Choice Is Yours Vol. 93: The Black Album (Metallica) vs. Songs For the Deaf
Metallica – The Black Album (1991)
Vs.
Queens of the Stone Age – Songs For the Deaf (2002)
The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…
- My Pal the Crook
August 31st, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Sorry. Way Black Album. Say what you will, but I’m of the opinion that this was the Led Zeppelin IV of us Gen X.5/Y folks. Or the Who’s Next. Or the whatever. Big album. And I love it, to boot -> Of Wolf and Man is bad-ass. Roam, Sad But True…the Hetfield guitar solo in Nothing Else Matters is THE quintessential Hetfield Guitar Solo.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Ok, but in the same respect couldn’t Songs for the Deaf also be considered The Zepp IV or Who’s Next or even The Black Album for it’s respective generation? They’re both over bombastic and catchy crossover Hard Rock albums a decade apart.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:13 pm
I’m going with The Black Album. Saw Metallica I don’t know how many times by then and this was their last album that had any significance for me personally. After that I walked away from them. Songs For The Deaf is a great album too but Black just holds more of a significance for an era that came to an end.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Songs for the Deaf. The Black Album bores me to tears.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Black Album hands down. Apart from being one of my favorite albums of all time It’s cultural significance is far and above QOTSA. don’t get me wrong, Queens is a fantastic band in their own right and Songs for the Deaf could blow the doors off of Metallica post Black album. Metallica all the wayyyyyyyyyyahh!
August 31st, 2010 at 3:05 pm
black album, even the cover is superior.
August 31st, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Blaaaaack Album
August 31st, 2010 at 3:20 pm
songs for the deaf kicked hard rock in the ass when it came out. all those kids who heard of nirvana and the screaming trees could finally hear hear some of their power in a brand new record. the sound was superb and qotsa is a musicians band. the black album was the sell out album. ask any non metal fan whats their favorite hard rock album and its either this or back in black. whats up with black being so wimpy? the first four albums gave way to this?? the mtv poster boys? its like metallica was sad all the hair metal was getting all the 80s love and enter sandman’d back into the hearts and minds of all the frizzed out dudes that now work in offices.
August 31st, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Gotta agree with Painiac = black album was dull, dull, dull. I think I made it through a few songs before I got distracted by something more interesting, like picking boogers.
Songs for the Deaf.
August 31st, 2010 at 4:19 pm
How it’s somehow “dull” or “duller” than Songs for the Deaf, do enlighten everyone WITHOUT once referencing Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All.
Blah, blah blah, we get it, they sold out, who cares anymore? It’s been nearly two decades. Them selling out at least resulted in one really amazing Hard Rock album.
August 31st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
HEEEYY, HEEEYY, HEEEYYYYY-AHHHHH! I LIKE QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE-AHHHH, BUT THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO SHRED LIKE METALLICA!!! I HAD TO PROVE THIS TO JOSH HOMME-AHHH THE HARD WAAAAAAAAAY!!! BACK STAGE AT FARM AIDE, I FUCKED HIS WIFE BRODEEEYYYY-AHHHH FROM BEHIIIIIIIIIIND! JOSH WAS IN THE ROOM WHILE THIS HAPPEND AND HE BEGAN TO CRYYYYYYY!!! I JUST LOOKED STRAIGHT IN THE EYE AND SAID, ” I’M FUCKING YOUR WIIIIIIIFE, YOU KNOW IT’S SAD BUT TRUUUUUUEEE-UUUUEEEE-AAAHHH!” I ALMOST MADE HIM CHANGE THAT PUSSY ALBUM NAME-AAAHHH TO “SONGS FOR THE CREEPING DEATH” BUT I THOUGHT I WOULD LET THAT SLIIIIIDE, SEEING AS JOSH HAD DUBBED ME UNFORGIVEN. I COULD GO ONNNN-AAAHHH ABOUT HOW THE BLACK ALBUM SHREDS MUCH HARDER THAN BACK IN BLACK, BUT AFTER THAT LAST TAAAAALE-AAHHH, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.
EET FUK.
August 31st, 2010 at 5:22 pm
James, everything’s always about YOU and no one ever listens to ME! Stop trying to control this comments section, you selfish prick! fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUCK!!!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
Metallica is the past! Mishka is the future!
Fuck this shit, I’m going to sell some art and play tennis. ::peels out in Ferrari::
August 31st, 2010 at 5:52 pm
I too am sick and tired of the sellout argument. I am also pretty much over the whole ‘how funny is it that they made a movie?!’ thing.
I made my choice based on personal/cultural significance…Songs for the Deaf is awesome, but by the time it came around, I just wasn’t as excited by it as maybe I should have been.
I just know that The Black Album hit me at exactly the right time, was exactly the right thing, and led to exactly the right back catalog. For that, it was perfect.
And-and: much as I love …And Justice for All, and as much as I think the songs are near-perfect versions of what they’re trying to be, I have to knock it for the non-bass. IMO, the Black Album, Countdown to Extinction, and Seasons in the Abyss form the template for how hard-rock/metal should be produced.
It gets an A instead of an A+ simply for the absence of even a single twin-lead.
August 31st, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Intense!
August 31st, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I thought you used the Queens album already. Really confused.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:38 am
The dullness of the Black Album has nothing to do with selling out. When I got into Metallica, I had no idea what selling out was. The songs were drawn out and meandering with a noticeable lack of energy. Songs for the Dead, however, is bursting at the seams.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:50 am
Songs for the Deaf hands down.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:32 am
i LOVE both of these records, but is this really a debate? the ‘Tallica? C’mon. i like songs for the deaf front to back, but the power of some of the songs on the black album and the impact on the world and music is undeniably HUGE and therfore renders any argument inept.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:43 am
I think “The Black Album” was Metallicas’ LAST respectable studio recording.
“Wherever I May Roam” and “Go With The Flow” are worthy opponents.
but I have heard some ballads in my day…
and “Nothing Else Matters” trumps all of them.
this is another C.I.Y. that creates a generational divide.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:59 am
Painiac: A lack of energy??? Are you out your mind?
September 1st, 2010 at 10:02 am
My favorite song is Down With The Sickness by Disturbed
September 1st, 2010 at 10:48 am
The Black Album is Metallica’s Wolverine Blues. Dumbed down and powerful, I love it! Sorry qotsa but you lose.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Black Album. I just could never get into Queens, something about them just bugged me.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:49 pm
I love songs for the Deaf and would easily listen to it before the black album.
But the black album probably influenced a bunch of shit I like by accident.
i dunno man…