Metallica - "Death Magnetic"

[Brikar99]

Only a couple more weeks till the ninth studio album from the biggest heavy metal act around. Anyone else looking forward to this?

The first two singles are out - "My Apocalypse" and "The Day That Never Comes". I've only listened to them briefly - instrumentally they're pretty rocking. I have to admit that I have the volume down pretty low so I don't bother my roommates. Vocally, James Hetfield sounds fine. Can't say much about the lyrics at the moment.

"The Day That Never Comes" starts out slowly, but the back half of it is great. Kirk Hammett's guitar solos have returned after being entirely absent from "St. Anger". I know I'm in something of a minority on this, but I dug "St. Anger". It's definitely Metallica's weakest album, but I can put it on in the car and enjoy it on the way to work.

"My Apocalypse" is old-school Metallica thrash all the way through. The kind of shit you think should make someone's fingers bleed when they play it.

Damn!

[bloodstainedwings]

I am. I am also loving the new sounds. I think they have a hit on there hands. The new song sounds great reminds me of the song battery/ i am most looking forward to the song "The Unforgiven III"

[firestorm]

I heard one of them a few weeks ago, and thought it sounded awesome... at least given the quality of the video. I'm pretty excited about it. I *liked* St. Anger, but don't find myself listening to it very often...

[Brikar99]

Originally Posted by firestorm

I *liked* St. Anger, but don't find myself listening to it very often...

I think the real problem with St. Anger is that nearly every song is simply TOO LONG. There aren't any guitar solos in the entire album, so there's nothing to break up a song and after a few minutes you're just thinking, "Ok... get on with it."

"Frantic" and "St. Anger" work, but I found the edited version of "Some Kind of Monster" far superior as it lopped something like three minutes out of the song and the whole thing simply flows better. I feel like the rest of the album would do the same.

[plissken99]

Definitly looking forward to this one. The new song especially really sounds like a return to form! I also liked St. Anger for the most part, just not something I can listen to very often. Can't wait to get the entire album!

[Derb]

Hope the band allowed Kirk to do some solos this time round. Huge fan of everything pre-reloaded.

On Guitar Hero 3 & the upcoming GH World Tour, the full MetallicA album will be available for download.

[bloodstainedwings]

Originally Posted by Derb

Hope the band allowed Kirk to do some solos this time round. Huge fan of everything pre-reloaded.

On Guitar Hero 3 & the upcoming GH World Tour, the full MetallicA album will be available for download.

The Solos Are Back

[Derb]

Originally Posted by bloodstainedwings

The Solos Are Back

Yep, thanks. Listened to a bit on YouTube & some tracks have good riffs as well but for lack of a better word in my opinion, these new songs have no 'balance' That 8 minute song goes everywhere. The beginning is good but it falls apart big time near the 6 minute mark. Also, James's vocals need improvement. His 'new' style of singing just doesn't sound as good as LOAD or RELOAD. Maybe he should start drinking again. Regardless, I'll def buy this when it comes out.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by bloodstainedwings

The Solos Are Back

That's all I care about.

["The Dude"]

I'm looking forward to this as well.

I was listening to a local rock station the day, to which they even have "mandatory Metallica" every night - nothing but Metallica music for 1/2 to 1hr.

Anyway they were talking about Metallica's new album and comments that Lars has made recently. I don't know if anyone else has heard these , but according to Lars, after they did the black album, they felt alittle intimidated by their albums prior to the black album and going back to doing music how they did before the black album.

I guess we'll have to wait a few more weeks to find out how the whole album sounds, but Lars stated that they drew the inspiration for Death Magnetic from their earlier albums, primarily Master of Puppets. Of course, Lars could just be blowing smoke out his ass as usual!

[Brikar99]

I've read several interviews where it was said that the new producer made them go back and spend time listening to the old albums to get the band "back into that headspace", which is a good way to go, I think.

["The Dude"]

Originally Posted by Brikar99

I've read several interviews where it was said that the new producer made them go back and spend time listening to the old albums to get the band "back into that headspace", which is a good way to go, I think.

Agreed. I'm also interested to see what Robert Trujillo brings, if anything, to the band. When he was first brought on board, the big three were comparing Robert to Cliff Burton. I just hope that the bass isn't drowned out like on their earlier albums. And Justice for All is a good example of that.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by "The Dude"

but Lars stated that they drew the inspiration for Death Magnetic from their earlier albums, primarily Master of Puppets. Of course, Lars could just be blowing smoke out his ass as usual!

Well I'm sure James & lars have a lot of songs in the vault from their earlier days which they havn't gotten around to actually producing. Maybe they have some hidden jems but I hope the new direction of Metal doesn't sway themselves in that direction. I always thought of Metallica as an instrumental band & speaking of that, I'd like to see them do another song like To Live is to Die.

Wasn't till the Black Album that they stopped making instrumental tracks unfortunately.

[Brikar99]

Originally Posted by "The Dude"

Agreed. I'm also interested to see what Robert Trujillo brings, if anything, to the band. When he was first brought on board, the big three were comparing Robert to Cliff Burton. I just hope that the bass isn't drowned out like on their earlier albums. And Justice for All is a good example of that.

I've read or seen interviews where they've come out and expressed disappointment with how the Justice album was mixed. I've always hoped that they'd pull a Megadeth and go back and remix it. I read an advance review for Death Magnetic that mentioned an instrumental track. I hope I wasn't misreading it.

