This is such a perfectly engineered Metal album. It basically set the blueprint of how a high end Metal production was supposed to sound like for at least the next two decades. And it was all done analog. Bob Rock knew what he was doing.
@@fredriksvard2603 I can understand this much: the TONE of the clean guitar is abysmally dry, it lacks bass, and there’s too much going on in the 2k-6k frequency range. It sounds grating, and as if someone took an high-pass filter with a shallow curve and applied it to the guitar right around 400-500Hz, with all frequencies below that dropping off precipitously until there’s almost zero information around 150-200Hz. If you’re going to have a clean guitar tone , use a guitar/amp combo that will give it some harmonic richness, at least. Yet ANOTHER reason (apart from the lovely vocal harmony on ‘Now the world is gone, I’m just one…’ which really adds a sense of poignancy and moves the song along far more effectively than the studio record’s jarring clone of the melody of the immediately identical previous stanza) that live renditions of this song from ‘88-‘91 tend to sound better than the original record.
@@riphopfer5816 Yeah that's a bit over my head, but agree about the dryness and the vocal harmony. That said, i was drawn to metallica precisely because they had a less organic or vintagey sound than most rock bands, especially the black album which sounded "futuristic" to me compared to gnr, aic, sepultura and so on and even more so compared to older acts. Never cared much for the "rock" sound personally.
The "crack" in Wherever I May Roam is Jason plucking a 12-string bass. It's so deep it just "cracks". It would benefit to watch A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica and the Classic Albums Metallica. They both document every single aspect of this album and where all the different sounds come from including the intro to Unforgiven and and the little things like racking a shotgun in The God That Failed. Highly recommend it.
I got a question not mentioned on either of them.....what kind of effect pedal was played during the 1st guitar solo of My Friend of Misery?..a Harmonizer like on Master of Puppets?.
That's how I ended up listening to metallica. Songs from the black album. Then a friend of mine had master of puppets on cassette and he listened to rap. Came to me and said you want this and I said sure. And my life changed.
The sound at the beginning of The Unforgiven is a French Horn. It was used again in Unforgiven II. It was used in Unforgiven III but not in the same way.
Michael Kamen did the orchestration for Nothing Else Matters. There is an elevator version out there that has more of it in there. He also conducted the first S&M show they did. He died in 2003 but was SUPER talented
You actually NAILED the hypothetical scenario. I was 11yrs old when i heard ‘justice’ and ‘black’ album for the first time. I lived and breathed heavy metal music since then.
Awesome discussion guys! I totally listened to every word to the end. Looking forward to you all three doing the rest of the Metallica albums together. Musical taste is one of the most interesting things because whatever you have liked when you were 13 you are going to like the rest of your life.
Nostalgia often means more than it should when "liking" something imo. I try to be objective, but you are right...for most people the music that they listen to during their formative years is their favorite music. For me personally, my top three favorite bands were all discovered in the last 15 years, and the top 2 in the last 10.
The clean guitars were recorded using a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus. One of the best sounding clean amps of all time from just about every guitarists ever opinion.
and behind a wall of wood and blankets... and for the drums they put 50 mics around the whole drum... there was a great doku last days in tv about 30 years black album...
Fun fact, dunno if someone said it yet but that guitar melody at the beginning of Don't Tread On Me is from a song in West Side Story. "I want to go to America, won't you take me to America" something like that
Definitely my favorite react channel now. Experts in the field with the funniest wise cracks, yes please ? The five finger part “ I think you killed him”, brilliant.
1:18:00, I think what is being talked about here is on the intro of "Master of Puppets" (only the first riff) they tuned the guitars down and slowed the tape down. That way, the producer Flemming Rasmussen, got the riff as tight as possible. When they sped it up again, the pitch was then back to A440 hz. But they didn't do that for the purpose of speed, nor did they do that on the entire song, but only for the sake of getting the intro as tight as possible.
metallica better hurry up and make a new album!! just so that i can spend 3 hours listening to you guys. seriously though, i never thought i could sit through 3 hour long videos of people talking, i absolutely love your channel patrick!! looking forward to seeing you guys react to other classic albums as well, keep it up! :)
@@PatrickMusilek Bob Rock wanted Holier to be the first single but the band shot him down and fought for Sandman. There is a clip in A Year and A Half In The Life of Metallica where they sit down with Bob and discuss it
Give Load/ReLoad a chance. From your perspectives I think it would be an interesting venture into a different side of Metallica. Is it their best stuff? No, not at all. But does it have some hidden gems? For sure!
Right now the plan is to do videos for the rest of Metallica's studio albums, so Kill Em All, Load, Reload, Death Magnetic, Hardwired, and 72 Season when it comes out. We are going to spread them out a little, and some I might do on my own since its getting hard to schedule stuff with the Chris's but thats the plan!
@@PatrickMusilek Cool! Yeah, take your time, there’s no rush. I would just hate it to see you miss out on some of the most underrated Metallica tracks from their later catalogue. But yeah, take your time, it’s not like the albums are going to run away.
My gripe with someone saying "Ride the Lightning sounds bad" is that there is a wide choice of words to use between great and bad. Like, I can somewhat accept someone saying, "The bass on And Justice for All sounds bad" because you can just BARELY hear it on 4 songs and you really can't on the others. But the whole album sounds BAD? Either you lack basic vocabulary or you're ability to reasonably analyze something lacks any nuance and so every sound you don't think is good is equally "bad"? Expand your word use.
The percussive twang in Where Ever I May Roam is actually a 12 string bass with effects getting slapped. There's a song that has a rifle being cocked as a percussion instrument in one of the songs as well. ** its God That Failed Its in the intro and post solo. And the opening melody in Don't Tread On Me is from a musical West Side Story, America I believe its from. Loving the listen throughs 👍
Pantera would be an interesting discography to work through. Also if you're talking 90's albums. machine head - burn my eyes is an absolute monster. Fear factory - demanufacture still sounds cutting edge. Neurosis - through silver in blood sounds like the end of the world. Throw on top of that faith no more - angel dust, and rage against the machine. There's a lot of killer records from that era.
