Though it has been 8 years since the last
Metallica full-length, the narrative that the band hasn’t done much since is
simply untrue. After multiple world tours, hosting the Orion festival for a
couple of years, 30th anniversary shows, Big 4 shows, hitting every
single continent and so on, Metallica just had other priorities. The reality is
that being the biggest metal band in the world comes with privileges beyond
simply recording new studio albums, but since most fans can’t experience a lot
of what Metallica has done since 2008, a new studio album is welcome.
“Hardwired… To Self Destruct” is the result
of the band’s recent efforts and is certainly not lacking in material. At 77
minutes, this is yet another lengthy effort by a band that has never been able
to write succinct songs. Whereas “Death Magnetic” was meant to be a pure return
to form (with varying degrees of success) after “St. Anger”, this record has
more intrigue because it wasn’t clear if the band would stay the course or not.
To Metallica’s credit, “Hardwired… To Self Destruct” is by far the most natural
sounding Metallica release in at least 2 decades. In other words, this is the
album they wanted to make, rather than one they felt compelled to write.
This means that though there are some
decent thrashers on this album, it ultimately is not a thrash record. This is
the biggest difference between Metallica in 2016 and Metallica in 2008. In
retrospect, “Death Magnetic” was actually a pretty aggressive record compared
to the mid-paced tempos that dominate this record. Nearly the entirety of disc
2 (excepting “Spit Out the Bone” and parts of “Here Comes Revenge”) plod along
at the same pace, led by Lars Ulrich’s simplistic drum beats. One or two of
these types of songs really isn’t bad, but a whole slew of them placed at the
end of the record makes for major fatigue.
The good news is that there are a couple of
really killer mid-tempo songs. “Now That We’re Dead” is among the band’s
heavier, groovier, and catchier tunes that they’ve done in a while. “Halo On
Fire”, which is the longest song, shows some legitimate progressive tendencies
towards the end as the band delves into Iron Maiden worship with their usage of
harmonies. In general, this album contains far more harmonized lead guitar work
than many of Metallica’s previous records. Both “Atlas, Rise!” and “Moth Into
Flame” are overflowing with these types of sections (even if the chorus of the
former song does use them somewhat awkwardly), and a number of other songs use
them to varying levels of success.
You may have noticed that most of the
nameworthy songs so far are contained on disc 1, and this is easily one of the
biggest legitimate criticisms of “Hardwired… To Self Destruct”. There are about
7 worthwhile songs on this album, and 5 of them are on the first disc (“Dream
No More” being the lone weak track). Again, it’s not even that the songs sound
the same, but rather that most of the other songs are the same tempo. It’s a
low bar to beat, but as soon as Metallica injects speed into their music, it
instantly becomes brilliant. It’s no surprise that the fastest, thrashiest song
on this album (“Spit Out the Bone”) is being widely hailed as the band’s best
song since the first 5 records. It also brings to light how ripping tracks like
“That Was Just Your Life”, “All Nightmare Long”, “The Judas Kiss”, and “My
Apocalypse” from “Death Magnetic” were. Production aside, that album absolutely
smokes this one.
To be fair though, we can’t just throw
production differences aside. “Hardwired… To Self Destruct” is easily the best
sounding Metallica album other than the self-titled. There are more
appropriately produced records (“…And Justice For All” comes to mind as my
favourite Metallica production), but in terms of sheer quality, this album is
near perfect. The only weak point is the sound of Lars’ snare. Put simply, his
abuse of snare drum fills puts a damper on an otherwise brilliant sounding
record.
From a songwriting standpoint, there is a
lot to like here. “Moth Into Flame” is easily the most well written song the
band has done in a long time. One of the things that always made Metallica
stand out amongst other bands is that their music had perfect transitions
between riffs. It never felt like they were stringing random riffs together,
and “Moth Into Flame” is the best example of this in some time. It moves from
section to section seamlessly, and incorporates a significant amount of speed,
despite much of the song chugging along at a slightly upbeat pace. It has some
riffs that are reminiscent of “End of the Line”, but ultimately is a very
unique addition to the band’s catalogue.
Other highlights include the two fastest
songs: “Hardwired” and “Spit Out the Bone”. Both show that James Hetfield is
nowhere near out of riffs, and the latter track shows that he still has some
fire in his voice. James’ vocal performance seems to vary on almost a daily
basis, but he redeems any past misfirings on this release because he sounds
impeccable. Whether he is barking venom out, or hitting softer lines, James’
range and tone are both excellent. This also brings up an excellent point:
despite some mellower moments, there is no outright ballad on this album. This
is commendable given that “Death Magnetic’s” ballad was the lead single and
obvious attempt at commerciality on that record.
Little has been said in this review about
the deeper cuts, but that’s because they aren’t worthy of much discussion. Most
of them attempt to sound like classic songs like “The God That Failed” or “Sad
But True”, but fall incredibly short. “Confusion” kicks off as a rip-off of
Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?”, yet it can’t rival the NWOBHM classic. “ManUNkind”
is perhaps the biggest offender when it comes to boring groove riffs, and one
of the weakest cuts on the record (despite the intriguing music video). Perhaps
the lone highlight of these later tracks is “Here Comes Revenge”, which gets
some decent alternate picking going in the chorus (once again evidencing that
speed is all Metallica needs to rule).
By unleashing 3 of the 4 best songs on this
album before its release date Metallica set expectations just a bit too high. There
is a lot of truly great music on this album (and that isn’t just by “modern
Metallica” standards). Both “Moth Into Flame” and “Spit Out the Bone” can stand
up to almost any of the band’s previous works, but this album as a whole is
just too inconsistent and too slow to be worth the 8-year wait. The best part
about “Hardwired… To Self Destruct” is that it makes me appreciate “Death
Magnetic” so much more. Even if that record wasn’t as genuine and was made
because everybody else was returning to thrash in 2008, it was still a stronger
release. Overall, if you cut Metallica’s new album in half, it would be a truly
great album. As it stands, it is an enjoyable, but overlong release.
Highlights
"Hardwired"
"Moth Into Flame"
"Spit Out the Bone"
Final Rating
3.6/5 or 72%.
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