I’ve had several weeks now to digest the new Metallica album. But I’m still having trouble processing the notion that this band after the singing lessons, symphony collaborations, self-help videos and general not-kicking ass could put out an album worthy of their name. But they’ve done it, damn it. They put out an album that bridges the few bright spots of the post Master of Puppets years with their early metal madness.
This is the album that Metallica’s first and second-generation fans have been waiting almost 15 years to hear. It’s the album that they could have and should have made after …And Justice For All
The album, which was produced by Rick Rubin, opens with “This Was Just Your Life” a seven-minute metal fest and gallops on for another hour, barely stopping to take a breath. There are even echoes of the band’s once familiar record format, you’ll find the signature fourth-track ballad in “The Day That Never Comes,” which also happens to be the band’s first single from the album, an extended instrumental in the second to last slot and a thrash fest closer, “My Apocalypse” that harkens back to earlier closers like “Damage Inc” and “Dyers Eve.”
Fans who scratched and shook their heads at albums like Reload, will welcome the return of growling lyrics, wah-wah soaked Hammet solos and James Hetfield’s trademark skipping, syncopated hammer strokes.
Gone are the embarrassing attempts at lyrical introspection and overwrought melodies. This is an album that centers on familiar Hetfield themes of death, hypocrisy, and suicide. And you don’t need singing lessons to appreciate that.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2008.
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I think that it’s not fair to say that BLACK ALBUM was bad !!! Cuz that was something special and one of the bast albums ever , and Also it’s not even Fair to Judge about LOAD & ReLOAD like that , I accept that LOAD & ReLOAD are not metal at all but they are two of the Best Hard Rock Albums of all time , BUT !!!!!!!!! , the high way of making simple songs that started whit BLACK ALBUM in its best way and continued in LOAD & ReLOAD ( but not as good as BLACK ) made an album called St.Anger that was a complete disapointment for all metallica fans , the riffs were so bad , No melodic Songs , NO SOLOS , Bad Vocals (but very good drums that faded in all these bad things ) & … But this album prooves that METALLICA IS BACK !!!! and they’re back to their roots with power riffs , best Drums passages , unbelievable solos , pretty powerful Vocals and at last BEST LYRICS EVER !! so I think that it is fair to say that METALLICA IS BACK !!!!!!!