If he's truly a Metallica fan, and not just a KEA/RTL/MOP/AJFA fan then there's no way he thinks the album is "crap", unless he's deaf. Is it as good as early efforts? No, not quite, but it's far from crap and to say otherwise is just simply bullsh*t, especially if they're supposedly a fan. If it's a Jay Z fan and they hate the album, well, that I understand.
It's become sport to bash Metallica post-Napster and even if they put out the greatest metal album in history you'd still have retarRAB on here saying "they shoulda retired years ago" and the the album sucks, etc etc...pretty pathetic.