Metallica – Death Magnetic
2008
Thrash Metal
So here it is... Before I talk about Death Magnetic, I feel like talking about my own journey to it. I have no idea why, but I feel it's relevant. If you want to skip it, just copy and paste this character – š – into your browser and find the next instance of it down the page.
I was born in 1988. The same year
...And Justice For All was released. I had pretty much zero exposure to Metallica as a kid. My dad might have seen "Sandman" on MTV a couple times and not mentioned it to me, but that's about it.
I remember the first time I listened to Metallica... My cousin gave me a CD he made called
Candyman. It was an awesome collection of random songs. “Drug ballad” by Eminem, a spoken word piece about the wonders of a certain profanity, Howard Stern making fun of Mr. Rogers for having a hidden perverted streak, weird carny music, and even Rap I enjoyed.
I would listen to the CD with my buddy Chris and be in awe of the idea that so much awesomeness could be packed onto a single compact disc.
There was a song on that CD that struck me. The smashing guitars that rocked my face like I never knew before that guitars could. The blazing fast guitar solo that was as good as anything Jimmy Page could play. The lyrics about the singer's mother and father that probably reflected some kind of feelings that my cousin had.
I later learned that it was by Metallica. Before this, I just thought metal was overly heavy and stupid. Over the years I would learn how wrong I was. I just knew at the time about Metallica having made an awesome song I heard. Maybe you could guess, it was "Dyer's Eve."
To skip ahead, eventually I started listening to more Metallica and liked it. A lot. But there was a problem. Everything they released after
The Black Album wasn't Metallica. We can debate the quality of
Load,
Reload, and
St. Anger all we want – but they aren't the same band on those albums as the ones before.
Obviously, I'm not in the same place as someone who grew up with 80's Metallica then felt blindsided by the direction they took starting with
The Black Album. I just felt like Metallica had released all these classic metal albums, then excused themselves from the greatness they had created.
I'm sure there's some selfishness here, but I wanted Metallica to release a Metallica album now that I was interested in them.
I heard all the buzz about Death Magnetic. Rick Rubin was producing, their guitars were in E tuning again, they were looking to
Ride The Lightning and
Master of Puppets for inspiration, and all the other news unsubtly telling you this was an attempt at writing a real Metallica album.
I was somewhat optimistic. But cautiously so. “The New Song” and “The Other New Song” dropped. They were okay (except the intro of The New Song, which was badass). “The Day That Never Comes” was cool but felt unsatisfying. Same thing with “My Apocalypse.” I liked “Cyanide” and still do, but a whole Metallica album couldn't be songs like that.
Then it leaked to the Internet. Of course I downloaded it, because I am of weak will. Was it as good as the Holy Trinity? No, but that's an unrealistic expectation. What I can tell you, is that I was still really pumped when I got through it. š
From the first track, it was obvious Metallica means business. "That Was Just Your Life" was a pretty standard thrash song, but it stated affirmatively from the first track that Metallica had returned, not the impostors that wrote the last three albums.
“The End of the Line” didn't let up on the heaviness. The song's structure had a level of thought put into it not seen since the Black Album, and contained the first really rocking Kirk solo in a long time. It was also great to see the intro of “The New Song” used in something much better.
The rest of the album continued to deliver. Soon enough, I realized that the singles were far and away the weakest tracks on the album.
Metallica has returned, and it feels very good.
The album isn't without flaws. Hetfield's vocal performances put his weak showing on
St. Anger to shame. But while his vocal lines are consistently well-delivered and occasionally great, many of his vocal melodies simply aren't interesting.
And the almost complete lack of multi-track vocals is disappointing. The only harmonies on the album I know of are the verses in “End of the Line,” sung by Kirk and Rob. Metallica's had many great vocal harmonies in the past, and it's a shame they didn't choose to visit that part of their sound at all on this album.
I don't want to get too deep discussion into this, but Lars' drumming on this album is indefensibly weak. It's usually not complete crap, there are cool moments, and it usually accentuates the guitar rather than taking away. But his drum parts are usually so underdeveloped that it feels like some form of incompetence is at work.
Either his vision as a drummer has gotten so stale that he can't envision anything more than basic beats, or he's so out of practice that basic beats are all he can play. There are moments on the album (particularly the soft parts of “The Day That Never Comes”) where he's barely playing above the level of a beginning drummer.
The sound quality is regrettable too. And on this note, I want to digress for a moment -
I want to correct myself and say that I shouldn't have bashed Ted Jensen in the earlier draft of this review. I believe he's being honest when he says the Death Magnetic mixes were already overly compressed (brickwalled) when they got to him.
So while I'm not a fan of his work, saying it sounds bad because of him just wasn't true. I doubt he or anyone associated with him ever saw this review, but I still feel crappy over acting like he was solely responsible for the bad sound quality.
As for the album's sound itself, ugh. Listening to it hurts my ears because it's literally a wall of sound, with the sub bass frequencies removed as much as possible to push the volume even higher. The snare is too loud and dry, it's nearly impossible to hear the bass, the Day That Never Comes has a lot of clipping, and it just doesn't have the impact a Metallica album should.
