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by Matt_Ouellette from Fall River, MA

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Metallica "Death Magnetic" Review
Sep 11, 2008 | 2:34 PM
Category: Music
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Metallica "Death Magnetic" (2008)

Five years since the release of 2003's risky album "St. Anger", Metallica comes out with "Death Magnetic".  Death Magnetic is a big change from their 2003 release, but I think most fans will find it's material very remenicent of their older albums is some ways. Lars Ulrich (Metallica's drummer) described the album as being the missing link between 1988's ...And Justice for All and 1991's self titled release, better known as The Black Album.

One big noticable change from St. Anger is the guitar efforts of lead guitarist Kirk Hammett.  The guitar solo's are back and they really let him out of the cage. Many of the solo's feature some of Hammett's classic pentatonic work, along with a lot of work using the harmonic minor scale. (That's the middle-eastern sounding one, see my Music Theory blog). Another lead aspect you will find is dual guitar harmonies, much like you would find on the  ...Justice album.

In many ways this is like a classic Metallica album, but this album has a little something for everyone. The song "The Unforgiven III" shows a softer side of the band and their is a nice piano arranged almost neo-classical feel. The vocal delivery is great and the song is full of emotion. Metallica loaded up some thrash on this album, too. Songs like "Broken, Beat & Scarred", "All Nightmare Long", "The Judas Kiss" and "My Apocalypse" (just to name a few) show off that the band can still thrash it up better than anyone else today. Also, the designated ballad of the album, track 4, "The Day That Never Comes" was the first song from this album to hit the radio. For those of you who have yet to hear it, the best way I could descrive it is let's say if  the classic songs "Fade to Black" and "One"  had a child, it would make "The Day That Never Comes" which starts out soft and ends hard.  New bass player Robert Trujillo has his presence greatly felt, too. The instrumental of the album "Suicide and Redemtion" (Yes, I said "instrumental" their first in 20 years) Robert displays some fine bass playing and pretty much everyone in the band has a moment to shine in this one sone which clocks as about 10 minutes long.

Over-all, I think this is an amazing album and if you're one of those fans who gave up on Metallica after St. Anger, you might want to rebuild that bridge and give "Death Magnetic" a shot. I know I said it sounds like a classic Metallica album, but don't expect it to directly sound like one. Remember, they are older now, so, the lyric themes are going to be a bit more mature and it's all new material; however, in my opinion this album is worthy to be placed with some of Metallica's best work ever.

You don't have to take my word for it. You can go to www.metallica.com where they are streaming all the songs for everyone to listen to in full length.

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Member Comments Total Comments: 17
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Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 12, 2008 | 8:54 PM

As a protégé of Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammett sounds a lot like him, and I like them both.
What I don't like is predictable arrangements, like I heard on "The Day That Never Comes."
I'll check out the other tracks on their website and get back to you a bit later on what I think of them.
"And Justice For All" I consider to be one of the most underrated albums of all time...seriously. Don't roll your eyes, hipsters! You just had to "be there," so-to-speak.
Lyrically, they're not exactly poets. Their lyrics in general tend to be rife with machismo, which...you know...goes with the music. But as a result, you're not going to get the most profound, thought-provoking material in the lyrics department.
XM actually has an all-Metallica channel. That gives you a pretty good measurement of the scope of their contribution.
An aside, Matt; are you at all familiar with Paul Gilbert? I don't listen to all of the "guitar heroes" the way I used to, but I went through a stage when they were all I listened to.
Matt_Ouellette read my blog view my photos
Sep 12, 2008 | 11:47 PM

Justice... is rather underrated, but only because of it's production value. If it sounded like Puppets or The Black Album (Like actually hearing the bass and having more mid-crunch in the guitars) it would probably be widely regarded as one of the best metal albums of all time. But Justice does get some good attention, it's a great album, but good producion goes a long way.

I am familiar with Paul Gilbert, but only from reading magasines and people sending me videos of his work on youtube and what-not. I don't own any albums he worked on though,b ut I know their's many of them.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 13, 2008 | 6:53 PM

Paul Gilbert is absolutely amazing. I used to own a copy of Racer X's live album (on which he was featured), and it had some of the most frenzied fretwork you've ever heard in your life. It would absolutely blow your wig.

