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Death Magnetic | 
 enlarge | Artist: Metallica
Label: Warner Bros.
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $6.08
You Save: $12.90 (68%)
New (56) Used (27) from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  872 reviews
Sales Rank: 49
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 508732
UPC: 093624986188
EAN: 0093624986188
ASIN: B00192KCQ0
Release Date: September 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | That Was Just Your Life | | • | The End Of The Line | | • | Broken, Beat & Scarred | | • | The Day That Never Comes | | • | All Nightmare Long | | • | Cyanide | | • | The Unforgiven III | | • | The Judas Kiss | | • | Suicide & Redemption | | • | My Apocalypse |
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| Editorial Reviews:
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 867 more reviews...
 Skull crushing mastery... January 7, 2009
2 caveats before I start this review:
1. I'm not going to delve into the whole compression/distortion/clipping issue here. It's been argued to death. I will say yes, it certainly is a valid concern. Listening to the CD on my home and car stereos, I did not notice the clipping, however when I ripped the disc to my mp3 player, what came out of the earbuds was an unlistenable mess. I *do* believe that the Guitar Hero mix is superior and listen to it more often than the actual disc. But that said, this review is about the MUSIC only.
2. I'm a fan of all 'eras' of Metallica. Obviously, I bow down before the first 4 albums as stone-cold classics and metal landmarks. However, I'm also a fan of their later work, and I count "Load" among my favorite all-time Metallica records, along with "Puppets", "Justice" and "Kill Em All". I actually *liked* St. Anger, despite its obvious productions flaws. But that doesn't make me a 'fanboy' as so many on the internet like to proclaim anyone who likes any music that they made after "...AJFA".
Now, onto "Death Magnetic". This was one of my most personally anticipated albums in several years. I was curious to hear the direction the music would take, because I knew that 1. It wouldn't be another St. Anger, 2. It wouldn't be another "Load"/"ReLoad"-style record, and 3. I knew it wouldn't be a *complete* return to the progressive-thrash days of 'MoP' and 'Justice'.
Upon first listen, I immediately heard ALL of those influences on 'Death Magnetic'. It's almost as if they took parts of all their different sounds over the years, put them in a blender, and came up the the ultimate 'Metallicocktail', if you will. There's the relentless agression of 'Kill 'Em All'. The progressive arrangements and tempo changes of 'MoP' and 'Justice'. The big choruses of the 'Black Album'. Some of the more bluesy riffage from the 'Load'-era. Even a little of the raw nakedness we heard on 'St. Anger'.
The record starts out with a trio of the strongest tracks - "That Was Just Your Life", "End of the Line", and "Broken, Beat, and Scarred". "TWJYL" opens the record much the way "Battery" kicked off 'MoP': a slower, haunting guitar passage that suddenly gives way to a vintage James Hetfield thrash riff. The track comes at you like a freight train, giving way to a blazing Kirk Hammett solo and climaxing in some very Justice-ish twin-guitar riffage. "End of the Line" is another standout, mixing it's swaggering, Load-ish main riff with the thrashing tempo and Hetfield's best vocals on the album. "Broken, Beat, and Scarred" fits its title. More bouncy, crushing riffage and Hetfield spewing out the song's signature line : "What don't kill ya make ya more strong!" It's an old cliche, but he sings with with so much venom that it sounds fresh.
First single "The Day that Never Comes" is up next. It's a song that was obviously modeled in the tradition of "Fade To Black" and "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", right down to it's position as the 4th track on the album. A vintage Metallica "ballad" that gives way to a furious thrash ending. "All Nightmare Long" follows, and this is one track that even the most jaded, cynical Metallica fan could not deny is a winner. A furious, galloping thrasher with raging, gutteral vocals from Hetfield.
"Cyanide" is one of my favorite tracks from the album. I've heard many people call it 'filler', but for my money this track is an instant Metallica classic. A stomping anthem with a great melody, killer riff after killer riff, and a furious, blazing solo that may be Hammett's best on the album. This is what "Seek and Destroy" would have sounded like if it was on "...And Justice For All". Next up is "Unforgiven III". Some may scoff at the very notion of a 3rd installment, but I see it as Metallica's tribute to Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" trilogy that they so admire. "III" certainly outshines "II", as the riffage is less derivative of the original and the Kirk Hammett solo at the song's climax is a wah-wah drenched masterpiece. Generally I think Kirk uses the wah far too much, but it's perfect here. I hear more "Justice" style in "The Judas Kiss" with it snake-like guitar patterns, but the chorus is pure 'Black Album' in its melodicness as Hetfield commands "Bow Down! Sell your soul to me!" Up next is Metallica's first instrumental since "To Live Is To Die" from Justice, "Suicide and Redepmtion". While this doesn't quite match the heights of "TLITD" or the brilliant "Orion", it still takes the listener on a ride throughout it's 10 minute running time, weaving through sludgy, stomping riffs that are almost reminiscent of Alice in Chains at times. Finally, the record closes with the shortest track "My Apocalypse", a furious thrasher to close the album a la "Dyers Eve". This one is so relentless I even hear a bit of Slayer in it.
All in all, sonic issues aside, this album is a masterful triumph for Metallica. I won't call it a 'throwback' or a 'return to form', but rather a smoldering stew of many sounds that have made Metallica great over the years. It's heavy, it's aggressive, it's raw, it's unbridled...it's GREAT.
