Metallica - Death Magnetic Review

Posted by Jeff Modzelewski on 09.11.2008

Another shot at redemption from the biggest heavy metal band in the world. Does the album measure up, or is it just musical suicide?

For me, Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” album represented a real opportunity for this band to earn back their fanbase. Metallica was the band that brought so many people (myself included) into heavy music. Their first four albums represent the best of thrash metal. The Black Album was a change in direction that was more of an evolution in the band’s sound than an ninety-degree turn. I have listened to these albums countless of times, and I spent hundreds of dollars as a kid on Metallica shirts, singles, imports, and bootlegs. Metallica, more than any other band, pushed me away from my parents music as a kid into the music that I love now as an adult.

Unfortunately, no sooner do I start following Metallica than they take a turn for the worse. Metallica became “Alternica” with the “Load” album, and, despite initial rumors that “Reload” was going to be the metal companion to the alternative “Load” album, there wasn’t much there that was any better. After a long hiatus, I had my hopes lifted when I heard early demos of the “St. Anger” album. Sadly, those hopes were dashed when the band decided that James didn’t need to try anymore, Kirk didn’t need to write any solos, the band didn’t actually need a bassist, and Lars could just bang on some garbage cans. After years of following an obviously fading band, I was done.

I mention all of this so you know what mindset I had coming into the review for this album.
Despite all of the hype for “Death Magnetic,” I wasn’t really excited to listen to and review the album. I had been burned by Metallica one too many times to get my hopes up. I also knew I had to give the album a fair shot, even though I wasn’t expecting much. Although my expectations weren’t high, I also wasn’t sure if Metallica would be able to exceed them. Hell, I wasn’t planning on Metallica being able to meet any positive expectations. So, what’s the verdict on the album?

The opening track on the album is “That Was Just Your Life.” The song starts out with a heartbeat intro with a dark acoustic guitar and a deep bass. Somewhat reminiscent of how the band started off so many great albums, but still somewhat different. The intro goes into a blistering opening riff with fast guitars and pounding drums, including some double bass fills. The real surprise of this song, though, was the vocals. After the past few albums (and hearing the band live in different settings) I was very cautious about what to expect. While James isn’t doing anything amazing, he’s doesn’t bring anything down. The song features verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, tempo changes, fast vocals, and solid guitar solos. The bridge features some great guitar harmony, and Kirk’s solo is on par with anything that any metal guitarist is doing today. The most surprising thing about the song, though, is that it doesn’t feel like a 7 minute song. That’s a huge achievement for a band that struggled with being repetitive on much shorter songs on the “Load” and “Reload” albums.

So the opening track vastly exceeded my expectations. The real question, though, was can this band maintain this sound throughout the whole album? “The End of the Line” isn’t as heavy as the opening track, but it’s very solid. Again, the vocals are pretty solid. The guitar is layered and heavy. The song features multiple, varied guitar solos, starting with distorted, short double guitar solo, then going into a solo more focused on using a wah-wah peddle. This then leads into an acoustic bridge before heading back into a heavy closing chorus. Another song that doesn’t feel repetitive despite it’s nearly 8-minute length.

“Broken, Beat, and Scarred” is the second-shortest track on the album, at only six and a half minutes. It actually feels a little too short, though. The song opens with another fast riff with solid mid-temp drums. While it doesn’t necessarily remind me of any previous Metallica work, it sounds a lot more like Metallica than anything off of their previous three albums. The song has another tempo change midway through for the bridge and the solo, a blistering solo that could easily fit on “Ride The Lightening” if it wasn’t for the awesome tempo change and wha-wha effects mid-solo. The band, in typical Metallica fashion, brings the song back to the chorus before a heavy close.

“The Day That Never Comes” is the lead single off of the album, a nearly 8-minute epic that has already been compared with the legendary “One.” The main acoustic guitar riff actually reminds me much more of “Fade to Black” than “One,” but it’s still solid. Just not as dark as the “One” riff. James’ vocals, while not great, are still acceptable during the quieter portions of the song and pretty decent during the heavy chorus. At the halfway mark in the song, it starts to live up to the “One” comparisons as it gets progressively heavier. The last three minutes include blistering guitar riffs and top-notch solos with solid backing drums. Kirk is hitting on all cylinders with his solos, mixing up styles and keeping things fresh throughout the song. This is an amazing song that just keeps building and building.

