Death Magnetic - Dark Publications

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Product Description
One of the most influential bands in music, ranked eighth on the list of the biggest-selling groups in history, Metallica unveils its ninth studio album, Death Magnetic. The band's
first album in five years, Death Magnetic is also its first with renowned producer Rick Rubin (Danzig, Slayer, System Of A Down,
Slipknot), first with bassist Robert Trujillo, and first on Warner Bros. Heavy and thrashy, unafraid to embrace the band's past yet move
into the future.

Album Description
Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing. Universal. 2008.

Customer Reviews: Read 810 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Review For The Old-School Fan September 12, 2008
274 out of 305 found this review helpful

Many Metallica fans have thought of them as sellouts ever since they released their first music video to "One" back in 1989. After they enlisted producer Bob Rock for "The Black" album, Metallica became "radio friendly" with many songs coming in at around five minutes or less. Load and Reload did little to reverse this, and St. Anger was easily the worst CD that Metallica ever released. So it is with good reason that many have been sceptical about what to expect from Metallica's latest offering Death Magnetic.

Some significant things have changed since St. Anger. This is the first release from Metallica on their new record label, Warner Bros. Many will cheer that producer Bob Rock is also gone having been replaced by renowned career resurrector Rick Rubin. All of this is somewhat academic, though, unless the music also changed as a result.

I'm pleased to report that Death Magnetic is somewhat of a Renaissance for Metallica. While it will not be mistaken for what many consider to be the best trio of metal CDs made (Ride The Lightening, Master Of Puppets, and ...And Justice For All), it is a marked improvement over what Metallica has had to offer over the past 15 years. Much of what you will hear falls somewhere between Justice and The Black Album.

Right out of the gate on "That Was Just Your Life" many of the signs of old school Metallica are on display. This song starts with a simple, bare, and undistorted guitar line, but it builds to full on thrash as we see that Lars Ulrich has remembered what drums on a Metallica album are supposed to sound like. Before the first verse starts, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett remind us what the dual guitar lines can sound like. And yes, Kirk Hammett's soloing is also back, and he does not disappoint. The next two tracks continue to crunch along, but some will lose heart when "The Day That Never Comes" come up. However, it manages to finish much stronger than it starts. As if sensing that they needed to dial it back up, "All Nightmare Long" returns to full on shredding and goes from there. The combined guitar lines and drum line create a tempo that feels like it could match the speed of helicopter blades. This song also finds Metallica on the familiar theme of mental stability heard on "Welcome Home Sanitarium" and "The Frayed Ends Of Sanity" from days of old.

When I looked at the track listing before hearing any of the songs, I had concern when I saw "The Unforgiven III". My first thought was, "Do we really need another rehash of the radio hit 'Unforgiven'?" However listening to the song showed me that my concern was in vane. While "The Unforgiven" and "The Unforgiven II" are fairly straightforward, "The Unforgiven III" is more metaphoric as it relates life's torment to sea adventures in search of gold gone awry. The lyrics actually don't include the word "unforgiven" making the title choice a bit puzzling, but I think that "The Unforgiven III" is better than either of its namesakes.

All in all, Death Magnetic is solid heavy metal CD, but I expect reaction to it to be very mixed. The part of the Metallica fan base who will enjoy this the most are those who liked ...And Justice For All and The Black Album. They don't reach far enough back for the oldest of old school fans while those looking for Load or Reload will also likely be disappointed. Hopefully having a better idea of where this fits in the Metallica spectrum will help you decide if it is for you or not.

Download this: All Nightmare Long

5 out of 5 stars

Overall: Excellent September 12, 2008
108 out of 129 found this review helpful

I remember when "Master of Puppets" was the new album, I had played my cassette of "Whiplash EP" to the point where it was worn and wobbled. I won't say "Master" wasn't awesome, but I was always partial to "Ride the Lightning." So when every new Metallica has come out in the last 22 years and people keep comparing them to "Master" I just say, chill out and let it stand on its merit.

