Monday 9th June 2003
On June 5th 2003, Metallica released their first studio album since 1997‘s ‘Re-Load‘ on the Vertigo label through Mercury. It is also their first album with new band member Rob Trujillo, a seasoned bass player who has performed with Ozzy Osbourne amongst others. The album, entitled ‘St. Anger‘ will be the band‘s 11th album in their 23-year career and marks an unprecedented reign as THE greatest hard rock band in history.
The trials and tribulations leading up to ‘St. Anger‘ are well documented. Bassist Jason Newsted‘s nebulous exit from the group, singer James Hetfield‘s voluntary sojourn into rehab and public squabbles over the illegal downloading quagmire. The album was in fact due for release today but Metallica brought the release date forward to prevent any new material being leaked onto the internet.
"It‘s been an interesting three years" says drummer Lars Ulrich with atypical understatement. "It‘s been a ride that‘s taken us to places inside ourselves, inside the band, inside the potential of human beings and the music and everything else that we could not imagine existed." Ulrich has good reason to wax lyrical... he is co-composing Quentin Tarantino‘s newest film ‘Kill Bill‘ with RZA of the Wu Tang Clan.
The result of the ‘ride‘ Lars refers to, can be found in the sweat and blood and grooves of ‘St. Anger‘. From the album‘s crushing title song and its burnished heaps of magnified guitar and drums to the colossal time and tempo changes of ‘Frantic‘ to the chugging slabs and staccato exchanges of the confessional ‘My World‘, Metallica has once again, in the boldest of strokes imaginable, made music its most viable currency.
‘St. Anger‘, the album, will also include ‘St. Anger‘ the DVD in the same package. The DVD was filmed at the band‘s HQ in San Francisco, and features them playing all the tracks on the album.
The album will contain a special code, which will give the consumer access to the Metallica Vault, a site run by the band and featuring a number of live concerts (in their entirety, minus cover tracks) for fans to stream or download. Everything on the site is free. Every three months the concerts will be updated, fans will be invited to submit some of their favourite live recordings for consideration - as Metallica has allowed taping at their concerts for at least the last 12 years, if not longer.
Full track listing is as follows:
Frantic ~ St. Anger ~ Some Kind Of Monster ~ Dirty Window ~ Invisible Kid
My World ~ Shoot Me Again ~ Sweet Amber ~ Unnamed Feeling
Purify ~ All Within My Hands
Metallica will be playing songs from ‘St. Anger‘ at 3 shows in the UK this year: August 20th - Dublin RDS Festival ; August 22nd - Leeds Festival ; August 24th - Reading Festival.
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
