Metallica - Death Magnetic
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CD Details
Artist: MetallicaEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-09-12
Music Label: Warner Bros.
Soundtracks:
- 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
- Suicide & Redemption
- My Apocalypse
Music reviews of Death Magnetic
Music Review: Best Metallica Album in 20 Years!
Rating: 5 Stars
As a bit of background, I would say that I, like many other reviewers, consider the pinnacle of Metallica's albums to be "Ride the Lightning," "Master of Puppets," and "...And Justice for All." I like "Kill 'Em All" and The Black Album. After that, they lost me somewhat with "Load" and "Re-Load," then completely with "St Anger," which was absolutely atrocious.
Like many old school Metallica fans, I had pretty much thrown in the towel with "St. Anger" and given up on the idea that they would ever make a great CD again. In the 5 and a half years since that CD was released, I listened to it twice, attended one "Summer Sanitarium" show, and then essentially forgot about them, other than to keep them in the far, back reaches of my mind. When I heard information around 6 months ago that a new album was on the way, I held no expectations. As the buzz began building, I was realistically hopeful. And thankfully, I was not disappointed at all. In just a month and a half, I have listened to this album dozens of times, easily. The most of any Metallica album since "Justice" came out.
With that said, I am now happy that "St. Anger" happened. Why? Because it is my belief that if they had not sunken so low, they would've never been motivated enough to come back and make another great album, which "Death Magnetic," in fact, is. Instead, we would've probably gotten "Load" over and over again. Perhaps we could call "St. Anger," a noble, but very misguided, attempt to "recapture the fire." Having literally fallen on their faces in that attempt, a new fire was ignited, and this new album is the result.
What was wrong with "St. Anger?"
- Very poor songwriting, generally devoid of memorable riffs or themes that would make you want to comeback and re-listen again and again.
- No guitar solos at all, although the songs were often, long, lumbering repetitive and very boring.
- The vocals were horrible, and frequently offkey.
- The sound of the drums, especially the snare (which sounded like Lars was pounding on a trash can lid), was very poor.
- Retarded lyrics (e.g. Frantic-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick... Arg! Shut up! Yeeeeeesh!).
- Bob Rock played bass on it.
Have these concerns been addressed on "Death Magnetic?"
- As with all of the classic "pinnacle of Metallica" albums mentioned earlier, "Death Magnetic" shares many similar traits: A quiet, slow, somber album intro that erupts into heaviness and then abruptly attacks with a sudden tempo increase. Four tracks into the album, a slow, beautiful ballad, that ends with a sonic assault. A Mega-fast thrash song as the last song, and which was immediately preceded by an amazing instrumental. In common, especially with "Justice," this album contains very intricate arrangements, and complex, but extremely memorable musical motifs throughout. In short, the songwriting is top notch on this go round. And despite almost everything on here being long, nothing is boring, and certainly not lumbering.
- Kirk Hammett makes his continued existence in this band very much known on "Death Magnetic," with his numerous guitar solos which, like on all the classic albums, are deft and beautiful, with an accurate, yet still emotional execution. Kirk may have stepped aside for awhile, to allow the band to step in some different directions (ones I didn't agree with), but he certainly didn't lose his skills or his touch.
- The band adopted a much lower set of tunings for "St. Anger," but have returned to their old set and style of tunings for "Death Magnetic." Consequently, James vocals generally sound much more "correct." At times, he slides a little off for my personal taste, more than on some of those classic albums, but far, far less than on "St. Anger." At times he sounds great and, in a few instances, he sounds not so good. Overall, a big improvement. His best overall vocal performance, probably not surprisingly, is on "The Unforgiven III," which despite them re-hashing the musical themes from "The Unforgiven," yet again, the song itself is probably as good, if not better, than the original. "The Day that never comes" ranks high for overall vocal performance as well.
- The production on the drums, and ESPECIALLY the snare was CLEARLY very carefully monitored during the recording of this album. At no time that I have listened to this, have I noticed any problem with the fullness or robustness of the snare drum sounds. It might be the best snare sound that Lars has ever achieved. It shouldn't even be necessary to comment on this, but given the "St. Anger" issues, it is worth note.
