METALLICA

What a shame.

Death Magnetic is a return to form, Metallica's best album in twenty years, and possibly their best ever. What could have been a masterpiece is sullied by the horrible sound quality, complete lack of dynamic range and brickwalled mastering. A victim of the so-called "Loudness Wars," Death Magnetic is often listed alongside Vapor Trails (Rush) as the two worst examples of this alarming trend. In an effort to stand out and be heard above the din of life, music producers and engineers have pushed the envelope further and further until any breath has been completely sucked out of the recording. Even more unfortunate is the band's relative silence on the matter and the label's refusal to fix it. Fans have been clamoring for a re-release of DM since launch, and now five years later it seems unlikely and irrelevant. What could have been a masterpiece of Progressive Metal sounds like a one-star bootleg and the two cancel out to three stars.

Producer Rick Rubin's CV reads like a who's who of the music industry: Johnny Cash, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weezer, Neil Diamond, and Adele have all worked with Rubin. His trademark is a stripped-down, honest approach that tends to expose the artist's vulnerabilities and strengths (as well as weaknesses). After a well-publicized fallout with long-time producer Bob Rock (the inception of which is painfully chronicled in the documentary Some Kind Of Monster), Metallica reinvent themselves under the tutelage of Rubin. The producer suggested the band play in standard tuning, reversing a trend dating back to 1996 with the release of Load. Guitarist, singer and primary songwriter James Hetfield crafts some of his finest, most succinct and mortifying riffs on DM - no doubt with new-found clarity and sobriety having battled and addressed many personal crises with success. Rubin brings out the best in Hetfield, not just as a guitar player but as a singer as well; Hetfield sings with both a calm and aggression not captured properly until this point.

Death Magnetic also marked a change in the band's lineup - bassist Jason Newsted was out, and Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves) was in. Unlike ...And Justice For All, you can actually hear the bass guitar on DM. Unfortunately like everything else it is squashed and flattened beyond recognition. Drummer Lars Ulrich plays with an aggression that had been hibernating for 25 years; Kirk Hammett's guitar solos hearken back to 1991 and the wah-wah heavy Black Album. Highlights include "Broken, Beaten, and Scarred" and "Cyanide." I suggest listening to those two songs first because after fifteen minutes you will have a headache from the shrill, constant noise and will be unable to make it through the other hour of music. Listen to a couple more the next day and repeat this process until you have heard Death Magnetic in its entirety - it will take a week, but it will be worth it.

"Lulu", One real mess of horrible vocals, stupid infantile lyrics, horrible solos and overall guitar playing, very boring melodies, and disgusting drumming. This album is one of the most hated albums of all times, I think that it is for a reason. I really don't know what Metallica's band members were thinking to themselves when they took Mr. Lou Reed from Velvet Underground, and made this piece of garbage. After listening to this album you can confidently say that, this is it, Metallica is a sold out band, making some poser-like "metal" together with a singer which did a very bad job, in vocals, lyrics writing and more... I can't listen to this album without being very sad about what happened to one of my ex-favorite bands, what happened to masterpieces like "Master Of Puppets", "Orion"," Call Of Ktulu", it is really hard for me to think about the current Metallica, a poser pop-metal band, with some of the worst lyrics that Iv'e ever heard, like in " Brandenburg Gate", the song starts with some strumming of chords, then proceeds to some very raspy and oldman-like singing of Lou Reed with the lyrics: "I would cut my legs and tits off when I think of Boris Karloff and Kinski In the dark of the moon" those lyrics are making no sense, I couldn't even realise what are those stupid lyrics are about, are they about Lou Reed cutting his tits and legs when he thinks about some Russian guys? Or like in songs like "The View" lyrics like: " I am the table, I am the view, I am all this" or "I am the tablet", yes, of course that this song has a little more heavy, less stupid melody, but still, it only includes some very simple riffs and fills, with very stupid lyrics and I really don't like it. The only thing that I can think about when I am listening to this album is, where are you, Metallica, what happened to you for god's sake?!

My Overall rating for this album is 1/100 This album is just horrible, a complete piece of garbage.

Master Of Puppets is a Metallica album which was released in 1986, The album is considered one of the most successful albums ever.

Similar to its previous album "Ride The Lightning" this album of Metallica starts with a quiet acoustic intro of the song "Battery", a very gloomy and slow, more melodic introduction to an song which mostly is very heavy, with some aggressive singing of James Hatfield, with fast beating rebelling drumming of Lars Ulrich and some great fast technical solos of Kirk Hammett. The first solo in this song is not very fast but more melodic and right after that comes a really fast technical solo, a more "Metal" solo. After all of this interesting soloing, the song gets back to its verse and chorus and then ends.

