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"Screaming Suicide" by Metallica | Analysis and Review
54 Plays2 years ago
Daria and Laz discuss and analyse the new Metallica single, “Screaming Suicide”! They talk about the music and what direction the album seems to be heading in as well as the lyrical content of the song.
You can also watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mfJVCp_TzbPNZNMMemJuw
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Transcript
Introduction to Metallica's 'Screaming Suicide'
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Minds of Metal. My name is Daria. And I'm Lars. And today we're here to discuss with you a new single by Metallica called Screaming Suicide. That's right, Metallica released another new song from their upcoming album, 72 Seasons, which comes out on April 14th.
Musical Influences and Roots of 'Screaming Suicide'
00:00:26
Speaker
We're here to analyze, dissect and discuss the latest single called Screaming Suicide.
00:00:34
Speaker
I don't know if you'll agree with me, but straight away from the intro and from the kind of main groove that I get from the song, I feel speed metal vibes.
Glam vs Thrash Metal Legacy: A Debate
00:00:43
Speaker
I feel like, as we said in like Saturna video, that they are trying to go back to their roots and maybe this is what they're trying to portray in this upcoming album. Yeah, I agree with that. I think the energy's there. I mean, it's not as fast as like Saturna, but it does still have that pace and energy.
00:01:01
Speaker
One thing I found interesting is the note choices. So we mentioned in Lux Eterna that the song Lux Eterna, the main riff of that, it almost sounded like the main riff of Seek and Destroy. And those two riffs include, and this one, Screaming Suicide. So three riffs, Seek and Destroy, Lux Eterna and Screaming Suicide.
00:01:19
Speaker
The note choices in it, they're almost, I don't want to use the word bluesy because they're not bluesy, but they're not minor or dissonant or heavy. They're not typical metal notes. Do you know what I mean by that? It's almost, it's almost pleasant to listen to.
Alternate 1980s Metallica: A Hypothetical Scenario
00:01:36
Speaker
And my initial thought on this is actually I hear quite a bit of glam metal influence. I hear a riff that maybe Motley Crue might produce, Def Leppard, Kiss, Van Halen. And the reason I think this is interesting is because
00:01:49
Speaker
question that I had after listening to Screaming Suicide is, in 1983 when Metallica invented speed metal with Kill'em All, they had two directions to go in. I think we were all very happy with the direction they chose to go in, pioneering and innovating thrash metal. But the other thing that was happening in the early 80s is glam and hair metal was becoming really popular in the United States.
Comparisons with 'Load' and 'Reload'
00:02:11
Speaker
I'm wondering if this
00:02:14
Speaker
is the music we would have seen if Metallica had not gone the thrashy route but instead would have gone like the glam hair metal route because it is lighter it is lighter it's no choice don't you think i mean the drums are heavier the the tone is still heavy metal but the notes chosen i think portray a much lighter version of heavy metal than for example what we got in master puppets or ride the lightning see i actually i look
00:02:41
Speaker
So okay, just a little side note. So if you've been watching us for a while, you know that Laz is very, he dissects everything, he goes into theory, like music theory, which is like really great. I take it as a whole sort of, you know, like, how do I hear it? What do I hear? What kind of groove is it? Like, what am I feeling and stuff? And
00:03:03
Speaker
I didn't necessarily hear what you're saying. Yeah, that's fine. We will take things differently from song. I didn't necessarily hear that. But now you said that it made you think, OK, yeah, I can see that. But I'm not saying it's a hair metal track. I'm saying that with the heaviness we heard in their first four albums, then, you know, a lot of people online are comparing this song. They're saying it could have been a leftover from the load or reload period.
00:03:32
Speaker
which I don't agree with because I find load and reload quite... It's not produced. It's left alone. It is garage metal. It's like simpler riffs, easier production. It sounds like a band playing in their garage, whereas screening suicide, I feel it is quite produced and polished, which I'm fine with. I think it has the sound, the feel, the production value of their previous two albums, Deaf Magnetic and Hardwired.
00:04:01
Speaker
I think it has the energy, pace and feeling of their first album, Kill'em All.
Echoes of 'Kill'em All': Simplicity and Instrumental Focus
00:04:07
Speaker
But as I said two minutes ago, I just feel like this is a direction we've never seen Metallica go in. Because I like, you know, the riffs are simple. The vocal melodies are simple. In Load, it wasn't that simple. In Load, they often sort of just had one vocals. Well, there's some harmonies throughout, but I don't know. This just feels different to me. It doesn't feel like a Load or Reload song to me.
00:04:31
Speaker
it feels like a leftover from Kill'em All that they would have put on the next album if they had not gone down the thrash metal route. And I know these are really crazy sort of scenarios that I'm setting up here, but this is just where my mind goes and where I sort of see this being placed in Metallica's history. Now it's very interesting because I don't see it as load or reload leftover at all. Loads of people are saying it. Yeah, that's really interesting. I'm wondering why they think that. Yeah.
00:05:00
Speaker
And I really would love to hear some thoughts. So guys, if you like, if you have any videos you suggest for us to check out, please leave your links below. Well, tell us why you think it's like learning to reload. Let's discuss this. But I actually, you know, I always, always listen to the groove.
