Not many bands can go through the extreme highs and lows of the music business and come out, 20 years later as reinvigorated as Metallica. Channeling their anger and frustrations of the past two years into their most ferocious album in quite some time, St. Anger is a mighty return to form in some ways and a very slight disappointment in others.

No doubt, the band sounds like they are out to prove a point once again; they come out of the gate swinging from the very first track "Frantic" and the sheer sonic power they create is the equivalent of an aural sledgehammer that will bludgeon your eardrums for 75 minutes. "Dirty Window" and the aforementioned "Frantic" are absolutely furious and easily two of the best tracks on the album. "My World", "Sweet Amber" and "Purify" are also wicked blasts of aggression that are worthy of mention. Come to think of it, there is really no bad song on the album; so why the 3 star rating? Repeated listenings reveal all.

For one, the songs are a bit flat harmonically; there is very little in the way of chord changes, just a barrage of riffs that go on for far too long. Part of what made the riffs seem so brutal during the "Ride The Lightning" era was the fact that it wasn't pure volume all the way through, there were breaks and interludes with real chord changes(!) that added a sense of drama and musicality to the metal genre that was not there before.

And what about those classical-inspired lead guitar lines? How about ANY guitar solo? There is not a single lead to be found anywhere! Coming from the only band on today's rock scene with a guitarist capable of even playing a solo, this is an unforgivable omission; a major faux pas.

Unfortunately, the production quality of the album does not even sound like a Metallica album, more like an unmixed batch of demos. Massive sounding guitars that practically reach out and slap you in the face, drums that pump your sub woofers to their limit and crystal-clear vocals, all staples of the Bob Rock sound, are sadly missing here. It truly sounds like someone was asleep at the mixing desk; the guitars are just plain muddy sounding without any high-end whatsoever and the drums are way too loud. There is no way around this one; the drums are annoyingly loud. A certain amount of 'production rawness' is acceptable in rock; The White Stripes pull it off grandly and make it sound like it is just a part of their sound. Sometimes you get the Achtung Baby syndrome where a band goes out on a ledge to make some truly outlandish sounds to jarring (and brilliant) results. That is not the case here; it just plain sounds like the album is not finished. If they were 'experimenting' sonically it sounds like they failed miserably.

These three points bring to light the biggest problem with St. Anger in that it feels as if the band is TRYING. Trying to compete with the younger bands that were, no doubt, influenced by Metallica in the first place, trying to remain relevant in today's musical climate, even trying to sound like one of the younger, possibly hipper groups.

What saves the album in the end is that the heart and spirit of Metallica does manage to shine through these murky waters. This is a fine album but not the comeback we were waiting for. In a way, this is a band that is getting back to the root of what they do best (or did best) and while they come close here, let us hope they nail it the next time around.

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Frantic
St Anger
Some Kind of Monster
Dirty Window
Invisible Kid
My World
Shoot Me Again
Sweet amber
The Unnamed Feeling
Purify
All Within My Hand