The second track is one of the best-known metal songs ever to be exist " Master Of Puppets" the title track, is a pretty long one and it is crafted of two parts of the song, the first one starts with a very fast and heavy riff, as all of the part, with some fast pretty technical solos, and continues to a very emotional more slow and much more melodic part with a beautiful amazing solo of Kirk Hammett the lead guitarist of Metallica. The lyrics in this song are talking about the addict of the band members to drugs and alcohol, and how it reacts on their brains and their life. The lyrics are very powerful and simulating the band members as some puppets which are controlled by the "Master Of Puppets", The booze and the drugs, there are some very detailed and brutal parts in the lyrics as this one, which describes what the "Master" is doing to his slaves, the people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, of course it is a little exaggerated description to what drugs and booze are doing but still it is very bad: "Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams Blinded by me, you can't see a thing Just call my name, 'cause I hear your scream" The second part is a very emotional one that starts with a fantastic melancholic solo of Kirk Hammett, then enters a little more heavy part, and then gets back to a heavy part with a very technical and fast solo which is showing the guitar talent of Kirk Hammett, more than the emotional feeling of the guitar, the song gets back to the verse after that solo then there's a break after the main riff with some dark gloomy laughs at the and and a fade out.

The next song "The Thing That Should Not Be" starts very quietly but then proceeds to a heavy riff then clean, pretty high vocal of James Hatfield enters and the verse continues playing. The lyrics in the song are talking about the story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P Lovecraft, and describes especially the character Chtulu, a great formidable monster which lurks in the sea, the song has no long emotional solos and it is pretty short it has one very short and technical solo but it is adding to the atmosphere of the song, and ends with a fade out of a riff.

" Welcome Home (Sanitarium) " is the next song on the list and it starts with artifical harmonics then proceeds to a fantastic dark riff which is the main riff of this song, the first part of the song is pretty emotional and less thrashy and heavy. The song includes 4 solos, 2 of them are more emotional and well though, and the next 2 are more technical and fast solos. After the main intro comes the main riff, then a very emotional delight solo, with some perfect bends and fantastic picking. A clean beautiful vocal of James Hatfield enters, it matches the main riff perfectly, after the pretty heavy chorus, enters a beautiful solo which is a little similar to the first one but a little more technical than the first, the song gets back to the verse after that enters to the chorus, which after it comes the heavy part with some fantastic heavy power chords and fast picking, after that comes the very fast solo with a lot of skill and technique more than emotion. A quick power chord break gets us into the last solo of the song which is heavy but pretty emotional with octaves playing together, matching perfectly into one carefully crafted solo which is combined perfectly with the rest of the song, after the solo there are some powerful power chords with some slow but interesting drumming at the end, with an almost last chord, there is a little drum solo which is fast and interesting for itself, then a last fast power chord comes and that's how the song ends. The song talks about the sanitariums over the world and how easily you can be considered as an insane person, in my opinion, it is talking about the drugs and the booze which gets you insane.

Next on you can see the anti war track named "Disposable Heroes" which is very heavy and aggressive, the main riff is pretty catchy and a little less exciting than the other riffs in the album, the song reminds a little of the punk genre too, especially because of the drumming and the lyric theme. All the song is very fast and got almost no melody at all, with a very technical, unemotional solo, it is fast and heavy much more than well thought, but it has some interesting a little more combined highlights, this song talks about how the "kids" who go to war are just like disposable, and they are used by the military and the state itself.

The next song is "Leper Messiah" which starts with some counting and proceeds to a heavy riff, then to some fine bass with some guitar down strokes along with it. All the song is heavy and got almost no melody, except for a few parts of the song the solo is pretty fast and technical with almost no emotion, after the end of the solo, the song gets back to the main riff and the song ends with a power chord and some hits on the snare. This song is very anti christian and very anti-church, and it is talking about the church which is a tycoon business that takes money, "for god".

The next piece is an instrumental one, and it is the most progressive and most emotional track of this album, it is mostly written by Cliff Burton, Metallica's bassist, the song starts slowly with a fade in of bass with some special effects, then gets to a melodic, emotional riff which I like a lot , gets to a highlight of a new riff which starts with no drums, then a slow emotional drumming comes and then another riff is coming on the base of the first emotional riff, the drumming here is very interesting too, it is very emotional and technical at the same time. There's a little solo which is not very heavy and it is more emotional it is played along with the main riff of the song, then proceeds to some power chords and gong hit, which gets us into a brand new part of the song, which starts quietly with a very soft and mellow bass riff, which starts a very beautiful emotional solo, there are some very interesting bends in this solo, it also includes some very emotional highlights which I listened to a lot of times, this solo is one of the most emotional, mellow, soft, well though solos which Iv'e heard from Metallica ever, it is genius. After that there's another solo which is pretty similar to the first one but it is much shorter. The song proceeds to a more heavy part with a more technical and fast solo, but it has some interesting highlights too, it is pretty emotional even though it is technical. The song gets back to the main riff with some fast double bass drumming that fades out and ends this stupendous piece of Metallica, a very progressive well though one, which is one of the roots of the prog metal sub-genre, at least in my opinion. Very good job of Cliff Burton and the other band members, congratulations Metallica, you wrote one of my favorite instrumentals of all time, two parts of a very emotional progressive song which are carefully crafted into one piece of art, good job.

