Metallica
My Apocalypse

First of all, I'm responding to those who criticized me for reviewing a single (the previous one also by Metallica) instead of a full album. I understand their reasons after reading the many comments on my review, but I don't agree with them. If you enter a system, you have to know how to share and accept it. The site's rules are clear, so "pacta sunt servanda." If I'm given the opportunity to review a single track from an album, why should I feel at fault if I want to review a song? Furthermore, the current trend of almost all major bands releasing not just one single but two singles before the album release (everyone is doing it!) means that with two singles, there is more certainty to provide judgments that I don't think will differ much when the ninth Metallica studio album is released on September 12. Secondly, the same people who criticize when a single is reviewed are often the ones who complain about the excessive prolixity of an author reviewing all 10 or more songs of an album. Perhaps being able to focus on analyzing a single piece does more justice to its composer rather than having to extend the analysis too long, which can only result in being tedious? Think about it.

Coming to this second single released today by Metallica (I've followed them since the release of "Kill 'em All" in the distant 1982, and in my youth, I was an avid and active fan, always present at their concerts in Italy), I have to say that I spoke poorly of the previous one, but I have to speak well of the present "MY APOCALYPSE." It's a thrash piece, finally, with a great vibe. It actually recalls the songs from Metallica's last (bad) work, St. Anger, with the huge difference of being produced, I dare say, very well. The sounds are rounded, the distorted guitars do not reach the heights of "Black Album" or "Master," but they are much cleaner than in the last 3 albums. The drums finally have the snare's underside, and thus the annoying echo effect present on all the pieces of "St. Anger" has disappeared. Hetfield's voice on this fast track is far more pleasant to me than in the previous one, remaining that he has never been a singing virtuoso. The only flaw (but typical of all Metallica productions), the bass is too low! And it's a real shame because one can sense that Trujillo (formerly of Suicidal Tendencies) does a great job hidden behind the amps.

Let's be clear, we're not facing a masterpiece of metal; the times when "research" was done, and a new music genre was genuinely invented in the Bay Area of San Francisco are long gone and will never return. We are talking about a sector of rock where everything has really already been written. A good thrash piece is, in my opinion, a song without too many pretensions. It's a whip that manages to convey strong emotions. It makes you want to headbang; it makes you want to mosh; it makes you appreciate the manual work of the musicians in providing decent technical quality, even while playing at such speeds that they can't focus on virtuosity requiring slower tempos and calmer atmospheres. Well, this is a good metal piece in my judgment because it meets these requests. It makes the old fan say, "damn, they still play," and the newcomer, "wow, these guys rock hard." Right from the start of the piece, Hetfield's rhythm grips you like a machine gun, interspersed with Hammet's riffs. Ulrich's drums sound like a deep throat, and the accents on the cymbals are underscored by thumb hits on the bass. Then the drums start to hammer the snare (you can hear the double bass drum a bit too little, though), like in the last pieces of "And Justice for All," which this song strongly reminds me of.

Jamez's voice comes in, and it's very, very angry. Good! With his typical Western-style English accentuating the endings, so distant from the British way of singing, so dirty, so not "politically correct." Suddenly, the left channel goes silent, and from the right, Hammet comes in crescendo with a new riff that calls for another gallop, vaguely reminiscent of songs like "The Four Horsemen" or "Whiplash" from "Kill 'em All." After all, in the last 17 years, Metallica has not demonstrated being an eclectic band capable of playing a different genre. Their last 3 albums might have been a decent commercial success but were appalling from a technical viewpoint. So much better if, at their age, they go back to playing the only thing they do well, which is thrash. This is my personal view. And all in all, after so many years, the "old fan," a bit "confused" (like me), also finds pleasure in hearing riffs and reminisces in a new vibe but well-executed. "After all, even the sea makes waves" (as my grandpa used to say), and Metallica has never been "phenomenal," so it's wise not to demand too much now that they have bellies and children to raise!

At minute 2:20, Hammet's first true solo comes in (thank goodness his solos are back), the usual Soviet salad of bending and tapping, finally without the wah-wah effect, which greatly resembles the solo from "Creeping Death". Then a new riff with two guitars and off to another gallop. The lyrics are pretty damn against the system, just to endear themselves even more to the young. It finishes at a million miles an hour until the piece implodes on itself.

Guys... not bad, not bad.