Yep burn my eyes is a certified monster… unpopular opinion I have is that it is their best of all time as many think the blackening is… further to that their new album is arguably my second favourite machine head of all time
1990, it was all tape. I was there. No auto-tune, no quantisation. Back when music was real, and didn’t sound like it was made by robots. Chris: Yes, that’s a B-bender in ‘My Friend Of Misery’, and the ‘harmonised guitars’ were Kirk through a compressor, Big Muff, and then a digital harmoniser, on which one sets the interval between the ‘separate guitars’, then play. BTW: I’m an audio engineer as well. I’ve also been around for a while-that’s why I’ve had so much to say. Chris, you’ve got a very good ear for guitar tone. They-especially James-used LOTS of different guitars either standing alone or as a part of his layers of guitars. Apart from that Danelectro faux-sitar, I think the strangest guitar they used on this record was a Gretsch White Falcon. Strange for Metallica, at least.
Ive read the my friend of misery stuff was james with a mxr distortion + into the board, and im positive he tracked the harmonies the same way he did all the other harmony stuff and did it all himself without a harmonizer, kinda like what he does on the wherever i may roam harmony in the black album studio footage Also you’re forgetting another strange guitar on TBA and its the danelectro baritone james uses on the chord hits in the sad but true riff. I guess you could also count the telecaster he uses with the ebow on nothing else matters and jasons 12 string bass on wherever i may roam
I can hear it. Or, at least, I could always hear it on the original masters. I wasn’t paying specific attention to hear whether that’s been obscured on the remaster. But I agree: that was a nice touch. It’s funny: when I was VERY young, ~6 or 7 or so, in the late 80s, the only name I knew associated with Metallica was Lars Ulrich, because mi best mate was a drummer, and his older brother was ALSO a drummer. I didn’t know Lars was Danish, but I knew that name was something Teutonic/Scandinavian. I thought the entire band was of the same nationality, originally, because I could’ve sworn I heard hints of an accent in James’s voice. When the Black Album came out, I was even further convinced of that, till I bought my own copy, and read the names of the band members. Can anyone else relate to this?
I could always hear on the 91 original master. if we are talking about the same thing. It's the classic touch of James that kind of filler. At minute 1:40 for example in "gives me all I need". That's what you mean?
Great question...What effect pedal was used on the FIRST guitar solo of My Friend of Misery?...a Harmonizer?....you wont find that answer on the behind the scenes black album movies.
Patrick singing Kid Rock lyrics over the Sad But True intro as a reference to "American Badass" - while actually singing the lyrics to Bawitdaba - is hysterical
As a Metallica fan since 95 I can assure you we like Depeche Mode too, Never Let Me Down Again is a top track of mine. I do believe the singer from Depeche Mode has a cover version of a Black Album song on their celebration release of covers.
You are right! Dave Gahan did a cover of Nothing Else Matters! I wanted to do a reaction to the song with Chris S. but when we do a whole Metallica album there isn't much energy left afterwards! Glad to see the love spread around genres though!
Wooohooo! I had some trouble with uploading this video but it is live now! Yes feel free to wait until the HD gets processed and remember that you can check the timestamps on the timeline to see the different topics we discuss! Feel free to skip around! I know it's a LONG video, but we had so much fun and had a great conversation the entire time!
2:15:14 of wolf and man is about hunting and it captures the energy so well + the lyrics are a masterpiece kind of a double meaning. it describes a wolf as well as a man (of wolf and man) after the new days mist i run, i hunt, therefor i am, harvest the land, taking the fallen lamb We shift, pulsing with the Earth Company we keep Roaming the land while you sleep [Chorus] Shapeshift, nose to the wind Shapeshift, feeding I've been Move swift, all senses clean Earth's gift (Back to the meaning) Back to the meaning of life
I've been slowly making my way through your Metallica album reviews while at work, and I have a few comments to make here and there. The instrument at the beginning of The Unforgiven is actually a French horn, and while I have yet to watch your Death Magnetic album review, I assume the lack of French horn is addressed for The Unforgiven III. But actually, it's present at the 36 second mark of the piano introduction of the song, just not the same as the first two entries in the song trilogy.
During the Enter Sandman discussion, you guys talked about how disappointing it would be to have loved "Justice" and buy this album going "WTF!!!???" I think it's important to remember that Enter Sandman dropped as a single a full two weeks before the album was released, and for the album to debut at #1 you know that single was EVERYWHERE on radio and MTV. If you bought that album not knowing what you were going to hear first, that was YOUR fault.
If you haven’t been into bands like Iron Maiden I would be very interested to see you go through their discography. But that would of course be way into the future, in the back of the pipeline so to say.
You actually missed a clue on how the rhythm guitars are done on the album when you were talking, on Holier than Thou (1:22:20) they come in after the solo. There are 3 rhythm tracks all recorded by James - left pan, right pan, and center (slightly to the left, as he would call it the "thickener" on a documentary once).
About the remaster, my thoughts are: why are you going to fix something that isn't broken? The sound of the black album is perfect. I have the original latin version cd from 1991 by the Vertigo label. Listening to it from cd doesn't compare to streaming stuff, audio formats or any current remasters. The difference is remarkable. Greetings from Argentina.
Remasters, in my experience don’t sound that much different than the original ones I’ve heard. I can’t believe they aren’t listening to the CD or vinyl. There’s too many generations added to the original mix/master to make what they’re basing their experience on have much validity.
@@nebularain3338 If you want to hear what the band sounded like then, listen to the cassette, CD, or vinyl. The original masters back then don't usually transfer well on digital formats. If I am going to listen to music on my hi-fi stereo system, then naturally, I'm going to listen to the vinyl or the CD, but when I am on Spotify or Apple Music, then I want the remaster because the original version always sounds shitty on those platforms. They remastered them for a reason, and that reason is so that it sounds better on streaming platforms.
Hey Patrick - don't know if you are interested but there is a 5.1 mix of this album that Bob Rock did. It's only on DVD-A but if you can track down a copy it's well worth a listen. Hope you are doing OK!
