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| 12 September 2008 - Warner Music Group / Mercury Records / Sony Music |
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1. That Was Just Your Life 7.08
2. The End of the Line 7.52
3. Broken, Beat & Scarred 6.25
4. The Day that Never Comes 7.56
5. All Nightmare Long 7.57
6. Cyanide 6.39
7. The Unforgiven III 7.46
8. The Judas Kiss 8.00
9. Suicide and Redemption 9.57
10. My Apocalypse 5.02
Total playing time 74.42 |
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| Review |
 18 / 20 |
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Before I even got a chance to hear this album I'd been bombarded with online and magazine reviews, opinions and comments about its quality. Best album in 20 odd years, oldies trying too hard and failing, etc etc. So I got the album, have listened to it a good 5 or 6 times in the past few weeks and finally decided what I felt about it. The problem with Metallica is that their past discography is littered with 4 classic thrash gems, the biggest hard rock/metal album of all time and some decent if uninspired hard rock albums. Plus St Anger, which I think would have been regarded as a decent enough album if it didn't have Metallica blazOned across the front. For them it was very average, anyOne else it could have been regarded as good. But Death Magnetic is the reawakening of thrash-Metallica, the One that died after the release of the Black Album. But the band have been aware enough to not erase all they have learned in the past 20 years, the radio and MTV megastar metal has not been ignored, neither the Southern-rocking Load and ReLoad band either. What they have created is an amalgamation of all of their essential parts; speed, thrash, technicality, rock and groove, and created a monster of a comeback. 'That Was Just Your Life' roars out of the starting blocks like 'Battery' and 'Blackened' did so well in the past, but it contains some chugging groove which makes more appearances throughout the album. Kirk Hammett's solos are back as well, and thank the Lord for that, because Metallica without solos was a bit like Motorhead without Lemmy; just plain wrong. It's heartening to find that Metallica still have that ability in them to write a truly cohesive and quality thrash album even after their dalliances with more commercial material. 'The End of the Line' keeps that 'Load'-style groove and rock but couples it to some rocking thrash Riffs, 'The Day That Never Was' is a decent enough attempt at writing another 'One' but without the lyrical content or 'instant classic' feel that 'One' had. 'All Nightmare Long is probably my favourite song on the whole album, it has some excellent speed metal riffing, coupling with a ripping solo and Hetfield's best vocal performance on the record. It's also catchy as hell, just the way prime Metallica should be. Death Magnetic isn't without its problems however. 'Suicide and Redemption' doesn't possess that essential Metallica instrumental feeling that 'Orion' or 'The Call of Ktulu' does, which is a bit of a shame as it's an impressive enough piece. 'The Judas Kiss' sounds a bit like the best song the band didn't put on 'St Anger', 'The Unforgiven III' is, I'm guessing, only titled as such so people who notice it sounds familiar don't start claiming the band are just rewriting older songs, and James Hetfield's voice doesn't quite retain that snotty punk attitude that suited the 80s thrash sound well, and some of his lyrics are average in comparison to previous stuff. But Hetfield possesses that iconic sneering roar that gives Metallica a signature sound, and he gives a more Lively performance here. Above all, Metallica have managed to write an album full of catchy, thrashing anthems just as only they could, and for someOne who grew up with the Black Album, Load and ReLoad as a few of their favourite albums, I'm glad they incorporated their entire career's styles into a quality cohesive album. After all, trying to rewrite 'Kill Em All' at their age wouldn't work; they don't possess the youthful energy that current thrash-revival bands have, but when they truly release, Metallica show why they are still thrash legends. And I thought I'd never get to write that. Master, master, THESE are the dreams I've been after...
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| Mini-Review |
I think that Death Magnetic is the most amazing Metallica album ever. The songs are just beyond belief. You hear the 3-minute solo at the end of "The Day That Never Comes" and you're just like "huh? how'd they do that? are they even human?!" Their old stuff is good, but their new stuff is totally better. The bass at the beginning of "All Nightmare Long" is great too. And "My Apocalypse" is like in your face awesomeness. Plus it's the song the title comes from. All in all, this is a great album, and anyOne who has never heard Metallica before should listen to this album first. They'll get hooked.