“All Nightmare Long” starts out with an acoustic intro before going into a dark, heavy, drum-based riff. Like so many songs on the album, it really isn’t easy to compare with anything the band has done before, but it’s distinctly Metallica. Part of the riff reminds me of “Damage Inc.” but the style isn’t quite the same. The vocals are deep and dark, and the verse is sung at a slower pace than much of the rest of the album. The solo on the bridge is one of the longest continuous solos on the album, and one of the fastest also. The second solo is just as fast, and has great double-bass drumming behind it. This nearly-eight minute long song doesn’t have the tempo changes that “The Day That Never Comes” has, but it’s amazing that the band can keep up this type of speed and intensity for the whole song.

“Cyanide” starts out with a heavy intro before heading into a breakdown with just bass. I would’ve liked them to stay with that bass-heavy theme, but unfortunately they didn’t. This is another mid-tempo tune with a good riff, and some of the best drum work on the album. The vocals bothered me at first, but they’re not bad, especially once you get to the chorus. The guitar work on the chorus is pretty good too, with plenty of cool fills over a basic beat. The song has a great change of pace on the bridge, getting faster before going into an acoustic bridge, and then back to the fast, odd-time signature stuff. The odd time signature stuff and the time signature changes sound great with another awesome solo over them also.

“The Unforgiven III” is another chapter in the “Unforgiven” song saga. I don’t know if it was originally meant to be a multi-part song, but I’ve never really understood the reasoning behind that. This is probably the weakest track on the album, although it’s a few steps above “Unforgiven II.” It’s not that heavy, but it doesn’t have the same epic feel that “The Day That Never Comes” has. James does more singing on this song than anywhere else on the album, and it’s a pretty hit or miss. However, just like the rest of the album, the guitar work and the solos in particular are great.

“The Judas Kiss” is the second longest track on the album, and has (shockingly) a solid verse, a fast-paced chorus, and plenty of tempo changes to keep things interesting. And, of course, the solos are long and blistering. The song takes a dark turn about six minutes in, which again helps disguise the length of the song. It’s really amazing how well this band is able to take pieces that are different tempos and different styles and put them together as a song. The last three minutes of this song is a great example of how well Metallica is able to do that.

In the old days, the second to last track on a Metallica album was always the instrumental. Guess what? “Suicide & Redemption” is a nearly 10 minute instrumental that has about 4 or 5 different parts built into it. The band goes from fast and heavy to quiet and acoustic, with various solos taking the place of vocals on the song. The song definitely doesn’t resemble any of the band’s instrumentals from their first four albums, but it fits well with the album.

The final song on the album, “My Apocalypse” is both the shortest and heaviest song on the album. This song is all speed and aggression, with great drum work backing up a solid thrash riff. The solo would almost sound appropriate on a song on “Master of Puppets.” This song definitely closes the album on a high note.

After listening to “Death Magnetic” for three days straight, I can say one thing with certainty. Bob Rock needs to be severely beaten. I believed that before this album, but now I’m absolutely positive about it. It’s been over half my life since Metallica released a great album, and I place the blame for that squarely on Rock’s shoulders. This is the album that Metallica should have released years ago, and I’m glad that they finally got around to it.

That’s not to say that the album is perfect. The vocals are decent, and at times barely mediocre. The guitar solos almost all sound very modern, but, unfortunately, there’s no real throwback “80’s thrash” style solos. And, most importantly to me, the band just didn’t take advantage of Robert Trujillo’s range. Trujillo is an accomplished, versatile bassist, but no song on the album features that. With so many long songs and so many different parts on the album, I think they could’ve found a few times to feature some vintage Trujillo slap-style playing.

Overall, though, these are minor problems. Minor problems on a spectacular album. It may be a while until we can figure out exactly where “Death Magnetic” fits among Metallica’s catalogue, but it easily surpasses their past three releases. This is a top-notch metal album, and I’m extremely excited that Metallica has finally returned as a relevant metal band again.

The 411: Metallica took a shot at redemption and hit a home run. “Death Magnetic” is a front-to-back solid album, with decent vocals, great drums, amazing riffs, and some of the best guitar solos I’ve heard in a long time. This will easily be Metal Album of the Year. I don’t think there’s anything that will come close.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]