Metallica – All Nightmare Long

What can I say… This video is supremely badass.  Yeah, its Metallica.  Thats right Metallica! And believe it or not its real metal, albeit nu-metal, but definitely NOT that gay ass James Hetfield “Look everyone I can actually sing”, country music, throw up in your mouth, emo clothes wearing, “we want to be hot and get laid”, four chord dogshit they’ve been putting out ever since the ‘black album’.  Fuck me.  I was completely convinced that the band died in a plane crash and were replaced by music industry pod-people.  Especially when they tried to sue the internets because everyone with two brain cells and an index finger was clicking ‘download’ on all their mp3′s off Napster.  But this song/video is a no-shitter.  Good hard riffs, racing drums and blazing guitars with some fairly tough vocals.  I say ‘fairly tough’ because it is somewhat sickening to me to hear a metal band, Metallica no less, using auto-tune.  That garbage is for the likes of Britney Spears and Cher, not my formerly-beloved metal gods.  *sigh*  Regardless of the musical adulteration, the mythology of the song is pretty cool.  Reminiscent of The Thing That Should Not Be with a little Call of Ktulu thrown in for good measure – safe to say ‘classic’ Metallica lyrics.  Now because this song was so rockin’ (yeah all 9 minutes of it) I checked out the whole rest of the album Death Magnetic… sorry to say that the rest is lack-luster.  About the musical equivalent of Iggy’s latest albums – a good imitation of original works but for the most part, sadly and frustratingly, missing the point.  What does the album have going for it? Well, loudness.  LOUDNESS! Yeah, the band has cranked up the decibels in production to substitute for creativity with this dirty bitch.  The sound quality is not the greatest either, and I would venture to say that the increase in volume has created a signal distortion in the guitars and drums – not to mention the fact that the audio compression has stripped the music of its potential for nuance.  Not what I would expect from seasoned troubadours attempting to get back to their roots.  Ironically the quality of the songs available for Guitar Hero are noticeably better than those on the CD.  *long sigh*  “Another disgruntled middle-aged Metallica fan”, you may say, “You guys are all the same, all Metallica fans ever do is complain.”  Well – yes and no.  Yes – I’m disgruntled because people turn gold into garbage.  And no because I’m not really a fan.  I just held out this stupid glimmer of hope that just one fucking thing in this shit world would live up to the promises it made.  When you make something badass you are beholden unto it, at least to some minuscule degree, to maintain the badass and not besmirch it with insipid sequels and mindless mimicry.  Bottom line – the song/video is good – so check it out – its worth a look, but in watching/listening to this, all nightmare long (pun intended), know that there will never be another Master of Puppets or Ride the Lightning…  Fuck my life.

1938

July 30, 1908 / The world is changed forever / The sky above lower Tunguska erupts, burning hundreds of kilometers / The event is seen as far as London / Expeditions raised more questions than answers / Was this a geological event? / And more importantly / What was this? / Volcano Tunguska and The Revival of Organisms / We looked for comet or meteor fragments / We found dust / In the east our best minds work / The dust is a spore / The spore is key to the struggle of our revolution / This belongs to the Soviet people / From Tunguska’s ashes / Life triumphs over cataclysm / Its precursors in the fossil record are unknown / We have collected the spore the organism produces / Even in heat and vacuum the spores resist the elements / Exposed to foreign tissues the spores mimic other cells / Instead of offspring they become skin cells, nerves, muscle / The spores begin to produce new growth / Like a split worm a part of the organism can reconstitute the whole / Human tests show promise with few ill effects reported / This cat dead for weeks is the first test on putrified tissue / “Lazarus” stirs / Such a gift this spore! Able to sacrifice itself for the needs of others! / A toast / To the new frontier of cooperation / To the new world

1948

Closing the Gap / We are in lockstep with every advance of our enemies, but one / American atomic supremacy looms / From the womb of the Motherland / The Tunguskan Specimens lost in the Great Patriotic War are discovered beneath Lake Cheko’s mud / The spores are collected / Organism revival ended with results produced only sporadic episodes of aggression / A new discovery finds that Barium produces spore-cell death / The spore is under our control / An atomic US threatens the world with unchecked capitalist imperialism / They feed on the exploited and the spoils of war / We will feed them to their own / We work around the clock harvesting samples / Enough to rais an army / The strike is carried out not by bomber, but a balloon / Should American forces spot the craft / Its altitude is unreachable / Further investigation will be abandoned / Our inevitable revolution spreads across a continent borne by wind itself / In a panic to contain the plague fires are set / Fires with no one to tend them / We will offer to send help / Help that will take days to arrive / Days that will take their toll / A compound of Barium and Arsenic aerosol is deployed / It is over / Cleanup takes decades / To the new world

Krasnoyarsk

Reclaimation Facility

1972

They’re easier to spot this way / Without the head / There it goes, walking normally starts / Lights! Lights! / Turn back, they take weeks to master stairs … try out back

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