Broken, beat and scarred, we die hard
My first experience with Metallica was when I stopped in an HMV on a trip across Canada and picked up copies of Metallica (das schwarze Album) and Master of Puppets. The self-titled didn’t do much for me outside of the singles, but Master of Puppets was epic, helped no doubt by the experience of first listening to it in a trailer park outside of Edmonton as two tornadoes hit. Tragically, as it happened, I had blundered my way into a band on a downhill slope into mediocrity and further. Having heard all of their output since, I’ve had little inclination to actually own anything they’ve released since Metallica. Until this one.
Now, a few words regarding St. Anger, one of the most hated albums ever. With all the (largely deserved) bile directed at that it, one can easily forget the reasoning behind it. The hype of St. Anger was that it was a back-to-basics album, ill-considered as most such things are. The real trouble this time out was that the band’s vision of their basic elements were rather distant from that of their fanbase.
So, with all the loaded meaning such a statement might have, Death Magnetic is in a sense St. Anger take two. An attempt to return to some simple, classic elements, but a different set of them, closer to what long-time listeners associate with the band. This is not a return to form, not really, and if I were to say just that it is easily the best thing they have released since Metallica, that would damn it with faint praise (although it is indeed accurate), and no, it isn’t in the same league as their classic work although it notably outclasses all of their recent work.
The significance of Death Magnetic comes not so much from what it does as what it does not do. With Rick Rubin on the boards, it does not succumb to the shitty overprocessing of their past several albums. James Hetfield’s goofy vocal tics are reined in a bit (a good thing, because they were reaching the realm of self-parody). They make no concessions to current trends, and don’t try to be anyone other than Metallica. They’ve got their fire back, and that’s a great thing to hear.
So, where does that all leave us? Well, this is Metallica. There are riffs and solos, a great abundance of them, a cornucopia, you might say. Regarding variety, I’m not really sure what to say, as there both is and is not. Perhaps because it is also distinctively Metallica, and in contrast to the unfortunate Use Your Illusion-esque toss all our ideas at a wall and whatever bounces goes on the album approach of Load and Reload, the tone and structure is rather consistent and straightforward. However, there do seem to be a lot of nods in other directions. “That Was Just Your Life” in amongst its monstrous section of solos takes detours into classic thrash and power metal with cheerful ease. “Broken, Beat & Scarred” has kind of a groove-metal swing to it. “The Day That Never Comes” is the best merger of the quiet and melodic with heaviness that they’ve pulled off since the original “The Unforgiven” (and without the tracklist in front of me for the first few listens, I’d simply assumed that it was “The Unforgiven III”) and it’s a truly great song. The big instrumental “Suicide & Redemption” doesn’t really go anywhere, which is too bad considering my favourite Metallica song ever is an instrumental (“Orion”), but it does have a lot of great stops along the way. “My Apocalypse” is about as pure thrash as they’ve done in over twenty years.
Sure, the lyrics are still pretty dumb and if you’re looking for innovation, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is Metallica, for God’s sake. Progressive and experimental are anathema to them. You don’t go to a U2 album looking for a scathing critique of Christianity, do you? No, this is a slugfest with dexterity and passion, which is exactly what it needed to be. Maybe you’ll get a giggle out of Hetfield screaming ‘what don’t kill ya make ya more strong!’ or ‘Hunt you down all NIGHTMARE long!’ (I sure did!) but it really is a thrill to hear these dudes finally re-energized. There is life after leather!
***1/2
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