JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C
8/9/08
METALLICA / DEATH MAGNETIC
So Metallica return with a new album, only the second studio
album this Century so what is it like? well thankfully
I’m pleased to report that they are back on top form and ready to take on those
who had written them off, this is Metallica, raw, aggressive almost back to the
roots and nothing like St. Anger.
For starters there are no songs on here less than 5 minutes
long, in fact all except the song “My Apocalypse” (that you already know) are
over 6 minutes, if you like this track and the first single “The Day That Never
Comes” then you will be well pleased with this album, this track is without
doubt the best song Metallica have written in 10 years. The album kicks off with “That Was Just
Your Life” chock full of great riffs, like they used to do and plenty of solo’s
yes, the solo’s are back with a vengeance, if you want more proof of this,
“Broken, Beat & Scarred” and “The End Of The Line” are further proof. There is a third part to the “Unforgiven III” which starts off with a nice piano piece and
orchestration before the guitars kick in and is very tastefully done, the total
epic track is the 9 minute plus “Suicide & Redemption” which is full of more
riffs than most bands have on an album let alone a single track, also “Cyanide”
and “All Nightmare Long” are well worth your
attention.
This is without doubt the best Metallica album for quite
some time but as I said it has bee a long time in coming, the other thing about
this album is the production by Rick Rubin, it’s sympathetic and a nice balance
of rawness and simplicity, not over produced, is sounds dangerous, there is not
a single track on this album that is sub standard and proves that Metallica cant
be written off yet, go get it, you can be sure I will be playing every track on
my HFM show in the fullness of time.
WEBSITE http://www.metallica.com/
TOTAL PLYAING TIME = 75 mins + 10
ESSENTIAL TRACKS
ICED EARTH / THE CURCIBLE OF MAN
I have been a fan of Iced Earth since I first heard their
first concept album “Purgatory” and they have put out some very fine albums
since then, this is part 2 of the “Something Wicked” saga and is about the
coming of the end of days.
Like the Judas Priest concept album the album has two basic
components, the songs and the fills that link the story together, there are 10
proper songs and taking them separately they work well individually, which is
always a good sign. The first
proper song is “Behold The Wicked Child” which is Iced Earth at their typical
best, “A Gift Or A Curse” is a slower, ballad type song that sets the scene, the
link track “The Dimension Gauntlet” is the longest of the filler songs and
although its short with narration piece in it, its still very good and leads
very nicely into the precursor to the album “I Walk Alone” is the guys at their
absolute best, plenty of riffs, full of dynamics and still rocks. The good thing about this album is that
all the tracks can be enjoyed as individual\al tracks and it doesn’t even matter
if you haven’t heard the first part.
Listen out for “Divide & Devour”, “Crucify The King”, “Come What May” and “
Overall than a very good album and it shows you can write a
concept album and not compromise the bands music, if you don’t know much about
these guys this is a good place to start and is quite typical of what the band
are about, well deserved album of the week.
WEBSITE
http://www.icedearth.com/ &
http://www.spv.de/
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 60 mins + 15
TRACKS