That "crack" sound you hear during the opening riffs on Wherever I May Roam is a 12-string bass. 1:42:38 Joke's on Virtual Chris... Wherever I May Roam is a song about James being unfaithful and sleeping around while on tour. Also, you guys talked about the lyrics to Enter Sandman being about children's nightmares, but they're actually an allegory for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
@@PatrickMusilek can’t go wrong with Metallica and JP. One of the biggest box office hits of all time and one of the biggest albums of all time. Which still charts in the billboard 100 weekly charts and has done so every week since it was released. At least that was the case at the time I read that little factoid about a year ago. Also that near 3 year tour they did for the album is a big reason for their sea change going into the mid 90s/load era. It burned them out. Figuratively, creatively, and in James’ case literally and physically. He literally got burned by a malfunctioning pyro can during the tour and suffered 3rd degree burns. But they stopped playing songs like master of puppets during that tour because they got tired of it. The constant heavy metal. It was a bit of corporate capitulation to cut their hair and shorten the songs even more but most of what they do they do it for themselves. Cliff talked a lot about it. He said they’re not there to play 1000 mph the whole time and I think they’ve lived that up to this day. They made their own genre of music within metal man.
2:55:06 OH OH! OH! I'd never spotted that before! The little descending riff in that section of Struggle Within, is that not super similar to the end of the bridge section in All Nightmare Long? ED ADDL: Metallica tracks all their live plays on their website, Struggle was played in concert 20 times... and only in 2012, and 2021.
This was awesome. Was laughing hard with the anime characters when one of you had problems. I really like your way of musical and recording appreciation. I have just one question. Why are you guys mentioning Godsmack or In flames Especially when they appeared way after this album was made? Like this sounds so...Godsmack or I'm flames. Isn't more like. Godsmack and in flames sound in certain song like this one!
Yes that is definitely true that Metallica came first! For me, being more familiar with In Flames than Metallica I can relate more to IF and so my comparisons come from that point of view!
The best thing about Metallica for me has been the unprecedented amount of behind the scenes access we've been blessed with. Being able to see how these guys record albums is awesome.
The Black Album is the most influential album in my life. Absolutely love this album. Y’all should listen to The Metallica Blacklist album that they released alongside the 2021 remaster. It’s 52 different artists doing songs from the Black Album. Artists from Ghost, Weezer, and Volbeat, to The Hu, Phoebe Bridgers, and Portugal The Man. Really interesting stuff.
There is a non fade out version of this and many other Metallica songs on YT that came from the Metallica Guitar Hero soundtrack. The only album that was heavy in 1991 that was on par with the production of this album is RATM's self titles debut album! The recording of that was live in one room in a studio with a small audience as the band could not play properly unless it felt like a gig...lol Doesn't feel like a live recording though, but at times you can hear the mic bleed and the room mic adds depth (as it does to my music I play and record etc.) 1:08:22 - If you download the stems of this song and load them into your DAW you can see and hear the metronome is STILL in this song here! It sounds like a shaker - because it is! It is low in the mix but once you hear it isolated then you can not unhear it in the full song!!
When you guys were talking about people who listened to the black album first and nothing before, reminded me of what happened recently with Master of Puppets (the song) and how it was on Stranger Things. Some of the “metal elitists” started hating on new Metallica fans for discovering them from a popular Netflix show.
At the West Virginia University football home games, the team takes to the field with Enter Sandman playing throughout the entire stadium. The band actually made a short video about Hokie-Nation. Everybody loses their shit when the song comes on.
Not reading through all the comments but the intro to Don’t Tread’ is borrowed from ‘America’ from West Side Story, specifically where they sing ‘I wanna live in America, I wanna live in America’. It’s a patriotic song from around the first Gulf War and was also the foil for James to ‘Justice’ as that was a bit of an anti American song, so Don’t Tread was his way of saying ‘Nah I actually love this country’. I agree it’s heavy and I think the guitar tone in parts probably most closely approximates Justice. Maybe you should do Megadeth’s Youthanasia as a comparison from around the same time?
It may not be a lot of fans favourite but this album is one of the best sounding Metal/Rock albums ever made that is just a respected fact... great album.
Great album, I like to listen to full albums in general, it’s give you a vibe of the past . I was 10 when listening to it for the first time, I loved it .
for that they put 50 mics around the drums... saw a great doku in tv last days about 30 years black album... they took weeks to create the sound of the drums and guitars...
@@efwewfwef1549 It obviously fits the songs, im not speaking about that specifically, im talking in a overall metal perspective and compared with what they did in previous albums is lazy and slow af, its just weird to say its hid best drumming when its not even close, AFJA Drumming is higly praised for a reason
@@felipegiraldo8100 i never said something about his best drumming. i said "amazing" because it clearly fits the songs perfectly and that is all i want in this type of album...
1:58:30 and that rifffffffff yes you are right its southern. its hetfield man the whole theme, dont treat on me, of wolf and man (most epic hunting song ever, sober aggressive, perfect word choice & atmo)
Bad about the 90s, bro. They got Green River, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Collective Soul, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Madseason, and Temple of The Dog.
I dont know anything from any of those artists! When I think of 90s bands I enjoy I think of Blur, White Zombie, And One, Portishead, and only a few others!
no strummingness to the chord in the verser of unforgiven...theres pedal tone underneath so the guitar line follows the vocal line but the note underneath is is the pedal tones for the rhythm if that makes sense
i commented that before but man if you watched the making of the black album that could be so funny.. like i remember at one point bob rock and lars had a huge fight cause lars wanted the big snare hits in the unforgiven intro louder 🤣🤣
To „the unforgiven“ wich is also the name of a western movie. I like the hard verse and the soft Chorus and in unforgiven 2 they reversed it. The intro is a horn from Ennio Morricones track called EL Colpo from the per un pugno di dollari movie.
You said there were no aux percussion instruments up till ‘Nothing Else Matters’….You forget the castanets and bell in the beginning of ‘Unforgiven’, and the hammer and anvil in “wherever I May roam“.
