Metal Box

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Thu Jun 15 2023

1

***On Spotify the album is called Second Edition*** There's something very off-putting about this album, and I couldn't wait for it to end. The songs are too long and the vocals are really terrible new wave style. On the other hand the Bass and Drums really stand out and I feel like they greatly inspired Modest Mouse in their rhythm section. If that rhythm group had a better frontman I think I would have really liked this, but sadly it really dragged things down. Almost gave a 2 for the positives I could find, but drops back to a 1 because this album is looooooooong and it's just brutal to sit through.

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Fri Jun 16 2023

1

Okay, halfway through the first track, I'm already tired of this album. Not looking good. Into the second song... this album had to have been chosen out of a hat of random albums. This has no redeeming qualities as of yet. 4th song... what even is this mess? ... Just make it end. Dudes, I promise you can make a song shorter than 5 minutes. Seriously, you can even make a song under 3 minutes. Your songs would benefit from being cut down. A lot. Like by over half. Maybe just cut half of the songs on this album too. By half, I mean all of them. Just delete the album entirely. I made it to No Birds and have to throw in the towel. There is nothing good or redeeming about this album. If these recordings were destroyed, nothing of worth would be lost.

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Wed Jun 28 2023

5

Absolute classic. Get the highest quality headphones you can lay your hands on & listen to some of the best bass playing you'll ever hear.

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Fri Sep 29 2023

2

Did I hate this? Oh yeah, you bet. But was I also fascinated by it? Indeed. And isn't that was avant-garde post-punk is all about?

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Wed Nov 15 2023

5

"Metal Box" is the second studio album by English post-punk band Public Imaged Ltd. The music is considered experimental rock, dub, avant-garde and a landmark of post-punk. The album was a departure from their first album being more avant-garde with vocalist John Lydon's cryptic, free-form lyrics, bassist Jah Wobble's dub-inspired rhythms and guitarist Keith Levine's abrasive guitar sound. It was recordered at various locations throughout the UK with multiple drummers. The album title was from the initial packaging which was a metallic canister containing three 12" 45-rpm records. Commercially, it reached #18 on the UK charts. A drum beat begins "Albatross." Here's your abrasive guitar- very high pitched, prancing along and at times off-key sounding. The song was recorded live with Lydon admitting he just free-formed the lyrics. Somehow, this works. A slow bass, an echoing guitar and a hypnotic dance beat introduce us to "Swan Lake (Death Disco)." Lydon screaming/singing as he tells about the death of his Mother from cancer. Levine said he was trying to play the Tchaikovsky ballet score "Swan Lake" and created an extremely unique melody. It's chaotic. A fantastic song and for me, the first song I think of when I hear post-punk. "Poptones" has an odd drum beat. The abrasive metallic guitar and prodding bass in the background. Lydon talking the real story of a girl kidnapped, put in a van and led the police to the van after describing the music which the van still had the cassette of in it. Levine's guitar melody was created as he was inadvertently playing Yes' "Starship Trooper." The band goes totally electronic in "Careering." A propet synth was used and we get laser sounds, sounds from outer space and other sounds. The song is about a Nothern Irish gunman "careering" as a professional business man in London. Lydon wrote this specifically about a person he did not like. That's probably quite a lot of people. This is a great album. The guitar gives a haunting, eerie, angular and abrasive vibe. The drums, beats and bass are odd and unique. Lydon seems to be improvising throughtout and he admitted as such. I like the one comment I saw describing it as subterranean. There's a lot of experimental songs and parts of songs especially with the synths. I honestly don't know if I heard anything before or after it quite like it. I'm sure there's something. Definitely not for everyone but if you like experimental, this is probably for you.

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Fri Nov 03 2023

4

Well this was truly a difficult one to review. An incredibly eclectic mix of sometimes impenetrable music with a distinctive bass guitar running over every track. Some people hate Lydon's vocal style, but that wasn't a problem for me, partly because I knew what to expect. He drones where he needs to and is off-key in the "right way" throughout, so fine so far. My main problem here is that I knew I had dipped into PIL before many times and always come away bitten. I love their hits, with "This is Not a Love Song" being one of the first songs I ever heard that made me realise music didn't just have to be people singing in harmony about elves and shit. This was similar, with the opener, "Albatross", being almost an endurance test. However, I also found a lot to enjoy here, difficult to listen to at times, but also fascinating to see where so many bands got their ideas from. Did later bands do it better? Probably, but then this is some of the rawest, most experimental, and ground-breaking music from the late 1970s. I think I would naturally give this a 2-3 star rating, but it's definitely on my list to listen to again and I'm going to give it a tactical 4 stars, just to nudge the average up a tiny bit from all the 1s given by people who can't appreciate anything out of their comfort zone.

