I find that the less I am moved by an album, the slower I am to post a review of it here. My emotion about the album can be positive or negative, but when it's strongly "meh," I struggle to work up the energy to review it. This review could be considered late in less than four hours!

This weeks album, Load by Metallica, is one of those albums. On Last.fm, there are only two songs from this album in the top 40 Metallica singles. It appears I've listened to the album once before in 2011, but I don't recall doing that and this most recent listen didn't trigger any memories.

This is not Metallica's best effort, and I'll be surprised if I listen to this again in another 15 years, or ever. You can skip it.

Hitting #4 in its first week on the charts, The Great Southern Trendkill is the second Pantera album I've reviewed. I closed that review by writing "I could only take one listen to this album. I didn't like it at all. I like various kinds of metal, but not this kind." I feel the same about this album. You can skip it.

I've always preferred Rage Against the Machine's eponymous first album over Evil Empire. That being said, this weeks #1 album is wholly worthy of that position.

Thirty years later, the machine is still very much active. Look at who is in the White House, has control of Congress, and the Supreme Court. We have a wannabe fascist president, a congress that has abdicated their constitutional powers, and a SCOTUS that rules based on desired political outcomes. AI is coming to take our jobs away, only the very rich are getting ahead in this economy, and the US is steadily ruining our democracy via gerrymandering and media that spreads lies and misinformation. Rage Against the Machine is no longer making music, but they remain as relevant as ever. I always enjoy reading stories about idiots (AKA conservatives) who don't understand they're the machine being raged against.

My recommendation is to listen to this album whenever you need to get angry about things you should get angry about. This is unfortunately all the time at the moment.

The only song I remember hearing off the #6 album this week is More Human Than Human. I don't think I've heard it in a long, long time. After listening to the entirety of Astro Creep: 2000 Songs Of Love, Destruction And Other Synthetic Delusions Of The Electric Head, I am not disappointed that my exposure to White Zombie has not been comprehensive. I did not like this album much and I can't recommend it.

Far Beyond Driven by Pantera is a kind of surprising album to reach #1. Pantera was a Groove Metal band, which despite the name, isn't very groovy in any way you might imagine. As per the Wikipedia, Groove Metal has a slower beat than Speed or Thrash Metal, which makes it groovy. It still features heavy guitar, raspy or screaming singing, and dark themes.

I find it surprising that the album made #1 because this isn't exactly mainstream music, now or 30 years ago. For better or worse I understand Mariah Carey being #1, but Pantera? Perhaps it was just luck and no big albums were released at the same time because next week this album dropped to #9, and then #19, #22, #25, etc. The #1 ranking was just a blip.

I could only take one listen to this album. I didn't like it at all. I like various kinds of metal, but not this kind.