The Metallica Blacklist

I got this 4 cd album from the library instead of paying 30 bucks for it--though I was tempted for a minute. And I have to say that while it was interesting at times, I'm really glad that I didn't pay for it.

What you get for your money (so to speak) are four cds, each one of which is about as long as the original album. On those cds, you get 5 versions of "Enter Sandman," 7 versions of "Sad But True," 5 versions of "Holier Than Thou," 7 versions of "The Unforgiven," 4 versions of "Wherever I May Roam," 3 versions of "Don't Tread on Me," 2 versions of "Through the Never," 12 1/2 versions of "Nothing Else Matters," 1 version of "Of Wolf and Man," 2 versions of "The God That Failed," 3 versions of "My Friend of Misery," and 1 version of "The Struggle Within." 

That's a lot of "Nothing Else Matters." (Which is kind of ironic, isn't it?) In fact, the running time of all of the versions of this song is longer than the original album. I'm not sure what to think about that philosophically, but practically speaking (as in my listening experience) it was too much of the same stuff. In fact, that's the major problem I had with this album en toto: like all tribute albums, the majority of the songs are just inferior versions of the original songs. Why do a cover version of a song if you're not going to do anything new with it? I mean, in concert, sure, that can be fun, but I see no reason to have a Metallica song covered by someone who is trying their best to sound like Metallica.

And as for that "someone".... Well, I am certainly not up with current bands, I'm sorry to say. But I only recognized ten names here--Weezer, Jason Isbell, Cage the Elephant, Portugal The Man, Miley Cyrus (with Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, & Robert Trujillo), My Morning Jacket, & Darius Rucker--and as you can see, four of those names appeared on the same cut. That doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot, I suppose, but it does make me wonder What Could Have Been. I'm pretty sure that The Foo Fighters could have brought some fresh air to this collection. And wouldn't it have been interesting to hear, say, The Rolling Stones do a cover of "Enter Sandman"? Or hell, Bob Dylan? I know I'm dating myself, but it's just a shame to see what I think was a pretty good idea squandered.

There were a few songs that were interesting, though. The two I liked best were SebastiAn's "Don't Tread on Else Matters" (he was the 1/2 "Nothing Else Matters" above)...

 

 ...and Kamasi Washington's "My Friend of Misery:

 

I think I'm going to look both of them up for further listening. But first, I'm going to put Metallica into my cd player and clean out my brain.