Death Magnetic- A Deadly Attraction!

Well, I know I’m quite late in writing this post. Nevertheless I’m satisfied having written it in the first place.

Since the advent of metal, the name “Metallica” had engraved a name for itself in the world of metal by their very unique music and the legendary, raw powerful voice of James Hetfield.

Having produced powerful hits like “Enter Sandman”, “Nothing Else Matters” etc, which featured James Hetfield doing the lead vocals and the rhythm guitars, Kirk Hammett playing the lead guitars at a blistering pace, Jason Newstead providing a powerful bass and most importantly Lars Ulrich, the very pulse of the band with his majestic drumming which will send headbangers instantly into ecstasy, the band is now back with their latest album “Death Magnetic” with a slight change in the lineup.

After a disastrous previous album (in my perspective) titled “St. Anger” which had nothing much in the album but a cacophony at full blast, I prayed for Metallica to either come back revamped or not return. I’d just be happy listening to their classics. I guess though they had quite lost their touch in their previous album, they hadn't lost their will and attitude. The obvious is that, they are back and to my satisfaction I can certainly vouch that their music goes “Old School”!

The departure of Jason Newstead made me quite unhappy thinking about the band’s break up and about the guy supposed to fill in his shoes as that would provoke immense criticism as a result of comparing the new guy with Newstead. Well, I got to say that Metallica has found a great replacement in the form of Robert Trujillo the former bassist of Ozzy Osbourne. By doing a wonderful job rendering a bass that perfectly complements the rhythm and the lead guitars at best he is sure to please any Metallica fan out there.

Death Magnetic is a concept based album focusing on War and its ugliness. The trauma a soldier faces, the darkness that befalls him, the violence around the war field. The album features ten songs and the song listing is as follows.

1. That was Just Your Life
2. The End of the Line
3. Broken, Beat and Scarred
4. The Day that Never Comes
5. All Nightmare Long
6. Cyanide
7. The Unforgiven III
8. The Judas Kiss
9. Suicide and Redemption
10. My Apocalypse

A few of the songs like “Cyanide”, “That was Just your life” are vintage Metallica blitzkriegs and songs like “Broken, Beat and Scarred” , “The end of the Line” are quite heavy focusing on hard riffs and drumming that makes you bang your head like you are possessed. The album, after a long time, features one instrumental song- “Suicide and Redemption”. The catch of the album, though, is the song “The Unforgiven III”. Boy oh boy, was I on cloud 9 after listening to it that it’s become my daily mantra humming it wherever I go. The riffs in the song are nothing short of ultimate and the solo is just typical Metallica. About the drumming, Ulrich is just the man to do the job and he has exceeded expectations by miles.


The night I listened to the songs, I just couldn’t get them off my head and it’s the same now as I write this review. On the whole, the album is one that proves that, in this age of hip-hop and rap, metal still is a major player in the battlefield and that the gods that new metal looks up to are here to stay.

Pictures taken from www.metallica.com

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A Prescription for Metal

Music has a lot of types. Ranging from light melodious classical music to the heavy, ripping death metal, the divisions are beyond count that I may be unaware of a few types (probably their sound frequency ranges above 30,000 Hz). To start with, a lot of people start out to be pop fans and then graduate to metal. This is because, probably, it takes time for people to cope with the background of Heavy Metal, which, are most of the times dark.

America saw the advent of Heavy Metal during the horror of World War II. It was one of America’s many answers to the holocaust of the period- The disillusionment, the despair and death. Many of the lyrics in Heavy Metal deal with philosophical enquiry questioning truth, life, beliefs, God, etc.

I, being a Heavy Metal fanatic, preach Heavy Metal like a religion. And to my satisfaction, I do have a few converts who evolved to listening to heavy metal though I do not know whether it was due to compulsion or for the music itself. I’d say a liking towards Metal is more acquired than natural. That’s because of the heavily distorted guitars, the powerful singing, the in-song rants and the insane drumming that will make everyone go wild- the fanatics with joy and the non-fanatics with hatred. The traditional term used for the people who go crazy after metal is called “A Headbanger”.

There are a selected few songs that I know of that would please metal and non-metal fans alike. The converts I spoke about, well, let’s just say, they started out listening to these songs before actually entering the world of metal. Here is what the prescription might have looked like…



Instead of writing a prescription I wrote a CD instead. If you’re new to metal I’d recommend you try these. The very rhythm of the guitars and the sheer brilliance in the songs and the majestic drumming would blow you off. Welcome to the world of “Headbanging”.

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