The REAL Metallica returns! January 6, 2009
A 10-minute instrumental...loud guitars...lyrics that tell a story, but may not be popular with 12-year-old girls. WELCOME BACK METALLICA! It's nice that after Load, (puke) Reload, and (double-puke) St. Anger, Metallica has remembered why they're one of the longest-lasting bands in metal...songs driven by lyrics, guitar riffs, and story instead of radio play time.
Sure, this CD isn't ...And Justice For All, but what could be? It is a return to the music (and attitude?) that made Metallica one of the great bands of all time.
One of the best albums ever January 4, 2009
I have been a long time fan of Metallica but was let down by there last album Saint Anger. It was not Metallica and made me wonder what was happening to one of my favorite bands. Death Magnetic has since restored my faith. This album rocks!!! I feel like there are not enough words to describe how great they sounded on this album. I had heard "the Day That Never Comes" on the radio and at first I was a little let down. But after hearing it a few times it quickly grew on me so when the album came out I made sure to buy it the day it came out, and quickly put it in my car. Death Magnetic only left my car stereo long enough to be moved to my ipod and then right back in. Death Magnetic was played non stop for a month and I still love every minute of it. My wife is not a fan of heavy metal and only likes Enter Sandman by them. But I made her listen to it when we were in the car and she loves it as well. Metallica has gone back to basics and given Long time fans like myself something to be excited about. If they decided to make another album down the road I will wait excitedly because they have found what works and still make music that tops anything else.
A great album from a "newer" Metallica fan. January 4, 2009
So many people have reviewed this so I'm not going to go in depth with all the songs, etc. I'm just going to focus on my first thoughts after listening to the album once all the way through.
It was definitely worth the money! I enjoyed half the songs I heard and I think after a few more listens I'll appreciate some more of the songs.
I will say that I became a fan at the "black album" and have enjoyed some of their newer albums since then. I know that those who have been Metallica fans from the beginning are not as thrilled with their new stuff, but I look at it this way it's better to enjoy them now then never at all! And this album can do that for you by giving you a little mix of "old Metallica" and "new Metallica" in my opinion.
Enjoy!
A few measurements for true geeks January 3, 2009
I've written some responses elsewhere about my feelings about this album. Basically I think the music is 95/100, after listening to it about 10 times I think it will be one of my favorite Metallica albums.
That said, I can't ignore the bad sound. I know there is a lot of argument about this since, let's face it, "bad sound" is a very subjective judgement. So I decided to present some of my measurements of three different versions of one of the songs (just to simplify things) just as a point of departure in order to show that the problems with this release are not just peoples' personal biases.
Unfortunately, I don't have the actual CD to measure, for which I apologize. However, I do have the 256kbps MP3 which I bought from Amazon.
A quick note about that. The 256kbps mp3 is a pretty good representation of the original file. As a experiment, I took track 6 of ..and justice for all which I do have the CD of, and ripped a WAV file and created the 256kbps MP3. I then used Ableton Live to import both files, invert the phase of the MP3, mix them together, and export the result. The RMS value is a measure of the average energy of a track, and for a normalized track is an indication of its dynamic range. The higher the number, the more energy in the whole track. This isn't a perfect measure but it's a good thumbnail.) I also have ReplayGain values and have looked at waveforms. I used Sony Media Software Sound Forge v8 for all measurements, and Ableton Live 7 to do the MP3 vs WAV experiment.
The WAV file had an RMS value of -16.5/-16.9 dB (L/R), the MP3 -16.6/-17.0 dB and the difference file was -44.667/-44.761 dB and sounded like just a bunch of the high frequency info from the original (as you would expect). Looking at the waveforms in the editor confirmed that the shapes were as you would expect as well.
So here are the comparisons of the three released versions of The end of the line (all values L/R channel)
1. 256kbps mp3 purchased from Amazon
Minimum sample value (dB) -0.000/-0.195
Maximum sample value (dB) -0.000/-0.454
RMS level (dB) -9.612/10.808
2. Version from 2-LP vinyl set, digitized and normalized to -0.5dbFS
Minimum sample value (dB) -0.500/-0.697
Maximum sample value (dB) -0.595/-0.733
RMS level (dB) -13.267/-13.764
3. Version exported from Guitar Hero 3, converted to 44.1kHz from 48kHz, normalized to -0.5 dbFS
Minimum sample value (dB)-0.500/-0.563
Maximum sample value (dB)-0.744/-0.868
RMS level (dB) -17.304/-18.482
In (1) and (2) you can easily see clipped waveforms throughout this and most of the other loud parts of the album. I have plenty of screen shots of comparisons of all three formats. The GH3 formats do not show the square wave distortion. This is different from the intentional distortion from the amplifiers that occurs before the sound hits the microphones.
This last RMS number basically says it all. And listening, to me confirms it: the GH3 version sounds infinitely better than the LP or MP3 (and presumably) CD version. The LP version is slightly easier to listen to, but that may be because it's not possible to reproduce a square wave via a mechanical stylus whereas you theoretically can via a laser pickup.
It's a pity, but apparently, the Metallica management and most of their fans either don't care or think the album sounds fine or even good.
I know that I am oversimplifying a lot of technical issues here, but I hope the gist is accurate enough for what I'm trying to convey. The whole point is to try to assign some actual objective data to this discussion.
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