Talk:Metallica (album)/GA2

GA Review
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Reviewer: Lewismaster (talk · contribs) 22:13, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

My compliments for choosing such a highly visible article to upgrade to GA status. In this moment the article is not ready for GA promotion, because it needs much work to expand its content, fix its structure and repair its references. I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but I need to remind you that the album is inserted among the 500 best albums according to Rolling Stone, is graded Top class in Wikiproject Albums importance scale and is viewed by an average of 1000 users every day. I think that some extra care and coherence with the MOS is needed when trying to promote such articles to GA status, keeping in mind that many readers, casual or not, know very little about the subject and need to be introduced to it.

Having said that, let's start with the content that article is missing. The making of this album has a complex background and a rich history. I remember distinctly that its release started a vehement controversy between metal fans and musicians, who dubbed Metallica as sell outs, and new fans and mainstream critics who welcomed the new and more commercial course of their music. Just hints of these facts are present in the article, which maintains for the main parts exactly the same structure, paragraphing and references already judged insufficient in the 2011 GA review. All the new research and sources are for charts, sales and more and quite biased reviews. Even after a cosmetic clean up by the Guild of Copy Editors, the article appears unbalanced, with too much emphasis given to the success and accolades Metallica received and too little to music style, song composition and production values.

The structure of the article, according to the MOS, is at least two sections short, namely Background and Release. Moreover, the text in current sections Recording and Composition needs to be expanded, analyzed and put in a more logical and chronological sequence. I strongly suggest the creation of a Music style section where to describe all the changes that Metallica introduced with this album. The article is also filled with too many quotations from various copyrighted sources and too little original text. Copyrighted text should be kept to a minimum and it sincerely appears to be excessive in this article (see WP:MOSQUOTE and Copying text from other sources).

References are another big problem. After a rapid review of the references, I counted 20 dead links, 8 repetitions, one nude URL, various problems with the formats and some unreliable sources.

Following the MOS for the article body here are some suggestions for section structure and for expanding the content of the article:

Infobox
The reference about the release date should be put in a dedicated section, not here. According to reference [14] two studios were used, so insert both of them in the infobox under Studio =.

Lead
The lead reflects the lack of content of the article. It is centered on singles, charts and sales. The last sentence should not be here, but in the Tour section.

Background
This section is missing and should contain a short description of what happened before the production of the album. It would be a nice introduction for new readers, featuring substantial info about the pre-production phases. The list below contains only suggestions and some considerations useful for the editor's research, put approximately in chronological order.
 * I would introduce the article with something about the Damaged Justice tour promoting  ...And Justice for All, like the date the tour ended, its success, etc.
 * According to various biographies Metallica's change of musical style did not come out of the blue, but there was pressure from their management and from the record label to produce an album more appealing to the general public and "hit singles". Some research could be useful on this topic.
 * The cover of "Stone Cold Crazy" was recorded before the recording of the album began.
 * Ulrich compiled New Wave of British Heavy Metal '79 Revisited in 1990.
 * Again according to biographies and interviews, the new bassist Jason Newsted was treated quite badly within the band, with frequent pranks during the tour. His bass lines were excluded in the mixing of ---And Justice for All, which created much frustration on his part.
 * The production of an album does not cause divorces, but can raise a state of tension in the families. Some more research on the family status of the band members is necessary, because reference [21] says that it was important for the composition of the songs. The band members were also addicted to alcohol and other substances. Something about their dependencies could help to define the time frame when the album was created.
 * Apparently Bob Rock was chosen after Robert John "Mutt" Lange was considered as producer. The band, after the failure of Mike Clink on the previous recording, had Flemming Rasmussen on payroll to stay on hold for the whole process of production. Rock had also produced Sonic Temple by The Cult, another album Ulrich loved.

