people are crazy.

Cyanide isn't too bad either.

I think the drums take up too much of the mix.

I'd like to hear Hammet a bit louder on his solos.

But, no real problems, it's a good album by a legendary band. Period.

After reading your posts I have to say I think it's you that may be crazy bud...

I have been a fan of Metallica since I first was given a copy of the "No Life Till Leather" demo way back when, and saw them live in support of RTL before anyone in the mainstream really knew or cared about them. I also got to interview them in 1986 (Lars and James) for a Fanzine I wrote called "Soldiers of Metal" and they were great, very forthcoming and cool, especially considering I was a 16 year old kid at the time. Anyway, I have seen them live countless times, listened to their albums through and through, played some of their music in my band, etc, etc. My point is I feel that I am fairly qualified to speak about them.

Now, just like many hardcore fans from the Megaforce days,I was saddened by the direction they took with Bob Rock and felt they were overproduced and certainly with Load/Reload they just became uninspired and almost a parody of themselves (as played by some lunatic 60 year old pseudo country band or something!). However, I didn't "hate" the band, I just chose not to follow them in the direction they were going. However, when St. Anger came out, like all the previous albums, I gave it an honest couple listens and at least appreciated the raw nature of the CD, though overall it was not great. So, when I heard Rick Rubin would be working with them, and that they had commented on making some attempts to "recapture some of the old magic", I was pretty psyched and looked forward to the finished product.

So now I have listened to DM 5-6 times all the way through, and the verdict is in: It's a GREAT CD from one of the top thrash/speed/power metal bands. I would personally give it an A-/B+ for the following reasons:

- Metallica are NOT going to write/record Kill Em All 2 or another RTL, it's just not going to happen at this stage in their career. They are older, more mature, less influenced/immersed in metal music day to day and quite simply I am sure their tastes are just far more broad than they were in their early 20's. That being said, this CD is an exceptional attempt by guys 18 years past their last A rated CD(in my opinion).
-The songs are well crafted, riff heavy, interesting (for the most part), the solos are brisk and well peppered throughout the disk.
- This is by far the best writing the band has done since AJFA, though not perfect, but come on and be fair here, it's an album MANY of you, and other Metallica fans worldwide never thought they'd pull off at this point in their career.
-The band has endured many struggles and challenges and this has certainly not made it easy to remain friends and writing partners but amidst all this they still managed to put out a kick ass CD 25+ years deep into their career. I know of very few bands who are still writing good new material that far along in their history (Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen are some others).

The Internet makes it easy for people to "bash" and act like they have all the answers and know the real deal on everything but I would bet my left nut that 99.99999% of those ripping on this new CD are either too stubborn to admit that the band put out a really good product or simply just enjoy bashing people/bands with the security of the internet in front of them. Meaning, if Lars/James showed up at their house for a listening party I am sure these same haters would be sucking their a** hard!

Listen to the CD a few times, compare it to last 15+ years of material and tell me honestly it's not a great effort by these legends of metal. If you were ever a real fan of Metallica it's virtually impossible to not like this CD unless you're just being a chump.

My roomate is a huge metallica fan and i can see it in him that he knows that the album is crap but he doesn't want to admit it because that's his favorite band... i find it quite humorous

as for my opinion... they should have retired years ago, i'm not a fan by any means but i've heard more than my share of songs from them and you can hear when a band has lost its touch

If he's truly a Metallica fan, and not just a KEA/RTL/MOP/AJFA fan then there's no way he thinks the album is "crap", unless he's deaf. Is it as good as early efforts? No, not quite, but it's far from crap and to say otherwise is just simply bullsh*t, especially if they're supposedly a fan. If it's a Jay Z fan and they hate the album, well, that I understand.

It's become sport to bash Metallica post-Napster and even if they put out the greatest metal album in history you'd still have retards on here saying "they shoulda retired years ago" and the the album sucks, etc etc...pretty pathetic.

You have made the error of comparing it to just Metallica albums. By that standard yeah there 4 and a half good albums ever, and like 20 really horrible ones, and this is somewhere above those but not quite to those 4.5 good ones so by that set of standards it seems decent. However, if you look at it for what it is, a thrash album, it is just bad. Even while being a decent album by Metallica standards this is still the bottom rung of thrash and barely listenable.

whats nwobhm one more time?

The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which was a huge influence on Lars. Diamond Head specifically.

"Barely listenable" is pathetic, and totally unjust, even if you choose to put it in the category of simply "Thrash metal". However, I would ask you, for what other bands do you do that? Meaning, when I listen to a new disk from Bruce Springsteen, am I comparing it to all other Arena Rock/Folk/Classic Rock/Singer Songwriter CD's or am I simply grading it based on what I think of Bruce S. and his overall talent? I would say, as I think many would, the latter is true.

With Iron Maiden's last release (which was great), do I have to compare it against all other British Metal bands, or Power Metal bands or NWOBHM bands or whatever category you want to put them in or can I just say that it's a great f**king CD for Iron Maiden? See I think a lot of these so called "Metallica Fans" are probably not really real fans in the sense that if they were, they would judge DM based on what Metallica has been able to pull off with this vs. past recordings and not lumping it into all current/modern Thrash Metal, which obviously Metallica are not fairly categorized as this point as they are more than just that style alone. I also would venture a guess that 90% of those bashing Death Magnetic are under the age of 30, or even 25, are are much more likely biased towards more modern metal bands like Shadows Fall, COB, Soulfly, Lamb of God, Arch Enemy etc etc. Therefore, Metallica is going to be unjustly judged simply by being "old". Deny this if you like but I have already heard them be dissed for that reason in these forums and by other younger musicians I hang with from time to time. Simply being older guys does not in any way diminish the quality of the band and/or this most recent CD and to suggest so is just purely retarded.