Mental Health Themes in Lyrics
00:05:17
Speaker
I know it sounds ridiculous, but.
00:05:18
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? It's like, what do I feel like? Do I wanna, what do I wanna like, what does this make me like do and head bang and this or the other? So on that note, I think it's, the drum groove itself is very, not Master of Puppets album, but Master of Puppets song in places. It is heavy metal. The thing is, the discussion with Load and Reload is, was it just a hard rock album? Was it garage rock? Was it heavy garage rock? I think there's discussions to be had about that.
00:05:47
Speaker
but this to me is metal. But it is a lighter form of metal than what we got from them in the 80s, which is why I mentioned that stuff about the glam hair metal. I love how you're just like, 10 metal. Yeah. Believe it or not, on mines of metal. I mean, yeah. But do you know what I thought as well, that it was quite instrumentally centered as well. There was a lot of things going on, although quite repetitive. That's what I was going to add. It's not overly complicated. If you listen to any of the long songs from
00:06:16
Speaker
ride the lightning master of puppets and justice for all, you get riff after riff. One riff finishes,
Musical Details and Hetfield's Vocal Production
00:06:21
Speaker
a new riff comes in, a tempo change, a time signature change and then they go and they do another riff and followed by a heaviness and a heavy... This is just a few riffs and that's what I like about it because it has the simplicity of Kill'em All. Kill'em All didn't do that. Kill'em All didn't go riff to riff to riff. It kind of had a main riff, verse chorus, verse chorus, solo, maybe a couple of other riffs ending.
00:06:42
Speaker
This is why I'm really likening it to kill it all. This is what I mean by that. Yeah, it's it's just Simplicity but done so well, and this is what men buy instrumentally sent it probably not what you guys thought I meant But this is what I mean. It's really really good and I you know what I just noticed that because you're a bass player and I just I love listening to bass and I listen to bass way more than guitars and stuff and I
00:07:06
Speaker
just before the solo i heard bass going like up an octave and doing like this higher notes for a bit and you know that really sort of changed the harmony structure for me yeah and i really like that not that it hasn't been done before it's been done before millions of times but i just thought i'd mention it quite like that well bass and heavy metal was quite a hard thing you know when i studied bass for like four years at degree level
00:07:35
Speaker
I floated away from metal because although there's a lot of fantastic metal bass players out there
00:07:39
Speaker
heavy metal as a genre isn't great for bass in that sense. You know, for bass you want to go and check out funk and jazz and stuff like that because that's where the bass guitar thrives. But like you said, adding elements like this to it with Rob Trujillo, even just doing something simple like going up an octave, it really does, as you said, change the dynamic and the bass of the harmony. Although the notes are the same because you've only gone up an octave, it changes what we call the voicing. John, explain voicing of the chord quickly. It's just
00:08:06
Speaker
imagine just playing a chord on a piano with three notes but you can change the voicing if you take this note, play exactly the same note but down an octave, take this note and play the same note up an octave, you've got a chord, same three notes but the notes being played here, here and here instead of condensed and that's what voicing is because you're changing how the lowest note you hear sounds and how the highest note you hear sounds so though it's a tiny detail it does actually make a huge difference to what we're hearing and
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I agree with you. I think that does. It's a tiny detail that actually makes quite a significant change. Yeah. And I think also like we've got a very distinctive James Hetfield vocal phrasing. He has been so like true to it and he's so recognizable. You know, you know, when he sings, although I have to say, I feel like there's different production on his voice in this album. It feels a little different.
00:08:58
Speaker
But I'm not sure I've had that to yet. And I don't love it at the moment. I like the song. I think the song's called But Are You Right? In terms of James' vocals, it hasn't quite hit yet for me the way that Death Magnetic did. And I'm not sure why. Again, I might just put my finger on it.
Structure and Lyrical Content Analysis
00:09:15
Speaker
Listen, overall I think it's a good track and it's a nice, it's a nice sort of change from Lux Eterna, because Lux Eterna was short, fast and sweet. This is kind of longer, still fast, but it has more to it, more sections, more places it goes.
00:09:31
Speaker
OK, so now moving on to the lyrics, which I think we need to address because the song title Screaming Suicide is a big enough deal to try and address. A few months ago in Brazil, James Hetfield was on stage and he came out and I think, if I'm not mistaken, he was crying on stage because he was warming up for the gig the day before and he realised that his hands weren't
00:09:56
Speaker
as fast as they used to be. And he was struggling to play the notes and to rehearse and get ready for the gig.
Broad Appeal of the New Album
00:10:02
Speaker
So he came out and he spoke to the audience. He said, listen, guys, thank you so much for being part of the Metallica family. I had a really bad day yesterday. And that's the important part is people, you know, male figures.
