Death Magnetic is the ninth studio album by Metallica, released on September 12, 2008, by Warner (Bros.) Records.
Following the release of 2003's St. Anger and the addition of bassist Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies, Ozzy Osbourne), tensions between the band members had started to cool off following the Troubled Production of the previous album. The band started writing material for this album while on tour for St. Anger and noted that it sounded much closer to their earlier material than anything they had done since the Black Album in 1991. The band went into the studio and started recording with producer Rick Rubin in 2007 and spent over a year working on the new album.
Musically, this album is a return to the Thrash Metal sound of their first four albums, as promised earlier by the band, with lead single "The Day That Never Comes" teasing at this by sounding like 80s ballad "Fade to Black" and exploding into a thrashy instrumental outro similar to that of "One". Solidifying their return to form is the revival of their classic-era logo, following two makeovers (first for Load and ReLoad, and then for St. Anger).
Death Magnetic succeeded at winning back enough of the audience alienated by the more mainstream direction of their post-80s albums by being certified platinum less than six weeks after release. The band then spent two years touring for the album. "My Apocalypse" also won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
On December 13, 2011, an EP featuring four B-sides from the album's recording, titled Beyond Magnetic, was released.
Tracklist:
Main album
- "That Was Just Your Life" (7:08)
- "The End of the Line" (7:52)
- "Broken, Beat & Scarred" (6:25)
- "The Day That Never Comes" (7:56)
- "All Nightmare Long" (7:58)
- "Cyanide" (6:40)
- "The Unforgiven III" (7:47)
- "The Judas Kiss" (8:01)
- "Suicide & Redemption" (9:58)
- "My Apocalypse" (5:01)
Beyond Magnetic
- "Hate Train" (6:59)
- "Just a Bullet Away" (7:11)
- "Hell and Back" (6:57)
- "Rebel of Babylon" (8:02)
Principal members:
- James Hetfield - Vocals, rhythm guitar
- Lars Ulrich - Drums
- Kirk Hammett - Lead guitar
- Robert Trujillo - Bass
Trope, fall, down, trope again:
- Album Title Drop: Happens in "My Apocalypse""Death magnetic
Pulling closer still" - Breather Episode:
- "Cyanide" is one of the more upbeat songs and has more optimistic lyrics near the end. It appears between one of the heaviest songs ("All Nightmare Long") and the most melancholic one ("The Unforgiven III")."An air of freshly broken ground
A concrete angel laid right down
Upon the grave which swallows fast
It's peace at last, oh, peace at last" - Despite its name and length, the instrumental "Suicide & Redemption" is relatively calm by the standards of the album, even containing a quieter melodic section in the middle, whereas most of the rest of the songs are more intense and have lyrics about death and violence. It appears between one of the heaviest songs ("The Judas Kiss") and one of the most extreme ("My Apocalypse").
- "Cyanide" is one of the more upbeat songs and has more optimistic lyrics near the end. It appears between one of the heaviest songs ("All Nightmare Long") and the most melancholic one ("The Unforgiven III").
- Call-and-Response Song: "Broken, Beat, & Scarred""Breaking your teeth on the hard life coming
(Show. Your. Scars.)
Cutting your feet on the hard earth running
(Show. Your. Scars.)" - Cosmic Horror Story: "All Nightmare Long" is inspired by The Hounds of Tindalos.
- Epic Instrumental Opener: The majority of the songs take more than a minute for the vocals to start. Album opener "That Was Just Your Life" takes almost two minutes.
- Epic Rocking: Every song except "My Apocalypse" qualifies, and even that one has a new intro for live performances to make it pass the six-minute mark.
- A God Am I: "The Judas Kiss""Judas lives, recite this vow
I've become your new god now" - Gorn: Lyrically, this is one of the most violent Metallica albums. Special mention goes to "My Apocalypse" for being probably the closest thing to a Slayer song Metallica has done."Crushing metal, ripping skin
Tossing body mannequin
Spilling blood, bleeding gas
Mangle flesh, snapping spine
Dripping bloody valentine
Shatter face, spitting glass" - Heartbeat Soundtrack: "That Was Just Your Life" begins with a heartbeat.
- Instrumentals: "Suicide & Redemption" is notable for being the band's first instrumental since "To Live Is to Die".
- Longest Song Goes Last:
- Inverted; the album closes with its shortest song, the 5:01 "My Apocalypse".
- Played straight with Beyond Magnetic, which ends with "Rebel of Babylon", the EP's only track with a duration of more than 8 minutes.
- Loudness War: One of the most infamous examples since the 1997 edition of Raw Power, clocking in at just DR3 on CD copies; the vinyl release is at a more manageable DR8, but it's still loaded with clipping. According to mastering engineer Ted Jensen, producer Rick Rubin sent in the album pre-compressed, and the most he could do as a result was make slight adjustments. The one notable exception was the stems included with Guitar Hero 3, which were sent in before the compression was applied and are consequently much more dynamic. This got to the point where the 2015 remaster went out of its way to undo much of the compression, with the results coming in at DR7, which is still heavily compressed, but much less so than the original 2008 CD.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Despite being one of the most upbeat songs, "Cyanide" is still about suicide.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
- "Broken, Beat & Scarred""Breaking your teeth on the hard life coming
Show. Your. Scars." - "All Nightmare Long""Luck. Runs. Out."
- "Broken, Beat & Scarred"
- Revisiting the Roots: This album brought Metallica back to their Thrash Metal roots after taking a more commercial direction with the Black Album, abandoning their roots completely in favor of blues-based hard rock with the Load duology, and experimenting with nu metal with St. Anger. It also brings back the classic Metallica logo and is even modeled loosely after the formula of their second-through-fourth albums by including a complex ballad with a faster/heavier outro as the fourth track ("The Day That Never Comes") and a lengthy instrumental near the end ("Suicide & Redemption").
- Rock Me, Asmodeus!: "The Judas Kiss" is implied to be about Satan."Followed you from dawn of time
Whispered thoughts into your mind" - Sequel Song: As the name suggests, "The Unforgiven III" is this to "The Unforgiven" and "The Unforgiven II". Unlike II, however, III does not directly reference the original. It instead captures the spirit by being a ballad about a lack of self-forgiveness.
- Troper awaken my apocalypse!
