I wanted to stop before St. Anger but what the hell.
Jason left the band before they started recording. He wanted to channel creativity - what (judging from the credits of the songs) they obviously did not allow to found it's way onto the Metallica albums (or was just left out from the credits because of reasons) - into a side project, a band called Echobrain, but he got bullied for this from the rest of the band, I read especially James had reservations him working on something else. Sounds he was jealous. Well Jason left, then toured with Ozzy then played with Voivod and stuff, essentially faded into obscurity gradually.
This album was hyped as "back to the roots" but is there anything common with the old albums, besides now it sounds more like metal and not hard rock? And some long ass songs? Well doesn't matter. Many note the shitty snare sounding like a tin can. Reminding me the sound those colorful rubber toy balls make when slapped.
With this I'm kinda like with Reload, there are parts of the songs which are breddy gud. I think I can find something redeeming in all of them. But that also means I find something painful too.
Some Kind of Monster - I think the base tune is pretty cool, the other stuff is all right too.
Dirty Window - Much rock n roll in there.
Invisible Kid - Never see what he did. They should have cut this shorter, gets monotonous by the end.
The Unnamed Feeling - I like how chaotic this is (some other songs too, but this is a better one in my opinion). Intro is great. That vocal part at 4:55 is very unexpected and weird, but find it I dunno familiar, and pleasant.