August 31, 2024

Metallica hit town just as we were heading off for 2 weeks in Croatia - Rob and Brian at work went, which sparked a whole conversation on what is good/bad metal from their blossoming and what constituted 'good' Metallica. They have been lost on me for decades, but there was a time when I heard sounds on their records that felt as.. what's the word for recasting your context? There are moments on Kill em All and Master of Puppets that shifted my musical point of view in the same way Stravinsky, Ligeti or Varese did. A new beautiful sound that I had never heard before. So much of it was tied up in the sound of their records - the production of Fleming Rasmussen on MoP in particular - that I have a hard time still resolving it with the drek they'd go on to make after that record. The entrance of the electrics + drums about a half minute into Battery is still one of my favorite moments. Here it is in a series of meditations on why I like the sounds they made. It got me reflecting on the different sounds from these first few records that have become part of my DNA - I need to figure out what I want to extract from them. So often in my guitar music I write something with a palm mute and a chunk gesture of some sort and think I'll evoke something like this sound, but not the case - I need to listen a bit more consicously, and maybe this cataloguing will help? Link to the post.