Death Magnetic (2008)
Death Magnetic is a 2008 heavy metal album by Metallica.
After the raw, divisive experiment of St. Anger, Metallica went looking for the band they used to be. Death Magnetic, produced by Rick Rubin in 2008, brings back guitar solos, galloping riffs and the long, movement-based structures of their late-eighties peak. James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich lead, Kirk Hammett solos again, and Robert Trujillo makes his studio debut on bass. Songs like 'The Day That Never Comes,' 'All Nightmare Long' and the instrumental 'Suicide & Redemption' stretch past seven minutes. Its brickwalled, ultra-loud mastering drew loud complaints of its own, but the writing marked a deliberate return to thrash.
Quick answers
What is Death Magnetic about?
After the raw, divisive experiment of St. Anger, Metallica went looking for the band they used to be. Death Magnetic, produced by Rick Rubin in 2008, brings back guitar solos, galloping riffs and the long, movement-based structures of their late-eighties peak. James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich lead, Kirk Hammett solos again, and Robert Trujillo makes his studio debut on bass. Songs like 'The Day That Never Comes,' 'All Nightmare Long' and the instrumental 'Suicide & Redemption' stretch past seven minutes. Its brickwalled, ultra-loud mastering drew loud complaints of its own, but the writing marked a deliberate return to thrash.
When was Death Magnetic released?
Death Magnetic was released in 2008.
Who made Death Magnetic?
Death Magnetic is by Metallica.
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A few thoughts on Death Magnetic
Fans should watch Some Kind of Monster, the documentary that filmed the band nearly fracturing during the years before this comeback. Metallica: Through the Never puts the songs on a huge concert stage wrapped in a strange narrative film. For a game with the same appetite for thundering, mechanical aggression, Doom (2016) scores its combat with exactly this kind of down-tuned metal.
Metallica's own catalog, before and after this reinvention
Death Magnetic was Metallica consciously reaching back toward their late-eighties sound after St. Anger's raw experiment. St. Anger itself, plus Load and Reload from the calmer nineties stretch and the breakthrough 1991 self-titled record, trace the band's full swing between reinvention and comfort. Some Kind of Monster documents the therapy-fueled sessions that fed directly into this reset.
Classic metal albums built on the same galloping riffs
Death Magnetic revives long, movement-based songs and galloping, guitar-forward riffs after years of stripped-down experimentation. Paranoid, Back in Black, Led Zeppelin IV and The Number of the Beast are the genre's own foundational records for that sound, built around riff and solo rather than hooks, the same instincts Rick Rubin pushed Hetfield and Hammett back toward.