Metallica: Death Magnetic

It would be simple to say that Death Magnetic is a return to the heady days of "Ride The Lightning" and "...And Justice For All". But that is not the case. Not really.

Death Magnetic is a new beast, but a beast risen from the ashes of the 10 previous beasts. And those beasts die hard.

Metallica's latest offering is a magnificent beast however. James growl, while being more cultured than that of 25 years ago, is still as scary as ever without ever having to fall into the Cookie Monster realms. His and Kirks riffing is lightning quick and just as crunchy as ever. Lars' drums are better than they have ever been, both in sound and style, and as always are firmly at the front of the mix (Lars is credited in Kid Rock's "The History Of Rock" as "Lars (Are the drums loud enough?) Urlich"). Rob's bass is often brilliant and while he suffers slightly the backup role in the mix that haunted Jason Newstead for so many years, he gives an excellent account of himself.

The real stand out in this album is Kirk Hammett. Not for the last twenty years has Kirk had the absolute licence to rip shreds through every song. And rip he does. Using every skill and trick we have ever heard from him. Through multiple chord, timing and riff changes. Through pedals, boxes, and tubes. I don't think I've heard a slide yet, but it won't surprise, rather delight.

But the underlying interest is in the references to the past.

The first single "The Day That Never Comes" has been widely compared, and mostly favourably, with "One" from 1998's "...And Justice For All", but I can see much more. At the very least "Fade to Black" has a lot to say for the track. And it doesn't stop there. My early favourite, "All Nightmare Long", has an opening riff that feels a lot like "Enter Sandman" with a lyrical theme that runs alongside "The Four Horsemen".

The whole album seems to be derived from the earlier albums, even the "Load"'s and "St Anger" get their reprises at various points along the way, both in the music and lyrics. The already qualifying "Unforgiven III" even sends a definite nod to "The Ecstasy Of Gold", the Ennio Morricone theme that precedes every Metallica concert.

All of this is laid on top of what is a very fast album, the main theme of the album being to return to the sound that earned Metallica the honour of being credited as the originators of "thrash metal". The riffs here are all big and being played at speeds that would defeat most guitarists. Exactly what the fans have been begging for for years.

So how will this all go down with the fans? Depends on who you are asking about.

Old school fans won't like it, but they are completely impossible to please anyway. What you have to remember is that 'their' Metallica hit the scene in the early 80's and now they are all over 40 and generally unhappy with their lot anyway.

Pop will hate this. It's generally not music for girls - there's just too much testosterone here. Nu-metal fans won't get it either. Despite the fact that all their New Wave Of American Heavy Metal bands grew up on a steady diet of the Black album, the Metallica sound is just not as deep (or down-tuned) as the likes of Slipknot and Disturbed, the production is far simpler and the general imagery of the band is not as "black" as those Emo kids seem to like it. And no-one does instrumentals any more (Yes! - instrumental!)

So that leaves the fans who got their musical education when the Black album hit in '91, and then went backwards through the catalogue from there. For those people there is over an hour of awesome to crank into, an hour which has lasted the best part of 6 days for me so far and with plenty of enjoyment to come.

Oh, also it does sound shit at high levels off the computer. Get over it. Buy the CD.

18th September, 2008