Death Magnetic is awesome!

Death Magnetic came up again in my album rotation system and I keep thinking to myself two things;

1 - I can't believe how good this is!

2- I can't believe how much hate there is/was for this.



Metallica!

After the steaming turd that was St. Anger, it was impossible for them to sink any lower. The only place to go was up.

I enjoy Death Magnetic quite a bit. It will never top any of the "classics" and is probably as close to a return to thrash as we'll ever see from these guys again. It's an enjoyable album al the way through with one glaring exception, 'The Unforgiven III'. Totally out of place and unnecessary on the album. I don't know if having Rick Rubin really helped anything at all, but moving away from Rob Rock was a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

It was nice to see the guys have a little spark in them again. With any luck that little spark will ignite a fire in them, now that there is a current band of "retro thrashers" doing it harder and in some cases better than the old guard. And even seeing some of the old timers (Testament, Overkill) stepping it up again.

Seeing the band perform some of the songs from DM live also helped make it a much more enjoyable album, one that still gets spins from me. It's aging pretty well so far.

I like it well enough. It's not earth shattering, but then again, it doesn't have to be. It's one of the band's better albums in over two decades.

I thought it was kinda boring...not bad...just boring.

I still give it a spin every so often, which is more than I can say for ST. ANGER or either of the LOAD combo.

It's ok, but I think it's just as boring as Of Fire does.

i enjoyed it more than the last 3 Metallica albums & the last 7 Megadeth.

mc666 wrote:

i enjoyed it more than the last 3 Metallica albums & the last 7 Megadeth.

I like the last 3 Megadeth's alot better, but it's the first time I've liked a Metallica song since Justice.

Never bought it,dont plan on it either. I dont know what it is about them I just cant listen to much of their stuff anymore.I still like the old stuff alright every now and then but I dont plan on buying any more of their stuff.

It's just amazing to me how much their contemporaries are blowing them away and yet they sell so much more.

I loved it but I think I wanted to love it because the last three Metallica albums were very disappointing me, I do like 'Load' and believe it or not 'St. Anger' but this album was excellent IMO, except for 'The Unforgiven III" that song is utter crap.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I thought it was kinda boring...not bad...just boring.

I share the same sentiments.

Temple of Blood wrote:

It's just amazing to me how much their contemporaries are blowing them away and yet they sell so much more.

I'll tell you one of the reasons why...they've been one of the most accommodating bands in terms of building relationships with their fans. If there was a blue print or manual on how to interact with your fans, Metallica would get an "A". There are a ton of jerk offs in the industry, and that sometimes more than the music turns off fan loyalty.

I used to work in the airport, and I would run into Pro wrestlers every now and then. I went up to a few of them, and talk about unapproachable. After about two bad experiences because of their lack of social graces, I said screw it, and never approached another one of them.

Good point metalinmyveins.

But DIO was probably every bit as much like that and he enjoyed about 1/100000 of their popularity so it must be much more than that ....

Temple of Blood wrote:

Good point metalinmyveins.

But DIO was probably every bit as much like that and he enjoyed about 1/100000 of their popularity so it must be much more than that ....

I can't argue with that at all...The only thing that I might be able to say regarding DIO would be this: I feel like he was unceremoniously tossed in with the rest of the L.A metal scene in the 80's. It seemed like the only bands who were allowed to move on and still have some success in the 90's were those in the thrash scene like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax... They were considered musicians and not to be lumped in with the showmen of the previous decade. Unfortunately there's that guilt by association thing, and DIO's music would be considered closer in style with the music almost everyone in the 90's was turning their backs on.

The one other thing I might add is, I love everything DIO did prior to Tracy G joining the band (even Lock Up the Wolves). I thought the music really went south until Craig Goldy reemerged for "Magica", and even that album wasn't one of my favs as I never really dug concept records. "Killing the Dragon" and "Master of the Moon" were killer records, but by this point if you hadn't bought a DIO album in a while, then you probably weren't going to pay money for these. You probably would be content hammering out his stuff from the 80's.

Good point though, as DIO was always very fan accessible.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Good point metalinmyveins.

But DIO was probably every bit as much like that and he enjoyed about 1/100000 of their popularity so it must be much more than that ....

Metallica was also able to eventually cross-over to mainstream appeal better than any other band of that genre. While some of their contemporaries tried, few, if any succedded. Megadeth probably came closest in the 90's. And even when Metallica (Lars especially) pissed off many fans at the time, they had a HUGE spotlight shone upon them during the whole Napster ordeal. Name recognition goes a long way when selling albums. Now soccer moms know of Metallica, the brand anyway. Not so with Overkill or Testament.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Now soccer moms know of Metallica, the brand anyway. Not so with Overkill or Testament.

Very true. It annoys me to no end when my wife's friends always try to relate with me and say they listen to metal, "like Metallica."

DM was okay, like most said, it was better than what they had been putting out. However, St. Anger was so much garbage that I got tired of trying to defend these guys. If I were to play anything by these guys, it would probably be one of their first three, but even then it's once in a blue moon and I doubt I even get through the whole album.

Yeah, Death Magnetic just bored me. I had a burn of it when it came out and never made it through in one listen.

I think it's pretty good.

I havent liked any original material by Metallica since the Black Album but I like Death Magnetic alot. I don't love it like the 80's stuff but it seems to be a step in the right direction for them.

I thought it was good. I am glad it was better than some of the previous efforts but it hasnt had the staying power of the first three..

Excellent album!!!! I still play it - best thing since The Black Album and I would rank it right after the first four classic.

from what ive heard off of it, i would never listen to it. but, as someone said, its at least a step in the right direction. i guess im sort of an atypical metalhead in that even metallicas prime material doesnt hold as much appeal to me as most of their contemporaries, both in the bay area (local) scene and in the german scene, among other locations.

Very good album, but I still think it sounds like an album full of great parts. Very few songs have a smooth flow; it's all cool ideas cut-and-pasted together in Pro Tools or whatever. You can see them doing this in those in-studio videos.

It's too bad, really. Had they managed to find great transitions between all those parts, instead of just unnaturally piecing parts together, the album would be pretty sick. But for me, despite diggin' it, the flow is off.

It's a good record, the first Metallica album I liked since Justice. I played it quite a bit when it first came out, but only a few times since.

It would have been better with a shorter running time, drop off a couple mediocre tracks and it would feel more solid.