Next in the album comes " Damage Inc. " which starts with some volume swells that are pretty gloomy, then fades to an aggressive riff which is more technical than really mellow and well thought, it only shows Metallica's virtuoso skills, a very aggressive clean but very heavy and loud singing of James gets in, then gets to the main riff again and continues this, in my opinion, a down in this album. A very technical solo, in my opinion too technical is played along to some riffs, I am not amazed by this solo and by this song at all, the drumming is pretty punk- like, and the song structure is too simple and not really well thought, I feel that it's a pretty boring track compared with all the other tracks in this delightful, heavy and technical but emotional album, and it is a bad ending for this album.

You can't mention the album without reminding of the great artwork. On the artwork which is found on the cover of "Master Of Puppets" album, you can find crosses, graves actually,that are all tied to two red big hands, which are as you can guess, the hands of the frightening master of puppets. You can describe the master of puppets as the drugs and the alcohol which the band members were addicted to, and the graves as the graves of the victims that died young because of the drugs and alcohol and are now at the grave. Amazing artwork indeed.

in my opinion, this album is a very good one, maybe one of the best of metal. I think that this album was very political, and shows the band's political and religious views: anti war and anti christian views. Sadly, after this album Cliff Burton died, in a tragic traffic accident which was a real inversion for Metallica , that got themselves a new bassist Jason Newsted, this changed their style a little and until the album " Load " which was in my opinion, a bad inversion for the band.

I would give this album 83/100 because it has some pretty boring songs, but the overall of the songs are very good in a very high quality as we can only imagine from Metallica.

R.I.P Cliff Burton, we all miss you, brother.

By March of 1986, when "Master of Puppets" was released, it was apparent to anyone with half a brain that metal was not just some here-today-gone-tomorrow musical fad and that the band known as Metallica was the undisputed champion of that genre, at least in the United States. It was their first album to be put out by a major label (Electra) and not only did it crack the top 30 on the charts but stayed in the Hot 200 list for 72 weeks. These rowdy rockers had arrived. As I've confessed before, I wasn't a fan at the time and, being the snob I was, didn't take them seriously. I should have but I didn't. My opinion at the time was that they were obviously very angry about something and I couldn't relate. I'd come of age over a decade earlier to the metallic sounds of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin (in the late 60s when there was plenty of political crap to be pissed off about, believe me) but I adored their music because it was so damned COOL, not because they were expressing some inner rage that stalked within me, looking for a way to get out. I just didn't get it. It was only after seeing various documentaries of them in the last few years that I got sufficiently exposed to their aural art and that prompted me to finally give them a fair listen. There's no doubt that they had a progressive mind-set and weren't satisfied to stay in one place for long so my hat's off to them for their moxie, regardless of their rock & roll attitude. I do prefer their later material mainly because it sounds better fidelity-wise but it helps to know where a group's roots are planted so as to make an unbiased assessment of their music. That's why I'm reviewing their product chronologically.

This record begins with "Battery," wherein big, thick acoustic guitars lead the listener to an onslaught of brittle metal riffs that bite and rip like a pack of Piranhas. Lars Ulrich's frantic drumming is relentless underneath. While the song is superbly tight (something I put a lot of stock in), it's also very predictable. Cliff Burton's bass and the lower frequencies in general are almost non-existent and that fault detracts from the impact the tune might've had. The title track is a definite step upwards. Its aggressive and prog-laden intro lays the foundation for a song that's more dynamic and interesting than the opener was. I was pleasantly surprised by their sudden descent into a calmer, more melodic movement in the middle that provides essential contrast before they slowly climb in intensity back to the original feel. The imaginative arrangement of this tune shows they were growing and learning as composers. "The Things That Should Not Be" is next and its slower rock tempo allows the deeper grit of James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett's guitars to emerge and grab your attention. It's also nice to be able to at least feel the bass even if I can't discern its lines distinctly. To my ears the bad news is that the number lacks cohesiveness, as if it was pieced together from unrelated ideas.

