Some Kind of Monster

Although I love St. Anger nearly in its entirety ("Sweet Amber" is awful), this is easily the strongest song on the album. It's one of the few with actual direction (the others being "Frantic," "The Unnamed Feeling" and "My World"), has an absolutely killer riff, surprisingly decent lyrics, and is composed of pure aggression!

Right away the main riff gets your attention and builds up to a rapid-fire monstrosity dares you NOT to headbang to it. Lars actually remembers what timekeeping is and provides a galloping pace for the track, and it really does sound like some monstrosity is coming to ruin your life. For a song about addiction and the strains of stardom, the song gets its message across without delving into whiny, Axl Rose-tier bitchiness, aconsidering this is from the same band who thought "Ain't My Bitch" was a good idea, that's quite an accomplishment.

While the extra tracks are excellent, there's not much else to be said other than this coming off as a huge cash grab. And, well, it is, since these songs were also featured on the "The Unnamed Feeling EP," which came out a while before this. All this offers is a badly mutilated single version of SKOM which kills its appeal. Where's the buildup? Why the fuck would you start with the midtempo section of the opening? How the flying fuck did they somehow manage to make this thing 4 minutes long?

There's not much of a point to this single, and the only benefit of getting it is another piece of Metallica memorabilia for your collection. But if you need a place to start with St. Anger, it's definitely this song. It's big, it's heavy, and it kicks ass.

Another cash grab from the washed-up, self proclaimed "Kings of Metal", Metallica. This has got to be the most pointless release of all time, with a tracklist that is identical to the previous EP, but with a worse song as the lead off single. Some Kind of Monster is an 8 minute feature which showcases about 3 riffs, horrid vocals, lame lyrics and the only attempt at a lead guitar line in the whole St.Anger album. It's essentially the same as the St.Anger song, they play the entire song, and then play it again.

Is it just me, or are half of the riffs from St.Anger based around the same (D, F, G) chords? This song, Dirty Window, the last track, Invisible Kid...it's basically the same riff morphed and beaten until it was completely drained of the little integrity that it possessed in the first place.

The live tracks are a bit better than the studio track, quality and production wise, but it really is painful to be hearing their classic songs at this point, especially with the state that Hetfield's voice is in. The 10 points go to Ride the Lightning, which is done decently. The rest of the songs are shit.

Oh yes, the "free" t-shirt (I live in Canada, and it's $15 for just the EP and $30 with the shirt). The design is lame, it doesn't fit and the print is cheap. Much like Metallica does these days. I regret spending money on this.

Avoid.

If you don't own the Unnamed Feeling EP, bump this is up about 30 points. It'd be worth getting for you.

HOWEVER, if you like me have both, you're probably feeling a little jipped. I bought SKOM without looking at the tracklist, and now I am feeling a little out of shape. They released the EP again save for switching the St.Anger tracks. This is really unacceptable. They don't have anymore exclusive live tracks? No out-takes or covers or unreleased songs?

No other release in their catalogue seems like a play for cash at all, but this, this is something that goes beyond. Selling this as a new release is pathetic and meanspirited. Shame on Elektra and you know what, shame on Metallica

Stand-Outs: None applicable, all of the songs have been heard before and you probably know what songs you really like anyway.