Death Magnetic

Radiohead did one, Nine Inch Nails did one, The Verve did one, and it seems like every major band's doing one - Metallica no exception.

4 stars goes to both the album itself as well as the set. While Death Magnetic pales in comparison to the first decade of their career, it's easily the best thing they've done since ill trodden attempts at blues rock and garagey nu-metal.
Production wise it's good but poor mastering means there is some distortion in unnecessary places, but this is not the band's fault and unfortunately a lot of new albums and remasters are like this. Yet it still doesn't take away the power of the riffage that is a combo of their cult and mainstream years. Hetfield may sound more like an angry teacher than a Sergeant and Lars' beats lack 80's creativity, but they do their best here. And as for Kirk - an explosion of solos is natural after being tied up for the last album. Unfortunately, despite the full band writing effort, Rob is still only a little audible, but that said I think too much bass at the forefront would have diluted the songs. Don't put him up front just because he's 'new' (at least they didn't bury him like Jason on AJFA).

The coffin box itself is white, sturdy and about arm's length in size. The CD included is the limited edition Digipak version which looks better than the Super Jewel box version, but it's only drawback is that like the St. Anger case, the cardboard is prone to easy wear and peeling on your shelf. The concentric hole through the pages also obscures the lyrics.

Then there is a 'Demo Magnetic' CD which is fairly late stage demos of all the album songs with original working titles. Many songs sound very similar to the final versions, most changes being lyrics or arrangement ideas. For demos, it's quite well produced but you won't listen to it too much. You'll just want to own it as a completist.

Then there's a DVD of extra stuff not found on the £10 Mission Metallica site. It's not similar to 'A Year And Half...' or 'SKOM', so just expect raw footage - just longer - on here. It's fascinating if, like with Demo Magnetic, you're interested in seeing the scaffolding of the album.

The t-shirt is in the large size only for UK buyers but will be okay for the average person. It's 100% cotton in black with the band logo and album name on the back, and a white coffin attracting 4 Metallica logo M's on the front. It's quite stylish.

The flag is a full size flag that you can drape outside your window or whatever...This item though feels a bit like it's padding the set with novelties. The same goes for the very thick cardboard picks and laminate in lanyard (despite the cool ribbon on it with the Metallica logo and album name).

The coffin shaped poster is basically a large blown up image of the inner back of the lyrics booklet.

Finally there is a credit card with a code which entitles you to download the recently passed Berlin, or upcoming London O2 show for free. It's assumed much of Death Magnetic live has/will be aired, making this essentially a CD of 'Live Magnetic Plus Live Rarities'.

Also note the sticky logo on the shrinkwrap doesn't re-stick on the box, which is a small shame.

This box is pretty expensive, perhaps less than some but it's just about value for money. You're no less of a fan if you don't buy it, but if you want to be immersed in all things DM to the max, it's a worthy purchase save for the few filler items.

So after pretty much 2 decades of turgid, uninspired albums Metallica release what is a solid and decent thrash record, if nothing spectacular.

If your a fan of the 90's-00's output, you will probably find a lot to like on this album. If like me, you think the Black album was about as commercial as you would want Metallica to be, this is a bit more of a difficult pill to swallow.

The main problem with this album, is that the band recording it is Metallica. When you have released albums like Ride the Lightening, Master of Puppets and Kill 'em All, and then you release this, it simply doesn't stack up. The drums are quite tinny, the riffs not very memorable and the songs are too long most of the time. If this was a debut by a new band, it would be a decent effort, but Metallica are [or used to be] capable of so much more than this.

This is not a bad album by any means, and is certainly better than the likes of S&M, Load, Reload and St. Anger but it is meandering in places. A lot of the songs could be shaven down by 2-3 minutes and be vastly improved for it. Metallica used to be masters of writing precise, perfectly paced and to the point songs. In some cases that meant 14 minute songs, in others 3 1/2 minute songs. On this album, I feel that that precision is lacking.

It's a decent effort, and a return to form of sorts, but when you have the likes of Megadeth and Anthrax releasing what are 2 stand-out brilliant thrash records [th1rt3n and worship music], this sounds quite tired by comparision.

If you new to Metallica; buy Ride the Lightening and Master of Puppets First, and witness the true greatness of this once formidable band

I think many die hard fans of Metallica will quite easily agree that when compared to the Metallica of old, they started to drift into the realm of commercial mediocrity and delivered a shambolic last album in St. Anger. When Death Magnetic was announced for '08 I think many like myself said "bah humbug." Well, not in those words but you get the metaphor I'm trying to put across here. Our bah humbuggery was put to rest on September 10th when the album was released, with a finger in one ear and our eyes closed expecting the worst, I could finally rest. Metallica had escaped the clutches of that mediocre commercialism and said "hey, we messed up, but we're gonna make it up to you."

Hettfield, Ulrich, Hammet & Trujillo I salute you and thank you for keeping me out of hospital this time around. I couldn't bare another trip to repair my eardrums damaged by terrible music. I've just gotten over the Ashley Simpson album. I would usually just go right ahead and give you my top 5 favourites and let that be that, but I can't pick 5, it would make me feel guilty as I want to pick them all but as you can see there are 10 songs and don't fit into my top 5 charting model.

This is just a truly awesome album and is reminiscent of the Metallica of old. Forget St. Anger, Loaded and the other one, cast them out of your mind and replace them with the memory of Death Magnetic, the true return of heavy/thrash metal music and the band that made the genre what it is today.