Music

Metallica classic Master of Puppets sounds hilarious with St. Anger's snare sounds

by Richard Howard

Know what I’ve realised recently? Metallica fans’ relationship with the band is a lot like Star Wars fans’ relationship with George Lucas: we passionately love them for the life changing art they’ve made, but occasionally hate them for some of their terrible decisions that can seem like a slap in the face. While certain Metallica topics (such as the musical worth of the ‘softer’ albums Load and Reload) are hotly debated, two things are generally accepted: Lars Ulrich is a big-mouthed dum-dum and St. Anger was a terrible album. To further illustrate the latter point, a mischievous fan has sampled the infamous snare sound from that album and placed it in what could be considered the holy grail of Metallica songs – the title track from their landmark 1986 album Master of Puppets.

When they released St. Anger in 2003, the band and producer Bob Rock said they were attempting to capture raw sound of a garage band. In that case, they probably should have, you know, recorded in a garage or something. Instead, they processed the hell out of everything, the worst result of which being what has become widely known as the ‘trashcan lid snare.’ How bad was it? These days, Metallica won’t even play a single tune from St. Anger live. With the band currently currently recording a new album, may this serve as a ‘lest we forget’: even one of the greatest metal songs of all time can sound like absolute garbage if you make wacky enough decisions.