Before I even got a chance to hear this album I'd been bombarded with online and magazine reviews, opinions and comments about its quality. Best album in 20 odd years, oldies trying too hard and failing, etc etc. So I got the album, have listened to it a good 5 or 6 times in the past few weeks and finally decided what I felt about it. The problem with
Metallica is that their past discography is littered with 4 classic thrash gems, the biggest hard rock/metal album of all time and some decent if uninspired hard rock albums.
Plus St
Anger, which I think would have been regarded as a decent enough album if it didn't have
Metallica blazOned across the front. For them it was very average, anyOne else it could have been regarded as good. But
Death Magnetic is the reawakening of thrash-
Metallica, the One that died after the release of the Black Album. But the band have been aware enough to not erase all they have learned in the past 20 years, the radio and MTV megastar metal has not been ignored, neither the Southern-rocking
Load and Re
Load band either. What they have created is an amalgamation of all of their essential parts; speed, thrash, technicality, rock and groove, and created a monster of a comeback. '
That Was Just Your
Life' roars out of the starting blocks like '
Battery' and '
Blackened' did so well in the past, but it contains some chugging groove which makes more appearances throughout the album.
Kirk Hammett's solos are back as well, and thank the
Lord for that, because
Metallica without solos was a bit like Motorhead without Lemmy; just plain wrong. It's heartening to find that
Metallica still have that ability in them to write a truly cohesive and quality thrash album even after their dalliances with more commercial material. '
The End of the Line' keeps that '
Load'-style groove and rock but couples it to some rocking thrash
Riffs, 'The Day
That Never Was' is a decent enough attempt at writing another 'One' but without the lyrical content or 'instant classic' feel that 'One' had. '
All Nightmare Long is probably my favourite song on the whole album, it has some excellent speed metal riffing, coupling with a ripping solo and Hetfield's best vocal performance on the record. It's also catchy as hell, just the way prime
Metallica should be.
Death Magnetic isn't without its problems however. '
Suicide and
Redemption' doesn't possess that essential
Metallica instrumental feeling that '
Orion' or 'The Call of
Suicide' does, which is a bit of a shame as it's an impressive enough piece. '
The Judas Kiss' sounds a bit like the best song the band didn't put on 'St
Anger', '
The Unforgiven III' is, I'm guessing, only titled as such so people who notice it sounds familiar don't start claiming the band are just rewriting older songs, and James Hetfield's voice doesn't quite retain that snotty punk attitude that suited the 80s thrash sound well, and some of his lyrics are average in comparison to previous stuff. But Hetfield possesses that iconic sneering roar that gives
Metallica a signature sound, and he gives a more
Lively performance here. Above all,
Metallica have managed to write an album full of catchy, thrashing anthems just as only they could, and for someOne who grew up with the Black Album,
Load and Re
Load as a few of their favourite albums, I'm glad they incorporated their entire career's styles into a quality cohesive album. After all, trying to rewrite '
Kill Em All' at their age wouldn't work; they don't possess the youthful energy that current thrash-revival bands have, but when they truly release,
Metallica show why they are still thrash legends.
And I thought I'd never get to write that.
Master, master, THESE are the dreams I've been after...
Anyway, I have to agree that this is the best album by Metallica on a long, long time... Let's just say I had to wait 17 years (half my life) to hear a great album from one of my favourite bands :)
Omberra
The Dark Flag...
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