Album Review: Metallica – Death Magnetic

Metallica – Death Magnetic
12 September 2008

In what is possibly the musical surprise of 2008, Metallica bounce back from the career-flagellating shitheap that was ’03’s St. Anger. Death Magnetic is indeed much better that its predecessor – although I might as well be proclaiming Hitler to be a more compassionate dictator than Stalin for all that’s worth – but it’s actually their most consistent offering since The Black Album thrust them into the mainstream.

Much has been made over Death Magnetic’s apparent ‘missing link’ status between And Justice For All and The Black Album, and whilst it can’t live up to such a summation creatively, it does contain a good deal of …And Justice’s lengthy composition style along with Black’s general ear-friendliness. Most importantly though is that gone are St. Anger’s out of tune vocals, Bob Rock’s cack-handed ‘raw’ production, lack of solos, and it would appear that Lars is playing a drumkit again. Rick Rubin’s involvement has led to a great deal of hype due to his being something of a specialist when it comes ‘career corpse revival’, most notably for Johnny Cash during his twilight years. Yet despite this, Death Magnetic is bemusingly imperfect production-wise; Lars’s drums are, as usual, too high in the mix, and predictably that goddamned snare is treated like the lynchpin of the Metallica sound when in fact it’s surplus to requirements. In fact, the drumming is the album’s weakest aspect, as Lars turns in a woefully inept performance, struggling to keep up with his bandmates at times rapid delivery, and failing to produce a single interesting fill. Perhaps that’s all part of the charm with these oldies though, although it’s hard not imagine what a Lombardo or Bostaph would be capable of behind Metallica (see Testament’s The Gathering for a possible, blistering answer).

Anyway, the opening trio of ‘That Was Just Your Life’, ‘The End of the Line’, and ‘Broken, Beat and Scarred’ leave a welcome taste in the mouth, being mainly faithful modern takes on the classic Metallica template. ‘The End of the Line’ even has a touch of …And Justice’s penchant for myriad twists and turns. Hetfield gives a spirited and aggressive, if at times strained vocal performance, largely avoiding St. Anger’s cringeworthy attempts at lyrical introspection. As he’s been prone to doing for quite some time, he hams it up bigtime in the lyrical department, with silly adolescent ditties like “What Don’t Kill Ya’ll Make Ya More Strong!” and “Suicide! I’ve already died!” being difficult not to wince at. But hey, Metallica haven’t sold all these millions of albums because of their bad poetry, but rather because of riffs n solos, and Death Magnetic has both in spades. Kirk Hammett has run amok on this album, possibly whilst giving the finger to Lars (see the Some Kind of Monster documentary and you wouldn’t blame him). He peppers every available space with abundant fret-wankery, but his leads lack that subtle elegance of the band’s 80s heyday, at times exhibiting an almost Kerry King-esque messiness.

Cuts such as the aforementioned, as well as ‘All Nightmare Long’ (features a great sing along chorus) and ‘My Apocalypse’ (which oddly enough has a touch of Slayer about it) mark the points when Death Magnetic is firing on all cylinders and works best, because they sound like a band actually enjoying playing music again. It’s when they try to overthink things that it all gets a little ropey however; ‘The Day That Never Comes’ clumsily attempts to weld together ‘The Unforgiven’ with the tail end of ‘One’ with middling results – the first half is pleasant enough, but when Hammett insists on losing the run of himself with cheesy Iron Maiden worship it all sounds a bit forced, and overall it’s a disjointed affair. Meanwhile, ‘The Unforgiven III’ is fun, but not a patch on its two forebearers, whilst instrumental ‘Suicide and Redemption’ is certainly no ‘Orion’ and isn’t interesting enough to stand alone sans vocals.

If much of this review has come across a bit negative, then it’s important to understand that as the sum of its parts Death Magnetic is a fun, headbangable album from a band most thought should have given up a decade ago. To be honest, it’s hard not to listen to this without a goofy, shit-eating grin plastered across your face, which may just be due to a lingering nostalgia and a desperation for Metallica to be good again, but it’s also because it’s actually pretty enjoyable. It’s not the best album this year from thrash’s old guard, Testament and Death Angel can wipe the floor with Metallica in the thrash stakes these days, but it’s at least worth a listen – and that’s the most we can expect from Metallica in 2008.

Official Metallica Website
Official Metallica MySpace
Official Warner Bros Website

Album Review: Asesino – Cristo Satanico

Asesino – Cristo Satanico
Listenable – POSH0100 – 4 February 2008

Asesino is yet another project of Dino Cazares’ (ex-Fear Factory, Brujeria, Divine Heresy), also featuring Static-X bassist Tony Campos on erm, bass and vocals. Now there’s no need to frantically navigate away fom this page in horror because I mentioned those once nu-metal also-rans, because Asesino are very much in the death/grind spectrum. The lyrics are sung in Spanish, adding a slighly comedic element to proceedings which may or may not have been intentional, although song titles such as ‘Padre Pedofilo’ would certainly suggest the former.

Cristo Satanico is a relatively straightforward affair, and the emphasis on grooving, headbangable riffs works to its favour. Cazares has always been adept at creating memorable riffs above pointless fretboard masturbation, and this is no different. Well-timed breakdowns form the backbone of many of the 17 songs on offer, which make Cristo… a catchy and rather more listenable proposition than, say the 15 second grindcore brigade (not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind). ‘Puta Con Pito’ contains an almost Dimebag Darrell-esque riff, whilst ‘Adelitos’ emits a groove that Deicide would be proud of. ‘Regresende’ is a blistering opener, and indeed one of the album’s best tracks, with a surprising shoutalong finale; even if most of us won’t have a clue what the band are saying, not that that’s ever been a problem in the oft-inpenetrable world of the grind band.

Cazares is certainly proving himself as both a prolific and rather more versatile guitarist than he was possibly given credit for back in Fear Factory’s heyday. Asesino may act as another vehicle for the rotund one, but because it’s so well executed, and the material so damned catchy in places, like Fear Factory it’s simply impossible not to like, even if it doesn’t have the inimitable bludgeon of the likes of, say Discordance Axis. Cristo Satanico’s only real problem is an overly clinical production in places, which sometimes render the guitars a little thin, and the vocals (whilst pretty good for the most part) are slighly too upfront in the mix. Still, it’s a damn sight better than post-Cazares Fear Factory’s godawful Trangression, that’s for sure.

Official Asesino MySpace
Official Listenable Website