| Rating |
Summary |
|
| 4 by Rolling Stone |
In the Eighties, thrash metal wasn't a scene, it was an arms race: riffs kept speeding up, drum kits got bigger. But with 1991's Black Album, Metallica opted for unilateral disarmament, slowin... |
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| n/a by thephoenix.com |
Of special note is the 10-minute instrumental 'Suicide and Redemption': listening to it, you almost forget that there are supposed to be words in rock songs, since its filled with building riffs, escalating volleys of tension and release, and moments of frantic drum abandon from Lars Ulrich that should do a lot to redeem his standing in Modern Drummers Drummer of the Year polls. |
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| n/a by www.ew.com |
Sometimes the album's mini-epics come off as we've still got it! stunts. But when it's working, the effect is like ceding your senses to a particularly well-engineered roller coaster in the dark. |
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| n/a by www.uncut.co.uk |
Like all the best heavy rock albums, it suspends your disbelief, demands your attention and connects directly with your inner adolescent. |
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| n/a by www.guardian.co.uk |
This is the strongest material the band have written in 20 years. |
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| n/a by Pitchfork Media |
The best ones spit in the face of death; this album instead finds aging men trying to reclaim their youth. |
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| n/a by NME |
Not only does it banish the memory of St Anger but its easily their best work in 17 years. |
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| n/a by Popmatters |
By embracing those old sounds and avoiding the trap of sounding like Metallica Trying New Things, it feels like that hunger of old has returned. |
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| n/a by www.avclub.com |
Some bloat makes the record fully feel its 75 minutes, but considering all the baggage Metallica had to shed just to find itself again, some minor excesses don't detract from Death Magnetic's importance. |
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| n/a by www.hotpress.com |
Metallica certainly have a lot to prove with Death Magnetic, the follow-up to 2003s St. Anger, an album which divided the critics and the bands own audience. |
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| n/a by www.latimes.com |
It's a conservative, preservative move by men who needed to reclaim their ground. But playing by those rules, Metallica wins. |
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| n/a by www.pastemagazine.com |
Death Magnetic is more than a paean to all things thrash--its the revivification of ambition dormant for nearly two decades. |
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| n/a by www.blender.com |
Rubin pointed the direction, but credit goes to the band-which, for the first time on record, includes new bassist Robert Trujillo-for recapturing their old sound and reconciling it with what followed. |
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| n/a by www.musicomh.com |
Which brings us to the nub of what makes Death Magnetic such a resounding success. Death Magnetic could have dropped 15 years ago and been a logical conclusion to the Black album. Today, it emphatically brings Metallica full circle to an intriguing afterthought: what next? |
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| n/a by www.courant.com |
They responded with Death Magnetic, the best Metallica album since Metallica. |
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| n/a by www.prefixmag.com |
Death Magnetic is just about the best album Metallica could have made at this point. |
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| n/a by www.sputnikmusic.com |
Theres a worrying air of desperation running through the bands lyrical choices that thankfully doesnt spill over into the music, but it is nonetheless a frequent distraction on an otherwise fine album from a heavy metal juggernaut that might just be kicking back into gear. |
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| n/a by uk.launch.yahoo.com |
Death Magnetic at least proves that 40-something millionaires can make a valiant fist of recapturing the fury of youth. Sadly, though, it seems that Metallica will never be 20-years-old again. |
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| n/a by www.nowtoronto.com |
Their latest successfully revisits elements of their thrash-metal prime, eschewing bloated self-indulgence for straight-up head-banging aggression, with decent riffs to match, thanks in no small part to producer Rick Rubin. |
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| n/a by Billboard |
Virtuosity can be impressive without being particularly enjoyable, and it's hard to shake the feeling that for all the potent-as-ever prowess here, Death Magnetic is more a stamp of authenticity than a complete record. |
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