Metallica: James Hetfield (vocals, guitar); Kirk Hammett (guitar); Rob Trujillo (bass); Lars Ulrich (drums). Additional personnel: Bob Rock (bass). Recorded at HQ, San Rafael, California between May 2002 and April 2003. "St. Anger" won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. While LOAD and its sequel RELOAD, Metallica's final studio offerings of the '90s, found the band expanding their approach in what fans called "maturation" and detractors called "mellowing out," the band's first album of the 21st century is a powerful retrenchment and call-to-arms for the heavy metal faithful. Not since the bygone days of MASTER OF PUPPETS (and perhaps not even then) has Metallica sounded this furiously unrelenting. There's virtually no letup from the frenetic musical mayhem of the appropriately titled ST. ANGER, and nary a power ballad in sight, as the guitars blare and drums rage from one gut-assaulting tune into the next at a breakneck pace. One is reminded of the pure sonic fury of vintage Motorhead, the only band before Metallica to convincingly combine metal tonalities with punk energy. The brilliantly clear production is a blessing that maximizes every bone-crunching riff and jackhammer drum hit for an intensified sucker-punch that will leave even longtime fans reeling with the sheer heaviness of it all. ST. ANGER is surely one of the most effective metal albums of the early '00s, and a bracing lesson for all the nu-metal brats on how it's meant to be done.

• Format: Vinyl
• Label: Warner Records
• Genre: Pop

As described in our Privacy Policy, we collect personal information from your interactions with us and our website, including through cookies and similar technologies. We may also share this personal information with third parties, including advertising partners. We do this in order to show you ads on other websites that are more relevant to your interests and for other reasons outlined in our privacy policy.

Sharing of personal information for targeted advertising based on your interaction on different websites may be considered "sales", "sharing", or "targeted advertising" under certain U.S. state privacy laws. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to opt out of these activities. If you would like to exercise this opt-out right, please follow the instructions below.

If you visit our website with the Global Privacy Control opt-out preference signal enabled, depending on where you are, we will treat this as a request to opt-out of activity that may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information or other uses that may be considered targeted advertising for the device and browser you used to visit our website.