Metallica ARE...Hardwired…To Self-Destruct

the stuff on disc two kinda runs together

Agreed; disc 1 is definitely the best stuff, but the last track is fucking massive.

I like "Spit out the Bone" but it could do with two or three fewer jam-out sections

Makes me glad that there's a song about Cthulhu on this.

After my second listen I am forced to conclude that there are good bits here and there, but overall this is mediocre.

After a while I just put on Ride the Lightning and all is forgotten.

Apparently Metallica have made videos for every track on the new album, which are premiering on a bunch of websites across the globe today and tomorrow. The clip for what I currently think is the best song on the album, "Now That We're Dead," will be on Pitchfork at 6 PM EST.

am i the only one bored silly w video albums? i just don't care. they're like the futon of the music world.

this song is so fuckin good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqIQvE5R1tU

Who's singing the lead vocals there? Clearly James on backup...

looking forward to the 'thrash only' edit of this album

holy shit, their new sound rules:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXJifYl_byU

damn spit out the bone goes hard

"it is true that metal is full of such robodrummers like Flo Mounier, Dave Lombardo, Proscriptor, Pete Sandoval, etc"

dave is not a robodrummer! so much personality within the confines of the genre.

would also love to hear flo front a jazz big band. that would be awesome.

Proscriptor isnt robo either wtf

Flo Mounier is only as inhuman as his band requires.

i was so in love with the first grip inc. album this year. i played it a ton. so great.

also, there is nothing robo about something like this. extra-human maybe, but not robotic. there is so much shit he has to do in one song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDvaht9JnIM

Word!

So this Metallica album is pretty tepid. I'm starting to think St. Anger was the best career move they ever made because they can squirt out an album like this and people think its great. There are some good riffs here and there (I actually prefer the ones that sound like they're dipping back into pre-Metallica metal to the blatant fanservice chop-chop stuff), but it just feels like a pulled punch. And Voice Lesson Jaymz is not a dude I want to hear.

I mean it took four plus years to make this, I guess I shouldn't be surprised it's kind of lifeless.

video for spit out the bone is hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m46Z0-HXySo

So this Metallica album is pretty tepid. I'm starting to think St. Anger was the best career move they ever made because they can squirt out an album like this and people think its great. There are some good riffs here and there (I actually prefer the ones that sound like they're dipping back into pre-Metallica metal to the blatant fanservice chop-chop stuff), but it just feels like a pulled punch. And Voice Lesson Jaymz is not a dude I want to hear.

If you don't like Metallica, you don't like Metallica, but I don't think we heard the same record. (I had some thoughts.)

Sorry, I'm not a brand loyalist. Hardwired is basically a bunch of rehashed bits of older records with very little that's new, which is fine, but it's also delivered with a calculation and lack of energy that I find off-putting.

It's fine, like a Deep Purple album from the 1990s, but ultimately insignificant, like a Deep Purple album from the 1990s.

Now That We're Grandads

I'm not a "brand loyalist" either - I've still never heard Load or ReLoad all the way through. And if you read my review, you'll see that I don't love this album unreservedly. But the good songs are really, really good. Better than the work bands half their age are doing.

better late than never, i guess. ten years after the thrash revival or whatever. it's what a lot of people have wanted them to do for decades. and if anyone knows how to do old metallica it would be them. but i disagree about those bands half their age. there are so many bands now who have taken what metallica did in the 80's to places that metallica aren't really capable of taking it. cuz they old. but they helped invent this shit so it's okay. that song on the stern show is a lovely bit of nostalgia. and way more satisfying than most back to their roots/return to form/reunion/fan ploys just because it is EXACTLY what old fans want to hear with nothing else added.

(i've only heard the songs posted here..)

(and not even now really. people have been improving on what they helped start since the 80's. and i'm not talking about just thrash or nu-thrash. all metal. they were very inspirational! but...time marches on...)

