St. Anger is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on June 5, 2003. It was the last Metallica album released through Elektra Records and the final collaboration between Metallica and longtime producer Bob Rock, with whom the band had worked since 1990. This is also Metallica's only album as an official trio, as bassist Jason Newsted left the band prior to the recording sessions. Rock played bass in Newsted's place, and Robert Trujillo joined the band following its completion. Although he does not play on the album, Trujillo is credited in the liner notes and appears in photos with the band in the album's booklet.
Recording began in April 2001 but was postponed after rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield entered rehabilitation for alcoholism and various other addictions, and did not resume until May 2002. The recording is the subject of the 2004 documentary film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. St. Anger departed from Metallica's signature style with an alternative metal style, raw production, metallic drum sound, and no guitar solos. The artwork was created by frequent Metallica collaborator Pushead.
St. Anger was intended for release on June 10, 2003, but was released five days earlier due to concerns over unlicensed distribution via peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Despite mixed reviews, it debuted at the top of sales charts in 14 countries, including the US Billboard 200. After release, Metallica spent two years touring to promote the album. In 2004, the lead single, "St. Anger", won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. St. Anger was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping two million copies in the US; it has sold nearly six million copies worldwide.
Recording
Metallica rented an old United States Army barracks on the Presidio of San Francisco, and converted it into a makeshift studio in January 2001.
As plans were being made to enter the studio to write and record its first album in nearly five years, the band postponed the recording because of the departure of bassist Jason Newsted on January 17, 2001, with Newsted stating his departure was due to "private and personal reasons and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love". Due to the difficulty in immediately finding or auditioning for a replacement for Newsted to write and record with so close to the rescheduled sessions, Metallica accepted an offer from Bob Rock to play bass on the album in Newsted's place, and stated they would find an official bass player upon the album's completion. In February 2003, as St. Anger was nearing completion, Metallica hired Robert Trujillo as their new bassist. He appeared on the footage of studio rehearsals of St. Anger in its entirety, which was included on DVD in the album package.
In July 2001, recording came to a halt when James Hetfield entered rehab for alcoholism and other undisclosed addictions. Hetfield returned to the band in December, but was only allowed to work on the album from noon to 4:00 PM. Due to his personal problems, as well as Metallica's internal struggles, the band hired a personal enhancement coach, Phil Towle. This, and the recording of the album, was documented by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky and released in 2004 as the film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. From May 2002 until April 2003, the album was recorded at a new studio in San Rafael, California, known as "HQ".
Hetfield stated that the album was written with "a lot of passion". He said, "There's two years of condensed emotion in this. We've gone through a lot of personal changes, struggles, epiphanies, it's deep. It's so deep lyrically and musically. [St. Anger] is just the best that it can be from us right now." The band purposely wanted a raw sound on the album, so that Rock did not polish the sound while mixing. The band desired the raw sound because of the depth of the emotion they felt and did not want to "mess with it". Rock commented, "I wanted to do something to shake up radio and the way everything else sounds. To me, this album sounds like four guys in a garage getting together and writing rock songs. There was really no time to get amazing performances out of James. We liked the raw performances. And we didn't do what everyone does and what I've been guilty of for a long time, which is tuning vocals. We just did it, boom, and that was it." St. Anger is seen as a departure from the band's previous work, described as alternative metal and nu metal. The album also uses strong elements of groove metal and speed metal.