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Death Magnetic!!!! F$%# YEAH!!! Are you alive, MuthaF$#%AS!!!!!

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Piotr Rasputin, Jun 16, 2008.

  1. Michael Echan

    Michael Echan Member

    Any reaction to the full album?
     
  2. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    Been a fan since Day One (25 years), and disliked about half of Load and Re-Load. Like half of it as bluesy hard rock, like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Thought St. Anger had about 3-4 songs I could dig, with the rest ranging from throwaway to horrendous.

    This album: I like the approach a lot. On St. Anger, it was like they had a rule that each song had to have this dumb slow bridge in the middle, even if it made no sense. It was like they were using Mellencamp as their model. I guess it was their replacement for solos.

    This time, they approached it like they used to, which is usually a step backward, but represents progress considering how many dog-average songs they have written over the last 15 years. So, song by song:

    That was just Your Life: Love the riff, love the buildup, love the solo, like the lyrics. Great Metallica song that sets the album's relentless pace from the start.

    End of the Line: More of the same, nice-sounding chorus. No complaints here. Love the opening.

    Broken beat and Scarred: Mediocrity personified. The riffs don't build up to anything, and the lyrics "Show your scars! WE die hard!" are as juvenile as what they wrote 25 years ago, with none of the glorious Judas Priest-like cheese of a song like "Phantom Lord" or the tough-guy 19-year-old angst like "No remorse" or "Motorbreath".

    The Day that Never comes: Yeah, I like it. Once it really gets going, it's a hell of a rocker, the next in their pantheon of superpower "ballads". If I (and other fans) didn't complain when they repeated this formula throughout the 1980s, I'm not complaining now.

    All Nightmare Long: I like it in spite o its cheese, or maybe because of it. Great riff, enjoyable song. Looking forward to hearing it live.

    Cyanide: a clunker. Like they set out to make this one "radio friendly". It doesn't really go anywhere, and the chorus is laughable. They'll probably play it live in a misguided belief that it's good, like they still pull out "King Nothing" every once in a while.

    Unforgiven III: They should have called it something else. The opening piano is a nice departure for them, and I actually like the way the song builds to start with. It goes on a little too long, but it's growing on me.

    The Judas Kiss: Has its moments, but I don't see what a few of the early reviewers saw in this song. It's merely OK at this point.

    Suicide and Redemption: 10-minute instrumental. Could stand to be a minute or two shorter. But there's a slow, Orion-esque part in the middle that I really like. It then builds again, adding layers until the long fadeout. Quality tune that I hope they play live.

    My Apocalypse: I just really enjoy this song. Can't explain it.

    Overall: The solos this time do sound straight out of Ride the Lightning, as if hammett was just holding them in while recording their last crappy record, and let it all burst out this time. Amazing work by him. Also, they really break out of the mold they were in for all of their first five records, and St. Anger (all their previous "metal" albums): the songs are not predictable on the first couple of listens. They break from the riff, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo/bridge, chrus, the end, thing. On St. Anger, they just repeated riffs and bad choruses for seven minutes. This time, they're writing like they did on master of Puppets and Justice for All: they're packing eight-minute songs with multiple riffs.

    In many ways, this is the album that should have come out after Justice for All. That's one that has some great tunes, but which doesn't hold up as well as Master of Puppets or Kill 'Em All, or maybe even the Black Album.

    Overall, this is about a 72-78 out of 100.

    And: http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/13450/week-ending-sept-14-2008-metallica-and-the-hard-rock-pantheon
     
  3. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    I thought this was going to be about the Hardon Collider.
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Probably not.

    I saw them in 1991 when they were encouraging fans to record their shows. A few years later they were suing their fans.

    I haven't liked anything they've done since 1991 and they haven't had a great album for 20 years.
     
  5. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    It makes me feel so fucking old to know that Black Album came out right after I graduated HS...and that Metallica has supersucked fantastic ever since.
     
  6. KevinmH9

    KevinmH9 Active Member

    It should be interesting to note that AC/DC also has a new song out.
     
  7. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    Not sure how Areosmith and the Rolling Stones aren't automatically answers 1 and 2 to this question .. . .

    Metallica has always encouraged their fans to record their (absolutely amazing, even now) shows. They always will. Now they sell them on the Web for 10 bucks a pop, but they're not out to stop the bootlegging. The venues might be . . . . .

    They sued Napster because people were putting their studio albums online, and also an unfinished demo of I Disappear. Does that suck? Depends on how you look at it. I like to be paid for MY work. I know, I know . . ."They're RICH!!!!!!! They don't need more MONEY!!!!!!!!!"

    They're rich because they happen to be very good at their work, so I certainly don't begrudge them seeking to protect themselves, however heavy-handed it was. Like many, they really had their heads in their asses when it came to the Web at the time, and now they've changed their tone considerably. Their stuff is on iTunes, including nearly half the new album being released on iTunes over the last month before it came out.

    There was a tribute band: Beatallica, which basically rewrote Beatles and Metallica songs and put them together on the Web, free downloads. The Beatles' legal people made them take it down. Metallica (Lars) had its legal people make clear they thought it was great, and fought for its right to be on the Web.

    Metallica is also the first band to release a brand-new album on Guitar hero. They're modernizing; they just also know how to make money off modern technology now. I understand it's fashionabl to say "They have sucked since the Black ALBUM!!!!!!!" and much of the music they have written since does indeed suck. But it was also fashionable for moron headbangers to say "They SOLD OUT with the Black ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!" I thought that was kinda dumb . . . .

    Led Zeppelin and the Beatles were bands whose final records sounded much different from their first. Both much better bands than Metallica, but the same need to change it up constantly runs through all three groups, and is common to all great groups. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss. That's life.

    As for AC/DC, it's hilarious to see them mentioned. They haven't attempted to make a different-sounding record since Back in Black. Its success meant they have just stuck with the formula and put out the same record multiple times over the last 28 years. A couple times, it has worked. their idea of innovation and switching it up is to have a slow part in a song.
     
  8. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    I've only heard about half of Death Magnetic. I like it so far but it usually takes a few spins for one of their albums to grow on me.

    I dig Beattalica. Can't listen to it all the time but I throw it on once in a while.
     
  9. pallister

    pallister Guest

    Exxxxxxxactly. Master of Puppets is a perfect metal CD. Even the Black Album sounds a bit forced to me these days.

    I've only heard "The Day That Never Comes." Don't like it. It sounds like they threw parts of a bunch of different songs together, like they no longer have the attention span to play a single song start to finish. St. Anger had much of that "Crap, I'm tired of this, throw some drums or a guitar solo in and see how it sounds" vibe. And James Hetfield is now a horrendous songwriter.
     
  10. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    I really like this song. I think it's got a kickass beat to it, sounds more like the 80s stuff.
     
  11. Lunker

    Lunker New Member

    Gotta disagree about "The Judas Kiss."

    First time I heard that song, I got up from my chair and started thrashing around my computer room like it was '88 and I was at "Day on the Green" with Metallica, the Scorps and Judas Priest.
     
  12. Kar33mSkyhook

    Kar33mSkyhook Member

    Nah, it's the artists. I doubt venues have rights to the songs or performances.
    You can't stop bootlegging anyways, it's a free shared market.

    Bands who make music to make money won't get a penny from me. Make a great album and I'll buy it.
     
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