The moors brought the sitar to Spain,,that's where the Spaniard got the idea from to make the first guitar we all know,,I think they used the electro harmonic effects pedal for the wherever I may roam intro,,,,
2:09:33 its james with an ebow, there’s footage of him doing that stuff in the studio with bob and he’s using a explorer with the ebow. thats where the sustaining sound is coming from
As an audio engineer myself I get pretty frustrated at the misconceptions about the whole "the snare is a sample!!!" criticism of this album. Yes, they recorded several samples of the *actual snare, in the same actual physical room* that Lars recorded the drums in, so that they could layer it in subtly to bring out the snare without making the cymbals louder. It's not used on every song, and where it is used it's very sparingly mixed in. People hear the word "snare sample" and they think Bob Rock just slapped on EZ drummer or something. Not even close. Also, I think the TOMS actually sound better than the snare on this record.
i'd say the black album is still very much a metal album -- it's just not really thrash, speed metal, or heavy metal. it's arena metal. and it's definitely metallica, but it's very distinct even among their own discography, including their more recent albums. i really wanna hear what you guys would have to say about load in contrast to this record.
lol. i think you (patrick) have a lot of great insights to offer and you're very articulate, but i am SO glad you have these friends to react when you drop a take that is just rancid.
i've always thought that the "wwwwWWWOOOAH" in "of wolf and man" was reversed, too -- and that it's kind of a clever metaphor for shapeshifting, becoming more bestial. hetfield's a hunter (and i have mixed feelings about that, but anyway) and i definitely think it's just a fun metal song about finding something spiritual and primal in exploring one's animalistic side. corny? sure, maybe, but to me that's part of the charm of metal. you'll enjoy it more if you embrace its campy side, imo.
hetfield's a notoriously simplistic and corny rhymer. it's true. sometimes i really love it, though -- like, there's nothing more iconically metal than the "termination / expiration / cancellation human race" part of "blackened"
The unforgiven atmosphere and special sounds are all thanks to the huge influences Ennio Morricone/ Sergio Leone western scores had on the band especially James and his huge love for spaghetti westerns in general. And the ominous starting sound is a French horn played backwards.
Jason wrote a longer bass piece with a view that it would be the basis for an instrumental. I think the band decided to not do one just to piss Jason off. I bet it really hurt to give him the writing credit too. In the YEAR AND A HALF... PART 2 video there's a moment where they're at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert doing press. James, Lars and Kirk are waiting to get their picture taken while Jason is elsewhere doing an interview, and you hear James say "He thinks that because he got a writing credit he can make us wait..."
Go watch "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica". The testimony of how the black album was made is there including arguments between Lars and Bob Rock about how the drum should sound like in the mixing of The Unforgiven. Awesome film for engineers, producers and metalheads alike.
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
This is such a perfectly engineered Metal album. It basically set the blueprint of how a high end Metal production was supposed to sound like for at least the next two decades. And it was all done analog. Bob Rock knew what he was doing.
the *GO* in The Struggle Within, and the riff afterwards ... still the heaviest thing in the universe
We have different definitions of heavy. The Thing That Should Not Be is "the heaviest fucking number known to mankind" as said by Jason Newstead
it's so damn good
Shame that riff is too short though
Agree 100%, I love that part!!
How can you not like the beginning of One?
I don't. Don't like the clean rhythm guitar and can't get over how the lyrics don't fit, like "wish for de-eath".
@@fredriksvard2603 that’s a common musical/lyrical tool lmfao
@@fredriksvard2603 shut up
@@fredriksvard2603 I can understand this much: the TONE of the clean guitar is abysmally dry, it lacks bass, and there’s too much going on in the 2k-6k frequency range. It sounds grating, and as if someone took an high-pass filter with a shallow curve and applied it to the guitar right around 400-500Hz, with all frequencies below that dropping off precipitously until there’s almost zero information around 150-200Hz. If you’re going to have a clean guitar tone , use a guitar/amp combo that will give it some harmonic richness, at least. Yet ANOTHER reason (apart from the lovely vocal harmony on ‘Now the world is gone, I’m just one…’ which really adds a sense of poignancy and moves the song along far more effectively than the studio record’s jarring clone of the melody of the immediately identical previous stanza) that live renditions of this song from ‘88-‘91 tend to sound better than the original record.
@@riphopfer5816 Yeah that's a bit over my head, but agree about the dryness and the vocal harmony. That said, i was drawn to metallica precisely because they had a less organic or vintagey sound than most rock bands, especially the black album which sounded "futuristic" to me compared to gnr, aic, sepultura and so on and even more so compared to older acts. Never cared much for the "rock" sound personally.
The "crack" in Wherever I May Roam is Jason plucking a 12-string bass. It's so deep it just "cracks". It would benefit to watch A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica and the Classic Albums Metallica. They both document every single aspect of this album and where all the different sounds come from including the intro to Unforgiven and and the little things like racking a shotgun in The God That Failed. Highly recommend it.
Wow I never knew that
@@srenteddylarsen892 woah so like essentially a six string, but with two additional octave strings with each bass string?
@@tommygalusha
Yes, exactly that. 👍👍
I got a question not mentioned on either of them.....what kind of effect pedal was played during the 1st guitar solo of My Friend of Misery?..a Harmonizer like on Master of Puppets?.
That “crack” sound in wherever I may roam is actually a 12-string bass
Thank you, I was wondering what that was for the longest time.
Exactly. Jason's smackin' the Hell out of the neck of the bass.
That's how I ended up listening to metallica. Songs from the black album. Then a friend of mine had master of puppets on cassette and he listened to rap. Came to me and said you want this and I said sure. And my life changed.
I love it! The rap friends comes through in the end!
Holier Than Thou was the song Bob Rock and James wanted as the first song and the first single BUT Lars fought hard for Enter Sandman!
god bless Lars
@Ben.T0722 turn down bass on stereo LMAO Lars is priceless. Love him or hate him, the man knows what he wants.
IMO Struggle within should be the first one
The sound at the beginning of The Unforgiven is a French Horn. It was used again in Unforgiven II. It was used in Unforgiven III but not in the same way.
it was lifted from the good the bad and the ugly and reversed
During The God That Failed the 'chk chk' sound is James cocking a shotgun, which is pretty freakin metal.
actually it was a lever-action winchester rifle, but yeah its pretty sick
@@chuckweatherman_3426 🤓
Michael Kamen did the orchestration for Nothing Else Matters. There is an elevator version out there that has more of it in there. He also conducted the first S&M show they did. He died in 2003 but was SUPER talented
You actually NAILED the hypothetical scenario. I was 11yrs old when i heard ‘justice’ and ‘black’ album for the first time. I lived and breathed heavy metal music since then.
My favorite track on this album is 'The God That Failed.' I love Kirk's solo in that one.
easily top 10 solo
That solo and Lars's drums throughout it are perfect.
exactly! Lars's drums is maybe the best drums part of the album. so groovy and clinic@@CMill78
And Jason's bass sound is awesome
Awesome discussion guys! I totally listened to every word to the end. Looking forward to you all three doing the rest of the Metallica albums together. Musical taste is one of the most interesting things because whatever you have liked when you were 13 you are going to like the rest of your life.
