RAVEN Frontman Says 'St. Anger' Has 'The Most Annoying' Snare Drum Sound He's Ever Heard

October 1, 2003

RAVEN bassist/vocalist John Gallagher, whose band headlined over METALLICA during the two groups' 1983 "Kill 'Em All For One" tour, has slammed Lars Ulrich's drum sound on "St. Anger", calling it "THE most annoying overpowering snare drum ring I've ever heard."

"I did pick up the new METALLICA [album] after hearing all the hype," Gallagher wrote in a posting to RAVEN's web site. "I dunno… It's like a punky, down-tuned version of '…And Justice For All' with no guitar solos & THE most annoying overpowering snare drum ring I've ever heard... That being said, there are some decent songs in here... I preferred to watch the DVD where the sound is actually better than on the CD… And you get to watch Lars slowly die while playing those 360 bpm 'blast beats' ...ridiculous!!!

"Hard to say how much of this (tuned down, 8 min songs, no solos etc) is for real & how much is as calculated as 'Load' was to hit the grunge crowd....

"And then the next day I bought BLACK SABBATH'Sabotage' & all was well with the world!!!!!

"['St. Anger'] ain't 'Sabotage', but it ain't [SABBATH's] 'Cross Purposes' either…" Gallagher continued. "For better or worse... Looks like [METALLICA] are marching to the beat of their own drummer (usually straightened out by judicious use of pro-tools),and in this day & age... that's a good thing..."

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