On The Great Radio Controversy Tesla finds a consistent, recognizable voice. Unfortunately, it is nearly the same voice that Aerosmith had been using for years. Although mostly predictable, the album contains some of the best produced and executed pop-metal of the ‘80s.

The Old Man and the Sea is surprisingly easy to read, considering its literary stature. At a svelte 140 pages, it can be consumed in an afternoon but holds a fair amount of content.

As usual, I am sure I missed much of the deeper meaning of the work, but the character portrait of the Old Man as tragic Everyman is touching. Although I fear my own impending old age, I find the elderly rather romantic: the wise, noble, humble old man who has seen everything under the sun but continues to struggle through endless trials though both body and mind fail him. I also appreciated specifically Hemingway’s portrayal of the proper respect that the good fisherman or hunter has for his prey. The Old Man feels that his brother, the marlin, is destined to be caught as he is destined to catch it. The Old Man’s recurring interest in “the great DiMaggio” and “the baseball” (as he refers to the game) in general also adds a depth to the character.

A double album of newly recorded covers and re-released B-sides is a very unusual product for the eighth full-length release from a wildly successful band, but Garage Inc. is exactly what Metallica needed to release to keep their long-time fans interested in 1998. Their are exceptions, but for the most part this is the music that inspired the band’s earliest works: loud, fast, aggressive punk and metal.

The covers of New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Discharge, Diamond Head, Motorhead, and Mercyful Fate are most effective, but the band sounds great playing their spin on Misfits punk and the less thrashy metal of Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult as well. The only track that falls flat is “Tuesday’s Gone”; the band makes a nice attempt and John Popper’s harmonica is an excellent addition, but the result simply does not stand up against the original.

The recording of Garage Inc. reinvigorated a band that was losing its way and, in the process, introduced a new generation of fans to great bands they otherwise would have never heard.

When I began reading The Sound and the Fury I feared that I would hate the entire experience, because the text was written much like the Joyce novel I had eventually given up on a year ago. Indeed, I found the first section of the book to be nearly illegible and thus both tedious and frustrating. There are several reasons for this difficulty.

First, much of the book is written as a stream of consciousness without regard to conventions of grammar or rational thought. Second, there are significant differences between English as spoken in suburban Pennsylvania circa 2008 and English as spoken in the rural South circa 1928. Third, the text shifts wildly through time and place, often within the same paragraph, as the characters’ memories merge with present experiences. At times these shifts are accompanied by italics, but in most cases they are not. Fourth, there are a multiplicity of characters, none of which are introduced or described, but who simply appear. Within the first few pages the reader has met nearly all of the members of the Compson family (Damuddy, Uncle Maury, (Father) Jason, (Mother) Caroline, Benjamin (also known as Maury), Quentin, Jason, Candace, and Quentin the younger) and their various servants (Dilsey, T.P., Versh, and Luster). Fifth, the careful reader will have noted two Jasons, two Maurys, and two Quentins in the above list. In the case of the Jasons and Maurys this is not a significant problem because the elder Jason is usually called Father and the younger Maury is usually referred to by his new name Benjamin. The Quentins, however, are exceptionally confusing. From the beginning the reader will notice that Quentin is sometimes referred to using a masculine pronoun and other times a feminine one, but the narrative is so fractured that he is likely to explain this as either a typographical error or his own failure to parse the text. It does not become clear until the third section of the book, and is never explicitly stated, that there are two persons named Quentin. This source of misunderstanding is so extreme, and could be rectified so easily, that I must assume it is a deliberate attempt by the author to confuse the reader, presumably to highlight the turmoil in Benjamin’s mind.

Thankfully, the second section is much clearer than the first, and the last two are quite lucid in comparison to either of their predecessors. Based on these sections, I found the novel quite enjoyable. It lacks an over-arching plot, but describes the slow downfall of a once-proud family in a compelling way.

The entirety of the portions of the text that I understood points to a theme of futility – most obviously in Benjamin’s severe mental retardation, but also in the meaningless trysts of Candace and the younger Quentin, the pride and avarice of the younger Jason, the elder Quentin’s struggle to find meaning in his Harvard education, Caroline’s resignation to remain in bed until her ever-expected near death, Dilsey’s devotion to her never-ending tasks, and even Luster’s malice toward Benjamin. I did not recall the title’s prior use in Macbeth until searching for it now, but it seemed to me an echo of Ecclesiastes.

I would like to read the book again with the knowledge I now have, because while I slogged through the most difficult parts, I really understood very little of the first quarter. Perhaps I will do so someday, but for now the task seems too great.

Tesla were neither the first, last, nor best band to combine pop hooks, metal riffs, and glossy production into a radio-friendly hard rock-lite. Their debut album, Mechanical Resonance is nonetheless enjoyable. What the album lacks is an edge to distinguish one track from another and the band from its many compatriots, but the performance and production are impeccable. Cutesy misspelled titles like “Ez Come Ez Go”, “Comin’ Atcha Live”, and “2 Late 4 Love” make me cringe, but they are far from the only band with this foible. The more serious second half of the album hints at what could have been, but as is this is pretty good background music for a party or a long drive.

ReLoad is made of the leftovers from the Load recording sessions, but it is the (marginally) better album. As expected, the material is very similar in style to its sister album.

