After hearing that 'Metallica' had decided to return to their roots, I eagerly awaited the release of 'St. Anger', I did however have concerns when I later heard there would be no guitar solos. This statement completely contradicts the 'back to root' philosophy and after first hearing the album my worst fears were quickly realised. If you are expecting another 'Ride the Lightning' or 'Master of Puppets' you will be bitterly disappointed as 'St. Anger' is a blend of inharmonious modern sounding Trash / Nu Metal. The only compliment I can pay 'Metallica' is for the packaging of the album, not only are we gifted 75 minutes worth of new music, the band can be seen playing the new songs live in the studio on the DVD included. Regrettably if you don't like the new tracks, which I don't, 75 minutes of this poorly produced repetitive grind can seem akin to 'Chinese Water Torture', Ok that's a bit strong, but if this is back to roots, I give 'Yngwie Malmsteen' guitar lessons.

Long standing bass player 'Jason Newsted' left shortly before the recording of the album, this forced 'Metallica' to use producer 'Bob Rock' as a replacement. 'Ozzy Osbourne' bassist 'Robert Trujillo' joined the ranks later and he can be seen performing the live studio tracks, 'Newsted' ironically later joined 'Ozzy Osbourne'.

I won't go into detail describing each track for want of repeating myself, as most of the songs sound very similar. Firstly the tempo is pretty one pace throughout, fast, brutal and with very little variation, lyrically there's a mix of decent to damn right embarrassing, hearing 'James Hetfield' screaming 'Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tock' is cringe worthy. Vocally 'James' has taken this 'Nu Metal' approach and despite his style matching the raw production, it's not very impressive. Oh don't start me on the production, well if I must, I can only wonder why they have stifled the sound so, the sound quality on the DVD is much crisper and the songs actually sound better, but the CD is ropy to the extreme. Are their any features of 'St. Anger' I like you might ask, well listening to the DVD there's a few bits here an there, despite the absence of guitar solos there are a couple of solid instrumental breaks. 'Robert Trujillo' seems to fit into the band particularly well, having said that I can't comment on his live workings of their classic material, but I don't think he will have any trouble. If I was forced to pick the best songs of 'St. Anger' I'd probably opt for 'Purity' and the title track, but to be honest, nothing present really inspires me.

You can blame many things for the finished sound of 'St. Anger':- the lack of guitar work, the sludgy production, the overall raw approach, but at the end of the day the songs themselves are just lacking. Those who enjoy the modern more brutal Metal might take something from this release, but those who enjoy the more classic 'Metallica', might be thinking they are listening to another band.