Your expectations on Metallica's "Death Magnetic"

 

It sounded good to my ears, at first hearing it seemed like Justice and Load. And for those who hate St.Anger, at least this song is definitely different from that album.

 

There's also another song going around, Cyanide. It's played live in Youtube.

 

 

Am I the only one who thought My Apocalypse sounded like Slayer? It's great stuff!

 

Then perhaps I'm game this time around...hell, I bought the latest Priest album...

 

Damn, y'all are making me revise my 'will never buy another Metallica album' stance I took upon hearing St. Anger

 

Again, it sounds like "Justice...." era, but it's closer to Garage Days Revisited in style somehow, despite not being a cover. This time the wma is better quality and doesn't distort too badly. The production is superb, providing a really sharp metallic edge. Metallica have gone for a real multi-change approach here, and the track twists and turns with pinpoint brutal logic - somehow everything is forged from a single idea, which is just the way I like it, and yet they seem to have the rock and roll immediacy that characterises all their early albums. It's a bit more convoluted than "Kill 'Em All" or "Ride the Lightning", but that's no bad thing - this is another grower.

 

It's hard to be more specific about what it sounds like - there's an instant accessibility about it, yet all the textural and rhythm changes cloak it in mystery. There aren't any "hard" technical challenges here, but that's not the point. This is still a piece that would be difficult to write - you wouldn't imagine any other band writing this way. It's kinda like the Genesis approach, where the whole is greater than the parts. Even Kirk's solo seems to spring out like a predatory animal that's been waiting to pounce at the right moment, and snarls a primaeval message, rather than bothering with intricate technicalities.

 

There's a quite monstrous hook in what I assume is the chorus that I can imagine a stadium chanting along to - Metallica tease with this, cutting it short, and a 6 and a half minute track seems to rush past in seconds.

 

OK, it's beginning to sound like they're back on form

 

 

/edit:

 

Second listen is interesting - the overall form suddenly makes itself clearer with familiarity: The verses are multi-part edifices (fairly sure they're straight repetitions), and the chorus is a two-parter. Essentially it's an A-B-A-B-C-A-B standard rock song, but Metallica have gone back to their old elongation tricks - especially on the instrumental "C" section, which can easily be broken down into a sectional piece by itself, so that form is just an outline for what is a fairly complex track.

 

As can be divined by this structural approach, the instrumental is what stirs it all up and makes the piece come across as unhinged and twisty - even on second listen, I didn't count how many sections there are in this part, as I was too busy following the flow of the music, and noticing that there are even more subtleties here than I thought on first listen.

 

There are some cool teasing hooks before the solo proper starts, and this is what gives it the animal pouncing feel - it's not slammed into your face, rather I felt it creep up my spine before it sunk its claws in. Then I noticed that Kirk is using some of the same pentatonic chops I used on my recent Thrash Metal demo (that I stole from a Joe Satriani teach-yourself DVD) and burst out laughing...  

 

There are other more innovative parts to this track - but frankly, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm putting analysis on the back-burner for now. Here goes the third listen... but I'll spare this forum any more analysis

 

This is clearly yet another grower - initially it seems a bit disappointing, like Metallica trying to sound like Metallica, but there's a game plan to this piece that requires several listens (to me, at least!).

 

Kirk delivers some "Tufnell Specials" in the first solo - I'm beginning to feel that if this piece isn't intended to be tongue-in-cheek, then it should be. The second solo again sounds like he's having lots of fun.

 

There are semi-spoken sections that intersperse the extended instrumental that remind me of Enter Sandman, but I'm suddenly feeling that the song is a bit long. I note that I'm currently 7:30 into it, which says something - if it had felt too long at, say, 3:00, then I'd probably have stopped it by now.

 

I'm liking the production much more than the slick jobs of Bob Rock - the rawness is excellent, but does come across as a bit dated. This should please older fans!

 

 

Hmm.

 

I'm not sure I actually said anything here - this song hasn't really "spoken" to me on first listen.

 

Mind you, neither did AJFA.