"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is a highlight. The song's atmospheric beginning with its unusual time signature draws me right in and the finesse they display in their approach better allows their musicianship to shine through. The 2nd segment doubles up the beat, turning it into more typical metal fare but the tune doesn't lose its personality in the process. "Disposable Heroes" is a large case of lightning-speed riffs zipping over sensible, grounded drums that wisely avoid trying to match the furious tempo set by the guitars. Hammett plays with fire and fierceness throughout. Here I detect a palpable Black Sabbath influence in their writing but there's no lack of energy, that's for sure. "Leper Messiah" is a growling, chomping monster of a track even though it seems to have swallowed the bass guitar whole. This one has more rough edges surrounding it than the other cuts, hinting to me that this tune just never jelled the way they wanted it to.

The best cut is the instrumental "Orion." That's not an indictment of James' strong voice at all. He's good at what he does. The number's haunting, mysterious opening leads to a penetrating, steady rock rhythm roiling underneath a bank of churning guitars. It's as if the absence of a vocal presence freed them up to relax a bit and to rely on their ingenuity to create a stunning piece of music. The intricate guitar work is engaging from start to finish and I'm happy to be able to hear and enjoy Burton's bass guitar for a change. They close with "Damage, Inc." and they smartly utilize another "ease in" ploy to keep things from becoming stale. Soon, though, this song develops into an all-out blitzkrieg of metal sensibilities, no doubt in order to appease their loyal head-banging flock of followers. That's not a knock at all. The boys in Metallica knew who brought them to the prom in the first place and that it was important to deliver the goods.

"Master of Puppets" has been called one of the greatest metal albums in history so I feel a tad out of place in saying it's only slightly above average in my book. I'm no connoisseur, though, and my estimation of its merits should be taken with a marble-sized grain of salt. At the same time I'm an admirer of any group that can defy the odds and attain spectacular success despite the lack of support from the popular radio stations of that era that would only play hit singles. These guys did it the hard way and they are to be commended for that and for the fact that they were "progressing" steadily in their career. 3.1 stars.

One of the bitterest ironies of the music business inevitably appears when a band or an individual artist fights and claws their way for years up through the sticky morass of mediocrity to finally get that all-important debut album released, only to realize that the really hard work has just begun. In other words, you're in the same boxing arena but now you're facing even tougher competition. That's why the curse of the sophomore record is not a myth at all. The act in question has wisely put their very best, most finely-honed material on that first disc and now must come up with a batch of equally impressive songs in a much shorter span of time. That's the situation that the men of Metallica found themselves in after they'd planted their tattered flag in the public's consciousness in '83 with 'Kill 'Em All,' their shockingly intense introduction to their highly combustible approach to knocking your block off with edgy rock & roll. There was an enormous but as yet untapped audience for their brand of aural rebellion and the crowds that gathered for their concerts grew with every appearance they made. It became apparent that Metallica was no flash in the pan and that metal wasn't just a here-today-gone-tomorrow fad but, as usual, the know-it-all execs that ran the major labels in that era were the last to figure that out. So the group soon realized that album #2 was going to be just as crucial as #1 was and that, my friends, is pressure.

Whether it was advantageous to go all the way to Copenhagen, Denmark to record said disc is something only the members themselves can address. The inside of a studio is usually the same whether you're in Lagos or Honolulu but being far away from home for months on end can sometimes be a detriment to an individual's psyche. Perhaps that goes some distance in explaining why the tracks on 'Ride the Lightning' aren't as remarkably tight and cohesive as they were on its predecessor and maybe not. The bottom line is that I don't sense the exhilarating energy and unbridled joy of creation that I detected on 'Kill 'Em All.' As I stated earlier, though, following up your first foray into the industry just may be the most difficult task any band will ever have to tackle and, with that in mind, Metallica was still more successful than most in that endeavor.

They start with 'Fight Fire With Fire' and, in their favor, they raise the curtain with a slightly misleading but strong acoustic guitar intro that is soon vanquished by a blisteringly hot riff. While I was happy to hear that their fiery ferocity was intact I wasn't pleased by the tune's lack of an identifiable melody to lock onto. However, they do earn points with the loud bomb blast ending that clears the room. 'Ride the Lightning' is next and it features a slower tempo while sacrificing none of the group's inherent power. I do hear a palpable Black Sabbath vibe running through this number and Kirk Hammett's doubled guitar solo is top notch in both execution and effect. 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is a high mark. I'm totally on board with their all-out commitment to being heavy-handed here and for not holding anything back. The overall structure of the arrangement is better from beginning to end than the first two cuts, as well. But what really takes it over the top is the fact that James Hetfield is singing more than screaming, a fortunate turn of events, indeed. 'Fade to Black' follows. Variety is the spice of life and their downshift to a quieter motif at this juncture shows they were more than just a one-trick pony. I do think they feared alienating their balls-to-the-wall, head-banging fan base with such a move, though, because they inject massive power chords into the proceedings unnecessarily as if to prove their continuing virility to those so inclined. It all fits into the uncertainty that surrounds the manufacturing of an entity's second record, though, so I completely understand. Hammett's guitar ride is spectacular, nonetheless.

