Saturday, 06 September 2008
The best Metallica album since... ever. After twenty five years, the hopes are not high for “Death Magnetic” : Metallica have become a co-opted cliché by virtue of time, and their release schedule has now slowed to a glacial 2 albums-a-decade. Their latest albums have commercially underperformed and been virtually written out of the bands history - hardly ever being played in concert, let alone acknowledged by the world at large.
Which is a great shame. The more recent records are brave and interesting experiments in finding new styles and new ways to say old things and old ways of saying new things.
In many ways, the band toppled from their throne with the release of “Load”/”Reload” - two albums recorded at the same time, a huge set of Blue Alternametal with Country & Western tinges that should have been ruthlessly sliced in half. “St Anger” - the brave and fierce followup was critically rubbished when it should have been applauded. Nonetheless, a lot rides on this : either Metallica become a legacy act who will churn out endless diluted copies through habit to diminishing returns - a kind of furious, thrash metal Rolling Stones - or take a brave new route : the kind taken with “St Anger” that nobody seemed to appreciate. Sometimes people place bands in a pigeonhole, and get enraged when the band step outside of that.
But aside from all that is “Death Magnetic” any good? Is it that dreaded Return To Form? Is it the work of jaded millionaires without any fire? Is it the final nail in the coffin?
Simply put, “Death Magnetic” is the best Metallica album since 1986 - and very possibly ever. A brilliant, concise, technically gifted and complex record that rewards repeated listening and sees Metallica re-invigorated and reborn.
“Death Magnetic” is THE Metal Album of The Year. No if’s, no buts. Sure, Slipknot may be heavier, AC/DC bluesier, and whatever, but nowhere are all the ingredients of metal placed together so cohesively as in the 75 minutes that is “Death Magnetic” : “Death Magnetic” is a fierce, unique voice - it opens with the arresting “That Was Your Life”, grabs you by the scruff of the neck, and doesn’t let go until the final seconds. There is a brief interlude with the classical intro to “Unforgiven III”, but aside from that, it is a rampage from start to end. Immense, intense, and a fierce declaration of angry intent with every second.
For those of you who want to know exactly what it sounds like, I will tell you this : it’s as if Metallica sat on the best bits of “And Justice For All..” and “Master of Puppets”, and had more time and money to get the drum sounds perfect and the solos just right. The songs are intense and immense : ten minute epics of, constantly shifting tempos and styles, angry, articulate vocals that are lyrically very much Hetfield at the apex of his ability. Success has not tempered them, and the material is a fierce bark of no compromise. Most fans are familiar with “The Day That Never Comes”, but that’s really only scratching the surface : being the most immediately accessable song on the album, and the most atypical. Then there’s “The End Of The Line” (previously played live in a slightly different form), “Broken, Beat & Scarred”, and, for the first six songs, a near breathless sonic assault. Bassist Rob Trujillo, in his studio debut with the band, meanwhile has slotted right into the band and brought bass to the fore with prominent bass work (on “All Nightmare Long” and “Suicide & Redemption”) for the first time since 1996’s “King Nothing.”
“Death Magnetic” also features an instrumental - for the first time since the 80’s, Metallica have shorn a song of vocals and produced a furious barrage of relentless riffery. These songs, all of them, are complex, intense, intricate : in many ways, each song is a thrash metal symphony made of many parts of recurring motifs and musical pieces that form together to create a challenging whole. Make no mistake, this is not an easy album to listen to, but it is a rewarding, dense, multi-layered record that rewards repeated listening. It has a classic sound and a strength of song writing that has rarely been bettered and which Metallica themselves have not really explored since the Eighties. A classic of the genre.Only registered users can write comments.
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