Metallica Have a New Album Coming... Yay?

[HarleyQuinn]

2008's Death Magnetic was mixed, to put it kindly with a lot of gearing towards their past courtesy of Rick Rubin but unfortunately the album was largely overshadowed by its legendarily bad (and brickwalled clipfest) audio mastering. It was so bad that fans were forced to Guitar Hero for listenable variants of the released songs.

Couple that awful mastering job with a bloated feeling to individual songs (only 1(!) song was under 6:25 in length whereas their past/best albums had multiple songs, if not outright half, under 5:45 in length), and I'm curious how they go about tackling this project. It was reminiscent of ...And Justice For All and ironically, the band members would bitch about playing those songs live because they were so long.

Lars has stated there's likely going to be 20 songs on the album (with 800 riffs they've been working on just for this album) making me wonder if it's a planned double album or if they'll eschew the long for long's sake and try to go for more of a balance ala The Black Album.

 

[The Metal Maniac]

800 riffs. Randomly assembled into a haphazard collection of songs. Yay.

I had the same issue with St. Anger - beyond all the really horrible parts of the album that everyone knows about (like that god-damned snare) the songs all sound totally random to me, with no sort of flow or build to them; just one riff, then a different riff, then another riff, then back to that first riff, etc.

I mean, I'll almost certainly hear this album, knowing my friends - but I'm not looking forward to it.

 

[Skywarp!]

800 riffs. Randomly assembled into a haphazard collection of songs. Yay.

I had the same issue with St. Anger - beyond all the really horrible parts of the album that everyone knows about (like that god-damned snare) the songs all sound totally random to me, with no sort of flow or build to them; just one riff, then a different riff, then another riff, then back to that first riff, etc.

I mean, I'll almost certainly hear this album, knowing my friends - but I'm not looking forward to it.

That reminds me of the AV Club's review of St. Anger, where they described the album as, "songs that whomp along aimlessly for seven or eight minutes without momentum or purpose."

http://www.avclub.com/review/metallica-emst-angerem-11917

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

There's a way to do random riffing in song and make it work. It's called grindcore. In and out in as little time as possible with jarring changes done intentionally.

Guys, just hang it the fuck up. Hetfield's voice is shot and his songwriting skills have been gone since Load at the latest. Call it a career, only do nostalgia tours (since those still do fairly well), and just remember that you were the most important band in the rock/metal family at one point in time.

 

[Jingus]

Reading all the music-junkie comments in here: I suddenly understand the position of someone who stumbles onto a smarky forum and is all like "Hey y'all, my favorite wrestler is John Cena!" and is quickly told five hundred reasons why they're wrong. I pretty much like all Metallica songs, even the more recent ones. Hell, I still absolutely love stuff like "Whiskey in the Jar". Situations like this are why I readily admit that, despite being a passable singer who's done some musical theater and having plenty of semi-obscure favorite artists, I really don't know jack shit about music.

 

[vivisectvi]

Metallica's version of WitJ is pretty good, but Thin Lizzy's is the best, IMO. That being said, I don't mind that they keep coming out with new stuff, I just won't bother with it.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I like Metallica up through Load and even Re-Load to an extent (though both albums are chores to get through due to the constant mid-tempo bluesy rock style of most of the songs). If you speed up some of those songs to 'typical' Metallica tempo of their past era even up to Metallica, you can immediately recognize how sound the songs still are groove/melody wise despite losing the solos from Hammett.

I did like Death Magnetic song wise but the audio quality is so deplorable that the album becomes near unlistenable as a result.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Unforgiven II is probably their best post-Black Album track.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

"The Memory Remains" is my favorite post-Justice tune. I find that Black Album to be unlistenable beyond the production of it these days.

 

[Fall of Epic]

I still enjoy Black Album quite a bit and even appreciate some of the lesser known tracks (My Friend of Misery, Holier Than Thou) a lot more now.

 

[Gary]

I've said it before, but "The Black Album" is perfectly fine as a mainstream metal album (though I think "Of Wolf and Man" is the first song of theirs where I wonder "what were you thinking?"), but it's also an undoubtedly simplified, somewhat dumbed down version of what they once were. It's a fun album, but it isn't a great one.

After that..."Load" actually has some interesting experimentation (the solo on "The House That Jack Built", the use of hand drums and organ on "Bleeding Me" and the slow burn of "The Outlaw Torn") It's just that so much of it-the rather lazy Southern Blues/Hard Rock playing, the goofy sounding lyrics and vocals, the length (that album is way too long) and the mere existence of "Ronnie"-those are just a few examples-really drags it down. "Reload" has two good songs ("Where the Wild Things Are" and "Low Man's Lyric") and the rest is garbage.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I will argue against the end of time that "The Memory Remains" is a good song, and "Fixxxer" is very solid as well. If you were to strip away that absolute shit from the Load/ReLoad era? You get a pretty good hard rock album. If you play it with more balls and less forced groove? You get a solid metal album.

