Metallica - Death Magnetic

[Jeff]

Welcome back! A return to the sound of the late 80's. Death Magnetic sounds a lot to me like '...And Justice For All'.

I have to admit I was not a fan of their last effort, 'St. Anger'. I found 'St. Anger' to be mostly unlistenable after awhile. The songs were too long and by far too repetitious. Honestly, I didn't even feel that it sounded like a Metallica album.

Fans of the 90's era Metallica probably won't find this album as appealing as those, as the 'pop' sound is still gone, but 'Death Magnetic' at least sounds like Metallica. Except maybe faster and heavier than ever before. It really does harken back to the first four albums of the 80's, and even has their first instrumental since then. If someone told me this album was supposed to be released between Justice and The Black Album, I wouldn't have a hard time believing it.

I think the songs are still a bit too long, and they actually had to leave a planned track off because they ran out of room on the CD. I feel that it is almost a bit too much to take in even. By the time I near the end of the CD my attention has wandered. The fast pace helps the few slower songs really stand out, but I think maybe too many songs were fast paced.


Anyone else heard it? I remember being surprised at how much conversation there was for St. Anger back in 2003, but a lot of folks have come and gone since then, so it will be interesting to see if anyone still has any love for Metallica.

[Pip Madeley]

Cue Ant Williams

[Anthony Williams]

Death Magnetic is, in my opinion, the finest album that Metallica have produced since Master of Puppets.

I realise that that's a sweeping statement, but when one looks at the last three studio albums, there's not a huge amount to compete with. Then one considers the Black Album and ...And Justice for All, and I wouldn't be surprised to be asked if I was on drugs! Well, I'm not...

So, why do I have this slightly insane belief? Well, I believe that Death Magnetic incorporates the best elements of every era of Metallica - the speed and virtuosity of the first three albums, the complexity of ...And Justice, the catchyness of the Black Album, the groove of the Load/Reload era and the pure anger of St Anger. The result is something truely special.

Songs too long? I doubt it - it's little different in length to those on Master of Puppets and on ...And Justice. At least they're not repetitive, unlike those on St Anger.

This really is a serious contender to be my favourite album of 2008 - we'll just have to see if Marillion pull out all the stops at the end of the month

Ant x

[Jeff]

It's growing on me even more now that I've been able to listen to it a few more times, learn it and digest it. (I had only heard it about 3 times at the first post). I'm still not convinced that some of the songs might go on a little too long though. To me it isn't about how long tracks were on other albums, or the actual lenght itself, but whether or not they are doing anything new after a certain. A song naturally goes on for 8 minutes that's fine, but if you realize at 8 minutes that the song has been repeating itself for 3 minutes, then that's different.

My favorite tracks so far are All Nightmare Long, The Day That Never Comes, and Unforgiven III. They actually remind me a bit of Enter Sandman, One, and Unforgiven from the Black Album.

Incidentally, I used to also hold to the opinion Master of Puppets was Metallica's finest album, but I don't think I have agreed with that in some time. It is perhaps their most virtuoso performance (though perhaps not anymore after Death Magnetic), but now I think The Black Album is the best. It doesn't have the speed and virtuosity of Puppets, but I think the songwriting is better. At this point I would have no problem saying that Death Magnetic ranks with Puppets and Black as Metallica's three finest albums though.