So the new Metallica album, Death Magnetic hits stores on Sept. 12th. I gotta say, after years of having a love/hate relationship with the band, I'm kinda excited for it. They've been releasing new songs from the upcoming album on Monday nights, from here until the release date. This in and of itself is pretty nice, considering the reputation this band has for not only "free" music, but it's reluctance to fully embrace online marketing in the way that younger bands do. I mean shit, it's already working just by me writing about it. But on to the main course, the music.
One of my coworkers had been suggesting that I preview the new tracks for about a week. My initial hesitance was due to the "sour taste" left in my mouth from anything written after the Black album. So needless to say, I was less than optimistic about what I'd be hearing. After listening to the two released tracks so far, "The Day That Never Comes" and "My Apocalypse", the title of this article is what came to mind. It's good. Not great, but good.
The Day That Never Comes - My initial impression with this track was not good. To be frank, it sounded like if you took the hardest sounding track off of Load and mixed it better. Then you get to the 5 min. mark. And then it starts getting good. My jaw almost dropped when I heard that Kirk Hammett remembered how to solo again. After giving the track another listen though, and talking with my friend Matt, I started to warm up to it. Slow doesn't always mean lame for a metal band, and I think I just had to remember that. However, I'm entirely unsatisfied with James Hetfield's vocals. They do nothing if not remind me of everything that was Load / ReLoad /St. Anger. There was a point brought up in discussion, that if the previous albums had never happened, that I'd maybe be less critical of his modern singing. While that may be true, it still doesn't help me forget that James Hetfield sounds like he's taking a drink of soda after singing-aah, every-ahh line-aahh.
My Apocalypse - I was told upon hearing this track, that if I was looking for a song that reminded me of one of my all-time favorite Metallica tracks, Battery, then this would be it. Honestly, it was pretty sick. I still have problems with Jame's vocals, but not as much as I did with TDTNC. The guitars and drums however are really the best parts of this song. Kirk Hammett is writing sustainable, and listenable riffs as well as solos, and it sounds like Lars remembered what his double bass pedal was for.
That being said, I still feel I have to apply the "good, not great" tag to this track as well. Largely due in part to the fact that I'm not going to let the rest of the album rest on this one song, and then get depressed when it doesn't deliver.
You know, it's funny though. I can remember having discussions with my old roommate about how the metal community needed Metallica back, and now, I'm not so sure we do. We've been doing pretty good without them so far. I will always respect them, IMMENSELY, for how far they've come, and how much they literally legitimized metal as a genre, but I don't get the impression that Death Magnetic will be this generations album that inspired them to musical greatness. However, it is still early, and while I think there's definitely room for improvement, this is hands down the best thing they've released in the last 16 years. So if I sound a little cautious, as most of us rational Metallica fans might, we've got good reason to be. On Sept. 12th though, I hope when I openly proclaim, "prove me wrong", I will be.