What's hard is that Metallica will admit that "Load" "Re-Load" and "St. Anger" where not high-points in their career. Infighting, bickering, the firing / quitting of J. Newkid left the band "Broken, beaten and Scarred" Unfortunately with the exception of the exceptional "Symphony" disks and "Garage Inc." those three records represent in years, over half of Metallica's career. Is it any wonder then, that with Uber-Producer Rick Ruben at the helm "Death Magnetic" has become the single most anticipated Metallica Album ever?

As for the album, those of us who grew up with "Ride" "Master" and "Justice" will recognize the song pattern. While "Death Magnetic" has two more tracks (being it was recorded for 80min CD world, not the 45min vinyl one) the placement of the songs is very telling and familiar to those older records. The first track "That was just your life" starts quiet (heart beat, wobling guitar) and then suddenly burst in your face. The second track is about addiction and death (master = addiction, ride = death). The third track slows it down and is more grinding and heavy ("Bells" "Thing" Sad but True") and the fourth track is a ballad with a heavy second half ("Fade" "Sanitarium" "One") The second to last track is an instrumental ("Orion" "to live is to die") The last song is a ripper ("damage inc." "Dyers Eve").

Unlike "Load" and "Reload", "Death Magnetic" avoids the bluesy, dirty grinding songs, and unlike "St. Anger" this one aims for strong hooks, harmonies structure and flow.

"Death Magnetic" is not a new "Master" but rather a culmination of everything these guys have every done. While many songs will remind listeners of "Justice" "Broken, Beat and Scarred" is reminiscent of "St. Anger" with its chants of "what don't kill ya, makes ya more strong" and riffing rather than solos. "Unforgiven III" is far closer to "Unforgiven II" on re-load than the original. The Guitar has that same bluesy, flowing feel and the eastern influence that gave the original its greatest strengths are completely washed away by familiar metal riffing. Not to say the song isn't good, but without the late Michael Kamen the orchestration just doesn't life the song the way it should and the chorus builds and builds but doesn't crest, it keeps feeling like there should be more, some kind of heavy release that never comes. "My Apocalypse" closes the album by channeling "Slayer" as Metallica tries and fails to go back to "Kill `em All." Not that the song doesn't rock, it's heavy, fast and awesome closer, but the feel is forced and the song feels tacked on to a mostly mid to fast-mid tempo album.

The biggest shocker here may be the 10 min (and longest song) "Suicide and Redemption" the bands first instrumental in 20 years. This is the best they've done since "Ktulu", it's got more energy than "Orion" or "To live is to Die" but lacks the kind of expressionist solos you'd expect from such an epic. However, the ten minutes goes by fast! I had listened to the CD four or five times before I realized the song had no lyrics!!!

If there's one thing missing in all these loooooooooooooooooooong songs (only one song under 6 min) is a true epic. Yes, "All Nightmare Long" "The Day that Never Comes" and "The Judas Kiss" are all brilliant (so is the Black Sabbath inspired "Cyanide") but nothing comes close here to the epic feel of "master of puppets" "Just for all" "Outlaw torn" or "Fixxxer." those songs had such a deep, complex feel with so many ups and downs and such a perfect flow (ok, "justice" is the least of the four) that nothing on "Magnetic" quite get's there.

I am not in love with packaging, it looks cool with the coffin cut-out but the cut the lyrics out. That's annoying.

In the end "Death Magnetic" is just what it needs to be. It's everything Metallica's done better than anyone else for over 25 years, it's most of the best parts of all the albums to date and it's 100X better almost anything out there. Plus, these guys are in their 40's, and are harder, faster and more intricate and intelligent than anything these Kids half their age are putting out there. Buy this CD.

