Devil's Review: Metallica - Death Magnetic

Ok, so I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks now. I wanted to make sure that my brain registered exactly what I thought of this record before posting.

I like the cd. Is it the best of the year? No. Is it the best Metallica album ever? No. Is it the best Metallica album in a long time? Yes. I would actually rank it above the Black album but thats as far as I'll go. Their true creative genius passed away in 1986 and Justice had alot of carryover from Burton's time in the band.

What we have is a album by middle age thrashers trying to prove that they can still rock with the best of them after years of experimentation and missteps. And most of the time they succeed. Many of the tracks remind me of aspects of the classic 80's albums. There is still the occasional Load era sound but it gets overshadowed pretty quickly.

What this cd has going for it is the return of the guitar solo, Hetfield's voice almost being able to handle thrash phrasing like in the old days, and the return of the signature changes that made them so popular in the 80's.

I'm not going to nitpick the hell out of this though like so many have done across other boards but I will say that this a welcome attempt at a return to form. Clean up the production on the next cd and stick with the forumla and it will go a long way for them to be "forgiven" for past indiscretions.