The Great Metallica Debate!!!

[Mjolnir]

All right then,Enough is enough!!!!
I am sick to death of these little emo deathbangers harping on about how fuckin great and good Metallica is with Cliff!!
Lets get things sorted right now,i have seen Cliff play with Metallica LIve and thought what an awsome member of a great band he was!!
The point is All the songs with Cliff are not the bestest ever!!...
Most are great but my point is..is that people are looking back with rose tinted glasses and most of these people werent even soddin born in 1986 when i saw them at Sheffield City Hall supported by Tampax(sic!)
And Cliff was only in Tallica for three years vs Jasons Decade plus...(this is another debate for another time i feel!!)

Anyway lets review shall we........

1983Kill em All is and Awsome Album and started me on the left hand path for sure and i wish i had a buck(sic!) for every time i moshed to these songs.

1984Ride the Lightning is a more mature tighter and heavier album which has some classic songs that will never die on it!!!
Call of Ktulu,For Whom the Bells toll,Fade to Black and of course
Ride the Lightning itself...etc etc!!!

1986Master of Puppets was the Album that sent Tallica over the edge as there wasnt enything like this ever in the Thash scene...
In fact i will go so far to say that Puppets is Maidens Powerslave in that it just put the band waaaay over(as they say in wrasslin!)
In a way it alienated us guys that was there from the begining as Metallica was our band and Not spotty oiked rockers and casual metal fans's!!
(Thrashers were then and still are very anal about there favorite bands!!!)

Real Albums not Ego filled Cover albums by Lards fave bands here Only!!!

And now to THE Best ever Metallica Album of all time....
This has all the attributes of a great album and is still relevant today as it was all those years ago for me and many others(inc..Metalblade) i'm sure!!
I Am of course talking about 1988s
....And Justice for All

To Live is to Die....(9m 39s) is not only one of 'And Justice for All's' best songs but in my humble opinion it is one of THE best songs ever!!!!
Nuff said,oh and it has a little song called 'One' on it...Not a Good song at all is it.......Sarcasm anyone??

1990 Metallica or the Black Album....
Good songs, But...this is the one that sent tallica into the mainstream and us hardened Destruction,Venom and Sodom Fans didn't like that at all!!
(even though we can all sing each song word for bloody word!!)hehehe

Thats it until Death Magnetic for me as load and reload and all the other Bollocks they came out with along with the make up and new haircuts and tantrums and rehabs and napster hating can go suck the sweat off a dead donkey's testicles as far as I'm concerned!!!

CONCLUSION: Metallica from 1983-1990 are one of the most important Thrash/Metal bands ever but should have all disappeared up Large Oilrigs A Hole in 1991 and become recluses so us Real fans could have had something to hold onto for all etirnety...
Yes I'm still a fan but all the outside music shenanigans and the firing and treatment of Jason overall nearly ruins the memories of a once great band..I Would Only go and see them in a club these days and the chances of that happening are slim to none???(Watch this space!!)

[MetalBlade]

I remember the moment I discovered Metallica.
It was a rainy Friday night in 1986, as I sat in my room, aged only 15.
My ritual, as was the ritual of legions of British rock fans around that time, was to count down the minutes until my hero Tommy Vance exploded onto the airwaves of Radio One, with his Friday Rock Show.
Those two hours each week shaped my musical odyssey and placed me firmly on the same left hand path as Mjolnir had chanced upon some years before me.

And then I heard it...
The song began without an introduction, so I had no idea who it was, and sure enough my ears became attuned to the unusually crunchy guitar sound of the chorus. This was after an intro which I found reminiscent of Iron Maiden, and the middle section guitar piece drew me ever closer to the speaker. I had to know who this band was!
As the song trailed off, another song blended into it, this time I was familiar with the artist W.A.S.P. As I smiled with familiarity at the greatness of Wild Child, which I had heard a bazillion times, my mind was cast back to that song that I heard before it.

Then Tommys voice:
"W.A.S.P there with Wild Child, and just before that, with a song from their forthcoming album Master Of Puppets on Music For Nations, that was Metallica with Welcome Home (Sanitarium)."

That was it. I had to hear more.
My friend had a small independent record shop not far from where I lived, and they always managed to obtain stuff for me that was pretty far from mainstream.
When I walked in and mentioned it, he said "Oh yeah, you mean this?", and handed me a record sleeve with "SAMPLE" stamped right across the back. This was it!
"Yeah it's not out till next Monday. We've got all these to display.", as he pulled about twenty of these sleeves out from behind the counter. And he gave me one.
"Gonna be massive, this." He said.

I could not wait to hear it, and then he said he had a promo copy to play on the shop's record player. And he played it, and that was the moment I became a Metallica fan.

Master Of Puppets was my introduction to the band that would one day become the biggest metal band in the world.