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Sat Jun 17 2023

1

After listening to parts of the first 6 tracks I have concluded that the atrocious vocals make the record completely unlistenable. The instrumental parts aren't great either - partially OK but too repetitive to sustain interest throughout an entire track. I also gave the previous PIL album 1 star, and hope this was the last one.

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Fri Sep 08 2023

5

john lydon consistently surprises me with how many great tracks I've never heard of from him, not that I knew that many to begin with. But shit this was great, dragged here and there but I had lots of fun so 5 stars

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Wed Jun 21 2023

4

e sjećam se ovoga kad sam slušao, jako dobro je sjeo. noćna spika i šetnja.

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Thu Jul 06 2023

4

Lovely bits if chaos. Gritty and full

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Thu Jul 06 2023

4

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Memories, Swan lake, Careering

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Fri Jul 07 2023

4

A little over-long but more personal than their first album

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Tue Jul 11 2023

4

Day 100 Once again I had to pause the challenge as this is really a difficult record. Strangely enough, it is the kind of album that could blow my mind, the sort of thing that sounds as damaged that it would be easy for me to relate to it, but apparently I am not at that stage of my life anymore. I get the experimental approach and everything, but I also feel that I have heard it all, probably in later and less influential albums that in turn might have been influenced by this band. Having said that, there is a lot of musicianship, ideas, and variety here to keep the open-minded listener engaged. Rating: All the points have distortion and feedback. 

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Wed Aug 02 2023

4

Wish I still had this one on vinyl

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Tue Aug 08 2023

4

Great sound. Love the punk and dub mix.

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Sat Aug 12 2023

4

C'est vraiment spécial, je m'attendais pas à aimer, mais overall je suis très satisfait. Certaines pièces étaient un peu trop étirées (Albatros), mais généralement le son post punk expérimental était tellement bien exécuté que l'album se laissait écouter tout seul. Vraiment surpris d'avoir autant aimé un projet de Johnny Rotten. 8/10

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Sat Aug 19 2023

4

Segon treball de Lydon, Levene i Jah Wobble, una de les obres principals del post punk. Disc complicat, abrassiu, serpentejant, opressiu, amb temes llargs que donen camp de feina a Lydon i sequaços per il.lustrar el baix moment pel qual passaven, depressió continua a base de drogues i incertesa vital que es trasllada a la música de forma magistral

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Thu Aug 24 2023

4

Pretty wild. Keith Levines guitar work carries this so hard you can just hear it trickling down to every single experimental rock guitarist of the generations to come in some way or another

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Thu Sep 21 2023

4

Shout out to bassist Jah Wobble, the only need the radar star of this album. I like the album quite a bit, especially the aforementioned bass as well as the drums. I feel the proto punk sound in my bones. The most unfortunate part is that I’ll likely not listen to this album again because I could only find it on YouTube.

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Sun Sep 24 2023

4

Never heard of it, actually loved it

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Fri Sep 29 2023

4

Interesting and not nearly as annoying as I feared. I quite liked it.

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Thu Oct 12 2023

4

Jah Wobble brilliant again, and the music less arousing but equally interesting as the Sex Pistols classic album.

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Sun Oct 29 2023

4

Not an easy listen by any means, but treat it as one long soundscape inhabited by Wobble's dub bass, Levene's sparse guitar and Lyndon's vocals and it accumulates over time. Normally I'd split a double album for two listens, this one is best done right through.

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Wed Nov 08 2023

4

Post punk in all its glory.

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Wed Nov 22 2023

4

Like some tracks more than others, singing can get a bit annoying after a while since it's so "one-note", but I do dig the style. 3.5 to 4.

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Wed Nov 22 2023

4

One nasty jam session.

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Wed Nov 22 2023

4

I can understand why this is an influential album, it seems to take punk and split it wide open into a sprawling landscape. Some of the songs are a little too long for me but all in all I quite enjoyed this.

