Let's not let this forum slip into gutiar.com... please dont swear at people, share your oppinion, but dont get personal... OK?
Theeshredder: I actually agree with you about alternate tunnings, I wasn't really into them too much till i really started getting into some sonic youth, but they do DRAMATICALLY affect your style...
That said though, could you calm down a little? Guitar is not the be all and end all of everything, trust me.
I heard St' Anger the single, I thought i was kinda cool, I've never been a fan of metalica's song writing, but the guitar sound is very different, at one point it reminded me of "my plauge" by slipknot.. I cant honestly say i found the eighties anything more that cringe worthy for guitar music (that's a big generalisation i know)...
The problem with solos is that they become absoloutly paramount at the expense of the rest of the song... and genuinly dont understand guitarists who love bands who are poor songwriters at best, but can play your bloody bog standard 4/4 , 8/8 solo... but hardly any have listen to the truly surreal stuff on sitar (i've been lead to believe some of it is done in 5/3, my mind boggles, it's certainly something i'd quite like to try)...
I'm, really getting into PJ Harvey's stuff of late, I really like it, and it's about as realistically simple as you can get, and even she ventures out from the world of 4/4..