'Trapped Under Ice' is an expected, obligatory return to their torrid, subtle-as-a-sledgehammer, speed metal regimen and few do it as well as this quartet of ruffians does. When the smoke clears, however, it's a somewhat nondescript rocker offering little in the way of prog or finesse. Things take an upward turn on 'Escape.' If they'd brought in Jon Lord and his roaring Hammond B3 organ this could've easily been a Deep Purple scorcher. And that's a big compliment. It's a very entertaining track from top to bottom and the addition of the old-school prison siren was a stroke of genius. 'Creeping Death' didn't fare as well. To my ears it sounded like the result of a late-night rehearsal studio jam that James was able to devise a workable melody and some macabre lyrics for. If that's how this one came about then it's no disgrace but there's something vital missing. The good news is that Hammett apparently put quite a bit of thought into his guitar lead and the audience participation angle they covered via the forceful 'DIE' shouts no doubt would come in handy on stage in the years to come. They close on a positive note with the instrumental, 'The Call of Ktulu.' This number is the most intriguing on the disc mainly due to Kirk's blazing guitar work. Having said that, I still feel they could've been bolder and taken some more progressive-minded chances with the arrangement, building the piece to a more climactic WOW moment that would've sealed the deal with a fat exclamation point.

Metallica did the very best they could to top themselves every time they entered the studio and that's one of the traits that allowed them to rise above and beyond the limits of their own genre. 'Ride the Lightning' is no exception. Yet I get the feeling that they were stuck in between being tempted to safely duplicate what they'd done before and courageously challenging themselves to go where their rowdy muse was leading them. To call this album a failure would be ridiculous because it further solidified their standing as a force to be reckoned with, causing the major labels to take Metallica and the metal banner they so proudly brandished seriously. 'Ride the Lightning' may not be a masterpiece of prog by any stretch of the imagination but it ain't no conservative piece of fluff, neither. It rocks. 3 stars.

After the disaster piece "Lulu" and the overall very negative reactions, Metallica try to beg for pardon with this release and want to underline their thirtieth anniversary at the same time. During their four anniversary concerts in San Francisco, the band presented a brand new track each night and released this EP with the four tracks exclusively a few days later. What we have here are four tracks that didn't make it on Death Magnetic. They exactly sound like the overall sound of this record and have a quite mediocre production by the overrated Rick Rubin.

When we listen to the songs, it gets quite clear why they didn't make it on the record back at the time. The tracks sound too alike to many solid tracks on Death Magnetic and desperately try to sound like the band's early thrash albums, but horribly fail. The tracks have more or less memorable riffs, always the same vocal ranges, quiet inaudible bass lines, and a mediocre drumming that sounds too loud and present once again. After a few minutes, everything is said in the songs but Metallica need to stretch them too artificially epic lengths. In fact, many old metal bands seem to think that long tracks are epic tracks but they're all wrong. I miss the band's ability to write short and sweet killer tracks like "Fight Fire With Fire", "Battery", or "Dyers Eve".

"Hate Train" is an overall solid track, but sounds like a stretched version of "Fuel". What really annoys me about the track is the pronunciation of James Hetfield. He always sings in a very artificially aggressive way and adds the letter "a" to many of his words like "stand-a", "you-a", "send-a" and so on. He always had this tendency, but it just sound too ridiculous on this one. Maybe he should take some lessons in speech and language pathology and correct this strange trademark.

"Just A Bullet Away" should have ended after four minutes, but has an unnecessary melodic break that destroys the dynamics of the tracks and leads than back to the original style. This is as predictable as it is boring.

"Hell And Back" starts promisingly, but turns around worn out riffs again after awhile. The whole tracks sounds as if the band had recorded two minutes of music and aligned the same bit two times for a length of four minutes before another predictable bridge with a guitar solo kicks off as in any other standard Metallica track from Death Magnetic or the early days. The chorus is repeated as often as in some tracks on Lulu.

"Angel Of Babylon" starts off slow, then kicks off as another fast-paced thrash track, but when I start to get bored the song has some interesting breaks and variations without losing its energizing spirit. The vocals especially show some great efforts and are quite catchy. We even have a little bass solo line in this track, but once again the band could have shortened this track about two minutes or so. Nevertheless, this song is without a doubt the best one on here and is the only one that should have made it on Death Magnetic instead of, for example, "The Judas Kiss". It's not an excellent classic, but surely a pretty good song.

