Metallica ARE...Hardwired…To Self-Destruct

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Of all the people who should know that 80 minutes of music fit on one CD, Metallica is near the top of the list.

http://i.imgur.com/8x85NEw.jpg

And that song is...actually pretty awesome

Worth noting this is almost the shortest song Metallica have ever recorded (on one of their primary albums, at any rate); it's 3:18, the only song in their catalog shorter than that is "Motorbreath," which is 3:08.

mentioned in the other thread, cannot stand the production on this. the song itself isn't bad but it's not much better than anything the 3,000 retro-thrash acts of 2016 are churning out. I'll wait to hear more tracks, but this one is kinda just 'alright' to me.

that said, the metalheads who are getting off on hyperbolic insults on this shit can fuck off, cos it's not incompetent or anything.

Heard it coming out of my car radio this morning and it sounded good. Of course, it was played in between a Shadows Fall cover of Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon" and some shitpile from Soilent Green, so almost anything would have sounded good by comparison, but still.

cos it's not incompetent or anything.

― Neanderthal, Friday, August 19, 2016 10:22 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a ringing endorsement worthy of a hype sticker

love that they're going back to thrash, but i think the drums and vocals are too loud on this production. surprisingly energetic though. i dig.

also, it's hard to believe that Robert Trujillo has been in the band as long as Jason now.

i like the new song! listened side by side w/death magnetic and it sounds better, or at least less worse than death magnetic's production imo less thin

didn't expect a second song so soon. wow, this one is a huge improvement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sajHcUV0F68&sns=fb

When did metal guys stop making those bug-eyed grimace clown faces into the camera in promo shots?

When they realised it looked crap?

No, when they were finished taking a crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iprubvCfdM

i like this!

wow yeah that's killer

bit of a Ride The Lightning-era throwback

gripe: they just had to put in that chain wallet-octane-rawk melodic chorus

praise: not embarrassing or anything

A few thoughts after one listen:

1) It sounds very much like 2 or 3 different Death Magnetic songs. Since I like that album a lot, and listen to it all the time, this makes me happy.
2) The first song released was 3 minutes long - this one is 6 minutes long. There must be a few really long ones on the album to make it even remotely necessary to split it across 2 CDs. I'm looking forward to finding out.
3) Lars Ulrich - current titleholder for Best Drum Faces? I think maybe.

kinda says smth about current music industry that this is the promo video the world's biggest metal act can afford?

nice song

I like this so much better than the first track. Its a damn song. It has a catchy hook! It doesnt try to recreate their past.

Like it

I like it, very Baroness/Mastodonish I think.

Another new song out today - "Atlas, Rise!" They all look really old in the video (except for Trujillo), and it's kinda hilarious, especially Lars's skullet. But the song fucking rips, so whatever.

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

the chorus is actually pretty great and doesn't feel like a retread of anything else they've done...best song so far, but i have reasonably high hopes for this album

also like the iron maiden harmony lead break around the 4:30 mark

Wait, how can they be playing and listening to themselves playing at the same time!? Rigged!

Also, do they rehearse in a Guitar Center?

Can't wait until they look truly ancient.

this is kinda more how I saw Metallica aging in an alternate reality world where they never went the TBA/Load route. the songs aren't really as progressive, the album less impactful in terms of metal's narrative, but high quality music.

can't help but feel James' cords are the only thing that holds this back. this is fucking INSPIRED. I mean, hats off to them for trying to branch out on Death Magnetic, but it was missing hooks, and they're all over here.

Also, do they rehearse in a Guitar Center?

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, October 31, 2016 2:51 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

since st anger i think they like to rent out a big space and set up a studio in it

No, man, they rehearse in Guitar Hero.

this also gives credence to what me and others likely meant when people were asking after Death Magnetic "well they're metal again now, wtf do you want, Master of Puppets 6?". Obviously this is a form of bay area thrash that isn't *that* far removed from what they did there, but they're not trying to recreate or plagiarize those works. they're just creating metal that works now.

my issue with DM was always that it felt so plodding to me at times, in a way their earlier, more adventurous material didn't (until some of the worst moments on AJFA). now I'm actually kind of more excited to hear some of their more adventurous stuff on this new alb too, if it sounds like they've regained their ear for catchy riffs and songs.

