Metallica - Death Magnetic
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Free Music Notes for Death Magnetic
Free Music Review: Metallica's harshest critic agrees they're back
Hit: 5 Stars
After a two-and-a-half-year tour in support of their self-titled 1991 effort and a yearlong hiatus, Metallica lacked direction over the course of the next decade. 1995's "Load" and 1997's "Re-Load" were, according to guitarist Kirk Hammett after the fact, "experiments in hard rock." 1998's cover collection, "Garage Inc." took a week to record, and the band only wrote three new songs during the following four-year period (although 1999's "No Leaf Clover" ranks among their best). Metallica then spearheaded a well-publicized but ill-conceived assault on Napster, bassist Jason Newsted bolted the band in 2001, and when creative leader James Hetfield checked himself into rehab shortly thereafter, the band hadn't written an album of all-new material in half a decade.
Metallica appeared on the brink of collapse. Naysayers were given more fodder when, in 2003, Metallica released the awful "St. Anger." Twelve years on from the Black Album and 17 from "Master of Puppets," it was legitimate to wonder whether Metallica had become a dinosaur act.
No more. "Death Magnetic" is fast, tight, extraordinarily long and full of complex arrangements. Gone is the muddled production and uber-simple song structures of "St. Anger." Gone is Hetfield attempting to purge his demons through juvenile lyrics. And interestingly, gone is longtime producer Bob Rock, the architect of Metallica's commercial success and controversial career trajectory post-"Justice."
While many reviews have been mixed, it's without dispute that "Death Magnetic" features several excellent offerings.
The album-opening "That Was Just Your Life" is a "Blackened"-esque slice of speed that will be a perfect show-opener. The lead single, "The Day That Never Comes," displays the long-overdue return of the classic soft-to-shred arrangement found in "Fade to Black," "Sanitarium" and "One." "Suicide and Redemption," while a bit long at 9:56, is a very good instrumental offering chock full of riffs, and the phenomenal "All Nightmare Long" is perhaps their best song in 20 years. Even slightly lesser tracks -- particularly "Cyanide" and "Broken, Beat and Scarred" -- far outpace anything on "St. Anger" and most everything else from the "Load" era. And yes, the already much-maligned "Unforgiven III" is in fact very good, providing balance to what is otherwise a brutal assault on the ears on the second half of the record.
Perhaps most notably, "Death Magnetic" sees Hammett finally unleashed. He's one of rock's best and most recognizable soloists, and much of his work on this album hearkens back to his playing on "Ride the Lightning."
It's been said that this album picks up where 1988's "Justice" left off, but I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Metallica has been at the top of the rock world for most of the last two decades, yet during that time has been mostly directionless, lurching in various directions that seemed to depart from the formula of what made them great. With "Death Magnetic," Metallica returns to the speed, riffage and ultra-complex song structures that brought them to the brink of superstardom in the late-80s. At times, the band admittedly overindulges, as if they're going out of their way to prove a point to their critics. But overall, "Death Magnetic" is a very good offering, and exactly the record Metallica needed to make at this point in their careers.
Free Music Review: WHY THIS IS THEIR BEST SINCE "AND JUSTICE..."
Hit: 5 Stars
I have been listening to Metallica since "Ride the Lightning". I remember when "Master of Puppets" came out and I was floored! I could not believe that they could get even better than "Ride...". I think the feeling I get from "Death Magnetic", is the same feeling I got from "Master of Puppets".
After churning out crap for three albums (For the money I'm sure), they have renewed my faith as a metalhead. The "Black" album was just okay, even though they scored high marks from fans and reviews, but honestly, Bob Rock almost ruined this band as much as made them rich..
To me the Bassless "And Justice For All" was the last Great Metallica album until "Death Magnetic". They went with a producer that knows how to get actual SOUND out of his bands. I can't believe the reviews talking about how this album sucks. They must've liked the albums were the band wore make-up and sang about hotrods and stupid crap. These people really need to start from the beginning and listen to every album from "Kill Em All" on through this one.
KILL EM ALL- 8/10 Not a bad start. Really started the Thrash movement.
RIDE THE LIGHTNING- 10/10 Changed my taste of music for the better. This album really was the best when it came out and still holds up pretty well.
MASTER OF PUPPETS- 10/10 Keeping up what they started, toured with Ozzy. Got tons of fans. Cliff Burton was a god! But then he left us forever. Still one of the greatest albums ever made.
GARAGE DAYS- 9/10 Raw and still thrashy. Newstead gets on board and does well. I still love this CD.
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL- 9/10 Would have been the best they put out if not for the crappy mix. (I still can't believe they haven't added the Bass yet). Great song structure, very mature and yet very heavy. No Bass, Drum Kicks to high end and trebley. Vocals rock! This will get 10/10 once Lars and James re-mix it.