Update:9/16/08
It's been confirmed by several sources that the Guitar Hero III version of this album has not suffered from the brick-wall compression of the CD / Vinyl release. Apparently someone decided MP3's sound better mixed as loud as possible and then clipped of the highest and lowest ranges. So, the retail CD / Vinyl of DM have been mixed with heavy dynamic range compression (meaning they've eliminated the difference between soft sound and loud sound) the album now sounds like a wall of noise. This is a too common recording industry practice, it ruins the experience and removes the subtleties of the music. You may notice this CD suffers from a lack of bass guitar, that the guitar is flat, the drums do not resonate, the cymbols are thin and the vocals are often drowning in the music mix. Also, there is a lot of noise, you can not only hear distortion in the music, but their is noise at the beginning and end of every track, which, a CD should not have.

There are multiple petitions and blogs as well as thousands on Metallica's own website begging for an uncompressed re-release.

If you hear the GHIII versions, you may never go back.

5 out of 5 stars

One Of Their Best Albums September 12, 2008
46 out of 68 found this review helpful

Having listened to Metallica's Death Magnetic for the last few days, I can tell you that it is one of their best albums. If I knew nothing about the album and someone told me that these songs were from lost tracks that were recorded between the making of Justice and The Black Album I would believe it. Metallica sounds great on this album. The quality of the recording is much improved over St. Anger, which I lump in there with Garage Days.

As far as content goes, these songs are incredible, classic Metallica riffs with new twists. The tempo changes, guitar solos, and James' classic lyrics are all there. Having listened to the album about ten times, there are several songs that I cannot get out of my head. Suicide and Redemption, the instrumental piece of the album, is fast becoming my favorite.

I have been a Metallica fan for a long time. While disappointed in St. Anger, I still enjoyed it. But I thought the best days of Metallica were probably in the past: Lightening/Puppets/Justice/Black. But this album, in my mind, rates right up there with those great Metallica Albums.

1 out of 5 stars

WILL THIS BE THE CD THAT FINALLY GETS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY TO CHANGE IT'S AWFUL PRODUCTION VALUES? September 13, 2008
43 out of 74 found this review helpful

The uproar over the atrocious sound on this CD, that completely destroys the brilliant songs of what should surely be a career high for Metallica, might be what finally causes the hapless music industry to finally realize that the now almost universal adoption of era bleeding, anti-music production values must stop.

Let's face it - the music industry isn't exactly populated with people who either love or even have a clue about music, but maybe this one is the rock-bottom (no pun intended) that causes them to stop.

Too bad on this one. It's a CD that will be more remembered years from now as one of the major offenders during an era when labels actively attempted to alienate customers both on the quality front and on the service front.

Great music that is virtually unlistenable. Pity. Missed opportunity for Metallica to be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.

1 out of 5 stars

Great album, ruined by Loudness war September 18, 2008
38 out of 52 found this review helpful

I -want- to like this album so much, but I can't. I just listened to the previews on iTunes, and this HAS to be the clippiest album to date. Especially on the bass drum.

Ok, let me back up here:

Back in the late 70s, when Engineers were designing the specification for audio CDs (now known as the "Red Book" standard because of its cover), they were going great. They made everything which was the de faco for digital audio up until the late 90s, but there was just one design flaw. One such design flaw which has been getting worse and worse as the years go by. This fatal flaw, which admittedly they couldn't imagine in their wildest nightmares, was the maximum loudness that CDs could handle. So, right now, you're thinking "Well what's wrong with that?" See, the problem is that most people like listening to music loudly. CDs can only be so loud too, and clips when it reaches the so called "brick wall" loudness limit that CDs can handle (I'll get to that later in my review).

In the late 80s/early 90s, the record companies completely dumped vinyl and ran wild with CD. This also meant they could run wild with how loud the music was without worrying about vinyl releases (vinyl, when the music gets too loud, is simply not playable). They started doing something called "dynamic compression", which makes it so that the drums are distorted, and everything else is louder. Therefor the drums get more lost in everything while being distorted. The level of distortion depends on how much the team behind the mix compresses the music, which wasn't really that bad until about 1994-1996. In that limbo period, the dynamic compression depended on who was involved in the mastering process (and to an extant, is still applicable today). The latest uncompressed CD that I have, which is NOT an audiophile release, is the 1996 remaster of the Saturday Night Life OST (which is kind of weird IMO).

