Chinese Democracy


Metallica: “Death Magnetic” – “Death Magnetic” is quite a gonzo album, with a few weird Iron Maiden moments and other ideosyncratic non-Metallica moments.  It also sounds rather like “…And Justice For All,” which is not a bad thing. Cool cover showing a coffin garlanded with a magnetic halo of iron filings, the booklet pages are cut through to give it some depth (literally).  Opening track “This Was Just Your Life” sounds a bit like “Blackened,” the opening track of the 1988 album that “Death Magnetic” is called a revival of.  Somehow “The End of the Line” comes out a bit bluesy, although it quickly begins to headbang.  “Beaten, Broke and Scarred” is a pretty good track, while the infectious “The Day That Never Comes” sounds like something from the Black Album.  They have a pretty good video for it out already that should appeal to all the young Metallica fans serving in Iraq. “All Nightmare Long” is one of those fast fast things with lots of wah in the solo.  “Cyanide” is a dull song with a good solo that has a brief, strange Iron Maiden moment. “Unforgiven III” is another catchy song, not a sequel to the Clint Eastwood/Morgan Freeman film. The squeaky guitar solo is not too bad. “The Judas Kiss” is loud and angry with a very fast solo, lots of wah and a bit of flange. No bass, of course, it’s trapped at the bottom of the mix, I don’t know why Metallica needs a virtuoso bassist like Robert Trujillo, although a bit of burbling does come out in the instrumental “Suicide & Redemption” (an ironic poke at Trujillo’s old band, Suicidal Tendencies?). Following the album’s longest song is its shortest, “My Apocalypse,” which closed “Death Magnetic” with five minutes of fury. Good, fast, punky.

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