Metallica
Death Magnetic

THE REVIEW

Who would have expected it!!!!!!!!!

I have to be honest, until about a month ago, I was very skeptical about this "Death Magnetic." To me, there were only two possibilities: either a sort of Black Album part 2 just to fool and please the old-school fans, or in the worst case, a revisited and corrected "St.Anger" with some solos thrown in and better production. But I have to admit, I was wrong, damn, how wrong I was!!!!!

With this album, the rediscovered Four Horsemen ride high again on the treacherous paths of Thrash Metal, paths they themselves traced a quarter of a century ago, only to abandon them for much more lucrative routes, but like every prodigal son returns home, so the Metallica return to what is their natural home, Metal!!

But enough chit-chat, let's talk about "Death Magnetic". After countless listens, I am absolutely convinced that we are facing the best Metallica album since "And Justice For All". Yes, you heard right; for me, "Death Magnetic" is better than the infamous "Black Album", which I never considered more than a good album. It always seemed like the classic album that a band releases before breaking up. After playing cowboys throughout the '90s and causing millions of fans to cry out in pain and anger with the formless and senseless garbage of "St.Anger", Metallica are back to business, and by business, I mean solid riffs, solos, and tempo changes. Who knows what would come out if instead of Lars Ulrich, there was Dave Lombardo or Gene Hoglan, but history isn't made with "ifs", we have Lars, and let's keep him.

The initial trio is absolutely terrifying: "That Was Just Your Life", "The End Of The Line", and "Broken Beat And Scarred" will literally glue you to your seat like in the good old days of "Battery", "Master Of Puppets", "Fight Fire With Fire", or "Creepin' Death"!! The first one is an excellent opening track, powerful and anthemic just right, with a solo by Hammett that wants to let us know that he is there and has no intention of holding back, and we already have a new classic that will wreak havoc live. The second opens with a riff we already knew... it's the riff from "The New Song" also known as "Death Is Not The End", but as lackluster and inconclusive that was, "The End Of The Line" is exhilarating, running like a train except for a brief slowdown towards the end preluding to the final explosion. "Broken Beat And Scarred" is characterized by Bay Area Sound harmonies, the pace might remind one of "Harvester Of Sorrow" with a lyric repeating "You rise, you fall, you're down and you rise again,
What don't kill ya makes you more strong" and it's the best exemplification of Metallica's story for the past 8 years. What hasn't killed them has made them stronger, and this album is the clear demonstration of that!!! After the initial burst, the pace slows a bit with "The Day That Never Comes", the first single and first video (set during the Iraq war, with an evident intention to pose as an "heir" to One), the most old school so far with the classic slow-fast pace that characterized "Fade To Black", "Welcome Home Sanitarium" and the same "One", with an instrumental finale that's a real adrenaline rush. We return to hitting hard with "All Nightmare Long", the fastest and harshest, with a chorus that embeds itself in your head and a solo that takes no prisoners, "Cyianide" is instead the most modern, more influenced by the recent choices of our Guys, in the sense that if they had made "St.Anger" with their brains instead of their asses, it might be like this, and it wouldn't be bad at all!!!

Then we come to the long-awaited "The Unforgiven III", the piano intro seems to really originate from the best production of Maestro Morricone, creating an atmosphere that will develop into a ballad where James puts his all into it with unexpected pathos that will rise like a tide, culminating in a melodic solo echoing all the magnificence of a band that knows when to hit hard but also when to gently caress. With "The Judas Kiss" and "My Apocalypse" they close with explosions and blows (when they will be played live), two Thrash songs that we simply thought we could only listen to by dusting off the band's very early works, and yet... we are in the realms of "Damage Inc." and "Dyers Eve", so to speak. But the end cannot yet be written, because between these two giants we find, or rather rediscover, an instrumental track, "Suicide And Redemption", epic and spectacular but unable to reach the heights of "The Call Of Ktulu", "Orion", and "To Live Is To Die", as behind those masterpieces stood a certain Cliff Burton... who perhaps from up there listening to this new labor of his former companions has nodded in approval!!!!!

In conclusion, an excellent work from a band that too many (rightly) had given up for dead and buried, but that shows that sometimes masters know how to land unexpected blows, remember Judas Priest when "Painkiller" came out???? there you go........

If we consider that by the end of the year, new albums from Cynic, Mastodon, Nevermore, Necrophagist, and perhaps Slayer will be released, adding to "Death Magnetic", "The Formation Of Damnation", "Obzen", and "Watershed", I'd say this metallic year has been excellent and will still hold very pleasant surprises before it comes to an end!!!!!!!!!