The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 408

Number 408

Metallica

"The Unforgiven"

(1991)

407

.........Genre: Hard Rock...........

409

gazza 2009

Ah yes, while the Crowbarred is off duty with mourning reasons, it gives me the chance, once again .. to shine as only i know how! And what a better way with a Metallica song that is juicy as hell, that's right. The Unforgiven.

There are 3 types of Metallica fans ... 1: The old metal heads [thats me] 2: The commercial sell out freaks [that's you] 3: The new 10 year olds who are millennium wannabes [same kids who think Jonas Brothers are cool &$#$#^@%^&$%].

Now, I have heard some of the older metal heads think the new album "Death Magnetic" is as good as "And Justice For All".... wtf? .... for #$^@$ sake, calm the $%@#!# down! It's just OK ... OK? Hell, the Unforgiven from 1991 is from their sellout period and is probably the only song i can stomach from this time period. Whats next Unforgiven III? Oh wait ..... ack!

Metallica Guitar Hero?

After the muddled production and ultracomplicated song structures of ...And Justice for All, Metallica decided that they had taken the progressive elements of their music as far as they could and that a simplification and streamlining of their sound was in order. While the assessment made sense from a musical standpoint, it also presented an opportunity to commercialize their music, and Metallica accomplishes both goals. The best songs are more melodic and immediate, the crushing, stripped-down grooves of "Enter Sandman," "Sad but True," and "Wherever I May Roam" sticking to traditional structures and using the same main riffs throughout; the crisp, professional production by Bob Rock adds to their accessibility. "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters" avoid the slash-and-burn guitar riffs that had always punctuated the band's ballads; the latter is a full-fledged love song complete with string section, which works much better than might be imagined.

Yes, Lars cut his hair first

The song- and riff-writing slips here and there, a rare occurrence for Metallica, which some longtime fans interpreted as filler next to a batch of singles calculated for commercial success. The objections were often more to the idea that Metallica was doing anything explicitly commercial, but millions more disagreed. In fact, the band's popularity exploded so much that most of their back catalog found mainstream acceptance in its own right, while other progressively inclined speed metal bands copied the move toward simplification. In retrospect, Metallica is a good, but not quite great, album, one whose best moments deservedly captured the heavy metal crown, but whose approach also foreshadowed a creative decline. ~ [Steve Huey, All Music Guide]

The Unforgiven

You better not downloaded that BITCH!

Drummer Lars Ulrich explained that the band wanted to try something new with the idea of a ballad - instead of the standard melodic verse and heavy chorus (as evidenced on their previous ballads "Fade to Black," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," and "One"), the band opted to reverse the dynamic, with heavy, distorted verses and a softer, melodic chorus, played with classical guitars. The horn intro was essentially taken from a Western movie and then reversed so its source would be hidden, as Hetfield later explained on Classic Albums: Metallica - Metallica. While Metallica has never disclosed what movie the horn was taken from, it is believed to be from a piece of music called "The Showdown," which was composed by Ennio Morricone for the 1965 Clint Eastwood "spaghetti western" film, For a Few Dollars More.

Don't need no damn therapist!

"The Unforgiven" was played live as part of Metallica's Nowhere Else to Roam world tour which lasted from 1991–1993, in support of the Black Album. It was played again on the Madly in Anger with the World world tour in 2003–2004 and the Escape from the Studio '06 tour. Ito the 2007 Sick of the Studio tour. It has most recently been played in the bands current "World Magnetic" tour. Also, the song was the band's third Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #35. It had a music video directed by Matt Mahurin. The song has since spawned two sequels (both in name proper as well as thematically), in the form of "The Unforgiven II," from the album ReLoad, and "The Unforgiven III" from the album Death Magnetic. ~ [Source: Wikipedia]

For more Metallica see Number 484, MM Vol 1 #033 & MM Vol 2 #136

What does Rolling Stones think of Metallica?

The first thing you notice about Metallica's new album is that it sounds great. The band's previous disc, . . . And Justice for All, seemed a model of hard-rock clarity and punch when it was released in 1988. Played back-to-back with Metallica, Justice sounds almost thin; the new record's sonic textures and audio depth of field are a revelation. But Metallica isn't simply a superspiffy engineering job. Its detail and dynamics are essentially musical in concept, part and parcel of the arrangements, song structures and impact of individual tracks. The first few bars of the opening cut, "Enter Sandman," tell the tale. The song begins with the fade-in of a chugging guitar riff. As the riff rises to full volume, ushering in the rhythm section, an entirely different guitar texture, sounding like a phased, finger-picked, electric twelve-string, comes in under and behind the primary riff. All this subtlety draws the listener in, focusing attention. When drummer Lars Ulrich enters, the whack of his first snare-drum accent seems to jump right out of the record and into the middle of the room. By the time you're half a minute into Metallica, musicianship, arrangements and engineering are working hand in hand to define the parameters of a sonic space that the entire disc will claim as its field of interaction. ~ [Source: Rolling Stone ~ Robet Palmer 1997]

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '408th Song of all Time' was "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith. Aerosmith has partially appeared in The Definitive 1000 @ #520