Actually, to the contrary of your point about "...Justice's" production value; I think that's a huge part of what made it great. It gave it that "punk rock ethic" that James Hetfield was so inspired by. I used to be a huge thrash/punk/hardcore fan back in the eighties. I listened to the Misfits (Hetfield's favorite), Corrosion of Conformity, Cryptic Slaughter, Agnostic Front, The Crumbsuckers, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (DRI), and all of those bands that made me an object of ridicule in a high school full of kids who listened to nothing but AOR. I don't even know if AOR is a term that anyone knows anymore. AOR stands for "Album Oriented Rock." We were forced to mix it in with more underground type stuff at 105.1 WTOS when I spun for them back in the day. You know, the old standards; Boston, Grand Funk, The Stones, The Who, Led Zep, etc. We'd play "Misty Mountain Hop" one minute, and the next we'd throw on "Who's Got The 10 and 1/2?" by Black Flag. Back then it was really incredible. It's all gone now of course. Nothing is fun anymore. Thank God I'm not growing up in this dead era...yuck. For the record, I'll be 39 on the 23rd of this month in case you were wondering.
Matt_Ouellette read my blog view my photos
Sep 13, 2008 | 9:17 PM

haha yeah, as for ...Justice. I don't think Jason Newsted (bass) though that it was that great lol. Kill 'em All had a big punkish vibe to it. Ya know, pretty raw, a bunch of kids just jamming out.

Yeah, well, the envelope in music has been pushed so far that nothing is that fresh many more. Most musicians today just mainly focous on copying their heroes or being the next, whomever, rather than being the first themselves. (I talked about this in my first blog entry haha) There are still some musicians that show heart, but there are just too many that are focoused on being pretty boys and clothing trend starters.

Makes me sick... haha
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 11:22 AM

Don't get me wrong...I think there's plenty of great music out there today...that wasn't what I meant when I called this a "dead era."

I just mean that everything exciting has been done, and thanks to the advent of the www, everything is just too scattered.

There will NEVER be another "next big thing" again...never. I think Nirvana was really the last. Some might argue it was the whole rap/metalcore genre. I disagree. I see that as more of a fad.

I remember when (long after I'd already been listening to them) Nirvana really broke through. It was very exciting. To a lesser degree, (and more gradually) the same happened with Metallica, too.

That excitement factor of new bands breaking through is gone because nobody listens to terrestrial radio anymore, and MTV has been reduced to an infomercial for shlock and krap. There will never again be a music "movement" of any kind.
Matt_Ouellette read my blog view my photos
Sep 16, 2008 | 6:58 PM

Yeah, metalcore is just a fad. It's basically combining emo (another fad) and mixing it with a bunch of metal-head wanna-be's.

Yeah, I haven't bothered with MTV in probably 10 years now. They are a complete discrase to their former selves.

They should just call it "Reality TV for old wash-up's" Network.
Graham_Cracker read my blog view my photos
Sep 19, 2008 | 3:05 PM

...Guess somebody at the website liked my post...because I'm not responsible for posting it more than once.
Matt_Ouellette read my blog view my photos
Sep 20, 2008 | 3:24 AM

I guess it was such a great post it has to be posted seven times haha
charlottewiseman read my blog view my photos
Sep 30, 2008 | 8:05 PM

Nice blog.

I'm not a Metallica fan by any means, not really my kind of music, but if you have XM you should definitely check out the Metallica station, they have a Led Zeppelin one too (which I prefer haha)
tenotoge
Oct 3, 2008 | 12:39 AM

I bought this a few weeks ago, and yes - it is the best thing they've released since the black album. So 1992-2008 was a waste...took them 16 years to come up with a decent album.
Matt_Ouellette read my blog view my photos
Oct 13, 2008 | 6:45 PM

Thank you charlotte for reading! Led Zep is good, too. ;)

tenotage, it is a great album. I personally loved Load and ReLoad.
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Matt_Ouellette

Hi, my name's Matt Ouellette. I'm really interested music, sports, history and journalism. I am a also musician myself. I was born and raised in Fall River, MA and proud of it! I also have a youtube account where I cover songs on guitar and post some originals, too. To view this go to: www.youtube.com/mattouell
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Member Since: 6/23/2008


 

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