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Want to hear Chinese Democracy for yourself? Well, after fifteen years, one can finally, truthfully, write these words: Now you can. The album commenced streaming on the official Guns N Roses MySpace at midnight Eastern last night. How is it? It's actually... not bad. There are layers and layers of sounds; myriad guitars, riff walls, drum loops, vocal backgrounds... it's easy to see why it took so long to sort out. And given that Axl is a perfectionist who knew each note would be closely examined, well... the years just kept adding up.
So here we are, mere hours before The Big Day, a day that many thought would never come. (And truthfully, a day that many stopped caring about.) The music is online, ready to be listened to. Best Buy is surely getting all of their Chinese Democracy posters, staff pins/flair, and other promo items ready like the little blue-clad GNR fans they are/must be. Exciting, right? Everyone's stoked to hear it, yes?
Not everyone. Not James Hetfield, therapy-laden curmudgeonly leader of Metallica. A seemingly innocent interview he recently did with the Houston Chronicle has become plastered all over the internet due to a few remarks concerning one Axl Rose. Most of the interview is normal: How is touring, what's working with Rick Rubin like, blah blah blah. But then, at the end, things get interesting:
Q: You guys have an uneasy history with Guns n’ Roses. Have you heard Axl Rose’s new record? Do you even care?
A: I’ll certainly listen to it. But I haven’t lost sleep waiting for it. I thought we took a long time to make an album. But you know he’s late for everything so it makes total sense. We saw him play at a festival in Germany two years ago. He’s a good frontman. He’s eccentric, but all artists are. If they don’t show that they’re quirky, they’re lying to you. They’re either pretending they’re not or they’re pretending they’re an artist.
Ooh! Someone's a little upset. Let's break this down shall we?
I'll certainly listen to it.
Of course, he'll listen to it, it's the competition - he has to. But the word 'certainly' is vital here. It implies that he has thought about whether or not he will listen to it. It also communicates an exasperation with Axl, and the hype surrounding this album.
But I haven’t lost sleep waiting for it.
Here, Hetfield completes the thought started in his first sentence, but, crucially, he attempts to strike an almost disinterested tone. As if he didn't care about how the album will be received, or how it will sell. Which is bulllshit - of course he cares. He cares. A LOT.
I thought we took a long time to make an album. But you know he’s late for everything so it makes total sense.
A time-tested tactic debaters will often employ is to casually reveal a personal shortcoming in order to, via juxtaposition and comparison of degrees, negatively paint a rival. The rival in this case being GNFNR.
We saw him play at a festival in Germany two years ago.
Of course, he needed to back up his observation/accusation with some personal experience. Hence, this implication that at said German festival, Axl was late.
He’s a good frontman.
A brief attempt to neutralize his earlier attack.
He’s eccentric, but all artists are. If they don’t show that they’re quirky, they’re lying to you. They’re either pretending they’re not or they’re pretending they’re an artist.
Hetfield closes by expanding his take on Axl to include a more macro analysis of the artistic personality as a whole. He seems to be positing, in a somewhat confusing manner, that artists are eccentric, and that performers who pretend to be eccentric, but are not, are not artists. But does eccentric essence matter if the audience is unsure, and more importantly, doesn't care, if an artist is actually quirky or not?
Perhaps only Hetfield's shrink knows.
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 Thousands of Metallica fans have taken to the Internet to complain that the band's brutally awesome new album Death Magnetic is just too damn loud for its own good. Their main beef, which has been gaining some mainstream news attention as of late, is that the CD sounds tinny and sacrifices dynamic range - the difference between the soft and loud parts of songs - in favor of pumped-up volume.
(For some analysis of the issue, go here and here).
But Metallica co-manager Cliff Burnstein has claimed that 98 percent of listeners dig what they hear. "There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to," he added.
So far, more than 12,000 people have signed an online petition requesting that the band release a newly remixed or remastered version of the album. Not going to happen, says drummer Lars Ulrich, the first member of Metallica to comment publicly on the controversy. Here, in his own words, is the talkative drummer's take on the issue:
"Listen, there's nothing up with the audio quality. It's 2008, and that's how we make records. [Producer] Rick Rubin's whole thing is to try and get it to sound lively, to get it to sound loud, to get it to sound exciting, to get it to jump out of the speakers. Of course, I've heard that there are a few people complaining. But I've been listening to it the last couple of days in my car, and it sounds fuckin' smokin'.
"Somebody told me about [people complaining that the Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic sounds better]. Listen, what are you going to do? A lot of people say [the CD] sounds great, and a few people say it doesn't, and that's OK. You gotta remember, when we put out ...And Justice for All, people were going, 'What happened to these guys, this record? There's no bass on it. It sounds like it was recorded in a fuckin' garage on an eight-track.' And now ...And Justice for All is sort of the seminal Metallica record that supposedly influenced a whole generation of death-metal bands. The difference between back then and now is the Internet.
"The Internet gives everybody a voice, and the Internet has a tendency to give the complainers a louder voice. Listen, I can't keep up with this shit. Part of being in Metallica is that there's always somebody who's got a problem with something that you're doing: 'James Hetfield had something for breakfast that I don't like.' That's part of the ride.
"I will say that the overwhelming response to this new record has exceeded even our expectations as far as how positive it is. So I'm not gonna sit here and get caught up in whether [the sound] 'clips' or it doesn't 'clip.' I don't know what kind of stereos these people listen on. Me and James [Hetfield] made a deal that we would hang back a little and not get in the way of whatever Rick's vision was. That's not to put it on him - it's our record, I'll take the hit, but we wanted to roll with Rick's vision of how Metallica would sound."
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