I’ve been a fan of Metallica for a looong time, and I like everything they’ve put out. I’m not one of those “They Sold Out!” fans who think Metallica’s talent lies in their hair follicles. I didn’t care when they cut their hair in the mid-nineties. In fact, I’m a fan of the Load/Reload era for the sheer fact that they tried to expand their musical range. They understand that bands must evolve or they die. Yes, their earlier work (…And Justice, Master of Puppets) is groundbreaking, but there’s nothing wrong with a little accessibility. Yet still, the fan base was clamoring for a back to basics approach, so Metallica attempted to reboot a few years ago with St. Anger. It felt a little like pandering in its last attempt to blow my socks off my feet. It was an entirely different sound for Metallica — passable but too raw and devoid of ear-bleeding guitar solos. It was disappointing for fans of both the old AND the new Metallica.

And now we come to Death Magnetic, their newest album. It took all these years and all those albums mentioned above to get to this point, and the result is astonishing. Gone are the tidy bursts of metal seen in Load. Kirk Hammett is given free reign to rip off solo after solo in songs that chug along for 7 minutes without releasing their grip. This is the Metallica album people were hoping St. Anger would be. This is the Metallica album that proves they can still thrash better than anyone. And you know what? It passes the ultimate test of a Metallica album: It’s dangerous to play in a car! Over the weekend, I found myself finally battling traffic with a soundtrack that matched my anger behind the wheel. Every track (with the exception of Unforgiven III) is intended to melt your skin off your face, which makes it difficult to stay relaxed when some jerk in a Bentley cuts you off. Not only is his car nicer than mine, but he’s a lousy driver, and James Hetfield is telling me to hunt him down without mercy.

Death Magnetic gets a rating of 5 car crashes out of 5. Let’s hope that’s not prophetic.

By the way, you lose Circuit City! I totally went to Target and bought my copy of Death Magnetic. Circuit City – 0. Target – 10! Dollars! Burn!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 3:10 am and is filed under Editorial, Music, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.