Heard the new Metallica single, “St Anger”, last night. Loads of people had told me that it was crap, prior to me hearing, but I actually quite like it. It’s different, for Metallica.

The riff reminds me of “Blind” by Korn, which is probably where some are drawing the nu-metal comparison from. Plus the fact that there’s no solo…

It’s not as good as their “old stuff”, but it was never going to be. I think people’s expectations were that when they (Metallica) said they were going back to their roots, they were going to write Master of Pupperts part 2 or something… Sorry, it was never going to happen.

I learned a while back not to have any preconceived expectations about what Metallica will do next… Over their 20 year career, they have strived to always stay on top, to always change it up and stay fresh. Yet people always seem to expect – almost demand – a generic thrash album from them. Why? Do you want a band that “plays it safe”, musically? Do you want to listen to the same things regurgitated over several albums? Or do you want some variety in a bands discography? Don’t you want some contrast? Something that says “this band aren’t afraid to take risks”?

Personally, whatever the new album/its musical direction sounds like, I’d rather have that over a cash-in on former glories in a rehash of Kill ‘Em All or something similar…

Sticking with the music theme, I’ll turn my attention to Evanesence. I dunno what to make of this band. When I first heard their single “Bring Me to Life”, I wasn’t too sure about it. “Sure, the girl’s got a good voice and it’s quite catchy”, I thought to myself, “but the double-vocals with the guy sound a little too much like bog-standard nu-metal pap…”

Thankfully, it turns out that the guy that sings on that single, is only a guest vocalist (he’s from a band called “12 Stone” or something like that). I’ll also admit that the single’s been growing on me quite a lot since I first heard it. As a result, I checked out a couple of other songs (“Lies” and “My Immortal” ) and I was quite impressed. Neither song sounded anything like the others and showed some promise.

There’s still something about them that makes me a little unsure though… I may buy the album anyway, just to ease my curiosity, if nothing else. If it’s good then that’s a bonus, I guess. I can always take it back if it sucks…