St. Anger

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St. Anger
Studio album by Metallica
Released	June 5, 2003
Recorded	May, 2002-April, 2003
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	1:15:03
Label	Elektra Records
Producer(s)	Bob Rock, Metallica
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Blender link New Musical Express link Rolling Stone link Metacritic (63/100) link
Metallica chronology
S&M (1999)	St. Anger (2003)	Some Kind of Monster (2004)

St. Anger is the eighth studio album by American thrash metal band Metallica, released on June 5, 2003 (see 2003 in music). The album was originally to be released on June 10, 2003, but because of fears of extended music piracy over filesharing networks, St. Anger was released five days earlier. It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and Canadian Albums Chart. Sales did not remain stable, however, and the album sold only two million copies in the U.S., Metallica's lowest-selling album there. In 2004 lead single "St. Anger" earned a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance".

St. Anger represents the last collaboration between Metallica and their longtime producer Bob Rock, with the announcement in early 2006 that Rick Rubin would assume production duties on their forthcoming album.

Contents 1 History and criticism 2 Track listing 3 Credits 4 Charts 4.1 Album 4.2 Singles 5 Singles 6 Miscellanea

[edit] History and criticism

Five and a half years elapsed between the release of the band's previous studio album, Reload, and the recording of St. Anger, which began in 2002. Many factors contributed to this delay, including the departure of bassist Jason Newsted, and vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield's several months in rehab for alcoholism and other unspecified substance abuse.

The band began initial writing for the album in April 2001, when they hired The Presidio, a converted army barracks in San Francisco, California, converting it into a makeshift studio. Uncomfortable with the idea of bringing in an immediate replacement for Newsted, the band opted to have producer Bob Rock play bass guitar for the recording of the album, with plans to find a fulltime bass player upon the record's completion. Recording came to a halt in July 2001 when the band announced via its website that James Hetfield had entered a rehab center for treatment of alcoholism and other addictions. "The Presidio Sessions" as they've come to be known, have for the most part been shelved, with no immediate plans to pursue the material further, even though there are clips from these sessions that were released via their website jumpinthestudio.com, which was a website that was essentially a blog for metallica to post videos, blogs and pictures of the recording sessions. During this period "Lars' Babble" surfaced, where Lars would talk for around 30 minutes; usually about nothing or cryptically hinting about the new album.

The album met mixed reviews. The most resounding opinions were that the album was unpolished and seemed under-produced. The band adopted a fresh approach to the recording process, opting for an extremely stripped down and raw production. Producer Bob Rock noted that the aim was to capture the atmosphere of a band jamming together in a garage for the first time and the band just happened to be Metallica. Drum rattles and just-off-pitch vocals gave listeners a challenging sound, different from previous Metallica albums and unheard of from such an established act. The complete absence of guitar solos, a first for Metallica, brought comparisons to some emerging nu metal bands. However, it did not contain other 'nu-metal' characteristics such as Hip-hop influenced beats or "funk" bass styles. Others praised the album for its sheer heaviness and aggressive music, with mid tempo thrash riffs more akin to their earlier work, as compared to the "bluesy" Load/Reload albums. Longtime artist Pushead designed the cover artwork, marking the first album cover he'd done for the band, although his work had been featured previously inside the ...And Justice For All booklet, several single covers, and numerous T-shirt designs.

After Summer Sanitarium, the year-long Madly in Anger with the World Tour followed, finishing near the end of 2004. The songs "Frantic," "St. Anger," "Dirty Window," and "The Unnamed Feeling" were well represented during the tour."Sweet Amber" and "Some Kind of Monster" were also played live, but not to the extent of other St.Anger material. The St.Anger material when played live was usually different to the studio recordings, sometimes shortened, or in some cases a guitar solo was added ("Sweet Amber", "Dirty Window", "Frantic") However, in some cases only one song from the album was played live, and in 2006 the album had almost completely been removed from live sets with most shows not including any songs from St. Anger, Load or ReLoad (with the exception of Fuel from ReLoad)

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett, Rock

1. "Frantic" – 5:50
2. "St. Anger" – 7:21
3. "Some Kind of Monster" – 8:25
4. "Dirty Window" – 5:24
5. "Invisible Kid" – 8:30
6. "My World" – 5:45
7. "Shoot Me Again" – 7:10
8. "Sweet Amber" – 5:27
9. "The Unnamed Feeling" – 7:09
10. "Purify" – 5:14
11. "All Within My Hands" – 8:48

[edit] Credits

• James Hetfield - Guitar, Vocals
• Kirk Hammett - Guitar
• Lars Ulrich - Drums
• Bob Rock - Producer, Engineer, Bass, Mixing
• Robert Trujillo - Live Bass
• Anton Corbijn - Photography
• Scott Cunningham - Production Coordination
• Mike Gillies - Digital Engineer, Assistant
• Paul Wood - Guitar Technician
• Wayne Isham - Director
• Dana Marshall - Producer
• Vlado Meller - Mastering
• Colin Mitchell - Camera Operator
• Paul Owen - Monitors
• Jean Pellerin - Editing, Camera Operator
• Pushead - Cover Illustration
• Ryan Smith - Camera Operator

[edit] Charts

[edit] Album

U.S. sales: 1.76 million, world sales: 4 million^{[citation needed]}

Chart (2003)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	1
Canadian Albums Chart	1

[edit] Singles

Single	Chart (2003)	Peak position
"Frantic"	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	21
"St. Anger"	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	2
	U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	17
	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	76
"Some Kind of Monster"	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	19
"The Unnamed Feeling"	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	28

[edit] Singles

"St. Anger," "Frantic," "The Unnamed Feeling" and "Some Kind of Monster" have been released as singles. In Australia, "The Unnamed Feeling" was released as a third single featuring three tracks recorded at the Big Day Out concert in the Gold Coast in Queensland in January 2004.

[edit] Miscellanea

• Multiple variations of St. Anger's cover art were originally planned for its release. Such variations would simply feature the basic design with the fist and background in different colors and were actually shown on Metallica's official website before the record's release.
• The extensive process of St. Anger and the many aspects surrounding its production were documented and released in the film Some Kind of Monster on January 21, 2004.
• Matt Smith of metal band Theocracy created a famous parody of the album.[1]
• The song "St. Anger" was the official theme song for WWE Summerslam 2003.

v • d • e Metallica

James Hetfield • Kirk Hammett • Robert Trujillo • Lars Ulrich Cliff Burton • Dave Mustaine • Ron McGovney • Jason Newsted Discography Albums and Extended Plays: No Life 'Til Leather • Kill 'Em All • Ride the Lightning • Master of Puppets • Garage Days Re-Revisited • ...And Justice for All • Metallica • Load • ReLoad • Garage Inc. • S&M • St. Anger • Some Kind of Monster • Ninth studio album Videography DVDs and videos: Cliff 'em All • 2 of One • A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica • Live Shit: Binge & Purge • Cunning Stunts • S&M • Classic Albums: Metallica - The Black Album • Some Kind of Monster • The Videos 1989-2004 Related articles Hetfield/Ulrich

Preceded by How the West Was Won by Led Zeppelin

Billboard 200 Number 1 Album June 21, 2003 - June 27, 2003

Succeeded by Dance With My Father by Luther Vandross