinese Democracy disappointed me and ruined my optimism.

 

[rabidmidget]

Everything Weezer's done after Pinkerton, their first two albums were brilliant but the rest are kinda meh.

 

[TheSentinel]

Morphine after 1999.

No, I do not expect anyone to get that one.

 

[reg42]

definatly Chinese Democracy, just admit axel guns N' roses are dead.

Eh, it wasn't a bad album, but there just wasn't any way in hell that it could ever will up to the hype. Wasn't bad, just wasn't worth a 15 year wait.

 

[Arkzism]

St Anger.... that is all...

 

[reg42]

Marilyn Manson's newest album, The High End of Low, is just too stupid. In his previous works it sounded like he was saying something, rebelling against the norms of this day and age. Now it sounds like he's just cussing for the sake of cussing (if that makes any sense).

Wait, so you're saying you don't like it because his songs no longer have meaning and because he's swearing a lot?

Well, he really doesn't swear that much on the new album, only really in Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon and a bit in other places, but I hardly thought it was an issue.
As for him not having a message, well I disagree. I'd say his songs still have a message, but he's gotten older and grown up so that message has changed. We're From America has a nice "fuck you" tune to it.

And now I'm going to to shamelessly plug this, because I'm unloved.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Also, Linkin Park's Minutes To Midnight... Not good at all.

I was going to say that, but after seeing them live it kind of redeemed it for me. I like some of the songs on it, but it's far from their best work. I can respect their reasons for changing styles though...still, holding out for a remix album after this next one.

While i liked some of their earlier stuff better, the change was necessary. The rap-rock/nu-metal thing was done to death. They were just imitating some of the music they like, and I feel minutes to midnight was more honest and truer to themselves.

That was pretty much their reason if I recall correctly. They said that yes they could make another album like their others, but it's been done so much that they'd rather take a step in another direction than go in circles. I do wish to hear more in their old stylings, but it's not like the old stuff is just going to disappear.