Metallica's Death Magnetic: "Live" Review

Last week Metallica released their 9th(?) studio album. I don't know if St. Anger really counts since they did practically zero production on it (Lars' snare sound??). Anyways, Death Magnetic was sounding like it was going to be the return of Metallica. Was it though? If you've heard the album then I'm sure you've already got your opinion. Mine was mixed. I thought that I'd write out my reactions to the songs as I listened to them so that's what I did and that's what I've posted here. When I did this I had already heard the first 6 or 7 tracks at least in part so some of the riffs and parts had grown on me and others were annoying me more than they did the first time I heard them.

Click through to read it all...and here we go!

That Was Just Your Life

This song actually kicks off sounding like you're about to hear some metal - in some ways reminding me of the Am I Evil cover they did long, long ago. This song also has a good tight riff to it that's unfortunately paired up with a really lame riff - but they do kinda go together. The verse portion of the song sounds good - James' vocals sound good although he still does that stuff that sounds like he's purposely singing out of key here and there. The solo break starts out pretty good but the solo is weak. In fact - I KNOW the start of it is from an older song of theirs and same with something in the middle. I think from a track on Master of Puppets - I'll find it. They come out of the solo real strong - right back into a verse which is the strongest part of this song. Overall I think this song is one that I'd listen to again.

The End Of The Line

Intro is OK, nothing really cool. The main riff after the intro is totally Pearl Jam's Evenflow riff but louder which is followed by a riff that sounds kinda like a lame version of the main riff from Ride The Lighting over a faster drum beat. The song has a good drive to it but there's nothing special about it at the same time. The "interlude" sounds all jumbled up - like every 8 bars we get a new riff that doesn't have anything to do with anything and then a solo that sucks followed by more new riffs that don't seem to have a purpose. Probably the strangest thing in this song is after all of those jumbled pointless riff breaks it goes into a slow part with clean guitars and some "deep" lyrics where James says "the slave becomes the master" over and over again. This part busts back into the song's core chorus part which isn't bad. Overall this song is pretty good save that interlude part. If they dropped some of those extra pointless riffs from that part the sound would be way better.

Broken, Beat & Scarred

This song starts out OK, but nothing really interesting - like they are just throwing out some riffs to make up a big minute long intro. Probably the coolest thing in this song is the riff that kicks in about 1 minute into the song. They play a variation of it for the verse parts that I also like (it takes 'em about 1:25 until James starts singing on this one). The solo break and underlying riff is what kills this song for me. The underlying riff is just kinda hoppy and gay sounding, the solo is uninteresting without any cool licks that we haven't heard a million times, and coming out of the solo break sounds like a really weak version of the solo exit riff from The Struggle Within (last song on the Black Album). The rest of the song sounds like just a bunch of pounding without the awesomeness that makes pounding really cool…and then after 6 and a half minutes it's finally over.

The Day That Never Comes

They start this one off with clean guitars and arpeggios - it's actually pretty nice sounding. Nice, though, isn't really what I'm looking for in a metal album. I want dark and cool, not pretty and nice. James' singing on this one is really soft too, which I'm not that into. This song is almost 8 minutes long so I'm expecting to hear a lot of extra riff breaks or some kind of an attempt at an instrumental break in the middle of the song like what they used to do on songs like Sanitarium or Fade to Black. 3:55 into the song - here we go. New progressions and a new jam riff. The riff isn't too bad and James lays down some more vocals over it. At 4:55 we get yet another riff that, combined with the drumming, sounds like some douche-bag kid wrote it in his bedroom. The final 3 minutes of this song barrages you with 10 different riffs and chord progressions that just sound like jam riffs - like they made 'em up at random during the recording or something. One of those 10 is the riff that the solo plays over - and the solo is weak just like all the others so far. One one of those 10 riffs becomes a riff that they return to after playing other riffs, acting as their anchor for this part of the song. Too bad it's totally lame and is really just some chord bashing without any of the heavy palm muted aggression that James used to be so well known for. Chop out this last 3 minutes and this song wouldn’t be bad.