Nostalgia often means more than it should when "liking" something imo. I try to be objective, but you are right...for most people the music that they listen to during their formative years is their favorite music.
For me personally, my top three favorite bands were all discovered in the last 15 years, and the top 2 in the last 10.
The clean guitars were recorded using a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus. One of the best sounding clean amps of all time from just about every guitarists ever opinion.
and behind a wall of wood and blankets... and for the drums they put 50 mics around the whole drum... there was a great doku last days in tv about 30 years black album...
Idk, I really love Fender amps clean a lot
@@maxx.mazzeo I do as well but the old tube ones are so LOUD for home use. Cant turn them up past 2 or blow you out of the room.
I call it the Spooky Dooky clean tone
Also, that sound in the god that failed around 2:27:10 is James cocking a shotgun 😂
It's in the intro too, harder to hear but it's there in the left channel as the guitar comes in.
lever-action winchester rifle*
Fun fact, dunno if someone said it yet but that guitar melody at the beginning of Don't Tread On Me is from a song in West Side Story. "I want to go to America, won't you take me to America" something like that
thank you. I was just going through comments to see if anyone had said this. Youngsters lol.
such a fun channel!!!!
Definitely my favorite react channel now.
Experts in the field with the funniest wise cracks, yes please ?
The five finger part “ I think you killed him”, brilliant.
1:18:00, I think what is being talked about here is on the intro of "Master of Puppets" (only the first riff) they tuned the guitars down and slowed the tape down. That way, the producer Flemming Rasmussen, got the riff as tight as possible. When they sped it up again, the pitch was then back to A440 hz. But they didn't do that for the purpose of speed, nor did they do that on the entire song, but only for the sake of getting the intro as tight as possible.
metallica better hurry up and make a new album!!
just so that i can spend 3 hours listening to you guys. seriously though, i never thought i could sit through 3 hour long videos of people talking, i absolutely love your channel patrick!! looking forward to seeing you guys react to other classic albums as well, keep it up! :)
‘Holier Than Thou’ was actually meant to be the first single from this record, but they ended up going with ‘Sandman’ instead, for some reason.
In the end I guess it turned out for the best! Although if they had led with a faster single maybe their hardcore fans would have been happier?
@@PatrickMusilek Bob Rock wanted Holier to be the first single but the band shot him down and fought for Sandman. There is a clip in A Year and A Half In The Life of Metallica where they sit down with Bob and discuss it
The intro to Don't Tread On Me is "America" from West Side Story and it's good because it's so out of place in a Metallica song.
Give Load/ReLoad a chance. From your perspectives I think it would be an interesting venture into a different side of Metallica. Is it their best stuff? No, not at all. But does it have some hidden gems? For sure!
Right now the plan is to do videos for the rest of Metallica's studio albums, so Kill Em All, Load, Reload, Death Magnetic, Hardwired, and 72 Season when it comes out.
We are going to spread them out a little, and some I might do on my own since its getting hard to schedule stuff with the Chris's but thats the plan!
@@PatrickMusilek Cool! Yeah, take your time, there’s no rush. I would just hate it to see you miss out on some of the most underrated Metallica tracks from their later catalogue.
But yeah, take your time, it’s not like the albums are going to run away.
@@PatrickMusilek Oh you're going to _hate_ Death Magnetic. I recommend you also give a listen to one of the unofficial remasters.
Yo! Omaha native, and huge ‘Tallica fan. Subbed to this channel when I heard your reaction to 72S. Keep up the good work in the Midwest.
Thanks! And make sure to watch all the upcoming Metallica reactions we plan on doing! Plus all sorts of other artists and bands!
My gripe with someone saying "Ride the Lightning sounds bad" is that there is a wide choice of words to use between great and bad. Like, I can somewhat accept someone saying, "The bass on And Justice for All sounds bad" because you can just BARELY hear it on 4 songs and you really can't on the others. But the whole album sounds BAD? Either you lack basic vocabulary or you're ability to reasonably analyze something lacks any nuance and so every sound you don't think is good is equally "bad"? Expand your word use.
We have a whole video talking about Ride The Lightening!
Yeah, lol it does not sound bad! Yeah its got reverb, yeah its a semitone sharp so fucking what, it kills.
The percussive twang in Where Ever I May Roam is actually a 12 string bass with effects getting slapped.
There's a song that has a rifle being cocked as a percussion instrument in one of the songs as well.
** its God That Failed
Its in the intro and post solo.
And the opening melody in Don't Tread On Me is from a musical West Side Story, America I believe its from.
Loving the listen throughs 👍
Way to go, my two favorite bands are Depeche Mode and Metallica.
YES! Not so crazy to like both of them!
Pantera would be an interesting discography to work through.
Also if you're talking 90's albums.
machine head - burn my eyes is an absolute monster.
Fear factory - demanufacture still sounds cutting edge.
Neurosis - through silver in blood sounds like the end of the world.
Throw on top of that faith no more - angel dust, and rage against the machine.
There's a lot of killer records from that era.
I second Burn My Eyes.
Yep burn my eyes is a certified monster… unpopular opinion I have is that it is their best of all time as many think the blackening is… further to that their new album is arguably my second favourite machine head of all time
And god damn Sepultura
1990, it was all tape. I was there. No auto-tune, no quantisation. Back when music was real, and didn’t sound like it was made by robots.
Chris: Yes, that’s a B-bender in ‘My Friend Of Misery’, and the ‘harmonised guitars’ were Kirk through a compressor, Big Muff, and then a digital harmoniser, on which one sets the interval between the ‘separate guitars’, then play.
BTW: I’m an audio engineer as well. I’ve also been around for a while-that’s why I’ve had so much to say.
Chris, you’ve got a very good ear for guitar tone. They-especially James-used LOTS of different guitars either standing alone or as a part of his layers of guitars. Apart from that Danelectro faux-sitar, I think the strangest guitar they used on this record was a Gretsch White Falcon. Strange for Metallica, at least.
