Slipknot’s Corey Taylor has argued that Metallica’s controversial and historically divisive album St. Anger doesn’t deserve its bad rep. According to the metal head, there are parts of it which he feels are “really under-appreciated”.

The 2003 album earned polarising reviews from critics at release, and is often considered as one of the worst metal albums of all time (for example, Rolling Stone listed it in this feature about 50 horrible albums).

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In an interview for Revolver, a fan sent in a question which asked Taylor to choose a record that he once hated but now loves, and he of course chose the Metallica album in question.

“First of all, when it came out, I was a raging alcoholic prick,” he begins. “And when I listened to it, the mix kind of threw me off, and I wasn’t paying attention to the songs. I was kind of following the herd on that.”

He goes on to add, “But then [Stone Sour guitarist] Josh Rand, who was a massive Metallica fan, he got the deluxe version that had the companion DVD where they played the whole album in their rehearsal space.

“And watching that, I could hone in on the songs. I wasn’t stuck on how it sounded. I could listen to what was going on, and it immediately gave me a better appreciation of what it was,” Taylor explains.

“So now when I listen to it, I think a lot of the stuff’s really good, and there are some good grooves on it that I think are really under-appreciated. I mean, that title track is a motherfucker, you know?”

Taylor isn’t the only one who perhaps feel the record got over-hated on. The band’s own frontman James Hetfield said of the album earlier this year, “Eh, it’s honest,” with a shrug. “You might not identify with it, or you don’t like the sound. But that’s where we were, and that’s what we put out. It’ll have its time, maybe.”