All Nightmare Long

I like the intro to this song up until they try to get metal by just fast alternate picking an open E. However, by about 1 minute into the song they pick up on a pretty good riff followed by another pretty good riff. It's Rock sounding though - not really metal - and it kinda rocks. At about 1:40 we get another riff that James sings over. They're using one of those song structures where the drums and stuff falls out during the vocals and then they bring it all back in for the chorus parts. It's too bad none of this stuff goes with the cool galloping riff that they play at about 1 minute into the song. They do repeat that and the riff that follows it after the chorus but seriously those riffs should be the song. He should be singing over the galloping riff 'cause it kinda owns. The stuff they play during the vocal is lame - as if what he is singing about is important. No dude, it's METAL that's important. At 4:20 or so they break into the "break" that every fucking song has on this album. This break is pretty good though. The solo sucks balls just like all the other ones but I'm getting used to that at this point in the album. At least the music isn't bad on this solo break. A minute later we get more riffs that don't seem to go with the rest of the song…and ANOTHER LAME SOLO!!! Cool. Also more new riffs that eventually lead back into rapid single note alternate picking and a very strange sounding chord progression between bars of alternate picking. Basically everything after 5:20 until about 6:50 is lame and should have been cut. After 6:50 we get back to the song's main features (chorus and main riffs) but then at 7:30 they start in with some more stuff that isn't necessary. More riff variations - like a jam session. Just end the damn thing!!!

Cyanide

The one thing about this song that's worth a shit is the chorus riff and this cool arpeggio clean part that kicks in around 3:40. The rest of it sucks and has another one of those Pearl Jam riffs - what's up with that? They alternate this with a mess of accent hits and finally they go into a crappy solo. By 4:50 I'm wondering when it's going to end and get back to the song and by 5:20 or so they finally do but the scars of that weak break remain. It just feels like it doesn't fit - not in this style of music. They more or less abandoned that style of writing when they made the Black Album, Load and Re-Load. Going back to it just sounds like they took their new style of song writing, broke each song into two pieces, and jammed a mess of stupid fractured jam riffs in the middle. So far none of these interludes has the focused instrumental effect that their songs had on Lighting, Puppets and Justice.

The Unforgiven III

First off - what does this song have to do with the other "Unforgiven" songs? This one kicks in with a piano, violins and some horns. Metal huh? Yeah, Metallica is BACK!! They bring in some clean guitar, sounds ok, and then kick into a metal riff for the verse which is actually kinda cool. After all of this they break into a vocal part with a harmony that TOTALLY sounds like Creep by Stone Temple Pilots (except that song is way tighter). At 4:25 into the song it sounds like it's time for THIS songs interlude part. This one keeps with the song's primary tone and doesn't stray to a whole new riff or anything, at least not completely. James keeps saying "forgive me, forgive me not" over and over which is like totally genius lyric writing, ya know? They build it up a little and Kirk hits a solo around 5:35 that's weak just like the rest of his solos so far. No big surprise anymore. It really sounds like they think this is all epic or something. The solo break goes right back into another vocal part that takes us back to the song's main harmonies (the Creep ripoff). That's it, the song ends gently and we're off to track 8…

The Judas Kiss

I don't even want to get into it with this song. The lyrics are lame, it's got the same jumbled pile of riffs that suck and solos that suck. It could just as easily be any of the other songs on this album as it is its own song. Just skip this track because it brings nothing new or interesting to the table. They probably should have just left this one off the album.

Suicide & Redemption

This is an instrumental track - they haven't done one of these since To Live is to Die on Justice. The first 3.5 minutes of it are basically back to back jam riffs that sound a lot like the riffs from the rest of the album that they scattered about. At that 3.5 minute mark they break into a clean part with a nice guitar melody on top of it. From there the song isn't bad for a while…but beware this track is almost 10 fucking minutes long!!! They fool around with this good part of the song until about the 6 minute mark where the solos start and we get solos until about 7:20. The solos kinda suck but the underlying music is pretty tight. After the solos they mess around with another riff break that's not interesting and then back to one of the original jam riffs. Who knows what's going for a while until about 8:40 and they get back to the main jam riffs again which they close the song out with. I'm not into it.

My Apocalypse

Nothing stands out about this song except that it's faster than the other songs on the album. That about sums it up. It's the same old formula as the other songs, the riffs are a little tighter but there's nothing special and just like The Judas Kiss it doesn't really bring anything new to the table after the first half of the album. I kinda feel like I'm listening to the same song over and over. One thing that's cool about this song is it doesn't ramble on - it's the shortest song at only 5 minutes. For that I'll give it some credit as it doesn't have a lot of wasted space. If I had heard this song earlier on in the album I might have liked it!