While it pales when compared to the band’s earlier work, “Fuel” is heavier than anything from Load, and the same can be said of “Attitude”. Even “Better Than You” and “Prince Charming” rock pretty hard in the band’s newer groove-metal style. “Slither”, “Carpe Diem Baby”, and “Bad Seed” are less interesting examples of the same style. “Devil’s Dance” sounds a bit too much like a rewrite of “Sad But True”.

The ballads are also better than on the previous album, although “Hero Of The Day” sets the bar fairly high. “Low Man’s Lyric”, forgiving the country stylings, is the best showcase yet of the melodic side of Hetfield’s voice. Many of the lyrics on the last few albums have been deeply personal, but his pain is never more apparent than in his “please forgive me” wail in this song. The lyrical content meshes quite well with “The Unforgiven II”, which is better than “The Unforgiven” was. “Fixxxer” is a heavier style of ballad, more like “Fade To Black”. It is not nearly as interesting musically as that masterpiece, but the chorus hits you damn hard.

The band also tries some more experimental, almost psychadelic pieces. The attempt works reasonably well on “The Memory Remains”, but falls flat in “Where The Wild Things Are”.

Enemy Of The System is a typical Toasters release – a few rousing ska songs, some pleasant reggae and dub, and also a bit of filler. On this album, “Enemy Of The System”, “Modern World America”, “Can I Get Another”, “If You Loved Me”, and “Social Security” are of the first type and “Pirate Radio” is a great example of the second.

The rest of the material is decidedly average, except for “Sitting On Top Of The World” and “Pendulum Swing”, which are just bad, and “Sweet Home Town Jamaica”, which is a cheesy cover of “Sweet Home Alabama”. Interestingly, the beginning of “Dog Eat Dog” uses essentially the same rhythm figure as the main riff in “Sweet Home Town Jamaica”.

The horn section seems more involved on this record than they have been in the past, playing throughout many of the songs instead of just solos, introductions, and breaks. The keyboards are used much more sparingly than in the past and while it has been an important part of the band’s sound, this material does not suffer for the lack of it.

The beginnings of a disappointing transformation of Metallica displayed on their self-titled album have come to full fruition on their next release, Load. Gone are any traces of progressiveness or thrash, and they have mostly been replaced with bluesy hard rock and country stylings. Critics ridiculously propose that the frustration of long-time fans at this release stems from haircuts, music videos, or production values. Rather, fans of the band’s early releases are simply seeing what was once the most important band in their favorite genre of music fade into just one of many mediocre heavy alt-rockers.

It isn’t all doom and gloom; there are a few great songs on the album, mostly those where the band makes no real attempt at being metal. Until It Sleeps and Hero Of The Day are great straight-ahead rock tunes. King Nothing and Wasting My Hate are enjoyable examples of the hard rock boogie displayed frequently on the previous album, but are not as good as those older songs.

None of the rest of the material is particularly bad, but neither is it very interesting, and that is a shame.

The Toasters are at their best when skanking hard and fast, and they do little of that on Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down. There are a few fairly driving tracks on this album – notably “Devil And A .45”, “Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down”, “Rude, Rude, Baby”, “Underground Town”, and “Weekend In L. A.”, but while all are good, only the last two rise to the level of some of the best tracks on the band’s previous album, Hard Band For Dead. There are also several interesting mid-tempo tracks: “I’m Running Right Through The World”, “Daddy Cry”, “Everything You Said Has Been A Lie”, and the stop-time blues of “Rude, Rude Baby”. The rest of the expansive album (17 tracks in all) is devoted to mid or slow-tempo mostly instrumental pieces, which are ok as filler but not ultimately very interesting. Despite a few great songs and several good ones, this album is a disappointment.

Metallica’s self-titled album, hereafter referred to by its common name “The Black Album”, is a remarkable change from their previous release, ... And Justice For All. The thin, crisp production on Justice has been replaced with a bright, polished assault that sounds much more like a live show. Newstead’s bass, which had been virtually inaudible in the past, anchors the bottom end of each track on The Black Album and greatly enhances the depth of the recording.

The band has not entirely abandoned the thrash metal genre that they helped to pioneer, but it is relegated to the back seat. Only “Through The Never” and “The Struggle Within” are really good examples of it, although “Enter Sandman” comes close and most of the rest of songs are heavily influenced by it. They have thrown the progressive elements that made their previous three albums so effective, limiting these songs to a few musical ideas and a few minutes each. In the place of these styles, most of the songs on The Black Album are based on a moderate-tempo heavy groove. At times this can bog down, such as “Sad But True” and parts of “Wherever I May Roam” and “My Friend Of Misery”, but it works quite well on “Enter Sandman”, “Holier Than Thou”, “Don’t Tread On Me”, “Of Wolf And Man”, and “The God Who Failed.” Metallica’s music has always been easy to move to, but Ulrich’s heavy backbeat, Hetfield’s syncopated riffing and sliding, and Newstead’s newly-discovered bass make many of these songs practically danceable.

The album employs a few gimmicks—the spoken “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” in “Enter Sandman”, the West Side Story quote at the beginning of “Don’t Tread On Me”, and the group “shape shift” chant in “Of Wolf And Man” for example. It is difficult to criticize this, however, because each one of them is remarkably effective.

The shocking parts of the album are “Nothing Else Matters” and “The Unforgiven”. The former is a breezy ballad, wholely unlike anything the band had released up to this point but well executed. The latter is the first example of what would be a sad slide into alternative rock. The song itself is not bad, but in retrospect it is a harbinger that this might be the last great album of new material ever released by the band.