METALLICA – WHEREVER I
MAY ROAM (VERTIGO)
I actually received
this CD single as a Christmas present in 1992.
That feels insane. Were we
really once so poor? Did we really
place such value on music? Better times
through and through.
After the token bliss
of “Nothing
Else Matters”, this single saw them back doing what they were always best
at. In many ways this track wasn’t all
that different to “Enter
Sandman” but that doesn’t mean it was without power or purchase.
Basically you either
buy into Metallica or you don’t. There
isn’t anything necessarily complicated or demanding in what they do, its just a
big noisy proposition pushing the right buttons in a black t-shirt. And that is the kind of stuff that appeals
to angry teenage boys. Internally their
minds of screaming, so externally it makes sense for their forms of expression
to resemble/echo such emotions.
“Wherever I May Roam”
is another lumbering beast of a track.
It opens with a spine tingling sound that equally could be a sitar as it
could be the cleanest, clearest of guitars.
Regardless it lends the track something of mysterious tone, one of being
lost somewhere, maybe a desert.
Suddenly the roaming sentiment unsubtly makes a lot of sense.
It doesn’t take long
for the Hetfield growl to drop as wistfully declarations are made that flutter
off into the distance ahead of more staunch licks that quickly replace such
gestures.
This song is over six
minutes long. How the hell does that
happen?
The lyrics appear to
be about love and the lengths that a man will go to in order to establish such
a bond. And the overwrought lines sound
like a person going through hell, which is probably what the listener is going
through as the spotty little oik wearing denim and leather is just not getting
anywhere with the obsession of his life and the lady he is stalking. Am I being too harsh?
Holding that thought
inevitably two thirds of the way in the song showcases the latest Metallica
guitar solo. Was that really necessary?
On a positive note the
crawling manner in which the song begins does remind me of Tool and a style
that was still yet to receive wide recognition. All in all it serves as a grand display that the band was moving
in the right direction. However by the
end of the song old habits were ruling the roost and depending on how much you
like the band, this was either good or bad.
Personally it fails to stand up as an evolutionary move and thus a loss
of six minutes from my life that was not necessary.
Moving on next on the
release is a live version of “Fade To Black” which offers equally grimacing
emotion and a horribly slick guitar sound.
The remorse is wholesale but when the chorus arrives, contrary to the
desolate lyrics that come beforehand, there is genuine pay off in the style of
“One”. It’s a solitary refinement. Then comes the cackhanded resolution.
As per the Metallica
releases of the time the disc ends with a demo version of “Wherever I May Roam”
that sounds very springy and twangy with incomplete vocals/lyrics and drums
that sound as if they are being banged out on a bread bin. Not necessarily confidence inspiring and
perhaps would have been best left in the archives.
“Where I May Roam” is
ultimately a slow burner of a song, a growling example of excess and subtly
rowdy sentiment coupled with a harrowing gesture of obsession. Not many people (many acts) could get away
with such execution. Hetfield truly
thinks he’s Aslan.
Thesaurus moment:
overwrought.
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