Metallica ARE...Hardwired…To Self-Destruct

wait, i'm not supposed to think about metallica within the context of metal? well okay then i won't. they are pop culture sensations with a new album out. got it.

i honestly really enjoy half of this, so basically one full regular length album

i think the faster ones are generally all good and i am not just jumping through all these mental hoops.

i was not a big fan of death magnetic their previous "return to form" album and had no expectations for a new metallica album in 2016.

but i appreciate understanding pat on the head from all of you with better taste than i.

wait, i'm not supposed to think about metallica within the context of metal? well okay then i won't. they are pop culture sensations with a new album out. got it.

I mean, they're obviously a metal band, but they're so much bigger than any other metal band that it's like comparing the Rolling Stones to some random act on Alligator or Blind Pig.

i like how expensive it sounds. 1%er metal.

Remember how I said a certain website wouldn't assign me a review of this album unless I promised to slam it? They found someone else.

Funny, I read that review and thought it seemed forced / contrived. Correct about the drum sound though.

Haven't heard it yet but I'm enjoying the hell out of new material from other 80s acts like Testament and Asphyx so why not Metallica?

TESTAMENT omg i had forgotten about testament

I haven't listened to the new Testament yet either. The first single is all about reptoid conspiracy theory, which I don't find as funny anymore since an Alex Jones-approved candidate became our next President, so I've been blowing it off.

"Haven't heard it yet but I'm enjoying the hell out of new material from other 80s acts like Testament and Asphyx so why not Metallica?"

the difference is those bands have never stopped doing what they have always done. there are lots of 80's people who still make good metal.

unless they are exodus.

actually i don't think i've ever heard an entire 21st century exodus album. so that's unfair. but i don't think i want to.

i love 21st century immolation though. though i didn't hear the last one. i will get to it eventually.

a lot of old bands still going are like The Coasters now or whatever. one original guy and young guys. but that's true of a lot of old bands. i was gonna go see wishbone ash but i think it's just one original guy and young guys. i liked the last Grave album a lot. that's a case like that.

Thats not really true, most 80s bands have spent years in the woods, and a good number of them have branched out into sylistically different stuff. I mean, maybe not as far out there a conceptual rock opera with Lou Reed, but still.

Testament should go back to their roots. record an album in a cave.

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

well this has been educational

anyway i agree the 2nd half isn't really very good, I did an edit of this that basically takes the 1st half and grabs "Spit out the Bone" from the 2nd half, got it down to 44 minute run time, tweaked the order a bit to fit (in my mind) more old school vinyl sequencing like master had...

anyway it's way less of a slog and really boils it down to the strengths...would def stump for this as their best since the Black Album

oops

spotify:user:matthelgeson:playlist:4sciRNe3CPLDlOIPvxaECB

https://open.spotify.com/user/matthelgeson/playlist/4sciRNe3CPLDlOIPvxaECB

Interesting. I'd reverse the positions of "Moth Into Flame" and "Dream No More."

yeah yr right, just did

final tracklist:

Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
Now That We're Dead
Halo of Fire
Moth into Flame
Dream No More
Spit Out the Bone

7 songs, 44 minutes

yeah changing moth into flame and dream no more really helps the 2nd "side" good call

Anyone silly enough to complain about the length of a Metallica album clearly has forgotten, or is to young, to realize that the shortest record by far is Ride the Lightning at 47 minutes. Met have always gone big, from day one.

Anyone silly enough to complain about the length of a Metallica album clearly has forgotten, or is to young, to realize that the shortest record by far is Ride the Lightning at 47 minutes. Met have always gone big, from day one.

― A. Begrand, Monday, November 21, 2016 1:48 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

kill em all 51 mins
ride the lightning 47
master of puppets 54
and justice for all 65
black album 62

first five albums not really that long as far as albums go.

subsequent albums

load 79
reload 76
st anger 76
death magnetic 74
hard wired ... to self destruct 77

First three albums were very long for the single LP era. 54 minutes is a lot of music to cram on on LP.

wow those are long albums -- spot checking all Maiden, Priest, Motorhead, Rush, Venom, Black Sabbath up to 1983, don't see even one 50-minute studio record, all usually in the 35-45 minute range.

they all came out originally on CD too. the original albums. though kill 'em all only came out on CD in the u.k.

Anyone silly enough to complain about the length of a Metallica album clearly has forgotten, or is to young, to realize that the shortest record by far is Ride the Lightning at 47 minutes. Met have always gone big, from day one.