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Thu Nov 30 2023

4

I have always loved this. Would it be better without Johnny? Probably. But it’s still such an excellent case of groove

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Thu Nov 30 2023

4

Guitar just attacks your ears. Singing is rotten. Noise everywhere. Was that a synth? What a bewildering experience. 8/10

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Fri Dec 01 2023

4

Brilliant and grating, Metal Box doesn't smash new glass, opting to tread and retread in glittering patterns. The mix is deranged, the vocals likewise, the rest of the instruments less so. Fitting the album uncomfortably into an ambient mode, still incapable of being background.

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Wed Jun 14 2023

3

Ca-lassic, but not my mood so much anymore.

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Thu Jun 15 2023

3

Eh, weird. 6/10

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Sun Jun 18 2023

3

Strong 6

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Tue Jun 20 2023

3

De muziek is vaak echt goed, de zang soms irritant.

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Thu Jul 06 2023

3

Solid album. This is the album, where PIL really found their defining sound and form, moving away from the garage/punk origin.

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Thu Jul 13 2023

3

Suffered from the opposite of most punk albums, this one just went on and on.

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Fri Jul 14 2023

3

When I read "dub", I got excuted. King Tubby this isn't :(

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Thu Jul 20 2023

3

eh... almost wonderful.

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Tue Jul 25 2023

3

3.0 - Touted as some post-punk masterpiece akin to "Closer" by Joy Division, I had high hopes for this. For me there's too much atmosphere and not enough structured songcraft. I enjoy the subtle background sonics: snaking guitar lines, buoyant dub bass and staccato bleeps. Unfortunately, the vocals sound like a combination of my neighbor's dog wailing to be let in, and troll living under the bridge.

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Wed Aug 02 2023

3

Imagine shelling out the ducats for a 3-disc set of 45s in a special, metal, collector's-edition case and then finding out that the whole first disc is completely unlistenable. John Lydon is possibly a genius, probably a nutjob, and definitely a jerk for making people who buy his albums suffer through at least three tracks of utter garbage before he gives them something that resembles a song. That was true of Public Image's first release and it holds true here as well. It's not until track 4, "Poptones", which is the first track of disc 2 in the original pressing, that we start to get legit songs from Lydon and his boys. This one started as a 1-star and slowly clawed its way up to a 3-star album for me.

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Thu Aug 03 2023

3

A groovier, timelier Joy Division-esque LP. Definitely suffers due to some editorial oversight (most tracks could stand to lose some fat) and not every sonic experiment hits, but there are some great pulsing moments of rhythm and emotional intensity that caught my attention. Can see how someone would absolutely hate this, but it mostly vibed for me.

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Thu Aug 10 2023

3

3.5/5. I have to say this was not terrible. But it's not something that I would ever choose to listen to. I can see how people would like this, though.

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Sun Aug 27 2023

3

Innovative, but hard to listen to at times.

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Tue Aug 29 2023

3

Discordant, not for listening for pleasure, fantastically packaged, not for everyone but the combination of Wobble, Levene and Lydon is quite special.

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Sun Sep 03 2023

3

Yep, liked it right from the start. That first song is hauntingly familiar…..cant place it. 3/5

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Wed Sep 06 2023

3

this isn't what you want, but this is what you get

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Wed Sep 06 2023

3

Great packaging, and one of those where, though it appears old hat today, I imagine it's impact at the time would have been considerable.

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Wed Sep 06 2023

3

I've always liked the singles particularly Careering and Memories. It's really the bass and drums that I enjoy mixed in with icy synths and with guitar reminiscent of Martin Hamnett producing Joy Division. Way too long songs and Levine's guitar work is hit and miss. All the drummers seem to get it right along with Jah Wobble's delicious groovy basslines. John Lydon's singing is mostly dreadful, of course. I realise he's trying to irritate and push our buttons and show just how non-rock and "clever" he is. He hits it right with the astonishingly awful Chant. A nadir. However, unlike most reviews, I kind of enjoyed much of the album, although it was so very long. I'll give it a 3 because there are at least four songs I'll choose again.

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Mon Sep 11 2023

3

Never heard of these guys, who are they? Why is this album not available on Apple Music, except for the retitled "Second Edition" vinyl rerelease? Lots of unanswered questions here, in the music as well. Some freaky-deaky genre exploration around punk rock, which I think is pretty nice. Love when synths get involved, who said punk has to be completely DIY garage stuff? I liked this much more than I thought I would, at least the handful of tracks I'll be keeping. Nothing that blew me away necessarily, though "Socialist" is really cool. Not a bad way to end this weird week, which took me from a 4.5 to a 1.5 and then pinballed in the middle. Favorite tracks: Socialist, The Suit, Albatross, Radio 4. Album art: It's a metal canister of music I guess. The "Second Edition" release that I have access to has a different cover, a warping distorted face that I guess is a guy in the band. It's warping with what seems to be a really creepy alien head. I like that cover more than the can. 3.5/5

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Tue Sep 12 2023

3

It was interesting, but even though they may have broken ground with the sound they explore, the ones building off of them have usually done it better.

