I am a huge Metallica fan. That is to say I am a huge OLD Metallica Fan. Metallica now and Metallica early and pre 90’s are two very different beasts. This isn’t the place for discussing the why and how the change occurred but rest assured Metallica for me comprises the following albums:

Kill Em All

Ride the Lightening

Master of Puppets

And Justice for All

The Black Album

The Black Album denoted a change in direction for Metallica but it is still a very good Metal album.

All albums since show Metallica to be a very good to mediocre rock Band – Not the metal Gods they once were.

It should also be noted the Metallica live are still one of the best bands on the planet to see, pulling on a huge back catalogue of classic metal tracks as well as some of their more decent and recent rock numbers.

And so we come to their latest offering; Death Magnetic. Latest but still 6 years old! (Unless you count the bizarre collaboration album with Lou Reed in 2011)

I just need to say something about the name. A macabre word combined with a science word does not equate to a metal album title. By that logic they could have had; .Corpse Proton, ‘Rotting Radioactivity’ or even ,Spooky Bunsen-Burner.’

Metallica have been aware that many fans lament the changes that occurred in their music. 2003’s St Anger promised a return to old Metallica and was eagerly anticipated by old and new Metallica fans alike. What we got however was an incredibly poorly produced album of bad singing and bad guitar playing that sounded like a really bad tribute act playing while incredibly drunk.

When Death Magnetic came out I ignored it as I had been so disappointed with St Anger. I only came to it fairly recently. I started to read the reviews of the album which sounded fantastic. The first review I read as follows:

The album’s first single, “The Day That Never Comes”, was described by BBC Music’s Chris Jones as the closest thing to a ballad, and is said to be reminiscent of their 1990 Grammy-winning epic breakthrough single “One”

One is arguably the greatest Metallica song of all time, greatest music video of all time and greatest song of all time (tenacious D sing about it in their track ‘Tribute’)

High praise indeed, so far so good and the critiques remained positive talking about an ‘old Metallica sound’ and a ‘return to their thrash roots.” Could we see a departure of ‘photo shoot Metallica?’

But the review that really made me listen was this:

Former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has praised the album, saying “Death Magnetic is hands down the best Metallica album in 20 years. This is the CD I’ve been waiting for them to make since …And Justice for All. And thumbs up to them for doing the first real Metallica instrumental in 20 years since ‘To Live Is to Die’. Welcome back, boys.”

Wow! Mike Portnoy is one of the finest drummers in the world, and Dream Theater are a band to be reckoned with. This is the CD I’ve been waiting for them to make since …And Justice for All. That clinched it for me… could this album really be what Metallica fans have been waiting for?…

…The answer, I’m afraid is no. Firstly it’s not a bad album. If I loved it, I would do a track by track break down…but I don’t. It’s ok. It’s an ok album. It’s certainly not ‘Old Metallica’ but it is a vast improvement on the previous album St Anger.

Musically I find it very good. There are some great riffs, some very fast thrash playing and the complexity of some And Justice for All tracks. It also gets quite heave in places like The Black Album. Vocally however the album is let down. James Hetfield is trying to sing like he used to on the old albums but he can’t. Instead we get some gruff sounding Load/Reload vocal’s combined with some very decent Symphony and Metallica touches, and unfortunately the odd echo of St Anger.

Its an album I will listen to again, in the car or in the background while I’m doing something like now). But its not an album that I would pay very much attention too. It is not the Metal of old Metallica and it is not the rock of Load and Reload. It’s a hybrid of the two which sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.

The real shame is, Metallica can do it live! Why can’t they do it in the studio?… I don’t know… but perhaps the fame and the money and the loss of hunger have something to do with it. I fear Classic ‘Tallica are gone forever… so long boys.

Chris

@CW_Stagg

www.cwstagg.com