They certainly do!

https://youtu.be/LnnEPD6pg7A

(x-post)

the iron maiden harmony lead break around the 4:30 mark

The first chorus, at 1:30, feels Maiden-ish to me, too.

when did lars turn into richard simmons?

lars died in the bus crash that killed cliff burton
he was in the afterlife for 3:27 before he was revived
during that time richard simmon's soul transmigrated into his body

Funny you never see Richard Simmons and Lars doing lines of blow at the same time

dylan wrote a song about this

i like the nods to earlier styles. the intro is Dyers Eve-esque, and Lars is at his best when he's unexpectedly throwing fills into the middle of a phrase for no reason (seriously).

second listen and I like this even more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxFFAx3H9NU
^^was this posted? they're in good shape!

Also, do they rehearse in a Guitar Center?

most of that video looks to have been recorded in the same place they recorded the live dvd that came with st. anger.
the same fan made flags etc.
i believe its their own rehearsal space/studio.
there is also reference to the place in the new mojo interview with lars.

:D

Kirk channeling 90s Bob Geldof in the Stern performance.
All signs point to a good album, fingers crossed!

whoa i loooove the new song

All signs point to a good album

Except for the length...

http://i.imgur.com/oXEZiCz.gif

Such a strange feeling to be anticipating a Metallica album.

is kirk stealing hair from lars?

are their heads slightly enlarged in this photo? or is it just the angle?

https://up-1.cdn-fullscreendirect.com/production/photos/7549/original/20160818_193900_7549_939482.jpeg

i can't stop looking at it. lars in particular.

super-wide lens has distorted the perspective, making their heads look fuckin weird and their bodies oddly truncated

also looks like they were shot separately at slightly different angles and composited together, which increases the uncanniness

There's a Song Exploder episode on 'Moth Into Flame', pretty dope, I really enjoyed hearing Lars talk explicitly about structuring Metallica songs.

heh I kinda got into this album again after getting burnt out on it. it does hang around....

still stand by my B minus tho.

it was p cool hearing Lars' "fill-envy" re Mastodon

givin this another swing...how we still feelin about it

I still listen to it all the time. More often than I listen to Ride, Puppets or Justice (my favorite of theirs).

Ktulu Awaken!

I've enjoyed most of the tracks in isolation when they come up on shuffle etc, really couldn't be arsed to listen to it all in one go again. Definitey their catchiest songs since s/t though.

I still love it. The second disc has improved with repeated listens, but disc one is their best sequenced collection of tracks since Justice.

I know James sings in his Beatallica voice now but I'd be lyin if I said I wasn't stoked to see them again for the first time since I was 19. I realize I grew up too late to see the Metallica that conquered the US but this is good enough for me.

plus I'm not a poser anymore so I might not get beat up this time

I think the reason I never came around on "Dream No More" is cos Jaymz sings "soh-ooooo-ohhhhhhhl"

i will be honest, the song is winning me over a bit now

From my Facebook page last November:

Decided to watch all of the videos for the new Metallica album in sequence as on the album and here's what I came up with...

"Hardwired" - Damage, Inc. Hell yeah.

"Atlas, Rise!" - I love how the band is being ridiculous in the video. The song makes me think that Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets never existed and instead the band went right from NWOBHM worship of the debut directly into the bone-dry repeated riffs of And Justice For All. It goes on about a minute too long, but that's okay.

"Now That We're Dead" - Here the band seems to fall prey to the self-indulgence that marked the post-Black Album through St. Anger period with a major saving grace: They didn't forget the riff. And that's fucking important (and maybe the main reason that period is so forgettable).

