DEATH MAGNETIC

5 years have passed since Metallica delivered one of the worst albums in the history of not only metal, but music! I´m talking of course about St. Anger. An album with the most horrible drum sound ever, no interesting riff, pretty mediocre lyrics, boring long same-y passages which could be seen as the instrumental sections of the songs and not one solo, fill nor harmonic desplay from Kirk Hammett. The album was absolute shit and no MTV awards, TV specials or Rolling Stone review (4 stars...) can tell me otherwise, this was pure and utter fucking shit!

And now Death Magnetic is out. And it´s way, way better than St. Anger... but 75 min of sound check makes a better album than St. Anger, so there is no credit in what I´ve just said. But one thing is for sure: Metallica, the Metallica we all love, is back. Why? Trash metal is back! So we can all be happy and rest our heads while these 7 min songs blast out of our loudspeakers, always with a smile in our lips... right? Wrong! Death Magnetic might see Metallica being Metallica again, but it´s a pretty mediocre Metallica for that matter. No song really can hold ground against... pretty much any of their ´80 material, not even with The Black Album. Yes, it might be their best since the former mentioned Black Album, some might even say it´s their best since ...And justice for all ´cause it is with the Black Album Metallica started to slip (still I would go as far as saying it´s one of their very best)... and this may be true, but, again, that´s only ´cause they have delivering crap after crap, with the culmination of the already mentioned St. Anger. At first look though we are pleasently surprised. Hey, there are some long intros! Hey, there are a lot of tempo changes! Hey, there are SOLOS! Hey, this even qualifies as Prog metal! And then you listen to it again... and it´s not that perfect, but pretty close to what they once were. And then you listen to it a third time, a fourth time... and... it´s not that good. Hetfield has forgotten how to sing metal, he seems to be singing a louder version of Lynyrd Skynyrd which does not meet with the music at all. His lyrics are just plain out stupid; "What don´t kill ya makes ya most strong" is barked repeatedly ...I must say I think I heard Power metal bands with better lyrics than these. The music is really not that exciting either, I don´t hear any lick, riff or "idea" behind these songs that really makes me think twice before writting this. The production and mixing is pretty awful too. Completly pale, what you see (4 musicians) is what you get. There is no real use of all the elements the studio can provide. The sound is not raw nor is it polished. It´s totally pale, no substance, no "wall of sound", nothing... But I have left the worst for last: Lars Ulrich´s playing. My God, this must be not only one of the most overrated drummers in metal (with this I don´t mean he is mentioned as the best that much... but just to mention him once among the best is already too much), he is down right one of their worst, and this seems to be his "swan song" in suckyness. He down right ruins the (very little) feeling a song might have, perhaps the best example of this is the intro of "The Day That Never Comes" which just has to be heard to be belived. He really seems to want to fuck it up, and man does he succeed!

But with all said and done I must, again, point out that the old Metallica is back, not in the greatest of form, but they are back none the less. Some fans even seem to really like this album, in the archives for example, there are quite a few who think of it as a great comeback. I for one can think without such fanatism and write this review not because of my love for Metallica, but for the respect I once had for the band, the true Metallica, the ´80 Metallica. And maybe they are back with this one, but meanwhiles we get this pretty mediocre album... but Metallica has gotten me used to them.

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