- The lyrics have their shining moments but probably are not quite as poignant as from the "Ride the Lightning," "Master of Puppets," and "...And Justice for All" era. The most obvious evidence is in subtle things, like what a silly title "All Nightmare Long" is - which is especially unfortunate, since it's my personal favorite song from the album.
- Robert Trujillo played bass on it. That should be enough said, but I'll elaborate. Jason Newsted is a great bass player. No Cliff Burton, but he's a great bass player on his own merit. Robert is a bit better than Jason, all respect still given to Jason (whom I wish to soon recover from his unfortunate accident - I mean the amp falling on him, not his decision to do "Rock Star SuperNova"). And Robert is a whole heckuva lot better than Bob Rock, for crying out loud (Yes, that's called "stating the obvious"). Maybe Robert is not Cliff, but he's Robert, and that's different. Not better, not worse. Just a little different, and awesome regardless. His contributions to this album are impeccable. Metallica with a great bass player is a great Metallica. History proves this is very true and very important. (SIDENOTE: Cliff's writing contributions were greatest on "Ride the Lightning," and then "Master of Puppets." Think about it).
Now, having gone and compared some overall characteristics, for the purpose of addressing the concerns of like-minded individuals, let me add some random information on positive things that stand out, and haven't already been mentioned. First, I like every song on this album and the whole thing is very listenable over and over, front to back. If you like fast, thrashing, speeding, uptempo metal, like I do, you will most appreciate Track 5 (All Nightmare Long), Track 1 (That was Just your Life), and Track 10 (My Apocalypse). I like the fact that the entire band are co-writers of the entire album. Logic would tell an outsider, like myself, that this has played a part in re-igniting a fire within this band. And I have read that Rick Rubin was bluntly honest with the band about what he did and did not like. If you've seen any of the many bootlegged clips on YouTube of "The New Song," and "The Other New Song," you will realize that certain ideas were yanked from these and used within songs that made it onto "Death Magnetic." This is a very telling bit of information because, if you are very critical of recent Metallica efforts like I am, you probably were not especially impressed by either of those tracks. This was before Rick Rubin got involved, I believe. It is very obvious, given that information, his contribution to the final product. In this respect, I believe he more than did his job.
As a final note, I feel it is necessary to comment on the audio. I believe the "loudness war" is utterly ridiculous, and album quality has suffered massively as a result. "Death Magnetic" is no exception. I haven't heard the Guitar Hero III version yet, but I don't need to. I've been recording my own music for 20-25 years and I've developed a decent ear. I knew within 1-2 minutes that this CD had been compressed past the point of distortion in many places. This is very stupid because if a listener needs it to be louder, turn up the volume, adjust the EQ, or buy a better sound system. Producers shouldn't try to fake the effect of a better sound via this artificial method. It sacrifices the sound for people with high end systems in favor of giving an illusion of improvement on very cheap, inferior systems. I could rage much more deeply into this subject, but that's not the purpose here. Just be forewarned that there is very noticeable clipping in quite a few places. It is most noticeable on "My Apocalypse," and "That was just your life." This album, as most other recent (last 15 years, if you want to call that recent) albums, should have been released uncompressed. If this is desirable for the mp3 crowd then compress those versions before converting them. By way of comparison, if you happen to also like Rush and bought their "Vapor Trails" CD, this CD is not as overcompressed as that one, and is definitely more listenable - and of course, I'm speaking purely with respect to audio quality.
In short, this is easily a five star out of five star CD, and I applaud the band on "The Greatest Comeback of the Year." If you are a fan of "Ride the Lightning," "Master of Puppets," and "...And Justice for All," you will enjoy this CD.
Description of Death Magnetic
One of the most influential bands in music, ranked eighth on the list of the biggest-selling groups in history, Metallica unveils its ninth studio album, Death Magnetic. The band'sfirst album in five years, Death Magnetic is also its first with renowned producer Rick Rubin (Danzig, Slayer, System Of A Down,
Slipknot), first with bassist Robert Trujillo, and first on Warner Bros. Heavy and thrashy, unafraid to embrace the band's past yet move
into the future.
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