The chunky guitar actually reminds me of shit-kicking Pepper Keenan-led Corrosion of Conformity.

Great Kirk Hammett solo.

"Moth Into Flame" - Kind of "Disposable Heroes" meets "Dyer's Eve" but slowed down about half the speed. Thin Lizzy vibe on the harmonized bridge, a very classic rock feel in general.

The chunky underneath rhythm really drives the song though in ways neither of those songs had though the structure remains. Possibly it's because the video director fixates on Robert Trujillo, relative to the other members, but I feel that he had a lot to do with this track's sound. It swings.

This sounds like what Rick Rubin wanted to get from the band on Death Magnetic, which while I remember thinking it was a return to form when I first got it, I haven't played it at all since.

Great chorus. It's stuck in my head since I first heard it.

"Dream No More" - Cthulhu returns, but promptly falls asleep, too bored to eat anyone. The dirgy plodder goes nowhere slow and I'm not fond of the video. Sad but true.

"Halo on Fire" - The band plays some "Fight Club" with an audience which is noticeably diverse in gender and race but lacks old people. The band spends the album trying to rekindle the days of yore but then ignores us geezers when it comes time to throw down! I guess we're us old farts aren't as pretty.

I spent a lot more time watching the storyline than I did listening to the track but that was as much for the fact it was the first real story video as it was the song was lamentably forgettable. I honestly don't recall a single thing about it, but I find myself pondering the meaning that the young woman was fighting all the same people she an into on the street.

Decent, thought-provoking video. I hope they don't do the song live.

"Confusion" - Twenty-five years ago (has it been that long?) "One" told the story of a male soldier sent off to war who came back with missing limbs. In today's modern time, the warrior is female and she has all her body parts intact, she's just losing her mind. And maybe that war is not on the battlefield but from the boardroom where she got groped one too many times at the copier.

It's a different time for sure.

The song has a really powerful video, easily the best so far. The song only goes on for 6:41 but it seems like one of those Justice-era tracks that go on forever. I'm not sure that's a good thing though the track doesn't suck, it just fails to match the intensity of the revived thrash of the album.

Sorry, but I have trouble being nostalgic for the moments when Metallica lost the plot and "Confusion" seems exactly like the late '80s Metallica where us old fans were still paying attention, but nervous.

Lars really takes control of this one with his unique, stilted style that so many cannot stand but I find refreshingly honest. Leave the double bass blast beats to the Dave Lombardo wannabes, he just throws out that tinny machine gun fill and ties together parts of songs that would seem a lot more clunky if someone who preferred technical ecstasy to feel was behind the kit.

"ManUNkind" - This has to be Kirk's baby, Aside from the fact that he is all over the track, flailing away, he seems to be the one member of the band who would push them in a direction that was simultaneously thought-provoking and yet also so simple.

He also seems the one guy in the band who might like black metal and I can identify with that. As someone hurtling towards fifty who grew up in a thrash underground, I think black metal is some of the most interesting shit around these days. Bands can be raw and primal or doomy and powerful or intricate and shoegazing all within the parameters of the genre, something thrash never could manage.

Metallica always wanted to escape the confines of thrash and even of metal itself, so I can imagine that they might feel some envy as the new generation of metal makers can ignore constraints (and also with a freedom that selling a bazillion albums actually makes tougher, which explains Load and Reload all too well) and actually gain appeal rather than lose it.

And it's cool to see a vintage Blasphemy shirt and Watain-like pigs head in a Metallica video, especially one that is quintessential Metallica in some ways, especially the way James Hetfield's voice harmonizes with the guitars when he sings "Quest to find" during the chorus.

"Here Comes Revenge" - If "Death Magnetic" was an older Metallica seeking out what inspired them to make "Kill 'Em All," this track is an even older Metallica seeking out what inspired them to do the Black Album.

I think the video is a way for James Hetfield to feel better about hunting.

"Am I Savage?" - Yes I am.