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Thu Sep 14 2023

3

Interesting, didn't really click with me but there was something there

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Sun Sep 17 2023

3

On paper the combination sounds odd but in the end it's decent music

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Mon Sep 18 2023

3

Best lekker weer eens

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Fri Sep 22 2023

3

I like their first album more. This one isn't bad, but it's just not something I'd really choose to listen to.

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Fri Sep 29 2023

3

Decent, rough. Post-punk 2.5

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Wed Oct 11 2023

3

On the cusp of punk and psychedelic.

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Sun Oct 15 2023

3

songs are too long not enough substance but was a good album

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Mon Oct 23 2023

3

I'm conflicted on John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten. But there is no doubt his post Sex Pistols project Public Image Limited has put out amazing quality music and this debut settles in as a post-punk classic. 3.5/5

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Wed Oct 25 2023

3

Good instrumentals but In some of the songs I really didn't like his voice

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Sat Oct 28 2023

3

3.5/5. Post punk and alternative shit is awesome but even I have limits.

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Wed Nov 01 2023

3

A few memorable lyrics, decent album The line ‘I know you very well // You are unbearable’ is so funny to me Also ‘Everyone loves you // Until they know you’ ouch Socialist sounds like I’m a mad scientist working in a lab

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Wed Nov 01 2023

3

I'm going to guess that I liked this more than most of the rest of the group, but even I have to admit it's not particularly...listenable. I'd give it a 3.5 but not in good conscience a 4 so rounding down. A lot of it sounds familiar in difficult-to-pin-down ways which makes me think this is one of those "musicians liked it and no one else listened to it" albums?

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Wed Nov 01 2023

3

It was fine…. The music was kind of a vibe, especially the bass on that first song, but the singer was not great. I also didn’t like that one song where there was a ton of beeping in the left channel.

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Wed Nov 01 2023

3

Do I have amnesia? Definitely listened to this album, definitely don't remember it at all. My brain is mush.

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Wed Nov 01 2023

3

Liked the sound and vibes, but got frustrated with the long unstructured songs. This was hugely influential to a lot of music I love, but I didn't enjoy listening to this album.

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Thu Nov 02 2023

3

Not on Spotify

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Sun Nov 05 2023

3

Pretty challenging and diverse set of songs. I certainly liked it more than I expected, but I can’t see this being something I revisit often. At its best, there are some really cool grooves.

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Fri Nov 10 2023

3

A pretty cool concept with the literal metal box as the cover on the original release. Their sound is more of an experimental concept album that is alt rock/punk avant-garde yet just works as a whole. I can see if you were to listen to them in isolation, then it would be mildly confusing. You really need to listen to the whole album in it's entirety. Best: Albatross Worst: Radio 4

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Fri Nov 17 2023

3

Not my cup of tea. Reminds me of bad Joy Division.

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Fri Nov 17 2023

3

Interesting and I can imagine ahead of their time.

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Sun Nov 19 2023

3

Will never be a favourite but enjoyed it.

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Sun Nov 19 2023

3

In the right whiskey fueled stupor, I could see this being the greatest thing ever. In all other situations, it's still quite decent. 🥃🥃🥃

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Wed Nov 22 2023

3

Decent, but PIL have better stuff than this

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Thu Jun 15 2023

2

Meh

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Fri Jun 16 2023

2

I'd only heard a handful of PiL songs prior to this. I was surprised by how experimental it is. I can hear the beginnings of new wave (I think). Overall, this is a wild album that feels pretty chaotic. I have to be in the right mood for stuff like this. I do respect what they did here, though it's not really sometime I'd listen to very often.

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Tue Jun 27 2023

2

I simultaneously did not know what to expect and knew exactly what to expect. And I was simultaneously right. And I was disappointed by both.

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Wed Jul 05 2023

2

Rock experimental. Un tostón. Un 2.

