You either like Metallica or you hate Metallica, but there's an undercurrent to the situation as well. Some people prefer the older material, others only The Black album, and some contingencies cling to the "modern" new material.
 
When a handful of clueless chart chasers were raving over how "amazing" and "unique" it was for a "rock" band to use an orchestra in their music, real metal fans just sneered at them. Metallica pretends to do "new" things but it seems they are always following trends and counting their money pouring in hand over fist. It could be said they are shrewd, clever businessmen first, and musicians second. Perhaps that's why they have stayed in the mainstream consciousness while other, better and lesser bands have fallen to the wayside of forgotten obscurity even as they struggle to break free of that hold album after album. Metallica is still a name that's known, despite all the controversy whirling around them. Whether the squabbles are about music video game content, Napster or whatever else their legal eagles are deployed to battle over, you still can't deny that they are *perhaps* the most well known metal band out there today.

Their back catalogue is a mixture of adoration, speculation and hatred. The thrash thunder of "Ride the Lightning", the onslaught of "Master of Puppets", the massively popular "The Black Album"... there has been some great material to come out of this outfit. Then there's the clunkers, such as "Load", the equally modern "Re-Load" and "St. Anger" which was despisable simply for its garage (garbage is more like it...) production and lacklustre songwriting. After the leakage of some rough cuts and rumors, the long awaited "Death Magnetic" was thought to be a return to form.

And it is, to a certain degree. The death dealing "Death Magnetic" is a disc that is undeniably metal at its core. You can't just sweep it under the rug as an offshoot entity anymore. Lars' drumming is driving, Hetfield's voice is battering anger and the guitars are wicked slick velocity in six strings. 
The bass is however absent, relegated to the status of a dark hum on the lower end of the sound spectrum.  Trujillo is without a doubt capable of some of those daring bass runs from Cliff's days, but the band gives him no quarter to pursue this creative avenue.  It leaves a hole in the disc, where it seems more of a three piece affair instead of a full four instrument collaboration.  The bass is so nonexistent they might as well have just looped a few bass tracks and saved the trouble of having a live bass player on hand. 
A shame too, because that counterpoint would have made these tracks more intense, and the bass alive.  Instead it is content to shadow the electric riffs and keep to its own insignificant hums.

The album is truly fast, amazingly so, especially given their output in recent years. However, the fire in songwriting is dimmed to a dull glow as the creativity has waned and nearly fizzled out. It has all the elements of "And Justice For All" and "Ride the Lightning" but minus the spark of feeling. There is no emotion here. The rock is heavy, but as for soul, it's stone cold. The songs are disjointed and few ever achieve a flowing structure. Instrumental tangents are tossed about with wild abandon. When in doubt, drum till your eardrums burst from volume and your heart stops from the kinetic speed, shred till the frets catch fire and let Hetfield scream/howl some of his ridiculous lyrics (the punny "son shine" being a horrific prime example) and things should be alright.

This is never more apparent than on "My Apocalypse". It's fast, heavy and completely unoriginal. It's as if they mined the throwaway demos from their past albums and just cobbled this thing together overnight. A repetitive and mind numbing thrash track. Let's add this to the fact that nearly every song is over six minutes long and there's only nine of the things on the disc. One of these boggling lifeless entities is a coma inducing ten minute instrumental titled "Suicide & Redemption". Most bands would be raked over the coals and flogged for such self indulgent behavior, but since this disc is likely to sell a few million copies, it will be glossed over by excited fanboys that will likely plop this on a pedestal and proclaim it daring brilliance. Which it's not, since the ideas and themes for "Suicide" run out after a few minutes, not nearly enough intrigue to sustain an entire song. Much less, one of the instrumental persuasion.

"The Unforgiven III" is another past piece revisited, a slow-as-snails crawling entry in their spaghetti western influenced song series. It has a film score-like feel and unfurls more favorably than "The Day" does. They used piano and violins here too, to bolster that epic feel. Too bad a billion bands have done this before and better, making this about as original as an old hat. A moody old hat, but still an old hat nonetheless. With holes in it. "The Day That Never Comes" has an awesome title but that's about as far as that goes. It's a meandering yawner, which drops some nice melodies in it. That epic vibe is alive here, and if submitted for some trimming it could be a solid song, but here it's much too long for its own good, since it starts repeating itself like a dog trying to catch its tail.

"Cyanide" however, is lean and well structured and crackles in energy. The focus here is the main riff, it's catchy and edgy. The opener "That Was Just Your Life" comes off being carefully crushing and "Broken Beat & Scarred" is more of the same. A song akin to "Blackened", that has another gripping opening riff. "All Nightmare Long" has some gritty, powerfully frenetic sections that slice the track clean open. Hetfield is either cheesy here, or fairly convincing, the chorus being the height of their metallic output. A sequel of sorts to "Enter Sandman", it blends together crushing elements and thrash sensibilities for a fairly stunning overall package.  But everything starts sounding the same, with the exceptions of "The Unforgiven III".
 
"The Judas Kiss" is frantic kinetic and furious, "The End of the Line" is more along the lines of a pure thrash workout, that culminates in a shred battle between Hammet and Hetfield. Duels like these keep the disc clicking, despite the ever present familiarity that drags down each song. It's just all so similar on the surface, and Hetfield's singing style never changes. He just barges in and tries to subdue the songs under sheer guttural attitude. After nine songs of this, they all seem to run together.

