Metallica! Rick Rubin! Death Magnetic! September 16 (-ish)!

It has to happen some time right? I mean, every ageing band goes through the phase at least once. That moment where they all sit down and decide to 'go back to basics'. Proper speed metal. Six minute songs. Acoustic guitars in the intro, heavy opening riff, launch into the first verse with another palm-muted stomper. Epic twin leads. Badass, larger than life lyrics about death, fuck your personal issues.

We know you've grown as a band as well as individually, you're not sixteen anymore, it's all fine we won't think anything worse of you.

oh yeah, what did you expect? master of puppets redux?

No, but that's never been what I wanted. Hell, they couldn't even pull it off competently if they wanted to now, with the way James sings.

But it feels to me like the St. Anger type stuff is not the music they wanted to make, but that they made it in order to sell their more gullible fans that they'd gone back to basics and are making 'harder' music again.

Load and Reload may both suck, but at least they sounded somewhat enthused about it.

I think the enthusiasm you're looking for was mostly gone after Cliff died, to be honest.

I just want something that's listenable! Megadeth's recent output might be generic, boring, and not something I want to listen to more than once, but it's at least listenable! :)

I would buy instrumental versions of every Metallica album since Justice... if they were available.

The Apocalyptica covers Metallica for 4 cellos is very good, in my opinion. Check it out!

The band you love is dead! Stop trying to dig them up!

http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tattoos/metallica_back.jpg

I have. I don't plan on buying this monstrosity at all.

i bet that tattoo looked better before that dude got lovehandles

humanizing James Hetfield interview on NPR's Fresh Air:

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=14023112&m=14023108

Crummy footage of "Cyanide" played tonight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rFjCR9NeI

Too garbled to make much of it, but there are some promising moments, like Lars stepping out of the lazy groove he's been doing for the past decade, and some welcome dual harmonies, nawobbum style.

x-post The reason Rubin wanted to work with Cash in the first place was to rescue a living legend from the dinner theater circuit. Mission accomplished. I do agree that had it stopped after "Unchained" (the rare sequel better than the original) there'd be less debate, but I just can't argue with the presence of more Cash rather than less.

As for Metallica, the best route would have been a reality series after the movie. Or a sitcom, a la "The Monkees." But too late for that, I guess.

an animated series with Hetfield and company masquerading as costumed superheroes after nightfall....

New song posted here:

http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=601119

It's pretty good!

I think the new song's awful. A weak rehashing of the classic era with zero passion.

drums are mixed way too high

Song's not perfect, there's a little "One" rip-off that sticks out, but other than that I kind of like it.

It's all right, but the vocals are terrible. This kind of can't be fixed; the only way to make Hetfield's singing sound good is to under-record it, and dude's been around long enough now to not stand for that.

I wonder what song was in Lars' headphones when he recorded this one?

another new song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAT_Tt_EZM0

damn this is kinda fuckin' hot!

more bark, less "singing"!

thrashiest thing they've done since..jeez...blackened?

lyrics have some lo_Ol moments but hell it's a new metallica song.

hard to tell from shitty youtube but sounds like rubin records on fuckin' macbook with the cheap protools or something.

Ok, that one's surprisingly unshit.

wow @ fake metallicas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX04ktKI9SY

Maditory (sic) actually do a better 80s Metallica impression than 00s Metallica do from the sound of that.

anyone else think My Apocalypse sounds really Slayer-ish at times?

NYT write-up on it.

I would like a "My Apocolypse" ringtone.

not half-bad. okay, maybe a quarter bad.

still.

wow @ fake metallicas

Hmm. Very good Metallica by the numbers, and not bad as a parody or homage, but certainly not as good as the stuff on the first 4 Metallica albums

Um, there's something called "The Unforgiven III" on here.

My Alolcalypse

Almost from the start progress equals integrity was an article of faith for the band. Each of its evolutions seemed to challenge hardcore metal’s cult values of speed and power and emotional guardedness.

fair or unfair?

the drums and the vocals are terrible. the guitar playing is awesome though, the beginning sounds like early 70's genesis.

Album version of "Cyanide" has now surfaced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm4EADT8k5U

It's gooood. They just go nuts with the NWOBHM passages in the break, and they don't feel tacked on whatsoever.

eww. just sounds like that song from the mission impossible soundtrack with a bit of "kill 'em all" plagiarism in the middle.

Listening to "Cyanide" right now. It sounds like...Prong. That opening riff, and the drumbeat, are pure Prove You Wrong-era Prong. I like it a lot.

Media: "Country icon Johnny Cash, beloved the world over, dead at 206. Tomorrow, more of our continuing coverage on the life and times of this American trailblazer. Oh, yeah, and Jack Tripper also croaked today for some reason. Now on to the weather."

Total Groucho Marx / Elvis scenario...

Other simultaneous musician/thesp deaths:

Thelonious Monk/Lee Strasberg (2/17/02)
Peter Tosh/Lorne Greene (9/11/87)

(2/17/0282)

fixed

"The Day That Never Comes" doesn't sound so good to me; even though it's apparently modeled on MOP-era Metallica, it wouldn't even be as good as one of the lesser tracks on those albums. And what's with Hetfield singing instead of growling?

MOP-era Metallica

someone has to make this collaboration happen.

>And what's with Hetfield singing instead of growling?

Where the hell have you been? He's been singing since "Nothing Else Matters" on the Black Album.

no, it's much different than that type of singing. if you listen to the song, you wouldn't even recognize it as Hetfield at all.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/2820910585_b2c5264dab.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3068/2821750490_a46ec25135.jpg

It's leaked.

I can wait the week or two until it comes out. I'm probably going to end up buying the damn thing anyway.

I'm determined to get a timely review done, so the sooner the better for me! But yeah, I'll be buying.

I find myself wanting to take this song by song rather than the whole thing at once.

It's a good album. Really!

Could do without "Unforgiven III" and the instrumental, but other than that, this is one solid CD.