Probably THE most highly anticipated album of the year, "Death Magnetic" is Metallica's 9th studio album set to be released on the 12th of September. Not surprisingly, it got leaked on the internet before the release date so I'm sure many Metallica fans have already listened to it in its entirety. Surprisingly, Lars Ulrich is totally cool about it and isn't being a dick.
So, to start off, a few general comments before I comment on each track one by one. First of all, many questions were asked prior to the release of this album. Is Kirk Hammett writing solos again? Did Lars get rid of that shitty tin can of a snare drum? Is Rob Trujillo still acting like a gorilla on stage? Well, the answer is yes. To all of those. So far, so good. The album itself has a mix of oldschool Metallica with some new twists and surprises. If I were to place it in a certain era, I would say it should be right after the Black Album. Except for the fact that that would mean that "The Unforgiven III" would have been released before the "Unforgiven II". Aaaaanyway, here's my track-by-track review of the album.
- That Was Just Your Life. The album starts off with a clean intro which sounds something like off of Master of Puppets or the Black Album and, following the course of such albums, it leads to distorted guitars and drums. It really does sound like the proper Metallica we all know and love throughout the song, with some added flavour. There's the fast palm muting, and the *sigh of relief* solo which kicks in after 5 minutes. It could have been a longer solo, but it's a kickass song overall, great way to start the album.
- The End of the Line. This song is derived from "The New Song" which was rumoured to be called "Death is not the End". Well, that's not what it's called. It sounds much better as a studio version. The singing could have done with a little more growl, as it's almost a little screechy at times. Fast solo with wah effect, but again, could have been longer in my opinion. The post-solo consists of rather punkish palm mutes followed by clean strumming with soft singing giving it a pop punk feel. It actually sort of reminds me of The Offspring there. It does go back to more agressive singing after that though.
- Broken, Beat & Scarred. Rather punkish intro, with a more metal feel when the palm mutes come in. James' singing sounds very strong, with somewhat simplistic and almost repetitive lyrics. Overall it has this heavy punk feel to it, and it has a longer solo ending with whammy bar dives.
- The Day That Never Comes. The first single, and one of the 2 songs to be played live before the release of the album. Keeping the tradition, Metallica made this downbeat song the 4th track on the album. Clean intro followed by distorted one which kind of reminds me of "The Unforgiven II". The same thing with the clean picking which leads into the verse. The heavy chorus brings out James' singing at its best. After the 2nd chorus, the song gets more agressive. The last 3 minutes start off with machine gun guitars, followed by solos and duel soloing, much like the long outro of "One". One of my favourite songs on the album.
- All Nightmare Long. This song has one of my favourite intros on the album, a nice blend of clean guitar with Rob Trujillo's bass work, before heavy guitars and drums kick in. The palm muting gives it the oldschool Metallica feel. The vocals starting off the verse are a bit unexpected, and it actually almost kills the feel when listening to it for the first time. Chorus has a somewhat punk feel to it, and the second verse starts off in the same manner as the first one. Slight disappointment there. It improves with a long solo and fast palm muting during the second half of the song though.
- Cyanide. The other song which was played live before the release of the album. The bass line is simple yet very catchy, kudos to Rob. Actually, a lot of the guitar riffs in this song are simple but catchy at the same time. I particularly love the vocal pattern in the verses. The breakdown on the snare drum after the 2nd chorus isn't really that impressive though.
- The Unforgiven III. A lot of Metallica fans wet themselves when they heard of this song. A lot of ideas began popping up, everyone tried to predict what this one would sound like. Well I'm pretty sure everyone got it wrong. One of the most unique intros ever for Metallica, the first minute consists of melancholy piano backed by an orchestra, leading to clean guitar which would very much indeed remind you of "The Unforgiven" and "The Unforgiven II". The verse starts off with distorted guitars which sort of lose the melancholy feel, but the lyrics are definitely related to the song's predecessors. Vocals over the clean guitar sound much better in my opinion, sounding a lot more like the first 2 versions. There's this eerie sensation of sadness with the lyrics "Forgive me, forgive me not" leading to one of my favourite solos on the album where Kirk Hammett really shines. This song will really grow onto you with time.