If you can find the Deceifer remix or the Guitar Hero mixes, do yourself a favor and get them. They sound way better and won't hurt your ears.
Also, just to make a general complaint, there are a couple moments where the band tries a bit too hard to be heavy. Mostly in “My Apocalypse” and “That was Just Your Life.” But I somewhat blame this on Lars's drumming, hit banging the hell out of his snare drum, but he isn't using the kick drum to add any tightness to the sound.
But enough of the bad, let's talk about the good parts of the album. There are two things absent from St. Anger that have thankfully returned for Death Magnetic.
Like I said, Hetfield's vocal melodies are lacking at time. But you can tell he worked hard on nailing his delivery for this CD, and it pays off. When Hetfield blares out the chorus in "Judas Kiss", it feels like Hetfield the voice of Metallica once again. "My Apocalypse" can be faulted for a lot of reasons, but Hetfield screaming "so we CROSS - THIS - LINE" isn't one of them. I believe that after
The Black Album, the "Metallica voice" went into hibernation for a long while. Sometimes Hetfield would growl like it, but it wasn't the same. St. Anger even had a lot of growling. But that was just Hetfield. Death Magnetic is the return of the Metallica voice. While some of the softer passages are still sung in a bit more of a Load style, it works because he ditches the country style thing he did for a long while. Metallica's vocals have a power and precision not seen in a long while.
The other thing is Kirk's solos. If you watch Some Kind of Monster, one of the only moments Kirk gets truly angry is when Lars tells him that the "guitar solo as we know it" is an outdated concept. I don't blame him. Not only did Kirk forsee Lars' vision crashing and burning on its artistic merits, but Kirk's leads are his main method of expression in a band so dominated by Hetfield's riff-writing. So for this album, the solo returns. My opinion on this is admittedly incoherent. Kirk has I believe 12 solos on this album (2 in "Nightmare," the big Judas Kiss solo breaks into 2 solos). Of them, I'd say that four are outright bad or boring. My Apocalypse in particular borrows a couple licks from Damage Inc in a super obvious way. The rest of the solos do have their truly inspired moments though. The wah use in "The End of the Line" makes it really rock. The solo in "All Nightmare Long" has a great sense of melody and groove that contrasts well with the epic chaos going on around it. "Cyanide" and "Unforgiven III" are really solid rock guitar solos. Here's what I guess I'll say. While Kirk's material on this album holds up, I never really feel that it reaches for the same level as the Kirk of the olden days. I could be looking at it wrong though.
I think Hetfield's rhythm guitar work is where the CD truly shines. I'm not going to try and justify the idea that Hetfield is one of the most talented rhythm guitarists of all time. On this album, he returns to playing the classic Metallica style that made the band famous. And boy does he return with a vengeance. It's not just calling back to the old school either. “Broken, Beaten, and Scarred” has a groovy metal feel that's a new flavor of Metallica music. “All Nightmare Long” has an epic feel that in my opinion Metallica has never captured before. “End of the Line” and “The Judas Kiss” are chock full of riffs that stand up quality wise to Metallica's older works. There's a nuance and heaviness to the playing that hasn't been there since
Justice, and Hetfield pulls it off completely naturally. His playing is just brutal.
Also, I need to throw out a kudos to Robert Trujillo. Considering the quantity of the riffage on the album, there are almost certainly some that he wrote. And the few moments where the bass has a chance to stick out (the shock and awe of a bass melody in “End of the Line,” his bass grooves in "Cyanide" and "Suicide & Redemption", and a few others I'm sure I'm missing), he shows that he's been able to truly fit into the band. Leaving his mark on the sound without fighting against it. A lot can be said about Metallica, but it seems they made the exact right choice picking him to join them on bass. I hope he stays around to make more albums with them.
I'll spoil the ending score, it's an 8/10. For all my gushing, the album's flaws cannot be ignored. But why am I so excited? Because it's the first Metallica album since 1991. Do you feel it? It's like seeing an old friend that went away for a long time. Lots of people have complained about the album, and I don't know what to say to those guys. Yeah the lyrics aren't that great. But that's why this is merely a pretty sweet album as opposed to greatness in the same class as
Master of Puppets. At the end of the day, this is Metallica. And it feels so good to have them back.
My score:
4/5Converts to:
8/10Standouts:“End of The Line” (Completely soul demolishing)
“All Nightmare Long” (Metallica reaches for epic levels of composition)
“Judass Kiss” (Again, the riffs charge at full force)
Burnouts:“The Day That Never Comes” (Decent, but mostly an unoriginal prototypical soft Metallica song. I personally love the Black Albumish riff in the middle)
“My Apocalypse” (Tries to be Damage Inc. II. Has cool moments but doesn't succeed)
X Factor Track:"Unforgiven III" (Really different from the other stuff on the album, and awesome for it. Great bridge and
Black Album style guitar solo)
The Others:"That Was Just Your Life" (Quality thrasher, but fairly unnotable. Nice to see the harmonized twin lead back though)
"Broken, Beaten, and Scarred" (The album has better songs, but it's pretty groovy)
"Cyanide" (Very well written, but some of the other songs are just better)
"Suicide & Redemption (Metallica's previous instrumentals are better. But this is a legitimate attempt at writing a new one)
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