Ive read the my friend of misery stuff was james with a mxr distortion + into the board, and im positive he tracked the harmonies the same way he did all the other harmony stuff and did it all himself without a harmonizer, kinda like what he does on the wherever i may roam harmony in the black album studio footage
Also you’re forgetting another strange guitar on TBA and its the danelectro baritone james uses on the chord hits in the sad but true riff. I guess you could also count the telecaster he uses with the ebow on nothing else matters and jasons 12 string bass on wherever i may roam
1:37:38
Something you can't hear on the studio track but live and isolated vocals is James rolling his "R" in Throat . I wish you could hear it more.
I can hear it. Or, at least, I could always hear it on the original masters. I wasn’t paying specific attention to hear whether that’s been obscured on the remaster. But I agree: that was a nice touch. It’s funny: when I was VERY young, ~6 or 7 or so, in the late 80s, the only name I knew associated with Metallica was Lars Ulrich, because mi best mate was a drummer, and his older brother was ALSO a drummer. I didn’t know Lars was Danish, but I knew that name was something Teutonic/Scandinavian. I thought the entire band was of the same nationality, originally, because I could’ve sworn I heard hints of an accent in James’s voice. When the Black Album came out, I was even further convinced of that, till I bought my own copy, and read the names of the band members. Can anyone else relate to this?
I could always hear on the 91 original master. if we are talking about the same thing. It's the classic touch of James that kind of filler. At minute 1:40 for example in "gives me all I need". That's what you mean?
Definitely my favorite react channel now.
Experts in the field with the funniest wise cracks, yes please ?
Great question...What effect pedal was used on the FIRST guitar solo of My Friend of Misery?...a Harmonizer?....you wont find that answer on the behind the scenes black album movies.
Patrick singing Kid Rock lyrics over the Sad But True intro as a reference to "American Badass" - while actually singing the lyrics to Bawitdaba - is hysterical
As a Metallica fan since 95 I can assure you we like Depeche Mode too, Never Let Me Down Again is a top track of mine.
I do believe the singer from Depeche Mode has a cover version of a Black Album song on their celebration release of covers.
You are right! Dave Gahan did a cover of Nothing Else Matters! I wanted to do a reaction to the song with Chris S. but when we do a whole Metallica album there isn't much energy left afterwards!
Glad to see the love spread around genres though!
3 and a half hours...think I might need to do this in a few sessions. Plus the higher quality might be available by then too
Wooohooo! I had some trouble with uploading this video but it is live now! Yes feel free to wait until the HD gets processed and remember that you can check the timestamps on the timeline to see the different topics we discuss! Feel free to skip around! I know it's a LONG video, but we had so much fun and had a great conversation the entire time!
It's such skill how y'all talked through the entirety of don't tread on me
you need to watch "a year and half in the life of metallica", lot of footage from the studio and how they recorded this album
2:15:14 of wolf and man is about hunting and it captures the energy so well + the lyrics are a masterpiece
kind of a double meaning. it describes a wolf as well as a man (of wolf and man)
after the new days mist i run,
i hunt, therefor i am,
harvest the land,
taking the fallen lamb
We shift, pulsing with the Earth
Company we keep
Roaming the land while you sleep
[Chorus]
Shapeshift, nose to the wind
Shapeshift, feeding I've been
Move swift, all senses clean
Earth's gift (Back to the meaning)
Back to the meaning of life
I've been slowly making my way through your Metallica album reviews while at work, and I have a few comments to make here and there. The instrument at the beginning of The Unforgiven is actually a French horn, and while I have yet to watch your Death Magnetic album review, I assume the lack of French horn is addressed for The Unforgiven III. But actually, it's present at the 36 second mark of the piano introduction of the song, just not the same as the first two entries in the song trilogy.
During the Enter Sandman discussion, you guys talked about how disappointing it would be to have loved "Justice" and buy this album going "WTF!!!???" I think it's important to remember that Enter Sandman dropped as a single a full two weeks before the album was released, and for the album to debut at #1 you know that single was EVERYWHERE on radio and MTV. If you bought that album not knowing what you were going to hear first, that was YOUR fault.
If you haven’t been into bands like Iron Maiden I would be very interested to see you go through their discography. But that would of course be way into the future, in the back of the pipeline so to say.
You actually missed a clue on how the rhythm guitars are done on the album when you were talking, on Holier than Thou (1:22:20) they come in after the solo. There are 3 rhythm tracks all recorded by James - left pan, right pan, and center (slightly to the left, as he would call it the "thickener" on a documentary once).
About the remaster, my thoughts are: why are you going to fix something that isn't broken? The sound of the black album is perfect. I have the original latin version cd from 1991 by the Vertigo label. Listening to it from cd doesn't compare to streaming stuff, audio formats or any current remasters. The difference is remarkable. Greetings from Argentina.
Remasters, in my experience don’t sound that much different than the original ones I’ve heard. I can’t believe they aren’t listening to the CD or vinyl. There’s too many generations added to the original mix/master to make what they’re basing their experience on have much validity.
I avoid remasters of 80s/90s albums, because 9/10 they sound awful. Plus, I want to hear what the band sounded like THEN.
@@nebularain3338 If you want to hear what the band sounded like then, listen to the cassette, CD, or vinyl. The original masters back then don't usually transfer well on digital formats. If I am going to listen to music on my hi-fi stereo system, then naturally, I'm going to listen to the vinyl or the CD, but when I am on Spotify or Apple Music, then I want the remaster because the original version always sounds shitty on those platforms. They remastered them for a reason, and that reason is so that it sounds better on streaming platforms.
Hey Patrick - don't know if you are interested but there is a 5.1 mix of this album that Bob Rock did. It's only on DVD-A but if you can track down a copy it's well worth a listen. Hope you are doing OK!
That IS interesting!
@@PatrickMusilek I'm sure someone has put it on TH-cam - a quick eBay look shows it selling for ridiculous sums of money!
That "crack" sound you hear during the opening riffs on Wherever I May Roam is a 12-string bass.
1:42:38 Joke's on Virtual Chris... Wherever I May Roam is a song about James being unfaithful and sleeping around while on tour. Also, you guys talked about the lyrics to Enter Sandman being about children's nightmares, but they're actually an allegory for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
That "harmony" that opens Don't Tread On Me is the melody from West Side Story's "America."
2:41:44 Yes Chris, that is a B-Bender.
