The Official Metallica - Death Magnetic Thread

Metallica have nowhere left to go but up after that piece of crap St. Anger! They have Rubin Producing it and they are past Hetfield's self doubt days from the last album due to his "drinking". They have givin us reason to doubt them since their Load/Reload days began but i think they will want to go out on a good note from here on out. Just wait and give the record a chance.

The samples sound somewhat promising. Even though I've hated everything they've done from Load and later I will still give them another chance. That being said, I will take a "wait and see" approach with this one.

Meh. I'm still not getting my hopes up. The album titles ok, although I hope the album cover looks better than that boring pic. I'll probably pick it up at some point, but my fan-boy days are over. Too many other good releases I gotta get caught up on first.

Well, Metallica has posted the links to several
reviews of six yet-to-be-mastered tracks, and here is the longest and
most detailed one, from MetalHammer -


Does it sound like the pre-Load Metallica of yore? Mostly, but while
the tracks we've heard call to mind some old albums, most of them clock
in around the seven-minute mark, each one containing a number of
different sections, so the band don't settle on any one riff for long.
Bottom line? These songs are going to sound amazing live.

And how's Lars Ulrich's snare doing? Well, it's definitely there but
then we weren't listening to mastered versions, so there's still hope
that they won't end up sounding like they did on an album that rhymes
with Faint, uh...Banger.

What else? There's no album title yet, and there are no individual
song titles, but the album's been referred to as 'nine epics and one
song', with ten tracks adding up to a total of 75 minutes. You do the
math.

What do the songs sound like? Track one, which is only known by the
cryptic working-title Flamingo opens up on thunderous rolling drums as
lead guitar meets them head on, a flaring up in stop-start motion
before it pulls itself together in rushes forward in classic thrash
style, all crunching, Fight Fire With Fire riffs and drilling beats. It
takes at least two minutes for James Hetfield's vocals to come in, and
while they sound furious, this isn't the grittiest he's ever sounded,
more open in tone, but while there's still a memorable vocal line for
the 'chorus', and there is so much going on in the song, and so many
ideas thrown in and discarded for the next one that it's hard on first
listen to pick out one riff that you're going to remember it by. But
with galloping riffs and the return of guitar breaks rising up from out
of the grooves you can hear the true Metallica spirit, even though its
as if reflected in mirrored mosaic.

Track two is at heart an anthemic ballad that recalls Fight Fire
With Fire and Nothing Else Matters, with a chiming guitar intro, airy
vocals and some slightly convoluted, progressive-style bridges that
mutate into urgent riffing, more galloping riffs and guitar solos.
Again, the song has a number of different sections, but it still sounds
massive.

Track three kicks off on a stop-start riff flecked with Eastern
touches, as other bustling guitar lines play off each other and
Hetfield's vocals retain the power of old, like some monolithic prophet
overlooking events as mid-paced, chugging riffs come in, sounding like
an army on the march, methodically shooting anyone in their path.

Track four is reminiscent of Master Of Puppets with more than a
touch of heads-down Slayer pacing thrown in. After an artillery-lobbing
drum-led intro, it quickly sets off on marching, thrash mode,
HetfieldÂ’s spat vocals taking melodic digressions, as he roars 'Bow
down, surrender unto me'. The song's groove carries you along as it
opens up into guitar atomospherics that bring Led Zep to mind. It isn't
quite the kind of irresistible monster they've created before, but
Metallica still prove they can still sound lean and epic at the same
time, and when the track drops out into the grove mid-way though, you
can imagine the chants coming from the crowds live.

Track five has another strong opening, with an uncharacteristic
bouncing groove, setting off sharp riffs that come up
against an irregular barrage of percussion that sets it off briefly on
a more melodic path and builds up once again into a thrilling riff-fest
mayhem.

Track six is the 'song', considerably shorter than the others, but
full of clinically sharp riffing, more Slayer-esque parts and galloping
grooves, all hustle and bustle with a tinge of Eastern melody thrown in
once more.

Initial impressions is that this is an album that's going to get our
blood chugging, but whether it's all we hoped for is going to take more
plays to answer. Ultimately we're hugely relieved and pretty damn
thrilled, and we can't smurfing wait to hear the rest. Horns up.

To hear more about Metallica's new album as well as a chat with
Download's first Urban superstar Lethal bizzle, be sure to check out
the forthcoming edition of the Metal Hammer podcast.

Metallica have also released yet more studio footage from their
forthcoming 9th studio album. Check the clips out below to see how it's
all sounding at the moment.

I will save judgement when my ears hear it. I do however like the name.

Yeah, I don't care about those reviews. One seemed honest, one seemed like it was kissing ass—but they both reference Rage Against The Machine, which tells me they were prompted to make that comparison—and the other was written by an elitist turd. No thanks. Give me a song I can hear with my own ears.

Today i preordered Death Magnetic from Play.com where it claims the release date is the 15.09.08. this site usually has release dates well in advance.

it also says Chinese Democracy will be out 1.09.08 but i dont believe it a s much as the Metallica one which we know to be out in September

sorry i forgot this thread existed

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=101077

New album cover

Very interesting cover. Thanks for the link.

Horrible cover.

My dog can do that.

just seen the new cover and it is terrible. IMHO. i was hoping for a old school style pupppets era artwork which always looked cool

TheGooch wrote:

just seen the new cover and it is terrible. IMHO. i was hoping for a old school style pupppets era artwork which always looked cool

I didnt expect that. Their WAY too removed from their old style to do something like that.

it does indeed look like an abstract vagina

It looks unfinished to my eyes. All that white is wasted space. I like the concept, but the execution, if that is the final cover, is a bit flawed. Either way, most of their album covers have sucked, so I'm not surprised. The album art isn't important to a lot of musicians.

mc666 wrote:

it does indeed look like an abstract vagina

Agreed

It could be the hole we're supposed to chuck it into after we hear it.

Well.......I think its not that bad. I actually put it on my desktop. I get it now since I read a interview about why the album is called Death Magnetic. Ive seen worse covers, its the music that counts especially on this one.

http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?1=1&item=601021

I think the previous was better....

DeathCult wrote:

It could be the hole we're supposed to chuck it into after we hear it.

Well, with an album cover like that, I know I'd pick it up in a heartbeat.

You know what I think is bad about it, the straight lines outlining the coffin. Nothing else on that page is straight except that. The inside should have been drawn as well.

Two seconds of work, and, while not amazing, it's better—I think.

Much better, Eyesore.

Hey, use the EYE function!

Don't we have an official thread for this?