THE BLACK ALBUM- 7/10 Other than a couple of tracks, the album has a slow boring vibe to it. This was a decent mix by the team, but the music lost me where it picked up a whole new legion of fans...Not quite a sell out. But you can feel it coming.
LOAD- 5/10 They are SOOOO much better than this album. A complete sell-out in my opinion. Even though I liked "Hero of the Day" (and I am ashamed), this is for the most part- garbage.
RELOAD- 3/10 No comment.. I'm sure your girlfriends like it.
I am going to skip a couple because they aren't REALLY albums, okay?
ST. ANGER- 3/10 not because it's a sell out, but because they needed to put out a really crappy album and explore why they do what they do, and FIX IT! The drums reeeeaally suck on this (Lars, listen to other people). James's voice was really irritating, but I felt like they were coming back musically, but this still sucked.
DEATH MAGNETIC- 10/10 - Because they pulled their heads out. and gave the true fans what they wanted! A cross between "Master..." and "And Justice..." With really good tracks. Really, I can't find one track on this album that sucks. It's like they reinvented Metallica all over again. And like I said before- It gave me the same feeling "Master of Puppets" did when it came out.
I hope with this release it's just the beginning for the new Metallica of old. So, to sum it up- Great songs, great vocals, great topics and a renewed faith in Metal for all!!!
Free Music Review: The Four Horsemen are back again
Hit: 5 Stars
Well... Death Magnetic. First off, if you are specting a Master of Puppets album, listen to MOP.
This is certanly one of Metallica's best, and a nice 2008 comeback as well. Though many songs are as old as about 2 years, you can see why it took to long to get this album ready. For the ones that have being following the making of this album since 2006, I can surely bet that we had a surprise once we began listening to their songs through Mission: Metallica or for some on Youtube.
Spolier: If you've heard what they called "They New Song" and "The Other new Song" when playing live on the Sick of the Studio and Escape from the Studio tours, well...not much of those tunes remainded on DM, only some parts of this early versions finished on the final cut.
If you are considering buying the album, if you are and old angry fan, a new fan, or just haven't had the chance to buy it, and are thinking about it, keep in mind the following:
1.- This is an album for strong mindend hardcore fans
2.- It's a Metallica album recorded by a much more mature Metallica
3.- You've read or heard there is a "Unforgiven" song, intitled "The Unforgiven III". Well there is no horn at the begining, and there is no signs of any of the old Unforgiven riffs or lyrics. It's totaly different.
4.- You've might have heard that, ONCE AGAIN, they recorded an instrumental tune... do not expect: Ktulu, Orion or To live is to die.
5.- Expect hard drumming, speed guitar riffs, "machine gun" riffs, some of the best Kirk's guitar solos, and great bass guitar sound.
6.- Last but not least... THIS IS A VERY DIFFERENT METALLICA ALBUM all the way.
To me, this album has taken me more to the ...And Justice era, more than anything, specialy on "The Judas Kiss" song, it has something after the intro that reminds me a lot of many songs on the Justice album.
Indeed, this album will have mixed reviews, many people will not like it, but millions more will.
I've being waiting the realease of this album for 2 years, and I'm nothing close to be desapointed. I recomend it if you have opened your mind about Metallica by now.
Remember one thing.. we al grow older, things change and Metallica has changed for good.
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An addition to my first post. About the sound quality. Well, I'm still waiting for my CD, but have it LEGAL on mp3 320kbs, so basicaly I'm listening anywhere. I have it on my Ipod Touch onto my aux on my car, some part of the songs do make a little crackle, and my USV does have a nice sound system, but in general it all sounds good, some other songs do mess a little with my ears, but nothing really out of the common ¿could it be so many years of metal? When I use my Ipod on me, I don't have this problem though.
Now, to all that have commented about this issue, I agree, if you have a quality concern regarding master and mixing... do the exact same thing that made Metallica management to consider a change recommendation of Producer (Bob Rock). Open a site for signatures and send them to Metallica land, it worked the first time, that tells me that they listen to our concerns.
METAL UP!!!! ENJOY
Free Music Review: Awsome Songs... Sounds Awfull, very very bad :(
Hit: 5 Stars
The songs are great!! sound is very very poor...
It sounds to me like all of the tracks were laid down properly, this is totally a mix and mastering issue accept for perhaps a bit to much gain on the guitar, but its hard to tell from all of the "edge distortion" goin on in the master. It almost sounds like both the mixing and mastering engineers forgot how to use a compressor.