In the end, this is a rather mediocre attempt to beg for pardon, but for most of the fans this strategy worked surprisingly well. People easily change their minds. After "Lulu", many never ever wanted to listen to this band and now everybody says they are back in strength. I can't agree on this. We have three mediocre and one quite good song. The tracks suffer from their useless length, their bad production, and their similarity to Death Magnetic. In the end, I would only recommend this release to diehard fans as anybody else might skip this and listen to the better tracks on Death Magnetic instead. There are too many flaws on here to say that this is a worthy release.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on December 20th of the year 2011.

This album will beat all the scores on any metal portal. This collaboration record between the old and tired experimental rock singer Lou Reed and the aged thrash metal legend Metallica will probably get the lowest average rating ever by the fans. My rating score will probably be amongst the most favourable reviews because I try to analyze this output from an objective and not an emotional point of view. I may accord a score of twenty-five to this album but emotionally, this is not even worth half of this score indeed. Let's take a look on what happened.

Lou Reed and Metallica decided to work together after having played together live at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 25th anniversary show. Lou Reed had been working on a conception album featuring passages inspired by the controversial German playwright Frank Wedekind. Lulu tells the story of a desperate and disillusioned woman that is only a shadow of her past and lives a fatal emotionless circle of sex, abuse and despair. The emotionless spoken word vocals by Lou Reed, the minimalist instruments, the experimental style of this album and the cold and simple album cover underline the concept. Let's note that this album doesn't feature much of James Hetfield's vocals and only a few lost thrash riffs. This album is eighty percent Lou Reed and maybe twenty percent Metallica and this estimation is eventually even quite optimistic.

So far, so good but the music itself is even harder to digest as the story itself. The two artists created a lot of overlong tracks with a lack of variation, emotion and diversity. This is no accident but an effect they really wanted to create to bring the story to life and give an authentic and unique twist to this experimental collaboration. The final result included though too many emotionless overlong passages that may even bore the most open-minded and intellectual music fan in the world to death. After two or three minutes, everything is said but the songs are stretched at least three times too much with a peak of almost twenty minutes of dumb and hypnotizing boredom in the final "Junior Dad". Metallica sad that the section of classic music in the second half of the track made them cry and really touched them but I never heard such a boring and closed minded piece of classic music. There are a few additional musicians that play viola, cello, violin and electronic instruments but everything sounds as one big indefinable potpourri. Don't even think about symphonic metal bands such as Therion, Apocalyptica or even Savatage if you read about those guest musicians who know how to mix metal music with classic passages. Even Metallica's controversial "S&M" experiment which I actually liked was way more convincing than this failure.

Almost all songs are overlong, boring and dumb but I really must point out the track "Little Dog". This is by far the worst metal song I have ever listened to in my life. Well, I would not even call this music. It has a more than minimalist and exchangeable instrumental work while Lou Reed uses a completely emotionless and blurry murmured voice to put some almost random spoken word passages over the music for eight long minutes. He has no charisma, no variation and no energy. This can't even be defended by the fact that the band wanted to bring a desperate and emotionless character to life. Music, vocals and lyrics just don't fit together. If you are at this kind of emotional degree, you are already more than suicidal. Even a dog would moan and run away by listening to this incredible piece of garbage and try to commit suicide by biting his own tail off until there is no blood left to be shed. This song is an open insult to psychedelic rock, Krautrock and any progressive Stoner metal as any amateur band of any of these kinds is better and more authentic than what Lou Reed and Metallica deliver with this anti-effort. This sounds like Johnny Cash on a heavy dose of cannabis just before his death. I declare this the worst metal song ever.

Compared to this disasterpiece even the really bad tracks on this overlong double-album merit a few low percentage ratings and vary between horrible and pretty bad. The longer the tracks are, the worse they get. Many critics laughed about the weird "The View" with its strange and ridiculous lyrics but this track turns out to be the most dynamicle and diversified track on the album which is only beaten by the solid opener "Brandenburg Gate" which is simply too short to get redundant even if the chorus is already repeated way too much. I want to underline that we talk about acceptable to mediocre songs and not about good efforts but next to the eight disasterpieces that follow these songs sound like a relief. Anybody that bashed "The View" will be stunned by the high degree of failure of the rest of the record if he or she is tough enough to make it entirely through this record. Sometimes, you can skip five minutes within the song and everything still sounds the same. Let me give you an advice: Don't waste your time and money on that. Don't buy this because you have all the other Metallica records. Don't expect this to grow on you. It will probably even get worse the more youi listen to this. If you didn't like "The View", you'll hate the rest even more. If you liked "The View", chances are elevated you may nevertheless hate the rest. This is the kind of record one person among ten thousand will like but I'm not into this at all.

