I managed to grab a copy of Death Magnetic and I have to say that it’s a big improvement from the crap they’ve put out after the “Black” album.
The big question though is, have they delivered on the promise of giving fans the Heavy sound they’ve oh so missed?
Read on to find the answer as I go from song to song:
1.That was Just your life
seriously, not impressed. Yeah, its better, yeah they sound heavier, but…I expected my face to melt, I expected the first song to get me to my feet and scream “OH FUCKING YEAH! METAL IS BACK!”. Sadly no. If you want that experience though, listen to Testament’s new album or better yet, Megadeth’s United Abomination Album..but I digress. on to the next song..
2. The End of the Line
Hmmm, better, much solid sound than the first song, good catchy riff…shows some promise, until Hetfield starts singing. Oh my god! It’s load all over again! Whoever taught Hetfield to sing should be shot.
Twice.
On the face.
You know, he kind of sounds like Triple H now.
3. Broken, Beat & Scarred
This is heavier than the first two songs, good riff, good melody, (am ignoring James Hetfield’s voice now). This song features more heavy pounding from Lars Ulrich, which was sorely lacking from the first two songs.
4. The Day that never Comes
The first slow song of the album, sounds like it came out of Load. Really hating Hetfield now more than ever. Song has some awkward moments, sort of like hiccups, before changing beats/tempo. I noticed that Lars seems to have re-discovered the snare drum because he keeps hitting them all the fucking time. I dunno if this is due to mixing or he’s really loving his snares now. I kind of miss the way he pounded different notes out of his drum set. Anyway, the song speeds up towards the end. Didn’t do much to change my feelings toward the song though.
5.All Nightmare Long
Song starts out with some western style showdown at ok corral type theme, then jumps into a Slayer like furious tempo that makes me sit upright. Is this it? Is this the song that I was looking for?
Nope, Hetfield ruins it for me. Seriously. Good riff, furious tempo, kickass bass line and Drums thub-thumping on my chest and then some cowboy, country fucking singing YEAAAHYEAH? Fuck.
Seriously man, you already got my head bangin, why did you have to ruin it for me?
6. Cyanide
Hey, it’s a Suicidal Tendencies song! Nope, just kidding, it’s still Metallica. You can clearly hear Trujillo’s influence on this song, nice bass lines and nice riffs, doesn’t sound like Metallica for me though.
7. Unforgiven III
Seriously, Unforgiven III? No more songs you can do? How many unforgivens are you gonna do? Is this a running theme? Will all albums have an unforgiven song? The song just keeps getting worse with each version you do, just stop it.
8.The Judas Kiss
This song starts out ok, Lars is back with his snare-fest pounding, but somehow it sounds better, much like how he sounded before. As is the trend with the whole album, Hetfield buries the song for me. Hammet’s solo on this one makes it actually worse, hitting something like 4 notes over and over before wailing on a single note to end the first part of his solo, the second part of his solo was a “wah pedal” frenzy, it really feels like Hammet is desperately in need of inspiration on his guitar work. The song sorts of stumbles along and I actually had to fight myself from clicking “next” on my player.
9. Suicide and Redemption
Wow! I can actually hear a good bass line on this song, with good crunchy riff goodness to complement it. The thing I first noticed is the fact that the notes are..happy. light. Sort of the notes you would expect from a Glam Album. You can actually imagine them smiling their assess off while playing this. I mean, there’s no furious fist pounding, face melting, beat to punch a guy to. It’s a repetitive song that feels like a filler.
A 10 minute, repetitive, uninspired, lackluster instrumental filler.
10. My Apocalypse
This song starts out great! Great pounding drums, solid bass, nice riff reminiscent of Battery (from Master of Puppets). Even Hetfield’s singing is ok on this song. This is by far the best fucking song on this album. It makes everything I’ve said on the other songs worse, because obviously, they had it in them to experiment and progress with their sound without sounding like a bunch of washed up Metal Heads.
Summary:
All in all, I feel a bit disappointed with this album, I was expecting something more. Something that would have made me call all of my friends and proclaim “THE SEASON OF METAL IS ONCE AGAIN UPON US!” similar to how I reacted with Cavalera Conspiracy’s Inflikted, Megadeth’s United Abominations, Testament’s Formation of Damnation and even Slayer’s Christ Illusion.
I’m sorry, but this doesn’t really cut it for me, all it is, is another dead attempt at being heavy, for me, they have been relegated to the status of mediocre bands like the ones that have been sprouting left and right these days.
This is probably why there are a lot of supposedly Metallica fanboys out there giving glorious praises like “Metallica is back! Screw you haters” while shooting down old school dogs who actually listened to Metallica when they really mattered. Sorry kids, Metallica is most definitely NOT back, and they probably never will be.
I’m not expecting Metallica to remain unchanged over the years, but come on! Other bands have pulled off experimentation, growth and progression and still retain the same intangible thing that made them who they were when you first heard them.
Mustaine must be having a great time listening to this album while repeatedly saying “I fucking told you so”