00:10:13
Speaker
Before I go there, I'll just say that, you know, there's a thing over the last few years about male mental health, because the idea of a man stereotypically is that a man's got to be brave and strong and this and that, but actually, it's okay for men to show that they're vulnerable and that they're hurting inside. And for a man like James Hetfield to come out and say, I am not okay, is fantastic. And it does so, you know, imagine a little
00:10:39
Speaker
10 to 15 year old boy in that crowd who is depressed and who is not happy with life and he's looking up at his idol and his idol says to him, I'm not good today. Today is a bad day. What can that boy take from that message and saying, do you know what I can do? I'm going to talk to someone. I'm going to get help. And my point about this is that I feel like Hetfield. Now I don't want to at all say Hetfield is suicidal and that's why he's written these lyrics.
00:11:02
Speaker
But I think you can kind of make the link that maybe Hetfield hasn't been in the best place mentally over the last year or so. Maybe he has considered suicide. It's a horrible thought, but I'm just trying, I'm just putting two and two together and seeing what I can come out with. He said something about it, didn't he? He said, the intention is to communicate about the darkness we feel inside.
00:11:21
Speaker
It's ridiculous to think we should deny that we have these thoughts. At one point or another, I believe most people have thought about it. To face it is to speak the unspoken. Brilliant. I didn't read that. That's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Was that talking about these lyrics? Yeah. Brilliant. There's sections of the lyrics. I mean, all of them you can read into and take something from, but I just got a few lines that I really liked. The first one is in the first verse and it just comes and it says, are you good enough?
00:11:50
Speaker
Again, relate that back to what I was saying about Hetfield in Brazil. His head is asking himself, are you good enough to go and do this gig?
00:11:58
Speaker
Imagine the amount of friendship you feel as well. Being in the biggest metal band in the world, it's like, it's a big deal. Right, yeah. And then the second verse, you get the response to that, which says, you are good enough. Throwing down a rope, a lifeline of hope, never give you up. And I love that that ends a message of positivity because we are allowed to be upset. We are allowed to go through and have bad, dark days, but to come out the other side and to know that for most people you have friends available, you have family available,
00:12:28
Speaker
You have a lifeline of hope and never give up because of that. I think it's a good message. Very strong message. And I thank for such a huge band to do a song about something so important. It's going to make such an impact. You're right. And it's fantastic. It's like hats off to them for that. You're right about that.
00:12:51
Speaker
It's not an easy thing to do as well, is it? To admit that, you know, I mean, because the problem with people of his level of fame is that you get people turn around and say, well, how can you be depressed? Look how rich you are. You get to tour. But, you know, if James Hetfield's life is playing the guitar and his arms are struggling to play it, of course he's not right to be upset. You know, that his livelihood is at risk if he can't play the guitar fast enough. So big kudos to James for writing his lyrics.
00:13:19
Speaker
I'm not sure. I think he's the primary lyricist anyway. But huge kudos to James and Metallica for releasing a song of this magnitude lyrically to discuss issues that we are facing in this world today. And actually I really can't wait to see what they're gonna bring with the album now. Now that we really go deep into it and not just look at the music, which is obviously awesome and everything, but it is important to look at the message.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yep. And if each song has a different message, you know, what was the, um, of lots of Turner, there was nothing sort of deep in those lyrics, was it? It was just kind of... I'm just trying to remember. The one thing I remember is full speed or nothing, full speed or nothing, which is why I thought they were going to kind of reignite this speed metal thing. And so far, something like we've got it. Going back to what I said at the start, um, looking ahead to the new album, wondering what it has in store.
00:14:11
Speaker
so far for me we have heard two songs that in my opinion have the speed metal energy and pace but i'm feeling that the note choices are kind of leaning towards glam and hair metal i did mention this earlier so i'm not going to go over it again but the the importance i think of this is that Metallica are a brand Metallica are a household name
00:14:34
Speaker
Whether you like Metallica or not, I believe you could go to every household in your country and say, have you heard of Metallica? And they go, yeah, I've done the music, but I know of them. They headlined Glastonbury in England a few years ago and people I knew who don't listen to heavy metal went and saw them. And I wonder if this accessibility that they're bringing to their music is going to be the biggest part of this album. And I wonder if Metallica, can they go a step higher
00:15:04
Speaker
a level further than what they're already at. Sorry, they are already the biggest metal band in the world. Can they now become one of the biggest bands in the world by releasing an accessible album that is still a heavy metal but can be enjoyed by everyone?
00:15:21
Speaker
I see what you're saying, but I actually think they're already one of the biggest bands in the world. Yes, but not everyone likes their music. No, of course not. That's what I mean. So that every metal fan mostly likes their music. But now I wonder if this album is going to make the average Joe who loves pop music like them.
00:15:38
Speaker
And that's what I hope. That's what I hope for them. You know, I wish them all the best. Yeah. And I know that they've been attracting new audience, which is great with their appearance in Stranger Things. Yes. Yeah. Which is really great. One of our viewers said that they were, you know, they went back and listened to Metallica, although they never really, you know, fancied their music, but after, you know, listening
00:16:01
Speaker
to them in strange things so yeah youngsters are listening to them too which is pretty great. Long may it continue. Thank you so much for being with us here today I hope you enjoyed our discussion please leave your comments below let's talk about it more. That's right yeah please hit like, subscribe, share with a Metallica fan, share with a metal fan. Thanks for joining us again today have a metal day. Have a lovely day see you soon.