Lords of Summer is pretty hilarious

i got nothin' against old people though. i dig that new gorguts EP.

as far as 80's bands go, i was digging the new neurosis the other night. even though it sounds exactly like the last 15 years or so of neurosis and albini drums sometimes make me wanna cry. just because it dawns on me that i can never hear my fave neurosis era without that drum sound. unless i go see them live.

i disagree that this is strictly them trying to xerox the master of puppets era, it's calling back to that but this is definitely a record that happened post-black album, post load, etc....there's stylistic and melodic things that changed for them after those albums and even as thrash as this is there's still some of that groovy boogie element

if people don't dig it fine but i think they do thrash and meld it with very commercial modern/active rock on this album in a way that many of the younger bands don't do

it's not a masterpiece and has some fat, but i guess i care less about that now that i can quick make a spotify list that tightens it up a bit

also, this is one of the best locust star intros on youtube. you HAVE to watch this intro. it makes me laugh. i showed it to rufus last night and we both cracked up. it's so insane. start the video at 6:50. must see t.v.!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llTESFYfnds&t=460s

did that vid not show up?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llTESFYfnds&t=587s

I've still never heard Load or ReLoad all the way through

given how much you like "now that we're dead," "dream no more," and "halo on fire" imo you owe it to yourself to at least hear an edit of both which whoa i made one a few years ago http://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/0uwWqgH7Juacnd9A5Jbi8a

also ums otm. also the most interesting parts of this record i think are when the songs sound like hybrids of everything they've ever done (minus st. anger i guess). there's kind of a flatness and emptiness to the sound, and it's really the james/lars show throughout (lulu had me hoping kirk would contribute a lot to this record but lol i guess not because he lost his iphone full of riffs) but otherwise i like this wayyy more than expected for what it is. i'm not as huge on death magnetic as phil either

also i wish they pushed themselves harder and there were more moments like the bridge of "atlas rise"

video for spit out the bone is hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m46Z0-HXySo

― niels, Friday, November 18, 2016 4:28 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amazing

"if people don't dig it fine but i think they do thrash and meld it with very commercial modern/active rock on this album in a way that many of the younger bands don't do"

except for tons of stoner metal/rock bands. who sound like thrash, kyuss, and alice in chains. and who will never make it big. but they do it anyway. even alice in chains do it.

That video reminds me of something I didn't talk about in my review, which is that the guitar and drum sounds on this record remind me of Psalm 69-era Ministry. It was especially noticeable when I was listening in my car yesterday.

i don't really have a problem with the music/sound of st. anger or the one after that but i honestly don't know how people listen to them with that voice and those lyrics on top. they are so in your face with their badness. and even the music is only remarkable because metallica made the music. those albums would be completely forgotten if they had been made my nobodies. in the hypothetical world. certainly not remarkable within the context of what was going on in heavy music when they were released. except maybe as a public interest story. sepultura's dante XXI album way better than st. anger by the way. similar in a way. sepultura's album a blessed 40 minutes long. it's also completely forgotten. came out a few years after.

i should just leave you guys to your fandom though. i don't want to bum out your good feels. i don't know what happened to those neurosis videos though. sorry about that. live at union transfer in 2015. go on youtube and watch that song. it will make your day. just that bulldozing start. so beautiful.

Neurosis are the most boring band in metal not named Katatonia.

I'm with ya Scott, what I've heard of this is as tedious and uninspiring as anything they've done after the 80s. As far as Neurosis go they haven't done anything creatively new recently but at least they've still got some fire and energy left in them.

is this where i show my pretty little face

no, no. life is categorically too short. enjoy your new meshuggah album

i was just listening to the new meshuggah on youtube.

not trying to sell anyone on neurosis in general. just that one moment where they all come in at the beginning of that song is kinda everything i love about heavy music encapsulated in one moment. so over the top and amazing. watch it! it made my week for sure.

I watched it and it's impressive but nothing tops that performance of Locust Star from Ozzfest(!) imo

That video reminds me of something I didn't talk about in my review, which is that the guitar and drum sounds on this record remind me of Psalm 69-era Ministry.

― ultros ultros-ghali, Friday, November 18, 2016 10:09 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is this where i show my pretty little face

― imago, Friday, November 18, 2016 10:18 AM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, no. life is categorically too short. enjoy your new meshuggah album

― imago, Friday, November 18, 2016 10:19 AM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

go fuck a vacuum cleaner

whoa that is some aggressive stuff. it's almost like you've been listening to thrash metal

the midtempo songs aren't doing much for me, but the thrashier ones are genuinely thrilling, i like the way they break the riffs up into unpredictable little cells/phrases, AJFA-style.