As many of their early fans would agree, Danish-Californian quartet Metallica seemed to lose it around the mid 90s. Dropping the hard-nosed, blue-collar appeal they had cultivated with their initial slew of albums, the band began to pander to a more commercial audience with diluted outings such as Load, Re-Load, Garage Inc.--not to mention 2003???s risible St Anger. Death Magnetic, Metallica???s first album in five years, is hence much anticipated. Will it be a long-awaited return to form, or a failed attempt to rekindle their inaugural power? In truth, it???s a bit of both. Helmed by veteran producer Rick Rubin, Death Magnetic reinstates many of Metallica???s early motifs--searing riffs, shredding solos, pounding drums--and even updates them with a huge, 21st century sound. The album has a decent selection of heavyweight thrills and spills, from the haunting, evocative opener "That Was Your Life", the live jam groove of "The End of the Line" and the flesh-ripping "Broken, Beat & Scarred". While Death Magnetic doesn???t come anywhere near the smouldering genius of Master of Puppets or other formative Metallica records, the band haven???t sounded this vital for many years. Reason enough for fans to rejoice. --Danny McKenna

This album is packed fun of track after track of excellent songs. Taking us back to when Metallica realy were a thrash metal band, but combining their old sound with their new massively over distorted guitar and hetfields now famous gravelly voice. This combination of old school thrash metal and their more recent rock has made for very enjoyable listening to everyone from the most hardcore metallica fan to anyone who has (somehow) never even heard of them. The album is raw and underproduced which lead to it sounding distractingly sloppy in some places but makes it more of the aggressive whisky stained comeback album it should be. Death magnetic is a St. Anger beater in every way, and I'm unsure whether this is still going to be Metallicas last album before they hang up their instruments, but if so then this album makes more than a fitting swan song. Bravo Metallica!

This CD is awesome and I can't see why anyone thinks it is bad. Cyanide, All Nightmare Long and The Day That Never Comes are my favourites. It was Kerrang's album of the year as well so it must be good.


Rock on!!

pathetic as usualy from the most over rated band in history
this one scores a great big 0 outta 10

Heard so many bad things about this album, like the production etc, the sound being too loud etc, but after buying it the other day and listening to it all the way through i find myself questioning wether i listened to the same record as all those people?!.

There is nothing wrong with the production or sound, in my opinion its very clear and well produced, each song sounds as its supposed to, i mean what are you expecting a metallica album to sound like exactly with all the moaning about the heavy sound?, its metallica for christ sake!.

I've never been a big fan of metallica, but this album is very good, very heavy, but also very melodic in some aspects of particular songs, the guitars sound incredible and james' vocals are right up there with the best.

A great sounding album that tops the 70minute mark despite only 10 tracks.

Back in 1981, Metallica won the majority of rock fans with their subversive, rough-hearted rock medleys and lyrics and their pacy, iconic instrumental backing. Since entering the modern world, Metallica still have a devoted modern generation in their fanbase, but most Metallica songs have either ranged from average to acceptable, but hardly as striking as the glory days of this much-loved group.

Many fans, like myself, consider this to be the band's testament to see if they still have that spark within them that made them so popular in the 80's. This is Metallica's Death Magnetic, and has Metallica still got it?

The album begins with a truly refreshing and dark single of "That was just your life". It sounded exactly how Metallica should sound. James Hetfield's rough yet aspiring vocals truly gave the subtly dark state of mind that the group do smoothly insert in their considerably erratic and loud musical stylings. The song sounded fresh, and managed to convey clear feeling, as well as the definition of what metal should be. I was starting to think this was the ultimate return to form for Metallica.

The rest of this album is Metallica at a godly status. The songs that followed which were 'The End of the Line', 'Broken, Beat and Scarred' and many more reminded me of the Metallica heydey where it felt new and cool. Metallica's biggest problem, as a group, before this album, was that a lot of their new singles often felt recycled and lacking the department of orginality, that problem is virtually inexisent in this record. Metallica finally felt hip again, fresh and bold.

The only criticism I can put towards Metallica's latest album is some forgettable tracks like Cyanide and others. They wern't bad, just some felt a bit too lite for Metallica, or too laid back for the group. But, the rest of the album has music that is up to the iconic standard of the group's glory days.

Overall, Death Magnetic is a truly stunning return to glory for Metallica, and Metallica's evident back catalouge use in this album works completely to create something fresh. Metallica, please keep it this way. It's great to have you guys back, and back with a bang.