[Mjolnir]

Bloody Hell Metalblade....
I read your post with a smile on my face and a tear in my eye (of joy) because your story was my story and it's the same story as many many Thrashers and Metallers i'm sure..
I liked the memories of buying(or not,lucky Bugger!)
Master of Puppets..
I got mine the old fashioned way....
I finished work(with Bagpuss) on a friday afternoon and clutching my 40 quid in a brown envelope i rushed down town to a little
record store called Virgin Records and put my 7.99 down on the counter(that was a lot of money back then by the way!) with my little slip of paper that said..." Advance Import Order"..and was given a large brown envelope that was thick as hell,the guy said do you want to check it before you go...i said ok...
I opened the end and saw a redish sleeve with crosses all over it and a sticker in the corner that said "Double picture Disc set with booklet and inner sleeve designs!!"
I then rushed home and put that bad boy on my stereo and shivered when the diamond tip landed on the first groove and the opening straines of...Battery, blared out i was then stuck on a path that wouldnt end and gave me tales of far away Festivals in Chermany and watching gigs all over my own country and who would have known that when i was 18 listening to the Bay Area Band Called Metallica,22 years later i would be living in said Bay Area...
What a crazy world of Metal we live in..

[MetalBlade]

Indeed.
Don't get me wrong, I bought the fucker the day it came out.
Mine was the nesbit 1 disc black vinyl edition though...
Years later though, I would end up buying the two disc remastered gatefold set, which required turning over after two songs...

But what's this heresy I hear? You PLAYED a picture disc?
WTF???
The unwritten rule in the metal fraternity was that you never, EVER played picture discs!

[Mjolnir]

Oh Dear God!!(and Godessess!)
I had and still have Slayers Hell Awaits on Picture disc...Which i played!!!
I had Break the Oath on picture disc.......Which i played!!!
I had 7 Churches by Possessed on Picture disc....That i played!!!!
I had and still have Maiden Picture discs that i play!!!!
I have many more picture discs that i still play!!!
If i had A Copy of Dark side of the Moon blue label rare as rocking horse shit and i didnt need the cash...I would play that fucker too!!!
Fuck the rules!!!!
I rolled and still roll my own way down the Left hand path!!!!
I bought the Picture discs because i liked the look of them not to just hang on a bloody wall(which is ok now!)
BUT..... and this is a major factor...i didnt earn that much money as a teen so i could only buy one version of an album and thats that!!!
I never felt guilty about playing them as i bloody loved em with pride and much love for the music that was on them and not just the picture!!

So sue me and send me to Metal Purgatory if you will but i will always do
what i like and Never Eeeeever,Conform....
When i used to wear Venom shirts i bought a Stryper album(which i still have) Because i liked it....
I also bought Carpenters and Simon and Garfunkle albums the same day as i would buy say a Razor or a Deathrow album...
I likes what i like and i did what i did!!

Sorry to Offend anybody....But as a song says"F**k you,i dont do what you tell me!!"
Ask Mr Killminster or Rob who they side with and they would say i'm sure, that the musical content is waaaay more important than the packaging!!

I am now stepping away from my soapbox and taking a deep breath!!!

[MetalBlade]

Jesus...
I'm a bit worried dude.
Specially after that PM you sent me...
You'd make a great vigilante here on the riot-torn streets of England.

[Mjolnir]

Indeed....those yobs wouldn't stand two Min's with the coppers over here!!
The riot shields would be out and there would be a shoot to kill on all looters just like there was after katrina...
Thanks for worrying but why worry??
Was the body count not high enough for you??
I could just see the Norwegian fella watching the news after the Home Depot Massacre and he would make that noise I'm sure!!!hehehe

Anyway..Back to metallica and the playing of pic disc's!!!
Who made that rule and as for the big four,don't make me laugh!!
Metallica...Yes. Megadeth...For sure. Slayer...Absolutly. Anthrax..Give me a f**kin break..these are now not worthy of shining the shoes of Tom and Dave's shoes..I wish they would go get they're F**kin shinebox..
The 80s had way better bands than Tampax and for me.......

The Real Big four for me are...Slayer
Kreator
Mercyfull Fate
Destruction

The next big four for me are...Helloween
Sodom
Rage
Candlemass

Holy shit dude...how much would you pay to see these line ups...
Priceless I'd say and could you imagine saying....
Destruction were Awesome but next we have Fate!!Holy Shit!!!
And then Dude,Fate were stunning and now we have Kreator...
Holy crud,that would be tooo much to handle and i think we would retire to the bar and just sit and drink and sing along to every word of Slayer as our faces would by this point need plastic surgery to remove the massive Cheshire cat grins off our faces..
Metal Ruled the World back then and Still Rules the World now...
\m/ \m/