I am shocked how little the bald guy knows about music production but comments as if he knows anything.
The opening riff in Don't Tread On Me that gave you a patriotic impression is lifted straight from the song America from the musical West Side Story.
Yes Chris, that's a b bender in the bridge of Misery
Lol at 0:30 I was thinking of the “Mr DNA” scene from Jurassic Park where John Hammond keeps replicating and saying “hello John”
Chris Parker will appreciate that since JP is one of his all time favorite movies!
@@PatrickMusilek can’t go wrong with Metallica and JP. One of the biggest box office hits of all time and one of the biggest albums of all time. Which still charts in the billboard 100 weekly charts and has done so every week since it was released. At least that was the case at the time I read that little factoid about a year ago. Also that near 3 year tour they did for the album is a big reason for their sea change going into the mid 90s/load era. It burned them out. Figuratively, creatively, and in James’ case literally and physically. He literally got burned by a malfunctioning pyro can during the tour and suffered 3rd degree burns. But they stopped playing songs like master of puppets during that tour because they got tired of it. The constant heavy metal. It was a bit of corporate capitulation to cut their hair and shorten the songs even more but most of what they do they do it for themselves. Cliff talked a lot about it. He said they’re not there to play 1000 mph the whole time and I think they’ve lived that up to this day. They made their own genre of music within metal man.
Chris P. Is it bad I know the acoustic guitar bit in the Beatles/ Blue October song you’re talking about?
2:55:06 OH OH! OH! I'd never spotted that before! The little descending riff in that section of Struggle Within, is that not super similar to the end of the bridge section in All Nightmare Long?
ED ADDL: Metallica tracks all their live plays on their website, Struggle was played in concert 20 times... and only in 2012, and 2021.
This was awesome. Was laughing hard with the anime characters when one of you had problems.
I really like your way of musical and recording appreciation.
I have just one question.
Why are you guys mentioning Godsmack or In flames
Especially when they appeared way after this album was made?
Like this sounds so...Godsmack or I'm flames.
Isn't more like. Godsmack and in flames sound in certain song like this one!
Yes that is definitely true that Metallica came first! For me, being more familiar with In Flames than Metallica I can relate more to IF and so my comparisons come from that point of view!
@@PatrickMusilek gotcha. No problem. Makes complete sense.
The best thing about Metallica for me has been the unprecedented amount of behind the scenes access we've been blessed with. Being able to see how these guys record albums is awesome.
Dude!! That comment about Hetfield’s first line always sounding the second line of the verse! Brilliant 😂
The Black Album is the most influential album in my life. Absolutely love this album. Y’all should listen to The Metallica Blacklist album that they released alongside the 2021 remaster. It’s 52 different artists doing songs from the Black Album. Artists from Ghost, Weezer, and Volbeat, to The Hu, Phoebe Bridgers, and Portugal The Man. Really interesting stuff.
I really want to hear it!
There is a non fade out version of this and many other Metallica songs on YT that came from the Metallica Guitar Hero soundtrack. The only album that was heavy in 1991 that was on par with the production of this album is RATM's self titles debut album! The recording of that was live in one room in a studio with a small audience as the band could not play properly unless it felt like a gig...lol Doesn't feel like a live recording though, but at times you can hear the mic bleed and the room mic adds depth (as it does to my music I play and record etc.) 1:08:22 - If you download the stems of this song and load them into your DAW you can see and hear the metronome is STILL in this song here! It sounds like a shaker - because it is! It is low in the mix but once you hear it isolated then you can not unhear it in the full song!!
Also there is a synthesizer behind guitars in My Friend of Misery. If you find the multitrack.
When you guys were talking about people who listened to the black album first and nothing before, reminded me of what happened recently with Master of Puppets (the song) and how it was on Stranger Things. Some of the “metal elitists” started hating on new Metallica fans for discovering them from a popular Netflix show.
Yeah, I can see that. It's a bummer, but it's always a good thing when people discover new music in my opinion!
At the West Virginia University football home games, the team takes to the field with Enter Sandman playing throughout the entire stadium. The band actually made a short video about Hokie-Nation. Everybody loses their shit when the song comes on.
1:48:00 The opening guitar riff on Don't Tread on Me is taken from the song "America" in the 1957 musical West Side Story.
Also the first solo on "My friend of Misery" it's actually just two guitars harmonizing.
You mentioned Goatwhore from Louisiana and their guitarist Sammy Duet was in a band called Acid Bath! Listen to Acid Bath, they're fantastic!🤘
Also also, "fast riffs with pig grunty vocals is what metal should be", is THE most metal bro take, that there has probably ever been.
those are not low harmony..all backing vocals done by Jason Newsted not computer
The album that made me learn to play drums. To this day, drum sound perfection.
Not reading through all the comments but the intro to Don’t Tread’ is borrowed from ‘America’ from West Side Story, specifically where they sing ‘I wanna live in America, I wanna live in America’. It’s a patriotic song from around the first Gulf War and was also the foil for James to ‘Justice’ as that was a bit of an anti American song, so Don’t Tread was his way of saying ‘Nah I actually love this country’. I agree it’s heavy and I think the guitar tone in parts probably most closely approximates Justice.
Maybe you should do Megadeth’s Youthanasia as a comparison from around the same time?
Megadeath is on the list to possibly check out eventually!
@@PatrickMusilek Ha ha, I don't want to be 'that guy' but Megadeth, not Megadeath...
Also you mention Chris being in a band so many times, how about providing a link to some of his stuff so we can check it out?
@@bradsparling3873 I will put a link in the description of St. Anger! Also one for remote Chris' video game that he did sound design for.
It may not be a lot of fans favourite but this album is one of the best sounding Metal/Rock albums ever made that is just a respected fact... great album.
Sorry I'm OFFENDED by ya'll's take on the lyrics of Whenever I May Roam.
Alright, picture this. (
Sorry, almost forgot: add alcohol to the formula
Great album, I like to listen to full albums in general, it’s give you a vibe of the past . I was 10 when listening to it for the first time, I loved it .
the drumming of lars was absolutely amazing on this album!!!
for that they put 50 mics around the drums... saw a great doku in tv last days about 30 years black album... they took weeks to create the sound of the drums and guitars...
amazing? its simple and lazy AF, The Justice Drumming will always be his best by Miles.