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Thu Jul 13 2023

2

Pas si mal, mais pas si bon. C'est intense, 1 hr en plus.. 2.80

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Fri Jul 14 2023

2

Best Song: Socialist. At least it grooves. Worst Song: Bad Baby. Just an absolutely fucking dreadful vocal performance. Overall: Mostly junk. Marginally more listenable than the other Public Image Ltd. album on this list, but only because of a few nice (but not extraordinary) riffs. It is a mess of barely conceived ideas haphazardly slapped together. The musicians seem uninterested in playing well or together, and everything just kind of dithers about until it ends. I hate the hubris of these dorks who dispassionately fuck around on their instruments for an hour and call it a day. Aimless. I just don't get it. Which drugs are necessary to enjoy this junk?

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Sun Jul 23 2023

2

No Johnny, No. The last song made this escape a 1 star.

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Tue Jul 25 2023

2

Fair play for abandoning the Sex Pistols' sound and exploring new and interesting sonic textures, but this seems like a case of PiL crawling in a slow, ungainly manner so other post-punks could run. There's music that’s discordant in an edgy, strangely hypnotic way (which this is some of the time), and then there are downright tuneless, repetitive dirges (which this album veers into a bit too often).

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Thu Jul 27 2023

2

Great instrumentals combined with some of the worst vocals you can imagine. I know post punk isn't know for great vocalists but come on

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Sat Jul 29 2023

2

I wanted to like it. I didn't.

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Thu Aug 03 2023

2

I try to approach every post-punk album on this list (today marks number 75!!!) with a fresh mind. I consciously try to drop off all my baggage from the last 74 albums at the door and start a new relationship with a new album. For the first, like, 45 seconds I was really into this! Good bass lines and interesting synth compositions. And then the singing starts and it is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE... I enjoyed the last track or two because they were entirely instrumental. Shut up this man.

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Thu Aug 03 2023

2

Back to back post punk…hurtful

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Sat Aug 12 2023

2

Could this be the worst vocal performance of all time? Shit vocals are part of the punk aesthetic... but this is not punk, so what's the excuse? Saved by the last few instrumentals.... and the bass all the way through.

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Mon Aug 14 2023

2

I often forget the timing of this band and their albums, so I'm glad this project reminds me when their albums were released. Their style gets a bit redundant to my ears, but I can appreciate what they were doing here in response to other music in the late 70s.

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Thu Aug 17 2023

2

on s'ennuie de fou

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Thu Aug 17 2023

2

Le 1 évité sur le gong grâce à cette dernière track

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Fri Aug 18 2023

2

Strange ambient post punk where the band are almost onto something but Lydon’s lack of humour and warmth distances the listener from really engaging with the experience - tripped out bass and drums with spiky Johnny Rotten’s lyrics. Jah Wobble’s bass elevates the project and The Suit was a highlight but otherwise a lot of hard work.

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Sun Aug 20 2023

2

You can call it experimental and influential and groundbreaking all you want but for me this was a pretty boring hour of my Saturday. 3/10

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Sat Aug 26 2023

2

I should like this, but I don’t. The overly ambitious concept and bloated track lengths make it quite a chore to get through. I appreciate the genre and the band’s contribution to the scene at the time, but I think there are much better albums in this vein that I prefer listening to instead.

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Sun Aug 27 2023

2

this specific kind of post-punk, similar to joy division and such, doesn't so anything for me. it's something that i don't know if i'll ever get, even if i can understand that there's a lot of skill and and great things within the music. i just don't enjoy it.

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Fri Sep 01 2023

2

bullshits

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Fri Sep 01 2023

2

I just can't with this smack. The initial 10+ minutes of just low effort BS filled my heart with hate which did not diminish. It failed the saving grace of so many punk albums by not even being short.

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Tue Sep 05 2023

2

I got a bit of a reality check this weekend when showing some of my less album-inclined friends a couple tracks from the most experimental artists on the list. Their reactions sum up to, "Why would anyone want to listen to something that sounds like shit?" Today I ask myself that very same question. 3/10

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Tue Sep 05 2023

2

4/10. Blah, wish I had listened to the version on Spotify that was missing a couple songs

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Tue Sep 05 2023

2

Pop-rock un tanto experimental. Canciones en ocasiones, sin ningún tipo de orden. No me ha aportado mucho. Totalmente desconocidos. A veces, desconozco el criterio para incluir ciertos grupos/discos en esta serie

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Wed Sep 06 2023

2

Not entirely Rotten.

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Wed Sep 06 2023

2

I don't want to live in a post-punk world. The music is pretty cool, not a fan of the vocals. Track highlight - Graveyard (insturmental of course).

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