For shits and giggles (and passing the time of a slow work day), smashing the two together gives you...
1. Ain't My Bitch
2. Until it Sleeps
3. King Nothing
4. Hero of the Day
5. Bleeding Me
6. Outlaw Torn
7. Fuel
8. The Memory Remains
9. The Unforgiven II
10. Where the Wild Things Are
11. Low Man's Lyric
12. Fixxxer

Obviously use a different track listing, but those 12 songs more than make up a decent album.

 

[Fall of Epic]

The best tracks off Load include Ain't My Bitch, 2X4, Until it Sleeps, King Nothing, Mama Said, Until It Sleeps, Bleeding Me, and Hero of the Day.

Reload has Fuel, the Memory Remains, Devil's Dance, Unforgiven II, Where the Wild Things Are, Low Man's Lyric, Better Than You, and Prince Charming.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

"Devil's Dance" is just a lamer version of "The God That Failed."

 

[Fall of Epic]

That bassline though...

A friend back in high school tried to convince me that Devil's Dance sounded exactly like BikerTaker's first post-Rollin' theme.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/new-metallica-album-is-almost-done/

"METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett told Alternative Press in a recent interview that the band has "pretty much" hired Greg Fidelman as the producer for its tenth studio album. Fidelman was the engineer on "Death Magnetic", which some fans criticized for an overly loud and harsh sound mix."

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Unless we get a classic like "Invisible Kid" from St Anger why bother?

 

[Brocklock]

It's called Hardwired...To Self Destruct and is coming out November 18th.

https://youtu.be/uhBHL3v4d3I

Lyrics are pretty awful, but I like that the song is under 4 minutes long and it's pretty breezy yet generic. Seems like Death Magnetic 2 which is fine with me. What isn't fine with me is the album cover lol

Track Listing:

Disc One

Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
Now That We’re Dead
Moth Into Flame
Am I Savage?
Halo On Fire

Disc Two

Confusion
Dream No More
ManUNkind
Here Comes Revenge
Murder One
Spit Out The Bone

holy lord at ManUNkind

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

Six songs per disc? Are these things Dream Theater length?

 

[Cartman]

I was thinking Dream Theater too, awesome music.

I loved Death Magnetic, and pretty much every other Metallica album (Fuck St. Anger), so i'm really excited for this.

 

[Gary]

holy lord at ManUNkind

"Am I Savage? YES I AM!" ( I know "Am I Evil?" is a Diamond Head cover, but I thought it fit)

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Pretty mediocre first single(?) there. Lyrics were pretty bad and the song itself is generic in a forgettable way.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I will buy this if "ManUNkind" turns out to be a cover of the DRI song.

New single isn't too shit, but it's not particularly good, either. It really sounds like a forgotten riff for "My Apocalypse" played over and over.

 

[skullman80]

They are never going to put out another Puppets or Justice... so people that expect that will never be happy. It just isn't going to happen.

The new single is pretty good IMO. It's nothing earth shattering. I like the riffs. The solo kind of ends just as its about to ramp up and get good. Lars drumming is what it is. The lyrics are ok. I do like that they aren't stretching stuff into 7 or 8 minute songs when it's not necessary anymore. St Anger had that, and Death Magnetic did it too... it's ok to have a couple of those, but not every song needs to be 7 or 8 minutes .. so I liked the focus/brevity of the first single.

I'm about the biggest Metallica fan you will meet.. so I'm biased, but I dig it.. and just happy to hear some new music after 8 f'n years. If it stays in the same vein as Death Magnetic but does some different things.. I'll be happy.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZan1NsiAYs

Metallica performed the song live at Minneapolis on 8/20 and it sounded better to my ears this go around although the lyrics are what they are.

 

[Skywarp!]

Six songs per disc? Are these things Dream Theater length?

Arcade Fire did the same think on their last album, but the songs weren't significantly longer (except maybe the title track). They could have shoved the whole thing on one disc. Maybe it didn't fit because they had a 10-minute hidden track of bullshit noise in the pre-gap of the first disc and bookended it with more stupid atmospheric noise at the end of the 2nd.

 

[Skywarp!]

Why, why, why are super-wealthy rock bands, with all the limitless resources at their disposal, content to put out horrible Photoshop-disaster album covers? No one in their inner circle was like, "This looks like someone took a cheese grater to the Elephant Man's balls. You're sure you want to go ahead with this?"

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Metallica has released their 2nd Track: Moth Into Flame

https://metallica.com/blog/news/433809/track-two-moth-into-flame

Much stronger, more enjoyable track than the first track.

 

[Brocklock]

That's actually really good. My expectations are raised. I hope they can come close to the Anthrax and Megadeth albums from this year which were huge surprises.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Another track released: Atlas, Rise. Not a bad track, still prefer Moth Into Flame as my preferred track thus far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFAcOnhcpGA