Death Magnetic: Like coming out of a coma

I recently got Metallica’s new album Death Magnetic, which was supposed to be the band’s attempt at returning to its roots. I am confident when I say they succeeded. It’s not as good as the ‘old stuff’, but that’s not the point. The album is evidence that they got their groove back and still know how to rock hard after having some rough patches in trying to redefine their style throughout the years. Their last album St. Anger was a catastrophe, but after learning of the numerous hardships the band faced during the writing and recording period of that album, it makes sense. Jason Newsted, their bassist of sixteen years quit. James Hetfield ended up checking himself into rehab for alcohol and other addictions. The Napster scenario was still going on to a degree. A band can’t stop and start writing and recording processes and expect to get anything good out of it, yet this is exactly what Metallica had to do for St. Anger. Thus, the final product was a terrible piece of music that shouldn’t even be considered one of their albums because it’s not them.

I will be the first to admit that I actually like Load and Reload. I wasn’t one of the ‘old stuff’ puritans who burned their CD’s because the band got hair cuts, and decided to go for a more blues-hard rock style instead of pure metal. I don’t care if it was Metallica who wrote it, but ‘Bleeding Me’ is a damn good song. Death Magnetic seems to be pleasing the old fans because many of the guitar riffs sound like they come from …And Justice For All, and Master of Puppets, not to mention that ‘The End of The Line’ has a creeping (pun intended) resemblence to ‘Creeping Death’ from the Ride The Lightning album. Lars Ulrich played his parts live, too. No fancy pro-tools for this album. It really tells because there are parts where he gets ahead of himself just a little tinsy bit, then hurries up and corrects it. I like that in a metal song.

The solos

Just about every song has a guitar solo in it, sometimes two. They’re not as long and complex as Kirk Hammet’s old work, but it’s been ages since he was ‘allowed’ to play a metal solo in a Metallica album; since the ‘Black album’ in 1991.

The length

The shortest song on the album is five minutes, with the average track length being about seven, one nearly ten, and another eight minutes. It will take the listener seventy-four minutes to listen to the entire cd.

Thumbs up

After years of redefining their style and image, Death Magnetic proves that they can still return to their roots and know what they are doing. I give this album two thumbs up.