Mike Portnoy on Metallica: “Never Has Such a Huge, Huge Band Had so Many Misses”
Former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy recently appeared on the podcast Speak N’ Destroy, where he made some observations plenty of people have made before, but which seem slightly more interesting coming from a celebrity who is apparently unafraid to burn bridges.
Speaking about Metallica, Portnoy had this to say:
“The Black Album and ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘Kill ‘Em All,’ these are the greatest metal albums of all time, but they’ve also had such incredible misses as well. It’s crazy. Never has such a huge, huge band also had so many. I mean, ‘Lulu,’ oh my God. The fact that they made an album like that, or what they did with ‘St. Anger,’ or, in my opinion, with ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ albums. So they’re not invincible. They’re not like the Beatles, where everything they touched was perfect and classic and is gold. They’ve had these missteps as well, but it just never seemed to stop them.”
Portnoy makes an interesting point, which is that for all the crap Metallica have put out over the years, it doesn’t seem to have done much damage to their career. I don’t know if that speaks to the loyalty of the metal crowd or the fact that the general public doesn’t hold the Loads in such low regard as many (but not all) of us or just because the stars aligned a certain way or what. In any case, everyone seems to agree that Hardwired is totally decent, so hopefully Metallica have learned their lesson and their next album isn’t another bugnuts misfire.
[via Loudwire]
