BEYOND MAGNETIC

Less than 2 months after releasing the hated Lulu album, Metallica releases this EP with four unreleased songs from the "Death Magnetic" sessions. Released, perhaps, to calm down the fans and make them forget about the Lulu fiasco. But, does it succeed?

No. Not entirelly, at least. In the first place, these songs are leftovers from a 4 year old recording session. Because, at the time, Metallica chose not to release these songs with the album, they also didn't worry too much about the mixing or the mastering. And they haven't bothered since. The credits say it has been "rough mixed" on March 2008, and that's exactly how it feels. Rough. Don't worry, these aren't some horrible quality cassetes from a garage band. The quality is good enough to make it listenable. Some may even like this extra roughness.

Then the lyrics. They're plain horrible. "Suck on the barrel, suck until it's try". Seriously? They can do better than this.

Now, the music... it's pretty good. It's a return to their hard-hitting trash metal of the 80s. And they are more complex too. Each song features several different riffs. Some of them are great. Others, not so much. There are also some interesting mood changes and other surprises here and there that should please the more progressive ears.

Good, but non-essencial. 3 stars. Recommended to any Metallica, progressive metal or thrash fan.