Metallica: Death Magnetic Review

Death Magnetic is a very interesting release by Metallica. For the past 17 years, Metallica has been receiving negative remarks for their work due to the change in style of their music. Most notably was the criticism from Load and on, save S&M. People have been asking the musicians to return to their roots ever since. With the release of St. Anger, they claimed to have accomplished this, but the result was their most embarrassing album ever. St. Anger was not just a bad album for Metallica, it was one of the worst musical sessions I have ever heard from any band or artist, period. However, Death Magnetic takes a different approach.

There are both pros and cons to this new release. I'll start with the pros. First and foremost, the CD starts off well. The sound is reminiscent of their earlier work. There are shredding guitar solos with a qualifying "heavy" output, and on some aspects, it fits in with the likes of ...And Justice For All, my favorite Metallica album.

Actually, that's the only pro that I can come up with at the moment. But that's not a bad thing! This was a very important accomplishment for the band, and it's, for the most part, decently consistent throughout the entire album. Unfortunately, it is also connected to my cons, and I do have more than one of those.

When you start Death Magnetic, it sounds as if it's going to take you back to the Metallica of the 80's. Most songs have some resemblance to their older works, but at the same time, you also hear their more recent inspirations as well. Thankfully, nothing like St. Anger, but more like Load and ReLoad. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing either. I, myself, while not liking Load and ReLoad near as much as the previous albums, I did not loath them. But, for a lot of people, they did, and therefore, will get a hint of the same with the album of topic.

There are a couple songs where, the songs as a whole, sound very Load era influenced, and then in the middle, they'll break into an ...And Justice For All solo. This, for me, did not entirely work and the two styles did not compliment very well. It sounded a bit crunched together, as if they said "Hey, we need a solo in here because the fans want it," and just threw it in.

The further you get into Death Magnetic, the less and less it sounds like the old Metallica. Like I said before, there are pieces of each song that have a bit of Justice in them, but sometimes they take it a little overboard. Solo in Unforgiven III? I didn't like it. The mood the other two had and that 95% of the third has is a sad, melancholy "unforgiven" feel. An energetic solo does not fit.

Toward the end of the album, though, they start to go back to their raw metal influence. Evidence in attempting to recreate ...And Justice For All is prevalent in the last two songs. An instrumental, followed by a thrashing speed metal encore. Exactly like Justice. "My Apocalypse" was a satisfying ending. Possibly my favorite song on the CD.

Lastly, I'd like to make the most important realization as far as Metallica trying to get back to their old style. It's not going to happen. Reason being, James Hetfield's voice is very different from his earlier days. From Master of Puppets and back, he had a very young rebellious voice. On ...And Justice For All, it was still juvenile, but was vaguely starting to get deeper. Now, James has a more mature, gruff voice. This affects the sound of their music greatly, as far as tone and feeling.

Another unfortunate thing, over the years, I've noticed Hetfield's lyrics, while I'm sure are from the heart (as they should be), have become a little, for lack of a better term, cheesy. Not so much cheesy as they just aren't poetically written as they used to be. It's either that or he just can seem to find the way to sing them as effectively as before. And for me, that's been one of Metallica's biggest problems lately. They need to sound more serious about their message and not so scripted. It's almost as if you can feel that James doesn't really know what to do with his material. I frequently get the same feeling from Kirk Hammet. His guitar writing in their most recent CDs frequently sounds a little uncared for. Like there's not as much thought, blood and sweat that goes into it as there used to be.

All in all, Death Magnetic is an nice attempt to bring back the old fans, but has a faint nagging voice in the background begging for approval. You get a slight vibe that Metallica is trying very very hard to please their listeners, but can't quite find that old familiar magic that they used to have back in their prime. It's a great attempt, but it's just a step behind. I would put this album in between "the black album" and Load. A great deal above Load, but a small inch below the former mentioned. I did enjoy the album, and the direction Metallica has been heading takes an exciting turn. While I would not be so quick to say "Welcome back, Metallica!" I will say, "Welcome back to Earth!"

Rating: 8/10

God Bless. Jer. 32:27
John L. Pelzel