Actually sounds pretty solid tho.

In a conventional sense, that's actually better than the St. Anger snare, and a pretty decent snare sound, honestly. I don't hate that record, not gonna lie; though I think much of it sounds like a bunch of halfassed songwriting demos, I get it conceptually. I probably give it more respect than it's worth simply because a very high profile band is often willing to make deliberately fucked-up sounding records. That is unusual, and I can appreciate that.

Context is everything, though; I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about a similar snare sound here:

Yeah I've heard about a hundred goregrind bands with the trashcan snare and it isn't a problem there. But you know it's Metallica so it's a big deal...

Pretty sure they heard System of a Down Toxicity and were doing their old man best to catch up with St. Anger. That's how it sounds to me.