Its been a big few weeks for new releases in the metal world. Of course, the most anticipated was the new one from Metallica. Rest assured that I am looking at some of the lesser known bands this week as well.
CD Reviews
Metallica: Death Magnetic
Metallica fans of all ilks were really interested in getting their hands on this release. After the debacle that was the bloody awful St Anger, we all wanted to know where this band was heading. We wanted to know if the Some Kind of Anger documentary antics had truly reduced the band to a shadow of its formal self. It was good news that they had ditched the producer of St Anger and gone for Rick Rubin.
Metallica has been fueling the hype machine for this CD by releasing tracks on the internet and via-iTunes. These singles were balanced against the rest of your purchase of the CD on iTunes which was clever. They are on every magazine cover that’ll have them, doing fan club shows all of the world, and doing the promo business. They even dropped by Later with Jools Holland in the UK to deliver a fairly lame performance of a new track.
So what exactly have they managed with this release? Well it's oddles better than St Anger; then again Trivium released a better Metallica album than that. Have Metallica met the “new age of American thrash” with a solid rebuke. Well no, not exactly. This is not the complete return to form we had hoped and it's not the triumph of some of their older peers who have returned with great albums.
There is really nothing on this album that jumps out at you in the way the way of their successes of yore. How desperate is a song called “Unforgiven III? “Broken, Beat & Scarred” is probably the best of the lot. There is nothing to rival the best of the Black album or even Master of Puppets. It sounds decent, although these songs sound better as part of the recent game release, and the drums sound as they should. I have listened to this disc several times through and nothing really grabs me. It's good metal, but this is Metallca and, like Iron Maiden, we expect great things from them.
Article comments
1 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
I am sure there will be blowback from my review of Metallica.
Actually, Marty, it was pleasant to read a review of the new Metallica that was pretty damn accurate.[Head & heart in the right place]You hit the nail right on the head... None of this material really grabs me.
These guys are not quite back to form yet. Once they completely ditch their 90's material, practice on their instruments & focus on Thrash, their next release should be one hell of a punch. Oh.. and Kirk needs to get rid of that freakin wah-wah pedal!!
Thanks for the heads up on East of Wall - It's real hard nowadays to release a progressive album without all the references to Dream Theater & Opeth(save for the new Cynic which will be f*cking awesome) but these guys keep it interesting & a bit original. The fact that it is an instrumental release is great!
2 - Chris Beaumont
Great stuff, as always, Marty!
Guppy, got to agree, some one needs to take that wah wah away from Kirk. Nothing like a metal tune with a hard rock solo in the middle.
Looking forward to Cynic. Have a promo coming soon, should be an interesting introduction.
3 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Chris..You lucky bastich! The demo I heard that had 2 new songs was damn good & your introduction is coming at a great time. Focus was a killer CD but the new stuff sounds a bit more progressive & the production is excellent.
The new guitarist/vocalist(growling),Tymon Kruidenier, is freakin awesome... I'm so psyched to get my hands on it. I'm gonna go out on a limb here: I think this album will be better than the new Opeth.