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| Mini-Review |
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The Day That Never Comes
Sitting in a hotel room in Huaraz, I dare to downLoad from a "X" blog the last Metallica'S album. I say "I dare", because the so promoted “return to the roots" of these gentlemen (Metallica band) didn't excite me at all. Of course, after all the bullshit (so much in CD as in DVD) that they've edited in the last years, the majority have lost the hope.
What I don't understand until now is why they have tried to release an album that sounds as One in the "old times". I don't even want to think that because of the summit of "retro-thrash" and the fall of new metal, the ex-defenders of speed-thrash + guest, have seen that the business was getting down and decided to record an album like in the 80's in order to continue breathing in the competitive world of commercial music and get into the new batch of headbangers that are looking for "heroes" and of whom they could be their parents, NO REMORSE ? ... Think bad and you'll succeed.
I say all this because I've been listening to the mentiOned Death Magnetic these last days until I got sick of it. I don't know if I did it because I wanted to convince myself the disc was good or to verify if everything that was said to me were truth.
Unfortunately, the result wasn't positive. Is the first time I see (and listen to) a band trying to copy itself. The music can sound some parts like the MASTER album or maybe like the AND JUSTICE, and it may has a lot of THE BLACK ALBUM but the attitude (be careful ! Attitude, no pose) it does not appear anywhere. Just pay attention to the lifestyle they have in this moment. So far away from the flag that a lot of us carry with proud (including me). We must remember WE Live FOR METAL, NOT OF METAL and since the moment you take the music as a tool from where to get mOney, everything becomes shit.
Just like in the documentary : Some Kind of Monster, it would be good if they go back to therapy, but this time in order to see in what else they could use their time instead of being cheating people.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been favored witnesses of the big shot on the zombie's head who never passed the 80's
THE MUTILATOR
ASF-REC
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| Mini-Review |
 19 / 20 |
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Death Magnetic, the 2008 LP release from Metallica, is a most triumphant return to the style of metal that put them on the musical map in the first place. This is thrash metal to say the least: rhythmic, repetitious, heavy, and relentless. Most of the songs can be described in these terms, most notably “The End Of The Line”, “All Nightmare Long”, and “My Apocalypse”. Other songs thankfully feature small variations between and in some cases during. For example, “The Day That Never Comes” has a soft movement in the middle, and “The Unforgiven III” is introduced with a piano and some strings. The main drive and focus of the entire album is old Metallica style thrash, complete with a return to the raspy growl that once defined James Hetfield’s voice. There are times when Hetfield does return to singing; however, but the success lies is the coupling between the heavy and slow. Another old tradition brought back is the instrumental track. “Suicide And Redemption” sans the voice is perhaps the most all encompassing of the band’s current abilities. Everything well dOne on the album is represented here. What needs to be said, then, is that what Death Magnetic shows best is the equal representation of all the members of the band (the fact that the writing credits are given to all of the members are most telling of this rather new found attitude) when listening to the songs. Robert Trujillo’s bass is easily heard and appreciated everwhere. On “Cyanide” it’s the bass that leads off, on “The Unforgiven III” it is the bass that is most prevalent, and for every part of heavy shredding elsewhere, it’s that bottom-end sound that keeps every riff hOnest to that which is thrash. “Broken, Beat & Scarred” is possibly the best track on the record because of this; it feels heavy – not just written or performed that way. The songs benefit from the flipside of this argument as well. Lars Ulrich plays to the beat more than off of it and Kirk Hammett’s solos are more within each main theme than outside of it (although the solo from “The Judas Kiss” is a most notable exception. It’s perhaps his best effort here). By playing with less of an individual agenda – all of the songs are better off. The lyrics are still more personal than topical, but a central theme can be spotted. The paraphrasing of Neitzsche’s “That which does not kill you only makes you stronger” appears as “the slave becomes the master”. That, and the final line from “Broken, Beat & Scarred” – “we die hard” – seems to reveal the true Power behind Metallica and Death Magnetic: it is from them that they thrived and survived – not the fans or the media or the world. Of course, it may also explain the One weakness of the album as well – the notion that some of the songs sound too much like past works. “Cyanide” is the worst culprit of all along with “The Unforgiven III” (for its obvious connection). Still, anywhere else that a similarity can be pointed to seems more like an echo to the band’s past than a blatant borrowing and thus does nothing to diminish the Power of the current works here. To add it all up, Death Magnetic is an excellent thrash metal album, not only One of Metallica’s best, but One of the best metal albums to come out in ’08. To that, thanks should be in order.
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