Metallica

If heavy-metal fans are supposed to be such hardcore loyalists, what is it about a few
haircuts, some eyeliner and a little songcraft that throws 'em into such a dither? Load –
Metallica's very long (78 minutes and 59 seconds on the nose) goodbye to the moldy
stricture and dead-end Puritanism of no-frills thrash – is easily the heaviest record of the
year, a seething beast of meaty, focused guitar dynamics, taut art-pop drama, un... More >

One of the nice things about being old is that I'm neither wired to like metal nor tempted to fake it. Just as I figured, these here-come-the-new-heroes-same-as-the-old-heroes could no more make a "grunge" album than they could do double-entry bookkeeping. Grunge simply isn't their metier. So no matter what riff neatniks think, for outsiders this is just a metal record with less solo room, which is good because it concentrates their chops, and more singing, which isn't because they can't. (Grade: C+)