Well, we finally got a new Metallica album. Eight years after the release of their previous effort, Death Magnetic, Metallica have managed to summon up some of that old-school thrash bravado from the 80’s and actually put out something kind of half decent. However, with that in mind, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is a tale of two albums. For this release, the band decided to make a double album consisting of six tracks each, however, neither one really gets a chance to take off and shine. Despite the fact that it’s brought down by a couple of mediocre tracks, disc 1 holds the strongest offerings of the two, while disc 2 is just not good– only filled with songs that go nowhere, sounding like the lost Re-Load sessions. Their first single “Hardwired” is by far the strongest, fiercest and shortest track on the entire record, followed by their newest single, the thrash epic “Spit Out the Bone.”
The rest of this double album falls short of anything spectacular. With songs averaging at least six minutes in length, the music quickly overstays it’s welcome. Most of the songs have at least a couple of different changes in pace making them feel poorly pieced together– it definitely felt as if the band just threw ideas at the board and decided to record anything that stuck, which was probably everything in the Hetfield/Ulrich universe. There are a bulk of forgettable songs on this album, but I also have to give them credit for trying different things. For instance, the bass is a little more prominent in certain songs and the drumming has also gotten a lot crisper and sharper, so good job Lars.
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is hardly the Metallica album most of us anticipated after the release of their first single “Hardwired.” I personally thought the band was trying to revert to their old thrashy ways and deliver some fast, adrenaline pumped tunes, however, they only had one of those up their sleeve– but I’ll take it. Metallica is back! This album might not be the greatest or even good, but at least it signifies that the thrash giants will soon be hitting the road to deliver some great live heavy metal to the masses.
The Good:
- Lars has been practicing.
- Robert Trujillo gets a little shine.
- “Hardwired”
- Hammet hides behind his Wah pedal.
- Songs are unnecessarily long.
- “ManUNkind”
- “Murder One”
- “Am I Savage?”
- The song titles are terrible.
- The album cover art is just as bad.
