???As "The End of the Line" rings out, eardrums decode riffs that cannot be new Metallica and drums that drive cars. Accelerator/brake pedal double bass without the overambitious sloppy snare, just guitar lines that move like the pulse beam to some fire-breathing beast - a Tool "Vicarious" riff but in rock time. James Hetfield roars "The slave becomes the master" and Death Magnetic builds to a feel-good legitimacy - a fan piece that plays as a "Now say something" demand to years of soft calls.
???It's the second track from Death Magnetic, Metallica's ninth studio album since they released Kill 'Em All in 1983 and Ride the Lightening in '84. Fan favorites "Creeping Death" and "No Remorse" feel more recent than they had after the band's 2003 over-progressive romp, St Anger.
Producer sage Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Liscense to Ill, Slayer, Reign in Blood, The Mars Volta, Deloused in the Comatorium) was in the room to produce this effort.
Highpoint track, "The Judas Kiss," teases listeners with a skies-open refrain that's choked out time and again by the riff-rash of guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo.
"So, what now?/Where go I?" sings Hetfield.
You want the refrain to last, but this is Metallica in a song about betrayal. They summon an anxious, unfulfilled emotion from the music alone.
"The Day That Never Comes" generated a scoff, opening nearly note for note with the classic, "Fade to Black." The hiccup in originality almost seems premeditated as if the band is saying "You wanted 'Fade to Black' you jackals?" And still, the song makes up for its heard-it-before fault with raw emotion.
But if Metallica thinks it's a good idea to substitute "The Day That Never Comes" for "Fade to Black" on a live setlist, fans will throw things.
And then there's the curious "Unforgiven III." The band wisely turned down the opportunity to re-sing a "What I've felt, what I've known," instead opening a new chapter about desire and self-blame.
"How can I be lost/If I've got nowhere to go?/Search for seas of gold/How come it's got so cold?" sings Hetfield.
The track's opening instrumentation channels "The Ecstacy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, fitting perfectly.
Listening to Death Magnetic is like listening to a pre-Black Album Metallica session, only with more fleshed-out, tightly produced breakdowns.
It's easy to criticize the album for not expanding Metallica's sound, but the reality is, expansion failed on St. Anger. So while showing that these middle-aged guys don't need to think too hard to make magic, but rather, they can just go with the times, Death Magnetic soars.
In this case, a return to the old is advancement. With Metallica, advancement is a Cyclone of a ride.
Metallica will launch a 36-date North American tour in support of Death Magnetic on October 21 in Glendale, AZ.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