In the end, the acceptable two first tracks, the story and the at least interesting concept itself and the acceptable sound of the record add a few points to a very bad final rating. I always defended Metallica and I liked all of their experimental works in the past. I'm one of those who adored "Load" and especially "ReLoad" quite a lot and who was able to accept the "St. Anger" record which really grew on me over the years and happens to be among my favourite Metallica albums. "Lulu" just won't grow. There is no diversity. There is no energy. There is no authenticity. Even harsh critics must admit that the controversial "St. Anger" is a masterpiece compared to this, anybody else is really out of his mind. The release date of this garbage is a hard day for the heavy metal universe. But let's see this from a positive point of view. No matter what Metallica will record in the beginning of the next year, the band's upcoming solo record can definitely only be an improvement. But they surely lost a lot of fans with "Lulu" who won't give them any new chance and I can really understand this. What did Metallica think by doing this? I really think they do whatever they want and don't give a damn about anything else. That's artistically interesting but commercially suicidal. There is no excuse this time.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on November 1st of the year 2011.

I admit it. By all definitions of the word, I am a geezer and have been for quite a while. Therefore, the whole metal movement and the bands that personified it when it arose in the 80s were of only passing interest to me. I assure you, had Metallica appeared on the scene a dozen years earlier I would've gone crazy over them and the gritty music they made but by '83 I had mellowed significantly. It wasn't that I had an aversion to loudness. On the contrary, I'd not only hungrily devoured albums like "Are You Experienced" and "Machine Head" when they appeared but voluntarily had my ears pinned back when witnessing the likes of Hendrix and Deep Purple in concert. It also wasn't that I was offended by the anger and angst in the lyrics because I'd had groups like The Who and The Stones who shared my youthful, rebellious outlook and I'd enthusiastically pumped my fist to their music in my bedroom and when seeing them perform at the local arenas. (When you're so irate you could put your fist through the wall listening to The Hollies does nada for you.) So nothing about metal insulted me, it was just that in that time frame I was more intrigued by what was going on in jazz, world beat and the lighter side of progressive rock. When Metallica's videos started showing up on the infernal MTV network I paid them and their sneering peers bare notice. Yet I could tell that they were most likely going to endure due to the fact that, compared to the pseudo-punk and New Wave acts that dominated that era, the men of Metallica were genuinely talented musicians who knew what they were doing. I was right. Almost three decades later they and their legion of fans are still a force to be reckoned with so it's only fair that I give their product an unbiased assessment. Plus, I wanna do it. So there.

Briefly, after a rocky beginning that involved two of the founding members being replaced, Metallica went into the studio in May 1983 to record their style of raucous, irked mayhem without a trace of compromise. Released in July of that same year, "Kill 'Em All" may not have taken the world or the biz by storm but it did mark the beginning of a welcome drift away from the disturbing triteness of the then-current deluge of vapid pop, back toward the roots of hard & heavy rock pioneered by rough outfits like the original Jeff Beck Group, MC5 and Blue Cheer. Drummer Lars Ulrich, bassist Clifford Lee Burton, guitarist/vocalist James Alan Hetfield and lead axeman Kirk Hammett were only interested in playing sizzling specimens of ballsy rock & roll that sated their souls and got their eager audiences off. They may or may not have realized they were breaking ground on a whole new wing in the planet's music building that the public had been yearning to see constructed for years but it didn't matter. They opened the flood gates.

Debut albums can be dicey deals. The most common ailments that adversely affect a band's first venture are lack of confidence, timidity and too much self-consciousness. Metallica suffered from none of those maladies as exemplified by the raw aggressiveness of the opening cut, "Hit the Lights." You can tell they had visions of SRO concert halls in mind by the grandiose beginning they deliver, setting the listener up for a no-frills metal onslaught. Happily, I detect a solid Deep Purple influence lurking in the song's foundation while Hammett shreds like a madman covered with ants. "The Four Horsemen" follows, a riff-driven rocker that's predictable arrangement-wise but intense enthusiasm can't be overvalued when trying to make an impression and they have plenty to spare. The middle section of the tune turns more adventurous as they guide the number through some unexpected feels and tempos. "Motorbreath" is next, presented at a speed-demon pace and accentuated by tight kicks from Ulrich. I must report that Hetfield's vocal is more shouting than singing at this juncture of his career while acknowledging that years down the road his steady improvement in that area would be nothing short of remarkable. Their naïve innocence is on full display during "Jump in the Fire" as they make it obvious that their sole mission is to further their boisterous agenda even if the track's fidelity has to take a back seat to sheer ferocity. Kirk's guitar ride burns hot as a Hades summer. Speaking of fiery, "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" is Burton's baby from start to end. His lone, loud-as-hell bass guitar intro is intentionally anti-Van Halen in nature but intriguing in the unique stance it takes. The group dives in at the halfway point but it's Clifford who's making the strongest statement, proving his undeniable ability to run with the big boys via this nut-busting instrumental.

