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338 of 373 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review For The Old-School Fan, September 12, 2008
Many Metallica fans have thought of them as sellouts ever since they released their first music video to "One" back in 1989. After they enlisted producer Bob Rock for "The Black" album, Metallica became "radio friendly" with many songs coming in at around five minutes or less. Load and Reload did little to reverse this, and St. Anger was easily the worst CD that Metallica ever released. So it is with good reason that many have been sceptical about what to expect from Metallica's latest offering Death Magnetic.
Some significant things have changed since St. Anger. This is the first release from Metallica on their new record label, Warner Bros. Many will cheer that producer Bob Rock is also gone having been replaced by renowned career resurrector Rick Rubin. All of this is somewhat academic, though, unless the music also changed as a result.
I'm pleased to report that Death Magnetic is somewhat of a Renaissance for Metallica. While it will not be mistaken for what many consider to be the best trio of metal CDs made (Ride The Lightening, Master Of Puppets, and ...And Justice For All), it is a marked improvement over what Metallica has had to offer over the past 15 years. Much of what you will hear falls somewhere between Justice and The Black Album.
Right out of the gate on "That Was Just Your Life" many of the signs of old school Metallica are on display. This song starts with a simple, bare, and undistorted guitar line, but it builds to full on thrash as we see that Lars Ulrich has remembered what drums on a Metallica album are supposed to sound like. Before the first verse starts, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett remind us what the dual guitar lines can sound like. And yes, Kirk Hammett's soloing is also back, and he does not disappoint. The next two tracks continue to crunch along, but some will lose heart when "The Day That Never Comes" come up. However, it manages to finish much stronger than it starts. As if sensing that they needed to dial it back up, "All Nightmare Long" returns to full on shredding and goes from there. The combined guitar lines and drum line create a tempo that feels like it could match the speed of helicopter blades. This song also finds Metallica on the familiar theme of mental stability heard on "Welcome Home Sanitarium" and "The Frayed Ends Of Sanity" from days of old.
When I looked at the track listing before hearing any of the songs, I had concern when I saw "The Unforgiven III". My first thought was, "Do we really need another rehash of the radio hit 'Unforgiven'?" However listening to the song showed me that my concern was in vane. While "The Unforgiven" and "The Unforgiven II" are fairly straightforward, "The Unforgiven III" is more metaphoric as it relates life's torment to sea adventures in search of gold gone awry. The lyrics actually don't include the word "unforgiven" making the title choice a bit puzzling, but I think that "The Unforgiven III" is better than either of its namesakes.
All in all, Death Magnetic is solid heavy metal CD, but I expect reaction to it to be very mixed. The part of the Metallica fan base who will enjoy this the most are those who liked ...And Justice For All and The Black Album. They don't reach far enough back for the oldest of old school fans while those looking for Load or Reload will also likely be disappointed. Hopefully having a better idea of where this fits in the Metallica spectrum will help you decide if it is for you or not.
Download this: All Nightmare Long
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135 of 163 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overall: Excellent, September 12, 2008
I remember when "Master of Puppets" was the new album, I had played my cassette of "Whiplash EP" to the point where it was worn and wobbled. I won't say "Master" wasn't awesome, but I was always partial to "Ride the Lightning." So when every new Metallica has come out in the last 22 years and people keep comparing them to "Master" I just say, chill out and let it stand on its merit.
What's hard is that Metallica will admit that "Load" "Re-Load" and "St. Anger" where not high-points in their career. Infighting, bickering, the firing / quitting of J. Newkid left the band "Broken, beaten and Scarred" Unfortunately with the exception of the exceptional "Symphony" disks and "Garage Inc." those three records represent in years, over half of Metallica's career. Is it any wonder then, that with Uber-Producer Rick Ruben at the helm "Death Magnetic" has become the single most anticipated Metallica Album ever?
As for the album, those of us who grew up with "Ride" "Master" and "Justice" will recognize the song pattern. While "Death Magnetic" has two more tracks (being it was recorded for 80min CD world, not the 45min vinyl one) the placement of the songs is very telling and familiar to those older records. The first track "That was just your life" starts quiet (heart beat, wobling guitar) and then suddenly burst in your face. The second track is about addiction and death (master = addiction, ride = death). The third track slows it down and is more grinding and heavy ("Bells" "Thing" Sad but True") and the fourth track is a ballad with a heavy second half ("Fade" "Sanitarium" "One") The second to last track is an instrumental ("Orion" "to live is to die") The last song is a ripper ("damage inc." "Dyers Eve").
