adriandenning.co.uk
album reviews

Metallica

Kill Em All 7 ( 1983 )
Hit the Lights / The Four Horsemen / Motorbreath / Jump in the Fire / (Anesthesia) Pulling Teethv / Whiplash / Phantom Lord / No Remorse / Seek & Destroy / Metal Militia"

The Brits still owned heavy metal, thanks to the likes of Iron Maiden. Where was America in all of this? Well, heavily influenced by British bands were Metallica but they still managed to put their own twist on things. They were very guitar heavy at this stage, very fast and speedy, almost punk-like, taking this cue from Iron Maiden, Motorhead etc and so forth. Allmusic.com describes the music as having 'jaw dropping levels of scientific precision'. Well, fair enough, although someone forgot to turn up the bass on the mixing desk. James Hetfields lyrics and vocals at this stage are pretty forgettable but 'Kill Em All' isn't really about that. No, it's about the guitar riffs, the speed and the energy. Containing enough riffs to impress even early Black Sabbath, 'Kill Em All' is testament to talent, dedication and anger. British bands didn't really go in for all this technical showing off, but Metallica married this trait to the energy of the British new wave of heavy metal. Some credit them with inventing thrash metal - which i'm not sure they really did. They just made a name for themselves, and by extension, 'it'. Dave Mustaine, who left Metallica prior to the recording of this album was heavily into the Brit metal bands and played a huge part in forming the Metallica sound before putting together his own group, 'Megadeath'.

Guitars that sound like drills, a drummer who sounds like he's got arms made of steel, a singer who you can only hear as some kind of guttural roar, a pounding bass guitar although as I stated, mixed out of the sound in terms of register. I keep having to turn the bass up on my speaker system to really 'get' 'Kill Em All'. 'Seek & Destroy' is the clear album standout, a song with an actual tune on an album heavy on heroics but light on substance in terms of that old fashioned thing called melody. The rhythm section chug away and although the mix is weak in terms of heaviness, this chugging married to the guitar attack and actually memorable lyrics pushes the whole Metallica game-plan forwards dramatically. Another highlight arrives with 'The Four Horsemen', all attacking vocals, impressive bass runs and memorable lyrical moments. Those riffs though, those forcibly powerfull speedy riffs. You can't ignore them.

Share Your Views?

‘Death Magnetic’ has been been mixed into oblivion. I don't want to labour the point, but there really is no dynamic range here at all. It's a modern trend and it hurts audiophile ears - everything turned up to a Spinal Tap '11'. For the technical amongst you, I personally encoded the CD to LC ACC format and i'm listening to it in a nifty new Russian based media player, 'AIMP2'. Anyway, heavy? Ah, yes. Metallica will beat you into submission over seventy-five minutes. They'll take their speedy riff-age of old, marry it to fairly average lyrics and the usual James Hetfield hollering. At the same time, Lars Ulrich pounds away on the drums – the man who never evolved. There’s a film in that idea, somewhere.

Lead single 'The Day That Never Comes' isn't at all typical of 'Death Magnetic' and you'll be fairly pleased to hear that. On the other-hand attempts at fan pleasing of a different kind are writ large all over the opening two numbers. 'That Was Just Your Life' begins with something akin to a heart-beat. What, we've come off the life-support machine now, have we? The speed of the guitars are impressive and we have a tune that recalls 'Justice' very much indeed. Well, Rick Rubin stupidly informed the band he wanted them to write the lost, second part of 'Master Of Puppets'. How’s that going to happen, exactly? 'That Was Just Your Life' gamely tries to stick to just such a template, although rarely reaches the same heights as either ‘Puppets’ or ‘Justice’. 'The End Of The Line' will have you dropping your Jack Daniels on first listens. Repeated listens lessen initial giddy thrills, the composition itself is just too messy to rank as certified Metallica gold. ‘Broken, Beat & Scarred’ perhaps is certified Metallica gold - one to stick on your I-Pod Metallica playlist, certainly.

Annihilation, suicide. Ten minutes of ‘Suicide and Redemption’. Unforgivably, we also get ‘The Unforgiven III’. ‘My Apocalypse’ closes the album with brevity, a mere five minutes of crunching riff-age this time out - other songs regularly exceeding seven minutes each. Rick Rubin may have succeeded in bringing the guys back to their roots, but many of these songs could use a little editing. Overall then, 'Death Magnetic' is an entirely predictable album in one sense. Metallica have stepped back to produce an album that somehow could have fitted right in-between 'And Justice For All' and their 1991 self-titled commercial behemoth. Producer Rick Rubin and a talented new bass-player contribute and 'Death Magnetic' manages to induce a cautious optimism.

Share Your Views?

Readers Comments Bob Rockville Not your greatest review. Your intro reads like a sidenote and you forgot to mention the best track on the album (All Nightmare Long). Nicolas Argentina Please, please, listen to the Guitar Hero III mix of the record (google is your friend ;). It does not sound very compressed. Vlada Serbia Yeah, this album is quite an achievement for Metallica at this point of their career.They have successfully avoided becoming stale by constantly trying to introduce new elements into their music, sometimes with good results(Load) and sometimes without fully realizing their initial concept(St Anger).With this one they made a conscious effort to try writing songs the way that used to in their early days.Of course, they couldn't do it the same way due to the years of experience.That's why these songs sound like some kind of a strange mixture of the classic Metallica sound and bluesy riffs from Load.Surprisingly it works great.The only thing that bothers me is the fact that some songs seem to be a bit forced out having different sections not blending well with one another.Also it seems that some band members' interests lie elsewhere.The album simply doesn't come across as a sincere one.It's four great musicians doing their thing as best as they can without involving too many emo! tions in the process. Hugo I´m sorry, but you have no idea or taste on metal. This is pure shit. Focus on rock, indie and jazz, and forget this style. Thanks