"Whiplash" knocks you upside your skull with sharp blasts resounding over Lars' heavy toms, then it evolves into a locomotive-on-high-octane-racing-fuel extravaganza that takes no prisoners. As I implied earlier, in the early 70s I would've eaten this stuff up like bon-bons because the band's overall musicianship and tightness is nothing short of phenomenal. The royal intro they attach to "Phantom Lord" doesn't last long as they soon revert to their bread-and-butter, unrestricted maniacal rock. Again they surprise me by digressing into a semi-prog motif briefly before returning to their blazing sprint. I found myself amused during "No Remorse" by how they consistently stick Kirk's guitar leads way up front in the mix as if to say "we don't care about being slick, Dick, just listen to THIS!" It's another road-grader of a tune with no hint of a let up in their aural assault to be found. "Seek and Destroy" exemplifies everything ruthless about metal music due to its unapologetically pulsating, head-banging mindset. This cut, maybe more than any other on the disc, forces their regal roots to the surface and shows Metallica to be an ensemble steeped in the grand tradition of the rock titans that were roaring like lions when they were still pooping their Pampers. "Metal Militia" is next and there's only so much you can assimilate when they're flying by at the speed of light. I just tried to hang on. The much slower, menacing approach they adopt for the start of "Am I Evil" brings to mind the dark aura that Black Sabbath once exuded. But by now the unrelenting sledgehammer effect becomes headache-inducing inside this graying head of mine although Hammett does a fantastic job of imitating Ritchie Blackmore on this song. They close with "Blitzkrieg" and they go out the way you'd expect, riding atop another growling riff like demonic cowboys and relentlessly chewing up the landscape without mercy.

When Metallica was added to this site I, not being all that familiar with their body of work, had reservations about their qualifications. However, now that I've investigated their debut, I clearly see the progressive spirit they possess because, while they may be many things, they're never boring, unimaginative or cowardly and those are essential ingredients to being labeled as prog-related. I remember the excitement I experienced every time bands like Trapeze dug in their claws and produced gut-grabbing hard rock in the 60s and 70s that acted as a necessary pressure-release valve for my pent-up emotions. Now I'm starting to understand why Metallica's music meant so much to so many, especially during the empty 80s. They met the same primal need that must be met in each generation, else the Earth will explode. 3.4 stars.

Beyond Magnetic EP is basicly 4 songs that weren't included on the Death Magnetic album, because they were restricted to have only 10 songs on that record. The vocals are not mastered so I won't bash them too much on this review.

Let's start with the first song, Hate Train. Hate Train is a song that goes very nice on the beginning, then it gets very boring, and then you get into it again. The main riff kinda reminds me of their song Fuel. I'm going to jump straigh to Hell and Back now. Hell And Back is kind of a ballad, one of my favorite songs on this EP. The intro is very catchy and the main riff kicks ass. It's a very nice song actually, I love the feeling in it. It has some cool transitions, really nice riffs, it's obviously one of the best songs on Beyond Magnetic. Just A Bullet Away is just another song on this record, nothing special, the riffs are interesting though. This song was kinda boring, maybe one of the worst songs on the album, I was begging for it to end, I had to put all my effort on finishing the song. Rebel of Babylon is one of the best songs on the EP, after being tortured by 7 minutes of boredom with Just A Bullet Away, this song really brought me pleasure, the riffs are very fast and aggressive, it's really kickass, maybe it blows away any of the songs on Death Magnetic.

The highlights on the album are for sure 'Hell and Back' and 'Rebel of Babylon'.

I don't think this is a good album at all, there are 2 songs that are great, but apart from that, I wouldn't give it more than a 3, altough, I'll give it a 2, it's just for collectors and fans.

I'm going to review the album Kill 'Em All by the legendary Thrash Metal band Metallica. This is Metallica's best work IMO. This is where all the energy is! This has a very raw and bad production, but I couldn't care less, considering they couldn't afford for a better production. The album starts very well with the song 'Hit The Lights', the whole album is aggressive and fest. Some of the songs were written by their previous guitarrist, Dave Mustaine, current Megadeth's Guitarrist/Vocalist. I've heard many people say that this album is too raw in terms of writing, but well, that's obvious! This was the birth of Thrash Metal, it's normal that it's raw, they haven't got any other Thrash Metal bands as an influence or to guide them. This was Metallica taking their influences of Punk and New Wave of Brittish Heavy Metal, putting them in a blender, and creating my favorite Metal genre, Thrash Metal! This is an unique album, it means a lot to me and I'm sure it also means a lot to all the Thrashers or Metallica fans out there. I'm going to give five stars on this album, it's not a progressive rock album, but it diserves those five stars! I want to finish this review by saying that Dave Mustaine diserves a lot of recognizement due to the fact that he wrote many songs on this record.