Riff Magnetic
As a reviewer you sometimes develop a different opinion about albums as time goes by. Some long players are growers and some are instantly likable but find themselves shelved after a matter of weeks. Neither is right or wrong it's just the way of things, but of course we tend to look more fondly on those albums that stay with us for a long time. Metallica's early albums are those recordings that have rooted themselves within the metal genre being defined as classic and a benchmark to which their later material is compared. It was this reason why I held off on a review for 'Death Magnetic'. Whilst others were going loopy with the hype, I felt it'd be interesting to evaluate the album after all the brouhaha had died down.
I think we all know the history of Metallica and we've all got an opinion on the band and its members. But these opinions will probably be shaped into two camps, those who have been with the band in the eighties and those who joined post 'Black' album. The latter group will probably look more favourably on 'Death Magnetic' whilst the others will see the album as a desperate attempt to make up for lost ground and the previous twenty years of hurt.
Whatever you opinion you can't escape the fact that Metallica are a bit lazy. From prolific beginnings to four albums in the last 18 years ('Black' album excluded). I can accept they've had internal troubles but if you're a creative musician and its your job then I think writing only, on average, fifteen minutes of music a year since 1991 is a bit poor regardless of what is going on around you. Because of the half a decade between albums Metallica have made their releases a 'make or break' scenario. This is probably one of the reasons why the band has had so much anticipation piled upon 'Death Magnetic'. But after the hullabaloo it is any good?
Yes it is. 'Death Magnetic' is a good album and its great to hear the band move away from the half-baked rock of the nineties without it sounding a complete mess (St Anger). There are two areas where Metallica stand out on this album. The first is James Hetfield who's sounding better than he has for many years. He shouts like he means it, which is all we can ask of the man. The second is the sheer plethora of riffs, so much so that I think the album should be renamed to 'Riff Magnetic'. 'This Was Just Your Life', 'Broken, Beat And Scarred' and 'All Nightmare Long' all contain quality guitar ideas and it makes you think where they've been hiding over the last eighteen years. It's also nice to hear Kirk and his wah solos back. They're pretty unimaginative but I'd rather hear his guitar wanking over the music than not at all.
'The Judas Kiss' is another quality tune as is 'My Apocalypse' and I found myself returning to these two tunes, as well as those mentioned above, more frequently than the others. It's not all good news, 'The Day That Never Comes' is a shoddy rewrite of 'One', 'Cyanide' sounds like a rehash of a 'Load' era song and 'The Unforgiven III' is completely un-necessary. The production is raw, but with so many ideas thrown into this album at times it sounds like a demo of a band jamming around some tunes rather a disc of well crafted metal anthems.
'Death Magnetic' has been compared to their early works and rightly so, but it lacks the spark and imagination of 'Master Of Puppets' and 'Ride The Lightning'. The album is a disc to get them back on track as long as the band put the work in to follow it up sooner rather than later. Since the hype has died down I've not played the album very much, instead reaching for the latest by Testament, Megadeth and Exodus, all of whom have released better quality thrash, in my opinion of course. The problem with the late eighties as appose to the post millennium is there's better music available. Opeth, Lamb Of God, Nevermore, Dream Theater, SYL as well as the three mentioned above have all released quality music whilst Metallica have been in flux (and rehab). When compared to these bands 'Death Magnetic' is an entertaining piece of thrash nothing more, nothing less. Here's to the future though.