Corey Taylor recently appeared on the cover of Revolver’s new issue and gave an interview to the magazine for it. During the chat, he answered some fan questions, revealing the album he first hated but loved now.
Taylor picked Metallica’s ‘St. Anger‘ and explained why he didn’t like it before:
“First of all, when it came out, I was a raging alcoholic prick. And when I listened to it, the mix kind of threw me off, and I wasn’t paying attention to the songs. I was kind of following the herd on that.”
The singer recalled what changed his view by saying:
“But then [Stone Sour guitarist] Josh Rand, who was a massive Metallica fan, he got the deluxe version that had the companion DVD where they played the whole album in their rehearsal space. And watching that, I could hone in on the songs. I wasn’t stuck on how it sounded. I could listen to what was going on, and it immediately gave me a better appreciation of what it was.”
Sharing his current thoughts about the record, he added:
“So now, when I listen to it, I think a lot of the stuff’s really good, and there are some good grooves on it that I think are really underappreciated. I mean, that title track is a motherf**ker, you know?”
‘St. Anger’ has received criticism from some fans for its drum sound and lack of guitar solos since its release in 2003. The reactions even caused the album to rank number 43 on Rolling Stone’s list of 50 Genuinely Horrible Albums by Brilliant Artists in 2023.
Still, Lars Ulrich defended the Metallica record and its drum parts when he talked about it in a chat with Classic Rock in 2011:
“That was on purpose. It wasn’t like we put it out and somebody went, ‘Whoa! Whoops!’ I view ‘St. Anger’ as an isolated experiment. I’m the biggest Metallica fan; you’ve got to remember that. Once again, as we’ve been known to do, once in a while, these boundaries have to be fucked with. We’d already done ‘Ride The Lightning,’ which I believe is a fine record. It didn’t need to be redone.”
Its producer, Bob Rock, also stood by ‘St. Anger’ in his past interviews by saying names like Jack White and Jimmy Page liked it. You can read about it here and check out the album below.
