Death Magnetic - Metallica

Album : Death Magnetic (2008)

Artist : Metallica

Genre : Thrash Metal

Overall Rating : ***** ** (out of 10*)

. This Week I'm Listening To... Death Magnetic is Metallica's latest release and will probably earn the laurel of Thrash Metal Album of 2008. Metallica Maniacs are raving over it, calling it their best effort in more than a decade. . What's To Like... 75 minutes of high energy. Some fantastic guitar work by Kirk Hammett. There are some great tracks here : The Day That Never Comes, The Unforgiven III, The Judas Kiss, and Suicide & Redemption. That latter track is an a mind-blowing 10-minute instrumental that really shows what Metallica can do if they want to. . What's Not To Like... The rest of the tracks are standard Metal mishmosh. You could do a mash-up on them and not tell any difference. The lyrics are the usual Metal themes - suicide, betrayal, angst, etc. . The singing is so-so. I guess I shouldn't complain since at least it isn't grunting. The drumming is high-schoolish. . Don't Forget To Take The Thrash Out... My Metal tastes trend towards "applied Metal" such as Folk Metal, Symphonic Metal, and yes, even Polka Metal. For the most part, Thrash Metal to me verges on being garage-band stuff. It's what teenage bands play before they become adept at playing musical instruments, writing coherent songs, and learning to sing. . I have to admit Metallica does an excellent job here. Unfortunately, it's still Thrash Metal. It's kinda like Vladimir Horowitz (who?) playing Chopsticks on the piano. It may be superbly done, but it's still Chopsticks. So we'll give Death Magnetic seven solid stars, recognizing that if this kind of Metal is your thing, you're likely to rate it a lot higher.