Yes it's fast, yes it's heavy, but "Death Magnetic" is exhausting. Rehashes, mindless instrumental tangents (that are at times technically amazing, but technical wizardry does not a good song make, as the old rock proverb goes). The cutting loose of producer Bob Rock might have been the healthiest choice made by the band. Rick Rubin strips away the modern masquerades and flops fully assault attack tracks right on the album with no care as to radio availability, whereas Rock seemed to want the band to attempt to hang on to every little thread to get that coveted airtime. "Magnetic" makes no mistakes as this, but while Rubin's approach to canning their sound for mainstream consumption results in a raw, polished product, his pushing them into excessiveness ruins the flow of the disc.

Yet the fault of the entire Metallica debate lies in their popularity itself. They were so well known and claimed success while others floundered, struggled and met defeat, that every other band and their brother (and a bevy of second cousins once removed) wanted desperately to be Metallica. So Hetfield's growling guttural vocal deliveries and their entire signature sound has been copied ten times over by everyone else and since they haven't particularly wanted to move beyond their working formula it is damned and doomed to stay that way. "Death Magnetic" makes no in roads at trying new things and the entire album feels like a mess of B-sides. Regardless, Metallica fans will love it, simply for being a true thrash album, others will tolerate it simply for not being a substandard sequel to "St. Anger" and the rest are just going to hate it with a bored, vile passion.  After nearly four and a half years, they should have done a bit better than this. 

Afterall, it is Metallica, and end the end, no matter what kind of music they choose to make, the debate will continue to rage on.

Written by Alanna
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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Alanna: 6.5/10

Members: 10/10 - Average of 1 ratings.



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bogdan Rating: 10/10 you re totally wrong. suicide and redemption is an amazing son better than ktulu IMO ( and... · Read more ·

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Comment by Steen (Staff) - Wednesday, September 17, 2008

View Profile Comments: 518 I pre-ordered this at CD-Wow a while ago and I'm still waiting for it to arrive. I'll be sure to post my opinion here. Posted by Steen (Staff) Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Comment by gizmo (Member) - Saturday, September 20, 2008

View Profile Comments: 140 Ratings: 4 Thank god for a review that does not praise the new album to the skies. The worst 70kr I have spend on an album for a long time. I should have known that it would not be good. Just slightly better than Load and Reload but lightyears better than the awfull St. Anger Posted by gizmo Saturday, September 20, 2008

Comment by ThraX (Member) - Sunday, September 21, 2008

View Profile Comments: 135 Ratings: 0 Your review is excellent, one thing that disturbs me about the album is the drumming, I don't like the sound of the drums and Lars just isn't that good. I loved his drumming on And Justice For All and all Metallica albums earlier than the Justice release but there is so much more he could do but is content with more simple beats! a 6.5/10 for me also Posted by ThraX Sunday, September 21, 2008

Comment by KingPest (Member) - Monday, September 22, 2008

View Profile Comments: 17 Ratings: 0 I was expecting this album to as bad or worse the St. Anger. Thankfully I was proven wrong. While it is definitely not as good as some of their early albums it does show a step in the right direction. The 6.5 score is a bit low, I would rate it about a 7.5. If they manage to improve on this offering you will be looking at some very solid albums in their future. Posted by KingPest Monday, September 22, 2008

Comment by Steen (Staff) - Friday, November 14, 2008

View Profile Comments: 518 The best Metallica album in a long while but it comes off as too cold, lacking the spirit found in their early works. Some riffs and passages sound way too inspired by what they have done before and I miss some really memorable moments. Broken, Beat & Scarred is a clear favorite. Sadly the album suffers terribly by being mastered way too loud and it ruins much of my listening pleasure. There is no feeling of dynamics in the sound which clips and distorts beyond belief, especially in the fastest and supposedly most powerful sections which as a result end up feeling flat. OK album but I tire of it way too quickly. Posted by Steen (Staff) Friday, November 14, 2008

Comment by notrap (Member) - Thursday, February 5, 2009

View Profile Comments: 55 Ratings: 66 One comment: Lack of inspiration.. Let's wait the next one .../10 Posted by notrap Thursday, February 5, 2009

Review by bogdan (Member) - Wednesday, September 1, 2010

View Profile Comments: 1 Ratings: 5 you re totally wrong. suicide and redemption is an amazing son better than ktulu IMO ( and i m a metallica fan for over 20 years). ANL comes directlly from mop and twjyl is an amazing opener. U III is genius and tdtnc is almost perfect. The lyrics are not weak (your review is ridiculous). you have to read between the lies (like on SOH) 10. 4 th album ever. Rating: 10/10 Posted by bogdan Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Comment by angelripper84 (Member) - Tuesday, June 7, 2011

View Profile Comments: 2 Ratings: 2 I completely disagree.I listen to thrash-black-death many years and after all these years i have to give my respect to Metallica.Sorry dudes but i love load and reload.why not?great songs u can find such as Bleeding me, Cure,ain't my bitch...if you like lynyrd skynyrd and ac/dc you like that album.As for death magnetic is a thrash masterpiece with a lot of riffs and great lyrics.The similarities with ...and justice for all are only external.The sound is completely modern!!! Posted by angelripper84 Tuesday, June 7, 2011