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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Music > Rock > Albums > Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster (Documentary)

Metallica – Some Kind Of Monster (Documentary)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: B     Documentary: B

 

 

With so much of Metallica’s DVD showings linked to The Black Album, including our look at its Classic Albums making of elsewhere on this site, what could Some Kind Of Monster (2004) possibly offer?  Well, you can think of it as a sort of Classic Albums in reverse.  Issued in 2004, Paramount of all people have issued this DVD double set about how the band almost fell apart for good as 20 years of stress and a lifetime of suppression.  Everyone was having problems, had not made a group album in years and to say all of them were going through adjustment disorders is an understatement.

 

Even Dave Mustaine, who created the band Megadeath after his legendary dropping form the band back in 1982, lands up in therapy talking about how much that still bothers him despite a string of hit albums with that band.  This is probably because he would have still liked to stay in the band, but unless he cloned himself, it would have been impossible to have both bands.  It is one of the most interesting moments here, something directors Joe Berlinger (see Homicide: Life On the Street elsewhere on this site) and Bruce Sinofsky luck out in capturing over and over again.

 

The use of MTV News blurbs is interesting as the story progresses in a linear fashion, actually showing how bad some of those MTV pieces really are.  The sarcasm and pseudo-wit is the reason why MTV is not as hip as it used to be and Kurt Loder can be thanked for the hatemongering there.  It is that attitude that shares the same square root with the band’s famous battle with the original Napster Internet music downloading service when it was free.  They found out how many phony fans and friends they really had when they stood up for the integrity of the ownership of their work and catalog.  MTV, owned by Viacom, one of the few big media outlets that does own a record company, did not help the situation.

 

Add all this to their personal problems and it is amazing they survived at all.  This even extended to overly-powerful radio narrowcasters essentially wanting them to do some contest promos, then being told they would be essentially blacklisted and ignored for life if they did not to this “little thing” for the company.  All of this is not only valuable to see how a big band like Metallica survives some of the most unfortunate changes in the history of the music business, but how other unnecessarily rotten things have surfaced all at once for reasons too numerous and even unrelated to go into here.  Finally, they did produce the album St. Anger.  Released in 2003, it became a critical and commercial success that proved they were still a great band.  The great bands always manage to reform their chemistry if they really pull together.  You can witness this transformation here, even when they need a new bassist.

 

The full frame 1.33 X 1 image was shot recently and looks good, with most of the show being talking heads, so 16 X 9 is not as crucial here.  The Dolby Digital is here in 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo, but it is about the same, except that the music moments benefit better from the 5.1 mix.  Too bad those were not in DTS, even in a supplement of some kind.  Extras include 40 Scenes not in the main program, exclusive interviews with Metallica about the look at how the album finally came together, highlights from festivals and premieres, and even a music video on DVD 2.  Two trailers and two commentaries by the director and band are on DVD 1.  The only other irony is that MTV saluted the band with an installment of their Icon series.  Remarkable, after all that negative press they got. 

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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