@@felipegiraldo8100 its not "lazy" when it fits the songs and is iconic at some of the tracks!
@@efwewfwef1549 It obviously fits the songs, im not speaking about that specifically, im talking in a overall metal perspective and compared with what they did in previous albums is lazy and slow af, its just weird to say its hid best drumming when its not even close, AFJA Drumming is higly praised for a reason
@@felipegiraldo8100 i never said something about his best drumming. i said "amazing" because it clearly fits the songs perfectly and that is all i want in this type of album...
this album is unreal. No other band has ever achieved a sound like this in my mind
For 1991 is really is great sounding!
The intro of Don’t Tread On Me is lifted from on of the songs in the musical West Side Story. “Everything’s good in America…”
Interesting!
great analysis!
James is playing a Coral Electric Sitar on Roam. A session great, Vinnie Bell helped create the electric sitar in the 60’s.
1:58:30 and that rifffffffff
yes you are right its southern. its hetfield man the whole theme, dont treat on me, of wolf and man (most epic hunting song ever, sober aggressive, perfect word choice & atmo)
12 string bass slap on Wherever I may Roam.
“Very recently”…..I like this guy.
Bad about the 90s, bro. They got Green River, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Collective Soul, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Madseason, and Temple of The Dog.
I dont know anything from any of those artists! When I think of 90s bands I enjoy I think of Blur, White Zombie, And One, Portishead, and only a few others!
The opening guitar line in Don’t Tread On Me is from the song America from West Side Story
whats the dude on the right doing???
no strummingness to the chord in the verser of unforgiven...theres pedal tone underneath so the guitar line follows the vocal line but the note underneath is is the pedal tones for the rhythm if that makes sense
i commented that before but man if you watched the making of the black album that could be so funny..
like i remember at one point bob rock and lars had a huge fight cause lars wanted the big snare hits in the unforgiven intro louder 🤣🤣
To „the unforgiven“ wich is also the name of a western movie. I like the hard verse and the soft Chorus and in unforgiven 2 they reversed it. The intro is a horn from Ennio Morricones track called EL Colpo from the per un pugno di dollari movie.
You’re actually wrong but right about dont thread on me james said they partly made the song because it suited the artwork
Gulf War 1 was literally going on as they were recording. So that's why there is a patriotic sense to that song.
Actually, there is a studio version of “No Leaf Clover“. I swear I’ve heard it somewhere.
The actual track is a studio recording they just added the orchestra and crowd noise in post.
Best album ever made.
Get the 5.1 version of the Black Album and listen to it through a surround system. It's so good!
You said there were no aux percussion instruments up till ‘Nothing Else Matters’….You forget the castanets and bell in the beginning of ‘Unforgiven’, and the hammer and anvil in “wherever I May roam“.
Of course!
I never noticed that the snare drum during the intro to "Holier Than Thou" sounds almost identical to the Puppets snare.
The moors brought the sitar to Spain,,that's where the Spaniard got the idea from to make the first guitar we all know,,I think they used the electro harmonic effects pedal for the wherever I may roam intro,,,,
2:09:33 its james with an ebow, there’s footage of him doing that stuff in the studio with bob and he’s using a explorer with the ebow. thats where the sustaining sound is coming from
As an audio engineer myself I get pretty frustrated at the misconceptions about the whole "the snare is a sample!!!" criticism of this album. Yes, they recorded several samples of the *actual snare, in the same actual physical room* that Lars recorded the drums in, so that they could layer it in subtly to bring out the snare without making the cymbals louder. It's not used on every song, and where it is used it's very sparingly mixed in. People hear the word "snare sample" and they think Bob Rock just slapped on EZ drummer or something. Not even close. Also, I think the TOMS actually sound better than the snare on this record.
ohhh boy. ride the lightning sounds FANTASTIC. i can tell that's gonna be an interesting video to go back to...
i'd say the black album is still very much a metal album -- it's just not really thrash, speed metal, or heavy metal. it's arena metal. and it's definitely metallica, but it's very distinct even among their own discography, including their more recent albums.
i really wanna hear what you guys would have to say about load in contrast to this record.
lol. i think you (patrick) have a lot of great insights to offer and you're very articulate, but i am SO glad you have these friends to react when you drop a take that is just rancid.
i've always thought that the "wwwwWWWOOOAH" in "of wolf and man" was reversed, too -- and that it's kind of a clever metaphor for shapeshifting, becoming more bestial. hetfield's a hunter (and i have mixed feelings about that, but anyway) and i definitely think it's just a fun metal song about finding something spiritual and primal in exploring one's animalistic side. corny? sure, maybe, but to me that's part of the charm of metal. you'll enjoy it more if you embrace its campy side, imo.
hetfield's a notoriously simplistic and corny rhymer. it's true. sometimes i really love it, though -- like, there's nothing more iconically metal than the "termination / expiration / cancellation human race" part of "blackened"
LOST IN VEGAS ?? Is that the reactor Chris was referencing?
The unforgiven atmosphere and special sounds are all thanks to the huge influences Ennio Morricone/ Sergio Leone western scores had on the band especially James and his huge love for spaghetti westerns in general.
And the ominous starting sound is a French horn played backwards.
I want to hear what you guys think of Ryan Greene and No Use for a Name Making Friends
That crack in wherever I may roam is a 12 string bass played by Jason newsted
Jason wrote a longer bass piece with a view that it would be the basis for an instrumental. I think the band decided to not do one just to piss Jason off.
I bet it really hurt to give him the writing credit too. In the YEAR AND A HALF... PART 2 video there's a moment where they're at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert doing press. James, Lars and Kirk are waiting to get their picture taken while Jason is elsewhere doing an interview, and you hear James say "He thinks that because he got a writing credit he can make us wait..."
The opening of unforgiven the horn, they played it in reverse so they wouldn’t get it copyrighted, but I don’t know where they got it from
Go watch "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica". The testimony of how the black album was made is there including arguments between Lars and Bob Rock about how the drum should sound like in the mixing of The Unforgiven. Awesome film for engineers, producers and metalheads alike.
Oh yes! That sounds awesome!
Just make sure you don't talk over the part 😏
I had both of those videos when I was a kid and watched them to the point where to this day I still have them memorized.
I highly suggest this as well. Would love to hear Patrick and the guys take on it