Why I can't stop listening to 'Death Magnetic'

Over the last few weeks, while I listen to Metallica's new album non-stop (hopefully we'll figure out why later in this post), I've attempted to explain my reasoning and logic as it stands towards the almighty 'tallica dude. Simply put, I'm too young to revel in the hatred spawned by diehard Metallica fans. The same hatred that has consumed the band's reputation and put them on the proverbial chopping block, just waiting for the sharperned axe of true metalheads to come smashing down, has missed me by 3 or 4 years.

I was only 6 years old when the "black album" came out. I wasn't nearly a true music fan until at least 14 or 15. That gives me 7 years of indifference on what many see as Metallica's turning point record towards a shittier, watered down, less abrasive style. Being that they rode the commerical success of this album for just over 5 years, I had a chance to catch the final wave of hysteria that surrounded this material before 'Load' was released and metal fans across the world burned their Metallica shrines. I remember when I was younger and seeing old re-runs of the Enter Sandman video and thinking it was pretty cool. At this point in my musical life it went something like this.....see cool video/hear cool song on the radio in dad's truck >>>> buy album with allowance based on liking a singular song >>>>play singular song in room and (sometimes) explore the tracks surrounding that radio hit. This more or less translates to file the "black album" CD between L.L. Cool J's 'Mama Said Knock You Out,' and Montell Jordan's 'This is How we Do It.' What I'm saying is, Metallica's prime years were long gone before I was even to set foot on the path of having a definitive taste in music.

It puts the age thing in perspective to hear my older friends experience's with Metallica. Hearing of older friends sitting around the TV with their friends after a day in high school with their jaws dropped watching the "One" or "Enter Sandman" the minute they debuted (in either wonderment or awe), versus me catching old re-runs on countdown lists picking my nose in my pajamas.

As I grew up and my musical expanses became more vast, I settled into the Punk/Hardcore scene, and almost as a pre-requisite, was encouraged by the scene and many friends personally to go back and check out the glory albums. The real Metallica: (Kill 'em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice For All). Holy shit. This really was like an entirely different band. The sound, the energy, the vibe, the mood....everything was different. Bear in mind this was during the Load/Reload/Hiatus years so I quickly followed suit and wrote off anything after '88 like everyone else.

My favorite Metallica album, to this day, is still 'Master of Puppets.' It has everything a Metallica album should have. Grueling speed, riding riffs with the occasional key change within, long epic thrashing, deranged lyrics, and enough eerie moody parts to change the tone every once in awhile. Abandoning the risk of sounding overly pretentious, it's like an experience.

Still, while everybody else with a real ear for hard, heavy, and fast stuff hated Metallica for the next 12 years, I sort've said back quietly, spun mostly 'Master' and 'Justice' and kept an eye out hoping someone with influence and power in THA BIZZ went to them in confidence and spoke for the millions of fans scratching their heads..."WRITE LIKE YOU KNOW HOW!" "Give up trying to reinvent the wheel, people want 10 Ride the Lightnings."

The release of "Some Kind of Monster" and "St. Anger" furthered the divide between reputable Metallica and an all-out joke. I'm not going to try an argue against the general consensus on either of these projects, that being total over-the-top ridiculousness (save for the entertainment and re-watch value of the movie for me).

When news broke of a new album in the works, with Rick Rubin at the board, speculation and rumors flew from the mouths of freelance critics. People were expecting to hate it, expecting it to promise change and a return to classic Metallica with an inevitable let down. A friend of mine got a leaked copy and I convinced to play it on a trip down to NYC (he had swore it off already). It definitely sounded different upon first listen. I didn't love it right away, and it didn't sound like old Metallica, but it wasn't bad enough to not seek it out for myself to rummage through on my own time upon returning from vacation.

It's been about 3 weeks since I've had my own copy. And I can't stop listening to it. It's not a failed promise at old Metallica. It's the fast and shredding awesomeness of old albums with the carefully picked and placed elements of newer Metallica intertwined within. If people actually went through Load and to a lesser extent reLoad (everyone agrees St. Anger was a turd), they would find a lot of cool blues and southern rock inspired guitar work, improved lyrics, and a cool vibe separate from the original feeling of Metallica. This album takes that vibe and combines it with much better songwriting inspired by the older albums. The vocals are a bit lacking, they could be harsher and less auto-tuned, but the songs are long again, the solos are back, and the riffs stick in your head. The songs are emotional and set a mood without being whiny, pretentious, or emo. The first five tracks floored me, my favorite being "All Nightmare Long." "Cyanide" is easily skippable, but I even love "The Unforgiven III." Sue me. The last three tracks sound rushed and I feel like they could've done a better job with them, but overall it's stayed in heavy rotation for the better part of two months.

People are really stretching to hate this album. The whole complaint of how it's mixed and mastered is a reach to say the least. Shut up, basically. It's loud because it's Metallica! Who cares about the context in which it's loud and the "loud wars" with shitty contemporaries. It's funny to me that music snobs and those with "impeccable" taste are concerned with how the album is mixed in relation to the rest of the music biz...these are the same people who take pride in distancing themselves from commercial and mainstream music altogether.

I guess it all comes back to my age and "era." I was too young to be the awkward metal kid amidst the jocks in high school who clung to his copy of Kill 'Em All. I don't hold new Metallica to the standards of their older albums. I hold Metallica to the standards of what I enjoy. The closest thing to Metallica that I really listen to on the regular is probably Mastodon, or even Down (with the connection being the southern inspired riffs and moody parts). And I hear a huge similarity between the new Down and latest Mastodon albums and 'Death Magnetic.' It fits in nicely, and I'm at an age where I can enjoy old Metallica albums almost as a separate band with no sentimental attachment to that era. I don't think of what used to be for Metallica because I never experienced it in the first place, and I'm not going to front like I did, and be a younger kid writing off new Metallica.

I can respect older heads not bothering with 'Death Magnetic,' but I like it a lot and make no apologies for it.