Metallica
Death Magnetic

THE REVIEW

In your opinion, is the latest Iron Maiden album "A Matter of Life and Death," which has been a great success among fans and critics, as good as "The Number of the Beast" or "Killers," their iconic albums?

And is the latest from Motorhead like "Ace of Spades"?

And are the latest from Megadeth similar to "Countdown to Extinction"?

Is the latest Slayer like "Reign in Blood"?

I could go on with Anthrax, Helloween, Sepultura, and other bands... but what I want to say is that every band has its masterpiece, like "Master of Puppets" for Metallica, and if with every new release one were to compare the new work with the masterpiece, it would be a mistake since every album should be taken for what it is, avoiding comparisons with the past and acknowledging the fact that masterpieces are unique. And then, let's be clear, in 1984 it was easier to release an innovative or very "heavy" album; today there are myriad bands that are born and die quickly, with excellent productions, radio-friendly tracks, and modern sounds, and the old guard of metal finds it increasingly difficult to stay afloat amid experiments not understood or appreciated by fans and expectations that they often fail to meet.

So, what should we expect from this "Death Magnetic"?

Essentially, a return of Metallica to the more typically thrash sounds of their beginnings, as they themselves had widely announced; more solos, more riffs, more speed, and lots and lots of real metal! Personally, I had long been waiting to hear their "rebirth," their return to metal... after all of Hetfield's troubles with alcohol and his detox, I wanted to see his transformation from that "some kind of monster" he had become into a mature guitarist, one of the greatest and most important songwriters in metal history to make a grand comeback on the scene with a handful of memorable songs... I wanted to see what would come out this time with that great bassist, Trujillo, expecting bass feats like those he used to give us in Infectious Grooves or Suicidal Tendencies... I wanted to hear Kirk Hammett deliver again solos of great quality and inspiration like some of those spectacular ones on the "Black Album" and razor-sharp riffs, the ones that all metal bands envied Metallica for, because every time they wrote one, they had to check if Metallica hadn't already written it before...

Did I find all this?

Only partly... it seemed like I was listening to "The World Needs a Hero" by Megadeth, which after an album like "Risk" (which had little to do with metal anymore) returned with a work explicitly METAL as if to show that the masters were still alive and could amaze again, but without succeeding. This "Death Magnetic" is like that: it's the album of Metallica's return to thrash, but it's still halfway; there are flashes of old-style Metallica, there's good metal, there are fast solos and tempo changes, but some songs are boring, you can't wait for them to end to hear what's next, and some are entirely out of place...

Take, for example, "The Unforgiven III"; beyond the spontaneous question "was there really a need for a third part after the second was already unnecessary?" objectively this song is simply banal, and with its piano and violin introduction, its mid-tempo with distorted guitars, the classic tom passages by the good Ulrich in the bridge, the most clichéd chorus, and the solo that has nothing to do with that stunning original "The Unforgiven" one, it doesn't fit at all between the previous "Cyanide" and the next "The Judas Kiss".

The first is a pearl of rare ugliness, with an initial riff and quite clichéd refrain and a completely unnecessary acoustic bridge, not to mention the chorus, which has little to do with Metallica... "The Judas Kiss" is a bit better; at times it seems like hearing the accelerations of "Disposable Heroes," and even the solo seems more inspired, but despite everything, even this piece won't leave a mark. Different, however, is the case for the opener "That Was Just Your Life" and the following "The End of the Line," which kick off the album grandly, with a good drive and some fast, old-fashioned riffs, nice double-bass moments, and pleasant counter-time; I didn't like the solos, but they are fast and very thrash, and even if they don't make you shout for a miracle, they are two excellent tracks as a start.

The other songs range from the instrumental "Suicide & Redemption," which with its ten minutes of duration will not become the "rion" of 2008 because it results monotonous and definitely a bit tiring, to the final "My Apocalypse," which with its fast riff harks back to the times of "Seek and Destroy." Then there's the very metallic "All Nightmare Long" and the verbose "Broken, Beat and Scarred," ending with the ballad "The Day That Never Comes," which begins with an arpeggio that reminds us of the old "Nothing Else Matters" and ends with furious riffs, incendiary solos, and guitar embellishments like on "One."

In conclusion, this "Death Magnetic" brings the four horsemen back to the thrash territories that made them famous, but one should not expect a second "Master of Puppets," a technical album like "...And Justice for All," or a worldwide hit like the Black Album, because those are gone and will never return. We should just toast to the fact that Metallica is back to "making metal" and writing heavy songs like before, without worrying if Hetfield's voice is not what it once was, if the new tracks will hardly become classics, if we will never hear a metal fan hum "Cyanide" or "The Judas Kiss," and if at Metallica concerts, after the promotional tours, we will probably continue to hear only the old classics, from "Master of Puppets" to "Creeping Death," from "For Whom the Bell Tolls" to "Fade to Black," from "One" to "Sad but True," while stuff like "The Unforgiven II and III," "All Nightmare Long," or "Frantic," "Some Kind of Monster," or "Mama Said," "Broken, Beat & Scarred," or "My Apocalypse" will remain confined to the albums from which they came.

"Death Magnetic" is a mediocre album; those who are fans of Metallica will love it and buy it in deluxe package edition, while others can easily do without it, and if they want it, they will find many other albums more heavy, more technical, faster, more melodic, more thrash, or simply more beautiful than this one.