Metallica -Death Magnetic

"The hair on the back of my neck instantly stood up"




Early this past Sunday afternoon while sitting at my computer pouring over match coms & scanning the the usual forums & websites for news & updates, out of no where an xfire window appears on my screen. It's from an old friend with the the message "A gift for you" which is seconds later followed by a link where the words "death_magnetic.rar" jump off the screen at me.

Could this be? Is it really a early copy of the much anticipated release of Metallica's new album due to be released Septemper 12th, "Death Magnetic"? Always skeptical of early copies of upcoming albums ( the last early release I got a copy of, Linkin Parks "Minutes to Midnight" turned out to be some LP cover band & was absolutely horrid) I click the link & begin the download.

Ever since it was announced back in February of 2006 that the wayward & former metal gods would be recruiting the services of iconic producer Rick Rubin, I breathed a huge sigh of a relief. "Finally" I shouted, now we just may see a return to former glory. For those of you maybe not familiar with Rick Rubin or his work following is a short list of some of his more notable work which includes many albums from my own personal musical library

1986: Licensed to Ill – Beastie Boys, 1988: Danzig – Danzig, 1988: Tougher Than Leather – Run-DMC, 1988: South of Heaven – Slayer, 1990: Seasons in the Abyss – Slayer, 1991: Blood Sugar Sex Magik – Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1998: System of a Down – System of a Down, 2001: Toxicity – System of a Down,
2002: American IV: The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash, 2003: The Black Album – Jay-Z, 2007: Minutes to Midnight – Linkin Park
Full List & Bio Here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin

Since I was a young teen, Metallica has been my favorite band. Being a man of 33 years now that puts my first Metallica experience somewhere in the mid to late 80's with my first albums being "Master of Puppets" & "...And Justice For All" I remember my Mother snapping my Justice cassette in half after finding it & calling it "Satan's Music" (years later even she admits it seems silly now) What she failed to realize was that this authoritative stand against it, only made me want it more. Throughout my angry rebellious teenage years, in & out of trouble & throughout the two & half years I spent locked up in a boys home, Metallica was my voice. James Hetfeilds lyrics always seemed to speak the words I could not get out & the tremendous noise that backed it only seemed to deliver those emotions with thunderous conviction.

As I grew older it always seemed as if the music of Metallica changed & kept pace with my life. Almost as if it matured as I matured. Then it begun to take a path I wasn't sure I could follow but as a loyal fan of many years, I stood by when the naysayers criticized them. 91's "Black Album" was a major change but Metallica's albums have always progressed from one to the next (the progression from Justice to the Black Album is just seemingly more noticeable) Now it seems over the past 15 or so years they've been trying to recapture the glory of the "Black Album" only to continuously fail. It used to be you would plug in an Metallica album & you could easily let it play from the first track to the last track. More recently ( with the exception of S&M & Garage Inc.) the albums have been mediocre with one or two good tracks sprinkled in with stuff that hearing it one time is enough.

Up until 2005 & the release of St. Anger which coincided with the abortion of a Documentary "Some Kind of Monster", it seemed James' only emotional outlet was booze & lyric. Obviously for personal & family reasons he had to give up the booze which led him to therapy. The lack of substance on "St. Anger" is testament the fact that his feelings were being poured into therapy sessions which seemed to replace the writing. No longer were we receiving the unadulterated emotions of a tortured soul, but more or less an album filled with gimmicks. It seemed with James sobriety we had lost the Metallica for good.

Back to my download.....

20 minutes after clicking my download, a window appears to notify me my download is complete. I quickly unpack the "death_magnetic.rar" & load the files into winamp. Instantly the first thing I notice is out of 10 songs, only 3 are less than 5 minutes with one song being almost 10 minutes. This is something not seen since Justice, could this be a sign? My hopes begin to sore even more as I click the first track, "That was just your life". The hair on the back of my neck instantly stood up as I hear what sounds eerily like "The thing that should not be" from Master of Puppets. 44 seconds into the first track the drums & the guitars hit all at once with what feels like the force of a 100 atomic bombs detonating all at once. I leap from chair & scream "Holy Shit!" 1:28 in in the pace suddenly quickens out of nowhere & goose bumps swell all over my body. Then suddenly with the speed & conviction I'd not heard since "Dyers Eve" James Hetfield's voice rolls in & suddenly I am instantly whisked to an emotion I haven't felt since I was an angry teenager. It is at that moment I realize, Metallica is back!! The soul & raw emotion is back in the lyrics. The tin can drum is gone replaced by Lars' octuple-time double-bass-and-snare smashing & Kirk Hammet has never sounded more like the polished master guitarist he his. Robert Trujillo seems to a have fallen victim to the same treatment as Jason Newsted did on Justice but who cares right? Back are the long melodic jam sessions with constant & frequent tempo changes.For the past 4 days I have not put this album down. I have listened to to it front to back I don't know how many times & I have not listened to anything else. It is a steady barrage of Metallica's musicianship & a perfect mix of everything that made the Black Album great mixed with everything great that came before it.There is simply not a bad track on here.

If you are a Metallica fan, you will not be let down by this album & I for one we be standing in like tomorrow (Sept 12) to purchase my official copy.