Metallica - Death Magnetic

Any time a band of Metallica's magnitude drops an album, there will be much hoopla. Death Magnetic is no exception. After the fallout that was St. Anger, their 8th studio album, a myriad of queries about the follow-up ensued. The band ditched long-time producer Bob Rock in favor of producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin. Buzz was positive from the beginning, but much skepticism filled the air.

Death Magnetic is easily their best album of original material in a decade. The album illustrates a return to the thrash metal roots of yesteryear with the melodic pop sensibilities of latter work. Palm muting, fast tempos, and time changes mixed with catchy hooks and melodious choruses make for a pretty diverse record. The shortest song clocks in at just over 5 minutes while the longest is nearly double that. Production values have vastly improved, but are still lacking. A return to complicated riffs and solos galore make Metallica seem almost youthful and downright hungry. Death falters in more than a few ways, but top to bottom is a solid record.

The record is remarkably dense in areas, but lean in others. "That Was Just Your Life" is the opener and is a return to form with a crescendoing intro, is up-tempo throughout, and has dueling guitars, but the verses leave something to be desired. Good way to start the album though the heartbeat intro is a bit cheesy. "The Day That Never Comes," the first single, has several tempo changes and a ridiculous number of riffs crammed into one song, as does "All Nightmare Long." The latter also has a damn catchy chorus. "Cyanide" has the feel of later Metallica material (and not in a good way) and almost seems to be haphazardly cut and pasted together in Pro-Tools. "The Unforgiven III" is not terrible as anticipated, but is a mid-tempo, piano and violin filled 'ballad' that would be more suited for ReLoad, or even the Black Album, rather than here. It just feels forced. One highlight of Death Magnetic is the return to an instrumental track with "Suicide & Redemption." The song seems like a studio jam rather than a calculated composition and, for what it's worth, works well. It's nice not to hear James Hetfield singing every once in a while, too. The outstanding track on Death Magnetic is undoubtedly, "My Apocalypse." Like "Battery" and "Blackened" before it, "My Apocalypse" is just a fast, brutal, chunky aural overload that closes the final minutes of the album.

One of the best aspects of Death Magnetic is how lead guitarist Kirk Hammett shreds all over it. Some songs even have multiple solos. The wah pedal he is accustomed to, and is his signature sound, is a bit overdone at times. Especially the intro for "Cyanide," but it could be worse. Lars Ulrich's drumming leaves something to be desired, but he gets the job done. Fills in "Suicide & Redemption" are lackluster at best. Too many cymbal hits drown out the toms and kick, and he rarely diverges from the 'ump-pah' standard. Double kick is used sparingly. Officially bassist Rob Trujillo's first studio album with Metallica, it's even more evident the Hetfield-Ulrich songwriting team does not let bass players contribute to the writing process. His sound is overly distorted and chugging in contrast to former bassist Jason Newsted's punchy, cleaner sound and although Trujillo's technicality is closer to original bassist Cliff Burton's, his parts on Death Magnetic are timid.

Singer and guitarist James Hetfield gets points for sweet riffs and song structure, but gets cancelled out by his awful lyricism. In previous interviews, Hetfield stated that he only became a singer, instead of just playing guitar, because the band needed one. The genre of heavy metal has never been known for stellar lyrics as long as subject matter was dark and includes some of the following things: blood, war, insanity, death, etc. You get the idea. Death Magnetic has these topics, so Het gets a pass. However, I will reprint this gem from "The Day That Never Comes": "Love is a four-letter word and never spoken here."

Death Magnetic is a great album. Beginning to end, it's listenable, chaotic, refined, melodic and still heavy. Maybe not the best of 2008, and not one of Metallica's best, either. Save for a few, the songs stand alone and will be in Metallica set lists for years to come. While it's easy to label this a comeback, Metallica have to deliver on the next studio album with equal or greater results, which is no small feat. Heavy metal has come a long way since it's peak of popularity in the 80's and Metallica is one of the few, if not the only, bands who has stood the test of time. Assuming the band can stay together, don't be surprised to see the Mighty Metallica playing the Super Bowl half-time show in several years.