The dynamics of the kick drum are all over the place, sounds like they stuck Beta 52s in the kick drums and said "this is great, we dont need compression or EQ!" The snare is a train wreck, Usually you try to remove the most unpleasent frequancies of a snare drum, but they decided to turn that part up... the worst part is I can hear the crashes in the snare mic!!! that is just gawd afull. I couldnt comment about the toms, I can barley hear them and when I can all I hear is the mastering distorion. The vocals are soo soo hollow, where are they? Did they track all the vocals with a Samson microphone through a behringer mic pre!? where is the vocal compression? Doubling? verb, delay? do something! Bass sounds like they took the DI and siad "we'll fix that s%*t in the mix" then forgot to fix it. I think without all the two buss clipping the guitars might be okay, but they are still not in the pocket.
So what do you do with a totally horrible mix?! You use massive ammounts of limiting and distort the f*$k out of it. Couldnt get any worse right? WRONG!! If the engineer who masterd this had any self respect he would have told them to go back and remix this train wreck before he took the job, but instead he turned bad in to horrible. Its possable that most of the mix issues could be fixed by a decent master, but in this case all of the worst has been brought out instead. I dont like to wish I'll will on people, but I hope I never hear another recording masterd by this guy. One of the first things a good mastering engineer checks for is "edge distortion"... Edge distortion is the cracking you hear when you phase reverse one of the channels and sum them into mono. This removes all of the information in the center of the immage revealing the massive ammounts of distortion masked by the wide sterio immage (good mixes and masters will not have this). Aparently this guy didnt give much of a crap about any of that. If there wasnt any edge distortion in the mix, he certanly had no trouble creating some. Dont get me wrong, I love a loud Mix/Master, but good grief. Go back to Full Sail and ask for a refund you noob!!
In conclusion, Metallca has finally stepped up to the request of the fans and put out some great rock and roll and you tards had to go and ruin it... GG!! Metallica Is the most popular rock band alive, they dont have to listen to anyone... The record company has no power over this band... matter of fact, Metallica doenst even need a damn record company accpet for distrubution. If James, Kirk and Lars didnt like this crappy mix, they could have stopped it from getting out. They could have gotten some good people on this mix, but they diddnt... Why Metallica, why would you let this happen!? Get me the master files and I'll fix this nightmare for you!
Josh Pechette
Free Music Review: Master of Puppets revisited?
Hit: 5 Stars
OK, so maybe it's not as amazing as Master of Puppets, but I would have to say that Death Magnetic, with it's real guitar solos and non-trash can lid sounding drums, is light years better than St Anger and with the feel of the album I can say that I think this is probably Metallica's closest offering in almost 20 yrs to what they used to be with albums after ...And Justice for All.
Gone are the drum sounds created by beating 2 sticks on a trash can lid and bass drums created by kicking a bucket. All hail the return of amazing guitar solos and quality drum work!
This album marks a return for Metallica for the lengthy tracks we had grown accustomed to and were lost in favor of some shorter, more likely to be critically welcomed, shorter tracks. This is Metallica as they should be.
Over the years Metallica has evolved, devolved and are now seemingly in the middle of another evolution that doesn't forsake their thrash and speed metal roots.
As far as the quality of the CD, the audio mastering isn't good... There are a quite few instances of what is known as clipping. For those that don't know what clipping is, please visit Wikipedia and do a search for "Clipping (audio)" and scan down to the Digital Clipping section. At the end of "The Day That Never Comes" the distortion becomes so bad that the music begins to muddy, meaning it is difficult to distinguish the instruments. And the problem isn't on the mixing/mastering side, it is on the production side, meaning there won't be a "fixed" version unless the guys decide to go back into the studio and re-record from scratch, which we know won't happen. Evidently they recorded the unmixed tracks TO THE LIMIT of acceptable levels and the mixing agent couldn't fix it. FOR THOSE LOOKING TO THE VINYL FOR A FIXED VERSION, LOOK ELSEWHERE. I have the vinyl, the 5 disc "audiophile" version, and it has the same issues. It was just recorded at too loud a volume for there to be an easy way to fix it.
Also dealing with the mastering, the album is authored to the limit of acceptable volume levels. While clipping is minimized, the CD remains quite loud even at lower volume levels on your receiver/stereo. Thankfully the instruments are leveled properly and you can distinguish bass from guitar and vocals. For a better understanding of volume levels and what happens when all instruments are digitally "enhanced" to be at the same volume levels, also visit Wikipedia and search for "dynamic range compression."
Anyone looking for an album in the same vein as St. Anger, look elsewhere. Metallica have shed that phase and returned to their roots.
In the end Metallica have done a great job with this release and I have to say I have begun to regain my faith in their abilities as musicians, having been severely disappointed by St. Anger.
Now back to listening to The Judas Kiss!
**For those complaining about the audio, please listen to the CD over the digital downloads. If you reviewed this based on the "leaked" album, realize that the leak has tons more clipping and audio issues than even the official digital download.