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Metallica - Death Magnetic

Published September 06 2008


*
=Staff's pick

That Was Just Your Life*
The End Of The Line*
Broken, Beat & Scarred*
The Day That Never Comes
All Nightmare Long
Cyanide
The Unforgiven III
The Judas Kiss*
My Apocalypse


Genre Heavy Metal
James Hefield
Vocals
Tracks 10
James Hefield
Guitar
Runningtime 73 Min.
Kirk Hammet
Guitar
Label Warner Bros.
Robert Trujillo
Bass
Release 12 September 2008
Lars Ulrich
Drums
Country USA
-
Keyboard
Similar artists Megadeth, Testament

They are a band who has been revered, hated, praised, and scorned throughout their twenty-five year career. They are a group who is arguably responsible for the popularity and legitimacy that heavy metal as a form of music holds today. Death Magnetic is the greatly anticipated newest album from a band that needs little introduction. After what many consider to be the penultimate failure of a record from a band who was once considered the best the genre had to offer in the form of 2003's St. Anger, expectations for Metallica's follow-up release had been at an all-time low, despite all the hype surrounding their "return to the roots"; the very same thing was said of the previous album. Put your fears aside, this is as close to hearing new vintage-sounding Metallica as we are likely to get.

Master of Puppets II this is not. But if you were expecting that, then your perception of what Metallica is currently capable of and where their headspace resides is sorely out of touch with reality. Critics are going to have to get past the unfair expectation that this band can create music in the vein of the masterpieces that were their first four records. That was a young, hungry band who was out to prove themselves both sonically and as a legitimate artist. It's impossible to recapture the mindset of a particular time in a band's life; those albums were snapshots of a magical moment in music history where everything just lined up. Still, that is no excuse for crafting poor music, as was the case with St. Anger (as well as Load and Reload, some may argue).

That being said, Death Magnetic makes good on everything both it and St. Anger before it promised. That is, it has length, depth, and a ferocity that harks back to the days of yore. Yet, the sound cannot be described to sound like any one record, or even any one era of Metallica. When Kirk described the album as being a "modern-sounding old-school Metallica," I think he hit the nail on the head. It predominantly has the structure and variation of their first five records, with elements of all other eras of Metallica mixed in to create an indefinable amalgamation of styles.

Hetfield's voice can roughly be described as melodic as it was from the Load/Reload/Garage Inc. period, with occasional percussive shouts that reminds one of sections from songs like 'Damage Inc.' and 'Disposable Heroes.' Kirk's leads and solos really shine, with much of his work eliciting memories of the more pyrotechnic moments from Ride the Lightning mixed with the soulfulness of Black Album licks. Trujillo's bass work is nice and groovy, not merely mimicking the rhythm guitar, and adding a different element, the likes of which have not really been heard since Cliff Burton. Hetfield's riffing is probably some of the most dexterous and muscular as it has been since the late 80's, though it is unfortunately held back by the poor choice of guitar tone and even poorer overall production. Lars' drumming has not improved much, being roughly equivalent to the style he has been using since St. Anger, though the snare strainer has been, in fact, put back into place.

Death Magnetic fits in stylistically as the bastard child between …And Justice for All and their self-titled album. The record has moments of the varied sections and stop-start phrasing as …And Justice For All with the catchy, more vocally-oriented songs from The Black Album. The songwriting on Death Magnetic is some of the best in years, if a bit like it is trying too hard to be complex merely for complexity's sake. Though the songs are long, they are not merely more iterations of the verse and chorus as they were on St. Anger, and thus, the length actually serves some purpose, even if the changing sections feel awkward and forced at times. I would go out on a limb and say that Death Magnetic would be almost considered another one of the band's masterpieces were it not for one fact…

The production on this album is terrible. I don't mean terrible in the same way that …And Justice For All was technically considered poor because the guitars were high in the mix and it lacked audible bass; that sound actually worked well and suited the progressiveness of that release. No, rather, Death Magnetic seems to be amaturely engineered. Despite all the hype of the drums not sounding like tin cans, though the snare actually does sound like a snare drum, the apparent lack of compression on it causes it clip and buzz at times. In generally, the drums are too "fat" and warm, lacking the punch on previous recordings. The EQ'ing and mixing of the album is also poorly done, with too much emphasis on the low end and a poor guitar tone used for James' rhythm parts. When one is playing music with palm-muted, staccato riffs, it is a bad idea to use a muddy, bluesy rhythm tone. One of the best parts of Metallica's music is obscured because Hetfield's riffs become inarticulate due to the muddy, Load/Reload-esque guitar tone. Now before anyone goes and says that it is Rick Rubin's fault, one has to remember the fine difference between a producer and a sound engineer. While a producer may take on some duties of the engineer, they largely are responsible for making arrangement and phrasing suggestions and, Rubin in particular, take a much more hands-off role than the man sitting behind the mixing board. The engineer on the other hand, is responsible for the proverbial turning of the knobs, the mixing, and the selection of sounds used for the instruments on the album. Judging by the fly-on-the-wall videos from Mission: Metallica, I think it is safe to say that the engineer is at fault for the poor sound on this album.

Everything aside, Death Magnetic is the best anyone could have realistically expected from Metallica. The material written here is as close to going back to their thrash roots as we can likely expect. Were it not for the production, Death Magnetic would have likely ranked higher for me. Despite that, the songwriting cannot be denied and is certainly heavy, musical, hooky, and has its moments that will remind you of those halcyon days of the 80's.

See also review of: Beyond Magnetic , St. Anger

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

9

8

6

7

8

 
Summary



8,5 chalices of 10 - Dux


Related links:

www.metallica.com
www.myspace.com/metallica