Composition and recording

 * Musical direction (Metallica): it should be clear what the musicians wanted to compose, but reduce the use of quotations. The last two paragraphs of the current Composition section could fit here. Newsted and Ulrich's style of playing, too.
 * Hetfield's quotation is totally unjustified here and can be summarized in a sentence like "this time Metallica aimed at a live sound and involved all band members in the creative process".
 * The general topics and tone of the lyrics composed by Hetfield should be inserted here. More details can be included in another part of the article if you want to describe the content of each song.
 * Early demos are OK, but the dates of production of some demos are reported without references.
 * There are sentences about Rock's intervention on the schedule and discipline of the musicians and about the decisions he made during the production of the album scattered in various parts of the article, when they should be put together following a logical and chronological sequence. It should be more evident why the production was troubled, which behaviours and decisions created friction and so on. From the current text it is not very clear.
 * Michael Kamen is not the last of the street fiddlers! He should be cited in the text as the author of the strings arrangements and collaborator to the production. By the way, it would be cool to know where the strings were produced and recorded.
 * Engineers and main collaborators should be cited in the text. Why was the album mixed 3 times? Did the band want more than one choice or were they unsatisfied with Rock's work? More research is needed.
 * The final statements of Rock and the fans' petition could stay at the bottom of this section or go after the lawsuit info.

Music style
I think that this section should be the core of the article, although now it is reduced to three not-very-descriptive sentences.
 * Musical style (critics): there should be an ample description of how music critics define the music of the album; is it a single style or a mix of styles? How is the music different from Metallica's previous works? Why is it more simple and direct? Why is it more commercial? Here is where you should tell the reader!
 * Only the two songs with the listenable musical fragments have a lengthy description in their captions. Those descriptions probably are better suited for the main text. What about the other songs? The singles have their own articles, but some synthetic description of music style and lyric contents of all the songs in the album could be appropriate.
 * The change of style of this album caused mixed reactions, with Metallica accused of being sell outs by part of the metal community. Those reactions should be included here, maybe with a hint to the controversy that exploded years later with the release of Load.
 * "Many fans consider the album to be a transition..." Uhu? Maybe fans of the first hour or thrash metal fans. However the reference provided is not about fans, so you should find a correct reference or change that sentence.

Packaging
The best section so far.

Release and promotion
There is no text about the dates of release, no information about the labels that published the album and nothing about the formats. I remember a double vinyl LP. If you don't want to create a Release history section that info should be here. The reference in the infobox about the release date should also be put here.
 * The singles text is fine, but it could be good to have a synthetic paragraph about the videos produced for them.

Tour
The tour section should be separated from the promotion, because it is quite bulky and contains much information.
 * There are four articles about these tours. Maybe this fact should be signaled with the proper template on top of the section.
 * The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, the Use Your Illusion Tour and the performance of songs from the album after the promotional tours -> all need references.
 * The details about the box set Live Shit are out of topic here. They should be in the relative article. Trim it down.
 * Some more references on the lawsuit paragraph are needed.

Critical reception

 * Too biased on praise; for example, Martin Popoff, Joel McIver and Brian Tatler were not enthusiastic of the album.
 * some references (Q, Select) are incomplete and don't cite author, page, etc. Find them or remove the reviews.
 * The website Classic Rock Review [ref 65] has nothing to do with the British magazine Classic Rock and is not listed among the reliable sources for music reviews (see WikiProject Albums/Sources). I suggest removing it.

Commercial performance

 * We are talking about numbers here, every sentence needs a reference!
 * Urlich's quotation is at least two sentences too long. Trim it down.

Personnel

 * The album liner notes are sufficient as reference, formatted using Template:Cite AV media notes

Rationales
The rationales for the two sound samples are not acceptable as they are now. The two songs are not discussed in the article and the sample inclusions need to be better justified. The accompanying text should explain explicitly why the information contained in the audio cannot practically be represented as text.

Summary

 * GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)


 * 1) It is reasonably well written.
 * a (prose, no copyvios, spelling and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
 * 1) It is factually accurate and verifiable.
 * a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR):
 * 1) It is broad in its coverage.
 * a (major aspects): b (focused):
 * 1) It follows the neutral point of view policy.
 * Fair representation without bias:
 * 1) It is stable.
 * No edit wars, etc.:
 * 1) It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
 * a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
 * 1) Overall:
 * Pass/Fail:
 * 1) It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
 * a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
 * 1) Overall:
 * Pass/Fail:
 * 1) Overall:
 * Pass/Fail:

The article still needs a lot of work, which cannot be done well in a short time. For this reason I won't put the review on hold, but declare the upgrade to GA status failed. This judgement is not meant to discourage you from trying again after some or all the suggested improvements have been applied. The consultation of any biography about Metallica and its members, as well as watching the documentaries and finding the best articles and interviews about Metallica among the huge quantity available on the web could be the basis to expand your search. Good luck. Lewismaster (talk) 07:06, 6 September 2015 (UTC)