Stone + Metallica: Enter Night Pils

Ehh . . . there was quite a bit of overlap in the late 70s, early 80s when Metallica was formed and even Hetfield called Metallica's music "speed metal". Sure, they, along with bands like Slayer, defined the Thrash genre later in the 80s, but it really wasn't a thing in the beginning. Like it or not Kill 'Em All was a speed metal album. The rest, well, you can decide if you want to split hairs or not.

Now? Na. With their albums post-Black Album? Definitely.

 

Did you think that Stone's first Pilsner would be a classic interpretation?

It was pretty good . . . for catchy pop-metal, but it certainly didn't reflect what the band had done in the past in reference to song construction, both lyrically and musically. IMO, they simply failed to adhere to the ethos that was there when Cliff was still part of the band writing songs. Hard to keep the spirit of a dead guy around, but their creativity took a turn for the worse when Cliff's input and material was no longer there and Lars and James were running the show.

 

Ethos? They're a band not some revolutionary political movement. And Load is a tremendously creative album. They could have written Black Album 2 for the rest of their days and chose not to. That takes some guts. And Lars and James always ran the show. Why does a band have to continue to do the same thing over and over again? That's silly, and only in metal are bands held to such a stupid standard and are criticized for exploring music.

I always love the narrow mindedness of metal fans when it comes to music.

 

Metallica stopped being creative just like Stone has. If you look at Metallica's discography Load forward, they are a mediocre band. Same when you look at Stone over the last probably 10 years.

All I want is great metal and great beer and neither are doing it. It doesn't take guts to follow trends and make a more popular, less creative version of yourself. If that was true Budweiser and Nickelback would be the gold standard for creativity.

 

From what I've seen, Cliff was a big part of the writing early on. This would have to have an effect on the music and did. With that said, I was a child of the black album, load AND reload era . I was born in the mid 80s, wasn't around for their early shit. Everything after reload has been trash IMO. But I don't get the hate on load and reload because I didn't grow up with late 70s/early 80s metallica. Didn't miss what I never got into.

 

I don't know if this is entirely true, for everyone. I was at the first concert of Metallica's current tour, and I counted upwards of 7 people who didn't immediately fold their arms, or go to the bathroom, after the band went into such new hits as Now That We're Dead, Moth into Flame, or Halo on Fire.

 

Lars and James have always been running the show. Cliff's material in composition was limited to the instrumentals.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to say that their new stuff is terrible. It's just no where near as good. Again, much like Stone's beer. When I first started listening to Metallica, my thoughts were, "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" and that was the same thing that I thought when I started drinking Stone's beers, especially stuff like Ruination, Arrogant Bastard, Old Guardian, and IRS. The last Metallica song that I thought that about was Sad But True. The last Stone beer that I thought that about was probably Double Bastard. Don't get me wrong, they've had hits with stuff like RuinTen, Ruination 2.0, and Enjoy By, but nothing in the realm of what they did before. Exactly like Metallica.

Certainly, but it was nowhere near as dictatorial as it became after Cliff died. They hired Jason Newsted as someone to just play base, not contribute creatively to the band. Something that could have been done by anyone with decent chops. They didn't want another Cliff or, for that matter, another Dave Mustaine, and they seemed to tolerate Hammett only because of his creative, yet non-confrontational, nature. Lars and James are, unfortunately, simultaneously the reason that Metallica was so popular and the reason that it has fallen off so precipitously. Their micro-management and failure to hire people that had opposing views to keep them honest made them a mere shadow of the band that they were, even though are they certainly much, much more "successful".

Indeed, but if you think the contributions that Newsted made were on par with what Cliff did, I don't know what to tell you.

 

I'm not saying anything about Jason Newsted, although I think he's a cool dude.

 

I liked Wussie.
I like Stone beers for the most part.
I like Metallica.
I like well made pilsners.
I'll give the new beer a try if I see it.

 

I always found it interesting how between Cliff, Jason and Rob, most everyone ranks Jason and the weakest bassist of the 3, Jame and Lars seemed to give him the most crap, and yet their studio album recordings (Garage Days and Black album in particular) the bass is more outfront/audible. Always found that very strange all things considered.

 

I don't think that he's a weak player at all. I just don't think he's a creative force in the band.

 

Jason is awesome I agree. Just as far as tecnical bass playing skill he usually gets ranked 3rd of those guys. The intro to to My Friend of Misery is a legendary bass line IMO.

Sorry, man we're far away from beer topic but at least Metallica is in the title post so we should be good!

Watched on Youtube the other day the making of Hardwired album. Pretty cool, but yeah, its obvious Rob and Kirk don't get to provide much creative input (yet, both could really provide a ton if given the chance). When you hear Kirk add his solos over the riffs/drums, it takes their music to a whole other level of awesomeness IMO, and I think Paul and Gene...I mean James and Lars, should be more open to input.

 

My two favorite Metallica songs are from Load. Fight me.

 

Next you're going to tell me Stone Tangerine Express IPA and Stone I'm Peach Double IPA are your two favorite Stone beers.

I liked Load as well.

 

That's funny, because Overkill is just as old as Metallica and are still churning out kick-ass thrash metal albums at a regular pace. Exodus, Kreator, Sodom, Testament, and Exhorder are, too, among others. Metallica have gone soft since the early 90s. Age had nothing to do with it.

 

They also cut their hair and stopped drinking as much. People tend to be less angry when they're sober.

Although they did write that terrible song, "St. Anger".

"There wasn't a Saint for anger, so we created one."

Ugh.

Actually, come to think of it, a throw back barleywine/strong ale called "Angry Bastard" would have been pretty kick ass.

 

I don't think its a rule, but rather a tendency for aging musicians to soften. Also, I am not one with a strong POV on thrash, because I find it and have always found it to be utter shit

 

I love most of those bands, but the general public has no idea who they are. Everybody knows Metallica. They had an ambition, and they did what the had to do to fulfill it. I have no problem with that.

This song is pretty good I think



(By the way, Kreator made Outcast and Endorama)

 

Don't worry, they'll make it an IPL by overhopping, just like Wussie was.

At least it wasn't Keystone, eh?

They did make Lulu.

Metallica is a joke nowadays (though their first four albums are gems), and Stone hasn't made an interesting beer since Xocoveza. Like Three Floyds and many New England IPA producers, their portfolio is basically the same beer repeated ad nauseum with the slightest tweaks in hop varieties and ABV. Oh, and Wussie was really bad, in my opinion, so all-in-all, I have very low hopes for this. If I see a single somewhere, I'll give it a go, but otherwise I won't bother.