Here’s my experience with Metallica:
I’ve bought three of their albums, Kill ‘Em All, Master of Puppets, and And Justice For All. I thought Kill ‘Em All was weak, and I thought the other two were classic, fantastic albums that I could (and have) listen to over and over forever.
I don’t own the Black Album, though of course I’ve heard all those songs a hundred times, and they never really grabbed me. Seemed like Metallica Light. The three studio albums released since then I’ve largely ignored, save for whatever singles were put on the radio, and all of those just left me limp. Gone were the days of master riffage, thrashy, time-signature bending pownage, replaced by power ballads and straight-ahead rock, which many bands do better.
Thus it was with great TREPIDATION that, on the strength of the last half of the new single, I plunked down my $10 on Death Magnetic this weekend.
The review is this:
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. It’s like they got in a time machine and went back to 1990, still had the crazy chops and the desire to rip your fucking head off. It’s got ONE power ballad on it, but even that one’s fairly strong. Nearly everything else FUCKING ROCKS. \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/
Usually (i.e., “every single time”) an old-ass band comes out and says, “the new album is a return to the old sound”, it is complete horseshit. This is the first time it’s actually happened.
It’s early yet, but it’s not out of the realm of sanity to place this one up there with Puppets and Justice — if those albums had higher high points, DM has more of them.
Anyway, an amazing return to form from a band I never totally loved except for those two earlier albums. If they’d kept this up the last 20 years, I would be a much bigger Metallica fan than I am.
Ice Cream Jonsey