Metallica is back, and it's been a while since they released anything remotely close to the quality of "old Metallica" that people speak of. (Not only in my opinion, but shared widely). Their previous release, St. Anger, was their low-water mark and many thought for sure Metallica was a band of the past. (Wow, that sounds so professional).

Listening through Death Magnetic for the first time, I believe they have released some pretty good shit, bringing them back up along bands that "play good music" once again.

The first thing that strikes me is that solos are back. I'm not a huge fan of solos, I think they've overrated and I can do well without them, but they have been a part of 'tallicas career since before they started, so when they were left out of St. Anger, that alone made them sound funky (in a bad way).

Musically, lyrically, technically, enjoyally (if that's a word) -- Death Magnetic kick St. Anger around so bad it wish Death Magnetic didn't kick it around so bad. Death Magnetic is what Metallica should have released back in 2005 to keep their faces, but I suppose St. Anger was their outlet of emotions towards each other and themselves and they had to get it out of their system before they could produce anything worth listenting to.

I'm really enjoying this album. Not one song is shorter than 5 minutes; most are over 7 minutes long and one is close to ten minutes. It's pretty sick, but, it does however add some "dead time" to the songs. Stiff bridge-riffs, sometimes just pounding the drum playing along on one note on the guitars, to divide the verses. It's nothing major, but stuff like that kind of get in my face and is hard to shake off.

Spite that, it's a great album. If you liked what Metallica released 15-20 years ago, but have frowned upon their releases since the Black Album (much like me), then Death Magnetic will redeem itself worthy.

(I just now realise what a poor scan I made of the cover, but I can't be arsed fixing it).

To start of in a good mood, here's a short little story*:

A while back a mate and I discussed Myspace. He loves it (somewhat - he probably wouldn't use that word, but then again, he just might), and I didn't give much for it. Thinking (knowing) it was just another spawn of the devil-type community I never cared to join up. (Actually I tried once, but it kept sending me in circles so I gave up - it just didn't want to make friends).

Anywho, he argued that being friends with all kinds of bands made it easier for him to keep track of new releases and other fun info from the various bands he had befriended. And recently I have come to agree. Well, sort of..

Moving on, this story really has little to do with Myspace, other than the "follow bands I like" part. Actually, this has to do with Youtube, thus ending the story-bit, somewhat..

* If it didn't leave you in a good mood, write me a comment about it!

I'm subscribed to Nuclear Blast Europe's channel and every so often they serve me with delicious (and sometimes not so delicious) bands to explore. A while back they slapped Die Apokalyptischen Reiter playing Es Wird Schlimmer on the front page, demanding my attention. It happened to be the first track on their album Licht which were due for release a few weeks later. And now, a few weeks later, I sit and listen to the album, and I like what I'm hearing...

Licht is a mixture of rock and folk-metal with some rather nice melodies. I'm not usually much for the German language, and I usually want to know what bands are singing, but Die Apokalyptischen Reiter has something special about them making them a fine exception. And the girl playing guitar is pretty hot! (As most girls playing guitar are. Most..)

Slipknot return with their fourth studio album, and it's safe to say, the hope is nowhere near gone.

Taking their experimenting one step further, Slipknot are keeping their heavy and scary approach but mixing in softer elements, acoustic guitars and cleaner singing that could be taken straight from Stone Sour (singer Corey Talor sing in both bands, after all). It's a bold move, and frowned upon by many, but I like it; it's not the constant pounding, your ears won't bleed as much as before giving you more time to enjoy the music. You'll still feel the need to jump around, however.

The special edition comes packed with three bonus tracks and a DVD. One of the new tracks is a remix of Vermillion pt.2 that appeared on Volume 3: (The Subliminal Verses). While not bringing any new material to the Vermillion "saga", it brings new depth to it; it's a great remix.

The DVD features a 35 minute long documentary called "Nine: The making of All Hope IS Gone". It contains shots of the band members playing their instruments or singing mixed with some behind the scenes-clips of the video to the title track. There's however no interviews and hardly no spoken words, which I would have found more interrresting. I felt like I could have done well without this extra disk, but being a sucker for digipacks I couldn't pass it up. ;-]