Death Magnetic. The Metal Martyr Review
September 16, 2008 by Scott
So it’s finally come down. An album and band I’ve talked so much trash about over the past year. A band that has pissed off and disappointed so many fans. A band that sold over a half million copies of this album already. When the hype started rolling in it was the same as the last four albums. But then we heard some previews of some songs, but to most they just didn’t seem all that impressive. So I talked a bit more trash and now it’s finally come down to me doing a review of an album I hated long before it was ever released. By now you have probably heard most of the songs, if not the entire album. You may have bought it, you may have down loaded it. The problems that I didn’t like when I heard the songs online is the production. It sounded terrible and I doubted it even though a lot of production value gets lost in translation over the web. However the production on the cd does sound much better with the exception of a little fuzziness sometimes.
I’m actually going to keep this really short and say that aside from the songs being a bit long and James lyrics being a bit boring and generic, (I can’t believe I’m actually saying this) it’s actually a pretty damn good album. Could it have been better? Absolutely. There are numerous things they could have done to make this record more appealing. Is it the best album of 2008? No, not in my opinion, but I guess it would really depend on what you listen to most of the time. Is it their best since ‘Justice’ as everyone says it is? Maybe, but there are so many factors that you need to think about before saying that, because the while The Black Album was not as heavy in a fast way as their earlier work, it was still a good album. But if you look at this album in a musical perspective it’s not bad in the least. Annoyingly long at times but still a good album. If you’ve only heard a few songs online, try listening to the physical cd. It might just change your mind.
And it’s a billion times better than St. Anger.
Image Source: Amazon.com
That review was very generous. I’d say it’s a pretty solid album tho. I just wish the instrumental was better.
It’s solid. Too long, but that seems to be everyone’s complaint. It’s not something that will get play-time like Master of puppets gets but it’s a lot better than I ever expected. And the snare sounds a lot better on the cd than on anything I’ve heard online.
I think its an amazing album and that its definitly the best they’ve done in a very long time. Also the instrumental is the best song on the album in my opinion.
The instrumental is great. I can’t deny that…Broken, Beat & Scarred in my opinion is the best song…with lyrics. The day then never comes is growing on me.
The day that never comes is one of my favorites on the album Kirk’s guitar work on a lot of sections brings back good memories
That songs get’s stuck in my head. The part I don;t like is the “One” style break down. It kind of throws the song off and it feels a bit sloppy.
yea there is a bit of thrashy choppyness in the song but overall the better sections do stick out
The only thing that would have made this album better is alcohol. when james stopped drinking they gave us st. craper! this album is the closest thing we’ll get to Alcohollica.
I haven’t listened to this album in well over two months now. Yes, alcohol would have made it better. James’ lyrics went to hell when he quit drinking.