This.

Popularity = quality

"Quality" is subjective.

Album sales and concert grosses are not.

So someone's opinion that Britney Spears sucks is invalidated by her popularity?

Come on, man. You'd be the first to argue the other side of this on most artists.

I don't give a shit how many albums they sell. Metallica no longer puts out a sound that appeals to many of the fans that loved them in the 80s.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

Finding an audience is extremely difficult. Brittney Spears not only found an audience but kept it and expanded upon that audience. That is not an easy thing for anyone to do, regardless of genre.

Again, any artist that finds and keeps an audience deserves whatever accolades, awards and fans as it can generate.

The 80's were now three decades ago. No artist or band lives in stasis. People change and evolve (sometimes, they devolve) but no one stays stagnant. I assume that you're a different person that you were in the 80's and I'd assume that in being a different person, you've learned to express yourself differently.

There isn't one band on this earth that can rehash the same material, same viewpoint, same sound and same energy as they did three decades prior and remain at the top of the album charts.

That's simply impossible.

What's wrong with Until it Sleeps, Thorn Within, The Outlaw Torn, Devils Dance, and Fixxer? Those are my personal favs on those two albums.

Also big Metallica fan here. Discovered them in high school and never looked back. Master of Puppets was their masterpiece and those wishing to hear them duplicate it need to realize it will never happen. I'll be looking to catch this film!

Should be pretty obvious what's wrong with them. Completely generic and dated.

Metallica = warm Schlitz and day-old Little Ceasars.

I honestly only remember Until it sleeps from that list. I might have to give those a listen again sometime. It's been years because I didn't like them all that much when they were released.
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Dude, have you ever listened to older Metallica?! You sound like you have no clue that Hetfield's voice has changed. He blew his voice out singing So What in '91 and had to take lessons to get it back (I believe the first time he's ever done that).

If it were just production values to blame for the vocal discrepancies there wouldn't be videos like this all over YouTube.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tAWLSkReeX4" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

If you think these "new" versions with better production values are the same you need to get your hearing checked.

I used to LOVE going to see Metallica in concert. Their live performances were incredible. They played the same way they did for the albums. Hell, I swear they played a few songs faster!

It wasn't this slowed down clean vocals shit.

Here's another one in case you couldn't tell the difference on Puppets.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D3j8vhGHgJo" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

And if you missed it, here's some Bell Tolls!

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PicvNQ8Xw1g" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

God ****ING DAMN that 1989 shit is ****ing awesome!

Time to put on some classic Metallica. Haven't listed to 'em in quite a while.

Oh YEEEAHHHHH mother ****er!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/knXE_S9a0GU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I remember seeing that show at Red Rocks. Justice Tour I believe. Lead singer for the Cult tripped on to the stage he was so trashed. They ended up getting booed off after just a couple songs (thankfully IMO). Had shitty seats, but it was cool when a lightning storm broke out over Denver. Perfect backdrop for the show.

:facepalm:

Do you know ANYTHING about recording and/or mixing? ANYTHING?

In a recording studio, he's allowed to do as many vocals takes as necessary to get a performance. In many instances, singers will spend months on end to get the right performance (although with advances in technology and plugins like AutoTune and Melodyne, that's not exactly necessary these days).

What you're hearing is the difference between multiple takes edited together to form a complete vocal take compared to a dry, live board mix from a concert venue. There are VERY few singers in the world in which you could take a dry, live board recording and have it held up to a recording studio standard.

I don't even know to what you're referring. But I'll bet you everything in my bank account versus everything in yours that I hear things that you can't possibly even imagine.

Again :facepalm:

Do you KNOW why they were faster? Because Lars Ulrich has absolutely terrible meter. His timing is nothing short of awful.

On the Black album, his time was SO BAD that after spending months editing the drums, IN TIME, Lars had to go back and re-hit all of the cymbals because the decay was cut off on each and every hit.

And once again, recording studio, multiple takes, massive reverb and delay versus dry, board mix vocal. In addition to that, you're foolish to believe that an individual's voice doesn't change over the course of 30 years, especially when that voice has been singing two to three hours a night for hundreds of nights per year.

And for the record, I own every Metallica record, so I don't need to listen to some crappy 96 kbs encoded mp3 file to "hear" Metallica songs.

Hahahahaha!

So you are telling me that he's getting older, so his voice is changing. Oh wait no, he's spending more time doing multiple takes. Oh wait no, there's technology that does that for them. Oh wait no, Bob Rock mixed it to sound raw since they recorded more cleanly than previous albums.

Pick WHATEVER excuse you want. Pick them all. Then tell me again that they are performing their original material the same way.

I can't stop laughing at your ego either! 96k is so awful you won't even listen to it! Like it takes some lossless audio quality in order to hear the difference in Hetfield's voice in those videos!

Dude, I STILL can't tell if you are trolling!

Dude. I can't stop! Your circular arguments are fascinating! Their concerts sounded so much like their albums because they sucked ass! Awesome man! I guess I loved Metallica when they sucked, before they became "cool".

ROFL ROFL ROFL

Die! By my hand! I creep across the land! Killing first born man!

I guess I can thank you for the walk down memory lane tonight though Dane. Back when Metallica sucked. Before they got good. When they were just shitty but consistent.

:D