Metallica, Death Magnetic (Warner Bros. Records)
By Thom Copher

Somewhere along the line, around the mid-90s, a strange thing happened: Metallica was kidnapped by a group which claimed to be Metallica
yet neither sounded nor looked like the real band.  Subsequently, a string of albums followed which saw these impostors pull the good
Metallica name about as far away from its thrash-metal stylings as it could.

Apparently, the real Metallica has broken free from captivity to unleash Death Magnetic, a ten-song whirlwind which finds the band
rediscovering many of the elements which made it the most important and influential outfit since Led Zeppelin.

It's exactly what die-hard Metalli-fans have been clamoring for since the post-Black Album days.  When the band hooked up with producer
Bob Rock for that statuesque album (officially titled Metallica) in 1991, it seemed that singer/guitarist/composer James Hetfield and
company might be taking a needed break from the musical expansiveness which had reached a peak with ...And Justice for All (1988).

What resulted, though, was a decade-plus of lightweight efforts (1996’s Load and the following year’s Reload), legal proceedings against
file-sharing pioneer Napster, internal bickering, rehab and ultimately a directionless attempt to regain some street cred (St. Anger  in 2003).

Metallica, the once-infallible patriots of the ol' "middle finger to the establishment," was suddenly at a cross-road where it was either put-up
or shut-up.

Switch to present-day: Death Magnetic has been ushered in by the pre-album-release single, “The Day That Never Comes.”  First
impressions bring reminiscence of landmark tunes “Fade to Black” and “One.”  It also begs the question: “Can the band recapture an entire
album's worth of classic ‘Tallica?”

“That Was Just Your Life,” the opening track from Magnetic, begins to answer that ostensibly age-old question.  Much in the fashion of
Metallica’s mid-1980s “Holy Trinity” albums (Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All), track one hits listeners
between the ears with the business end of a sonic sledgehammer.

As the new album progresses, it is clear that Metallica is attempting, at least in part, to achieve what it swore would never occur, namely
the recreation of The Trinity’s strongest link, Master of Puppets (1986), which is universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of thrash metal.
Throughout Magnetic, the band offers up large, heavy doses of speed (“All Nightmare Long” and “My Apocalypse” can easily be mistaken
for Slayer or Testament at their best – or even Metallica at its best) interlaced with slower, plodding passages (“The Judas Kiss” and
“Broken, Beat, and Scarred” conjure memories of “Don’t Tread on Me” or “Disposable Heroes” from back in the day).

Essential to the formula is the interweaving of bridges and breaks which make the individual songs seem to have sub-chapters… a main
ingredient to that which made Metallica so different, intelligent and cool in the first place.

Just as important as the songs themselves are the elements which fuel them.  

Welcomed back is the paper-thin guitar sound which made Hetfield and lead six-string slinger Kirk Hammett sound so frenzied on earlier
material.  Salutations, also, to the re-emergence of Hammett’s wah-drenched staccato lead work which was totally abandoned on St.
Anger.  Robert Trujillo (who signed on after the recording of St. Anger) resurrects the bottomless-pit-bass attack which made such classics
as "Whiplash," "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Battery" sound so threateningly ominous.  This time around, too, drummer Lars Ulrich has
reinstalled liberal double-bass kicks and off-beat snare pops which have been integral in defining the Bay-Area sound since the genre’s onset
over 25 years ago.

This would all be academic had Hetfield not re-evaluated his vocal style.  The singer returns largely to a primal state where his message is
conveyed more as an urgent decree as opposed to a weak attempt at trying to sound like Chris Isaac.  There are even a couple of instances
where I actually heard a misplaced line or two from “Creeping Death”… really!

Production guru Rick Rubin (Slayer, The Black Crowes, AC/DC, et al) was called aboard to oversee Magnetic and there couldn't have been
a better choice.  Rubin has historically demanded command performances from his projects, mainly because he approaches them from an
unbiased historical perspective.  In a nutshell, he knows what does and doesn’t sound good.  For the most part, he’s on the mark here.

Amid all this sound, you’ve gotta ask: “What’s words worth?”  As a lyricist, Hetfield works best when he’s thematically pissed off… or, at
least, agitated.  The prevalent topic on Magnetic is personal turmoil which begs for identification, forgiveness and redemption while
teetering along the edges of suicide.  That being said, it’s hard to decipher, here, whether he is speaking through a character or from a first-
hand perspective.  Either way, it's good to hear "Jaymz" lay out an emotion over the course of an entire album rather than take panderings
and compress them into individual songs as was the case with the 90s' catalogue.

There will never be another Master of Puppets, no matter how stringently the faithful request it.  However, it’s good to know that the band
which championed underground metal in response to big hair and spandex (and the industry which supported such posturing) hasn't
forgotten the elements which it helped create and doesn't fear revisiting them after all these years.
'Tallica gettin' all magnetic: Robert, Lars, Kirk and
James debut their new album (photo courtesy of the AP)
Metallica revisits its thrash roots with Death Magnetic
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