- The Judas Kiss. The intro has the oldschool Metallica feel throughout. The singing is agressive with some softer pop-punkish singing ("So what now...") every now and then. It's a very agressive song overall, with a somewhat creepy breakdown before the very fast solo. There's a second solo not long after that, followed by true Metallica drum and guitar work.
- Suicide & Redemption. One of Metallica's longest songs ever, clocking in at 9.58. Going back to their roots, this is a completely instrumental song with some significant bass work in the intro. For the first couple of minutes it sort of feels like a St. Anger song (without the shitty drums, of course) and even starts to get a bit repetitive until it changes after 3 minutes. Then the clean guitar comes in topped with some beautiful soloing. Heavy rhythm kicks in with some duel soloing after that. After 6 minutes you get even more soloing from Kirk Hammett. Overall I wouldn't say that this is a bad song; it's more agressive than "Orion" and "The Call of Ktulu" but personally I think it would struggle when compared to them.
- My Apocalypse. The last song off the album, and the shortest, much like with the album Master of Puppets. Starts off with some oldschool Metallica, I particularly liked the drums which then lead to proper thrash metal with the snare drum. The song doesn't have one of my favourite choruses on the album but the song retains the oldschool feel overall. It feels like a proper thrash metal song.
Well, there you have it, Death Magnetic in its entirety. It has its ups and downs, but I think Metallica did a good job in going back to their roots while not completely becoming an 80s thrash metal band again. It's definitely a huge improvement from St. Anger. I'm sure I'm going to like this album more and more as I listen to it, it does have some memorable riffs. Would I say Metallica are back? Yes, yes I would. This album may not be another Master of Puppets but it is an album where you can say yes, this is Metallica.
Your thoughts and opinions on the album are very welcome, I would love to hear what you have to say with regards to my review and the album itself.
2 comments:
Well.. Yeah I'd say MetallicA are back. Overall the album is much more MetallicA than Load or Reload were( No I'm not mentioning St.Anger since except for a couple of catchy riffs and some good lyrical ideas the album is a bunch of horse shit). I pretty much agree on almost all of the thoughts Chris Red wrote down here and by the way.. Good Job Red.
I personally describe the album as a collection a good 5/6 songs accompanied by the remaining songs which in my opinion required a little more effort. When "The End of the Line" was still "The New Song" (or as rumoured "Death Is Not The End") in my opinion it had a better structure. About the Unforgiven 3.. well I was one of those "fans who wet themselves" but didn't really do so since I had much higher expectations of the song. The vocals, the solo, the absence of the classical "What I've Felt, What I've Known.." lyrics although the remaining lyrics are amazing, personally reminding me of the intense masterpiece lyrical ideas James put to "Fade to Black".
What pissed me of is that, being a drummer who learnt it all from Lars and whom I consider as my Drumming God, I am really diapointed with the drum lines present on the album.. not to mention the hi hat sound which in my opinion is too trashy to go along with the ballads verses. Lars really lacks those in your face, machinegun-drum lines he used on the Puppets and Justice albums. The other major factor which I hate from the Death album are James' vocals. Okay, they'll never be like they were on their self titled masterpiece, the "Black" album but i wqaas expecting at least the level of the Load/Reload era.
Anyways, I think that's all I have to say about Death Magnetic. If I find that I forgot something I'll just post another comment. By the way.. I'm glad MetallicA are back xD
I'm with magmar on this one. It sounds like some other drummer. The disappointing snare rolls, the trashy hi-hats, even the sound of the drum kit - it's all wrong. It sounds very messy and disorganised, unlike what one would expect from Metallica at this stage of their career.
I agree with Red - I would place the album right after the Black Album.
Also I found it funny that Metallica played the 'cool Radiohead' bit as to the illegal downloads... Remember the huge fuss they cause when a demo was leaked on a website. They held a number of universities responsible and shit.
That I found ironic, but as for the rest - it's good to have Metallica back to their Old-School style.
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