OFF: Metallica's Astronomy

[Stephen Swann]

BREVARD, Adrian R. writes:
>
> >OK.  Having listened to the snippet of _Astronomy_ available on the
> cdnow.com website, I think I'm gonna pass that one up.  Granted, RealAudio
> doesn't do most things justice on a machine as slow as mine but still,
> Hetfield sounds like John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants.  Not that
> there's anything wrong with TMBG if they're not fronting a "metal" band and
> trying to ruin one of my favourite songs.
>
> Warrick Bell
>
> And I thought it was just me.  I heard the clip also and came away less than
> impressed.  I dunno, I just don't get it with Metallica.  The more I listen
> the more they sound like a second rate metal band from the 70's.  Sorry if
> that offends but its how I feel.

Metallica does a certain kind of music better than anybody else.  If
you like that kind of music, you'll love them.  If you don't like it
at all, or are indifferent towards it, you won't like them much.

Personally, I think Metallica has done a few all-time classic metal
songs ("Fade to Black" from _Ride the Lightning_, the title track from
_Master of Puppets_, and maybe a couple others), but overall they
don't much do it for me.  However, they do have a pretty great knack
for covering other people's material: they do what I think is a fine
job of making the cover into a decidedly "Metallica-ized" song, while
still being true to the original.  Their cover of Nick Cave's
"Loverman", contrary what somebody else on the list said about it, is
one of the most intense and evil things I've ever heard.  Their cover
of Thin Lizzy's "Whiskey in the Jar" would have been enough to get me
to buy _Garage, Inc_ all by itself, even if I hadn't already been
buying it for "Last Caress", "Astronomy", and the several Motorhead
covers.

Steve
swann at plutonia.com