Here Metallica hark back to the ultimate metal influence upon all, Black Sabbath, and not just because of the Brontosaurian, slow-paced riffs, but also the lyrical side of the band, a modern-day "Paranoid" where after you're finished with your woman you're left all alone, selfish, and unsure of exactly who you are and what to do next.

My feminist wife (who, full disclosure, hates Metallica in all forms) saw something different in the video, the played-out tale of the misunderstood white dude whose personal battles with rage seem to profound to him while he votes for Trump and skates on privilege.

"Maybe I don't understand," she said dripping with sarcasm, "because I'm not savage."

Touche, honey.

"Murder One" - I miss Lemmy too.

"Spit Out the Bone" - The thrashing conclusion to the album envisions Dave Mustaine not getting kicked out of Metallica and instead staying with them and making an even more paranoid "Justice" by making it sound like "Countdown to Extinction."

This is especially evident with the way James Hetfield sings, pissed off spittle-laced anger at a world gone horribly wrong. This is actually indicative of the whole album. Hetfield's voice has led to a lot of people poking fun (check out the audio clips of nothing but several minutes of him saying "Yeah" spanning several decades for three minutes straight) and it is a bone of contention for us old fans who, frankly, find his vocal style to determine our shrug-style.

Not so much on this album and especially this album closer where he screams with righteous fury rather than calculatedly intoning the words. It's hard to describe, but he certainly was able to irritate the fuck out those of us who missed the way he sounded on "Ride The Lightning," and he's not pissing us off nearly as much this time around, and not at all here.

The video and song imagine a post-apocalyptic world where machine rules over man and spoiler alert: The machines win in the end.

In conclusion, Metallica has continued to be ambitious with "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct," only now that means allowing themselves to use their past as inspiration rather than something to run from.

It's not "Master Of Puppets." But that's okay, it's not "Reload" either. The band didn't rekindle time in the garage but at least tried to remember what it was like there and the result is a lot more genuine than "Death Magnetic," which in retrospect seems like the prototype for what the band wanted to do, they just weren't ready yet.

Now they are. And it's a pretty cool thing to witness, even if it's not as perfect as childhood memories.

they fucking played "Call of Ktulu" in Denmark earlier this year!

honestly this is the most jazzed I've been to hear new Metallica songs live since......ever? I never saw them in the heyday

Metallica were so goddamn sick tonight. First time seeing them since 1999. they played "Fight Fire with Fire"

Haha just finding out that 'Hardwired' album cover is real. What the fuck that is so awful. It's easily the worst Metallica album cover and probably one of the worst ones in the history of rock music.

they are great live

probably one of the worst ones in the history of rock music.

ahem

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/de/Iron_Maiden-Dance_of_Death.jpg

now that we're dead my dee-uhhhhh

first disc of this kicks ass top to bottom

idk why I'm putting this here but anyway I'm watching Through the Never now because I'm off of work tomorrow and this is basically just a concert video with a silly subplot with Dane Dehaan tacked in.

like Metallica didn't think people would pack movie theaters to listen to their shit on its own merits, but like all they do is play music for 20 minutes and every so often you see Dane DeHaan's boss say something like "ok I need you to drive 713 blocks to get a ham sandwich with this obscure mustard for the boys do it or you're fired".

oh shit then DeHaan gets into the fakest looking car wreck I've ever seen omg lol. van rolls with no seatbelt on and then Metallica inexplicably goes into "Ride the Lightning"

James gets really angry at a malfunctioning microphone and throws it over. random roadie gets a dramatic cameo with a look of consternation.

van rolls with no seatbelt on

That hits a little too close to home!

haha!

James gets really angry at a malfunctioning microphone and throws it over. random roadie gets a dramatic cameo with a look of consternation.

they actually kept this malfunction for the audio release version.
it pisses me off each time i listen to the album.
maybe if i watch the film then maybe i will appreciate this key part of the storyline more ?

James should have gotten an oscar, total gravitas with that microphone