[Derb]

I gots me some XM radio & on ch 51 for this whole month is nothing but Metallica.

I heard Cyanide today on the way home from work. The riffs seem pretty good & RT even has a cool bass riff at the beginning.............unfortunately to good to be true, James opens with some vocals & uh...

[robynbrock84]

love metallica

[Rileydog]

all the tracks are availble on Metallica.com for preview is you click on
"Devour Magnetic" in the second news post on the page.

Prior to that, they released tracks here and there, eventually having a cluster of 6.

So, I have listened to the whole album for free 2x today. It is awesome, although after a while some of the tracks blend into each other.

[plissken99]

Haven't had a chance to listen to it all, but the half I've heard is very very good. Defnitly not their best, but it easily outshines Load, Reload and St. Anger!

Oh, and the songs are hard as fuck on Guitar Hero! Some songs are just hard for hard sake(see the Foo Fighter, and Velvelt Revolver packs, tons of notes for virtually nothing happening the in the songs), but these the notes seem to match pretty well, just the Metallica style is inherently difficult.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by plissken99

Oh, and the songs are hard as fuck on Guitar Hero! Some songs are just hard for hard sake(see the Foo Fighter, and Velvelt Revolver packs, tons of notes for virtually nothing happening the in the songs), but these the notes seem to match pretty well, just the Metallica style is inherently difficult.

On hard level they are a bit difficult.

For a first, I listened to this album by playing it on medium level.

Suicide & Redemption

Fuck yeah man. 10+ minute instrumental. Brings back memories of old school tallica days, worth the purchase alone!

[plissken99]

Man something about The Day That Never comes just isn't right, can't keep a streak going even. I'm conviced there's something wrong with the song, I keep the beat, where it does not. I can't do better than 4 stars on it, and I can 5 star fucking Devil Went Down to Georgia!

[Derb]

Originally Posted by plissken99

Man something about The Day That Never comes just isn't right, can't keep a streak going even. I'm conviced there's something wrong with the song, I keep the beat, where it does not. I can't do better than 4 stars on it, and I can 5 star fucking Devil Went Down to Georgia!

I noticed on medium it was a bit hard to keep a streak at the beginning on Unforgiven 3 but didn't have issues with Day that never comes. I didn't get perfect on any of their songs but did get 5 stars on all of them probably because I've been playing everything else on the hard level for the past three months. I was having problems with My Apocalypse on the hard level but I figured I was just getting too tired.

I suggest try a few on Hard & than re-visit those same songs on medium, that might help.

[plissken99]

Haven't played past Unforgiven III, trying not to burn through it all too fast. I might try the hard thing, I really don't mess with it, I'm happy at medium, hard feels fake(hard for hards sake), and as soon as my hand starts sliding around it forgets where it needs to be for the rest of the notes.

I did get a perfect on Cyanide, my 1st thousand note streak!! The Day that Never Comes is just BS. I tell ya these songs don't have much replay value, their so long that if you start screwing up majorly 5 minutes into an 8 minute song it leaves no desire to go back and hope you do better lol.

[plissken99]

Actually it was This is Just Your Life that I was having trouble with lol. Just went back and 5 starred it, and finished the rest of the songs(all 5 stars course). I LOVE this album, every song on it is actually good! They really knocked it out of the park on this one. The one thing missing is an iconic track that I end up humming, but it seems like I remember that being the case with their old albums, just have to hear it a few times to soak it all in.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by plissken99

Actually it was This is Just Your Life that I was having trouble with lol. Just went back and 5 starred it, and finished the rest of the songs(all 5 stars course). I LOVE this album, every song on it is actually good! They really knocked it out of the park on this one. The one thing missing is an iconic track that I end up humming, but it seems like I remember that being the case with their old albums, just have to hear it a few times to soak it all in.

Coo

I've got a few songs stuck in my head already. I figure the more I play them, like ya said the more I will dig the album. The 10 minute instrumental was icing on the cake with this album for sure. As for GH3, I got 5 stars on all but 2 songs on the hard level. I tried expert & failed Suicide & Redemption as soon as the solo came through... 71%

[plissken99]

Yeah funny enough The Day that Never Comes has become stuck in my head, I was unsure of that one at first, but the more I hear it, the more I like it. Suicide & Redemption is just awesome, James' solo is a lot easier to play than Kirks lol, but both sound amazing. I was worried about trying to play a 10 minute song, but it just flies by.

It may be time to tackle hard, I'm much better than I used to be. Recently went back and played the 1st 20 regular songs, and upped the scores signifigantly, and played many of them without missing a note(all the 1st 10, except that horrible Brett Michaels song). I'm just scarred because I already broke one guitar getting the hang of medium lol.

[Brikar99]

Originally Posted by plissken99

I'm just scarred because I already broke one guitar getting the hang of medium lol.

How did you manage to do that? I keep hearing stories of people breaking their instruments and others complaining that stuff is 'cheaply made', but I have never had a problem with anything. I feel like I'm wailing on the Rock Band drums too hard as it is, but they're still there...

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Brikar99

How did you manage to do that?

I think its frustration. I've never broken one but felt like doing so a few times.

[plissken99]

Originally Posted by Derb

I think its frustratio