There is also another huge problem: clipping. Clipping happens when the signal becomes -too- loud for CDs to handle, and the peak (or top & bottom of the sound wave) is cut off. Here's an example you can do to find out what I mean: Get a piece of paper, and a pencil. Draw one long wavy line across the paper, while once in a while making big waves that stand out from all of the others. Then take the eraser, and erase the tops & bottoms of the big waves at about the same level. Then draw strait lines across the gaps created, and they should connect the separated pieces. That's what clipping is.

Those strait lines are a kind of "click" that is created in the sound wave, and is becoming more noticeable as the years go by. I know some audiophiles will disagree with me, but clipping hasn't been that much of a problem. Until now, at least. I've had a pair of Koss PortaPro headphones for almost a year now, and have not been able to pick up any clips on any recording (besides the infamous Californication and Raw Power masters) until Prince's Planet Earth (released 2007). Why? Because most clipping has only been a couple of samples long (aka a couple hundred milliseconds). Clicks that short can't even be reproduced unless you are willing to spend usually a $1000 or more on audio setups. Plus there's the fact that it's -slowly- getting louder over the years since the mid 90s. The mid 90s is the only time when the loudness level overall jumped dramatically.

But Death Magnetic must have the longest clips on any album ever made to date. That high pitched noise you hear on the drums (specifically on the bass drum) is not part of the drums set. That is a clip in the sound wave, reeking havoc on your ears.

So, is there anyway to decompress or de-clip music? The former, sadly, is a no, but the latter is a yes. There are such things as de-clipping software, but from what I've heard, a lot of the free ones aren't very good (they need to guess what the sound wave would be like de-clipped, and that's complected). The ones you pay for usually are a lot better at de-clipping than the free ones, but of course you need to PAY for those. Most people (including me) won't pay for de-clipping software. Also, don't ask me "what's the best de-clipping software?", because I haven't even bothered looking at de-clipping software. It's just never been a problem for me, up until now (and is still not that noticeable on some CDs released even this year, like Viva la Vida by Coldplay).

In my review of the Genesis remasters, I tore relentlessly into the awful dynamic compression the remaster team did (seriously, they're the most distorted records of all time), and stated that dynamic compression would never reach that level. Well, Death Magnetic is the alternative future for CD music on it's current path. That path, though, is equally awful.

Update: I just read a comment on one of my Genesis reviews, and it discredited me for using iTunes previews. He/She went even so far as to compare it to cassette, which is totally not true. Here's my response before anyone says anything here too:

"No, iTunes is not the digital equivalent to Cassette. The only processing they do is encode the audio to AAC @ 128 kbp/s (both for streaming previews & downloading). That is not the same kind of compression, and does not effect the post-processing effects done at the mixing studio (and no, do not use joint stereo as a valid argument point. See: http://harmsy.freeuk.com/mostync/ ). And don't use the "It's at 128 kbp/s !" argument either, because by this point (11 years after AAC was first drafted) encoders have gotten WAY better at determining what humans will and won't hear."

Update 2: Some people I'm getting messages from seem to not like me actually reviewing the songs on this album. The reason I didn't comment on the songs is because I didn't buy the album. I didn't buy the album because I don't want to support this kind of extremely bad mastering, and I don't pirate music unlike most people I know. I wouldn't of made this review in the first place if so many people didn't have trouble understanding what a lot of other people are getting their nickers in a twist about. Like I stated above, clipping does not bother me most of the time, nor does dynamic compression (though I would obviously prefer it to be unclippy/uncompressed), but Death Magnetic is where I draw the line.

Death Magnetic seems like it would be a great album, and I'm sure it is, but I just can't stand listening to it.

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