Unlike "Load" and "Reload", "Death Magnetic" avoids the bluesy, dirty grinding songs, and unlike "St. Anger" this one aims for strong hooks, harmonies structure and flow.
"Death Magnetic" is not a new "Master" but rather a culmination of everything these guys have every done. While many songs will remind listeners of "Justice" "Broken, Beat and Scarred" is reminiscent of "St. Anger" with its chants of "what don't kill ya, makes ya more strong" and riffing rather than solos. "Unforgiven III" is far closer to "Unforgiven II" on re-load than the original. The Guitar has that same bluesy, flowing feel and the eastern influence that gave the original its greatest strengths are completely washed away by familiar metal riffing. Not to say the song isn't good, but without the late Michael Kamen the orchestration just doesn't life the song the way it should and the chorus builds and builds but doesn't crest, it keeps feeling like there should be more, some kind of heavy release that never comes. "My Apocalypse" closes the album by channeling "Slayer" as Metallica tries and fails to go back to "Kill `em All." Not that the song doesn't rock, it's heavy, fast and awesome closer, but the feel is forced and the song feels tacked on to a mostly mid to fast-mid tempo album.
The biggest shocker here may be the 10 min (and longest song) "Suicide and Redemption" the bands first instrumental in 20 years. This is the best they've done since "Ktulu", it's got more energy than "Orion" or "To live is to Die" but lacks the kind of expressionist solos you'd expect from such an epic. However, the ten minutes goes by fast! I had listened to the CD four or five times before I realized the song had no lyrics!!!
If there's one thing missing in all these loooooooooooooooooooong songs (only one song under 6 min) is a true epic. Yes, "All Nightmare Long" "The Day that Never Comes" and "The Judas Kiss" are all brilliant (so is the Black Sabbath inspired "Cyanide") but nothing comes close here to the epic feel of "master of puppets" "Just for all" "Outlaw torn" or "Fixxxer." those songs had such a deep, complex feel with so many ups and downs and such a perfect flow (ok, "justice" is the least of the four) that nothing on "Magnetic" quite get's there.
I am not in love with packaging, it looks cool with the coffin cut-out but the cut the lyrics out. That's annoying.
In the end "Death Magnetic" is just what it needs to be. It's everything Metallica's done better than anyone else for over 25 years, it's most of the best parts of all the albums to date and it's 100X better almost anything out there. Plus, these guys are in their 40's, and are harder, faster and more intricate and intelligent than anything these Kids half their age are putting out there. Buy this CD.
Update:9/16/08
It's been confirmed by several sources that the Guitar Hero III version of this album has not suffered from the brick-wall compression of the CD / Vinyl release. Apparently someone decided MP3's sound better mixed as loud as possible and then clipped of the highest and lowest ranges. So, the retail CD / Vinyl of DM have been mixed with heavy dynamic range compression (meaning they've eliminated the difference between soft sound and loud sound) the album now sounds like a wall of noise. This is a too common recording industry practice, it ruins the experience and removes the subtleties of the music. You may notice this CD suffers from a lack of bass guitar, that the guitar is flat, the drums do not resonate, the cymbols are thin and the vocals are often drowning in the music mix. Also, there is a lot of noise, you can not only hear distortion in the music, but their is noise at the beginning and end of every track, which, a CD should not have.
There are multiple petitions and blogs as well as thousands on Metallica's own website begging for an uncompressed re-release.
If you hear the GHIII versions, you may never go back.
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72 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Looking for higher quality than the CD? Don't bother., September 13, 2008
Going from my review of the CD version, I will say that these tracks are the closest Metallica has gotten to pre-Metallica/Black Album days since ...And Justice for All. The tracks are all really good.
However, there is a huge problem. There is clipping on the CD version. What this means is that you will hear distortion and popping on the CD version, along with a muddying of the instruments, that isn't intentional. They also turned the volume on the CD all the way up on the authoring side, so the CD is also overly LOUD.
So you think to yourself, "I can avoid all those digitally introduced problems; I can just buy the vinyl." Well here's where the problem arises. These tracks were recorded digitally from start to finish so there is no original analog master. The problem isn't that it's digital, it is that Metallica allowed the producers to record their instrument/vocal tracks at or very close to the 0 db level. This means that when mixed for the final stereo mix, the music is already maxed out on the volume side. This means all the clipping they recorded while in the studio made its way into the final mix. This INCLUDES the vinyl mixes as they went with the final mix tapes/files for the vinyl.
So if you are buying this to avoid the horrible authoring on the CD, save your money as the quality, for all intents and purposes, is just as ruined as it is on the CD.
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