― A. Begrand, Monday, November 21, 2016 3:48 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was just trying to cut out the bad songs and get it down to closer to the original run than the 75-90 minute later stuff and also make something i wanted to listen if that's silly i guess, i bought the rtl and on on cassette so i'd think i was old enough

so much metalsplaining from Neil DeThrash Tysons itt

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15085673_1700964110217234_7051316989877563510_n.jpg?oh=4b79bb7ee5f67fa9d4459c37f31bfac5&oe=58CFF654

i always forget that upper mississippi is matt h. i remember him!

hi skot :)

i got to write my bad pun i was unduly proud of which is the important thing

personally, 50+ minutes of thrash is doing it wrong, but to each his own. If I was a Metallica fan, I would probably have made a shorter edit too (tho I would also say Metallica version of thrash included ballads, midtempo stuff, etc)

Neil DeThrash Tyson

I wouldn't cut "ManUNkind" despite the title. It's the most structurally interesting thing on the record.

kill em all 51 mins
ride the lightning 47
master of puppets 54
and justice for all 65
black album 62

first five albums not really that long as far as albums go.

No, those were long albums for their time! Ride The Lightning excepted.

I was surprised they crammed all of Master of Puppets onto one record, rather than releasing it as a double like they did with ...And Justice For All, for sound quality reasons more than anything else.

35-45 minutes is the optimal length for a vinyl LP. Even I know that, and I fucking hate vinyl.

so, has anyone picked up the 3cd edition with the 'Riff Origins' version ?

i mean, does that just mean random studio riff/jams - or are they actual songs in demo form ?

That idea was scrapped - the third disc is now a finalized version of "Lords of Summer" (the song they released as a demo a few months back, or maybe last year, I forget), some cover songs (a Ronnie James Dio/Rainbow medley, Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow," Deep Purple's "When a Blind Man Cries") and a bunch of live tracks (nine from a Record Store Day performance, and the first live performance of "Hardwired"). The third disc is almost as long as the first two put together, btw.

I was surprised they crammed all of Master of Puppets onto one record, rather than releasing it as a double like they did with...

When Elektra signed Metallica and reissued RTL in December '84, they were still considered an underground band. I don't think sales really took off until after MOP was released, so the label was probably unwilling to spend the $ on a double at that point. I read Circus, Creem and Hit Parader, but Metallica didn't get on my radar until I was at a Musicland in late summer '84 and I overheard a hesher asking the clerk, "dude, do you have any METALLICA?" They did not, and I couldn't find a copy until that Elektra reissue. I bought the cassette too :)

It seems weird that all these reviews are complaining about the drum sound. And praising the drum sound on the black album at the same time? To me they sound very similar, and the black album had a lot of high end attack on the kick drums too.

my edit would prob be something like:

1. hardwired
2. atlas, rise!
3. now that we're dead
4. manunkind
5. dream no more
6. moth into the flame
7. spit out the bone
8. halo on fire

shouts out to "am i savage" tho

lol that's the exact same tracklist I suggested on another board with a slightly different order

I can't get the chorus of Atlas, Rise out of my head, it's getting quite annoying.

i like this. solid B to B minus for me.

definitely think the first half is the best, but I do not dig "Dream No More" at all - seems to drag.

like it a lot better than Death Magnetic, even though a few spots aren't too far removed from it. songwriting is better, even if flawed due to having too much fat?

also re: robodrummer comments upthread, probably used the wrong word for it, I meant robo as in "these guys can play fuckin' anything" rather than "they're soulless technical machines with no personality".

also feel like James sings more and more like WEird Al on each album

also how did I not know there was a new Diamond Head album and that it's good?

Lords of Summer should have been on the record proper, it's a solid Kill 'Em All-type track. I guess it would have stood out, it's too much fun.

i didn't care for it, tbh.

I think the main prob with this album (if it's a problem at all) is that everybody wanted it to be this hilarious failure or this amazing success and it's neither. it's pretty good. which tbh is good enough for me at this point. i still have the classics when I want them but I like having newer material I can actually throw on/enjoy live from the boyz.

also the live tracks are fire on the bonus disc. love the version of "Helpless". James' voice is cracking like a motherfucker all over it tho, god love him. but they play the songs with serious attitude again.

ManUNkind

Not a D.R.I. cover?