Yep, it’s that time again when Metallica – the godfathers of ‘80s thrash metal and ‘90s alt rock experimentalists – release a new album and we humbly pray to heaven above that it doesn’t crap all over their legacy like the 2003 Bob Rock produced farce St. Anger.
The early signs are encouraging. Death Magnetic is the band’s first album to feature nimble bassist Robert Trujillo and the first to be produced by Rick Rubin, the bearded fella responsible for resurrecting the careers of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond when they too were at risk of becoming a thing of the past.
As for the predictably ominous album title, Metallica frontman James Hetfield explained to VG TV:
“Death Magnetic, at least the title, to me ... started out as kind of a tribute to people that have fallen in our business, like Layne Staley and a lot of the people that have died, basically – rock and roll martyrs of sorts.
"And then it kind of grew from there, thinking about death… some people are drawn towards it, and just like a magnet, [and] other people are afraid of it and push away.
"And the concept that we’re all gonna die sometimes is over talked about and then a lot of times never talked about – no one wants to bring it up; it’s the big white elephant in the living room. But we all have to deal with it at some point.”
They say:
Daily Telegraph: “The best metal album of the millennium so far.”
Gigwise: “One of the most seamless and ferocious Metallica albums to date.”
Pitchfork: “Death Magnetic is essentially St Anger with better riffs.”
We say:
Death Magnetic is not a masterpiece by any means, but it does make up for Metallica’s latter day sins and thrusts them back into relevancy once again. Simply put, it rocks – rocks hard.
From the statement of intent opener ‘This Was Just Your Life’ to the aptly apocalyptic ‘My Apocalypse’, this is an album that rarely stops to catch its breath, loaded with face melting thrash riffs and solos, complex time signatures and punishing, double bass and snare fuelled rhythms that sound like Satan taking a huge dump and recall the band’s blistering late ‘80s heyday.
And while on paper the lyrics are as clichéd as ever (see child abuse tale ‘The Day That Never Comes’ or, better yet, future live stomper ‘Broken, Beat and Scarred’ which features the Nietzsche aphorism ‘What don’t kill ya make ya more strong’), Hetfield sings them with such belief and feeling they somehow defy ridicule and take on a life of their own.
Welcome back, gentlemen. Welcome back.
Like this? Try these:
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Danzig – Danzig
Megadeath – Countdown to Extinction
RELEASED
Out now
LABEL
Vertigo
POSTED...
Fri 12 Sep at 7:12pm
