Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 03:02 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
When Metallica decide to release a new album, it instantly becomes the highlight of the year. One or two reviews wouldn’t be enough for this album, so we decided to ask 5 of our editors their opinions on “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct”.
Genre: Heavy Metal/ Groove/Thrash
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Blackened Recordings
Year: 2016
This Saturday, November 12 of 2016, “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct” was leaked and brought back memories of old times, with groups of friends getting together to listen to the new album, with lots of beers and ready to either glorify it or burry it 6 feet under. Before we start a discussion on how much metal Metallica are, let’s all remember when was the last time you clicked on an article like “10 reasons your penis is bigger because you listening to Metal” or the last time you were keeping yourself updated on Primordial through a site that had news an article about Bofiliou right after.
So, listening to the album for 3 days in a row as if we were 18 years old. And no you guys, you don’t need to listen to it 1000 times to be able to understand if the album is a masterpiece or not. You’ll be able to figure that out way sooner, obviously. Plus, we already had 3 satisfying tracks released, as a sample of the albums style. The point isn’t to decide whether “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct” is a masterpiece or not. Neither our expectations for one of the biggest (in numbers and fans) bands are so low to be satisfied with just a decent album.
To reverse the argument, the album is good. Just good. I doubt I would include it on the list of the Best of 2016, though, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be in the first places. And that’s not only the author in me speaking, but the fan aswell. The whole structure of this album is trying (even as late as now) to bridge the chaotic difference of the 1983-1991 Metallica era (with it’s contradictions and diversities, but definitely the albums back then were masterpieces) with the Load and after period, with Death Magnetic’s controlled aggression and energy as a guideline. And I think they are successful on this part. But for me, that’s not even the point. 2016 Metallica, even 20 years later, are making something good out of the legacy of 2 Load and they achieve a retouch to their profile with the help of the excellent state of Hetfields vocals and the plethora of riffs in the songs. It’s just a retouch though, nothing more. They can’t peak like they used to and the good parts seem to be only a few, compared to the legacy of this huge American band.
At this point, we’re going to start noticing many problems. Yes, their sound is flawless, the production of the album is solid and clean. The bond between Ulrich and Trujillo is typical, the Danish sounds massive without playing his best themes or performing his best. But the drums sound very natural and I like that. Riffs though, are way too many, and the results is just too much. My impression is that the main issue with this album is the huge amount of ideas and material and their inability to manage them all correctly. It looks as if Hammet is absent even thought the guitars play a big part on the album. That says a lot, I think.
Same goes for the purposeful long length of the album. There was no need for a double disk in any way and the slump in disk 2 proves my point. Metallica’s grandiosity is tiring, even though I understand that if the album wasn’t as lengthy or had less songs (considering that their fans have been waiting 8 whole years), people would certainly complain a lot. It’s missing a kickass song that people would sing out loud in every stadium around the world, on their upcoming tours. It’s lacking on the feeling that this is something huge, that it’s here to stay (which contradicts the grandiosity of Metallica that we ofcourse -sometimes- love). I can’t justify any kind of excitement for the 4-5 (really) good tracks such as “Atlas, Rise!”, “Moth into Flame”, “Halo on Fire” and “Spit out the Bone”. Composing a song in memory of Lemmy, was a great move, even though the song is average and the style of it is nowhere near the style of Lemmy, so I failed to connect the dots between this song and the legacy of the deceased. My guess is that you should be able to do that, right?
Because there’s no need to drone all day and since I’ve already mentioned “timing” plenty of times, if that metal version of “Load” was released in 1997/1998, it would have been way more accepted from metal fans, not that it isn’t acceptable now. Same thing applies to “Death Magnetic”, if it was released in 1994, it would have been considered a classic now. Hardwired…to Self-Destruct is far from being classified as a classic, so the release date plays no part, especially now that all this seems as a Metallica effort to reconcile with the “sins” of their past (Load) and it is, essentially, aimed mainly to their hardcore fans.
3.5/6
George Tsekas
What it the main requirement for a band to be influential (regardless of genre)? Before you rush to reply, let me tell you, the answer is simple. It’s success. Sales. Yeah, it sounds extremely capitalistic, non-romantic, and anti-underground. Still. The more sales a band has throughout their career (and not just 1 or 2 “firecracker” albums), the more chances they get. The reason? Think about it for a while. How many people have heard a band that only sold 5-10 thousand copies throughout their career? How many people have listened to their album to death? How many people decided to become musicians after listening to their idols music? How large their fan base would be, after all?
How many people, in efforts to copy their success, grabbed a guitar, started playing and posing with their foot on the monitor? Whereas a band that has sold millions of copies, sold their albums even on an Eskimo record shop -let’s call him him Fanouris (Fanouris is a cool dude) – and their songs have been on the radio a bazillion times…. Well, obviously chances on becoming seminal to the world wide music scene are way more . There are only a few bands that meet these conditions. And their influence on countless other bands, is obvious. No one would argue the fact that amongst them are names such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead. Metallica rightfully deserve a place in this team of “Immortals”, for sure.
I guess it became a thing to disdain Metallica now. It would have been an unthinkable thing to do during the ‘80s, in fact, many older people will confirm that while Metallica were growing and gaining fame back then, we felt pride. Proud of the fact that a band as hard as them, and not a melodic/mainstream one, was successful and made it to the charts, something that made even those that were snobbing metal music (thrash especially) because they considered it inferior – yes that’s how they treated us back then, especially the press- to listen to them.
I will never forget an article by Petridis (which I never really liked, to be honest) that was titled “The death of Heavy Metal”, in which he was analyzing his theory that metal music is dead, outdated and with no future (IN 1983!!!!WTF!!!!!!!). We liked seeing people like him that Metallica’s success left them dumbfounded and they were forced to show them on their TV shows and their magazines.
There’s a huge gap between what was going on back then and today’s situation, where way too many metal heads are snobbing Metallica, they consider them sell-outs and they won’t even bother with their new release. That’s an easy solution, self-fortification. We’re limiting our own grounds; anything that is making profit, is a sell-out. Anything that is successful and not underground, we won’t like so we don’t even bother with it. We‘re too tough, to waste our time on Metallica. We’re disregarding the fact that Slice-or and Vomit-or, bands that we’re fans of because they are “hot”, “old school” and “badass” most likely became metal heads when they listened to Metallica. As if we are supposed to measure our metal-ness.
Let’s get going with their new release now. Those of you that really care, you’ve already listened to it (that piracy though haha) and you already have an opinion on it, most likely. The rest of you, the tough guys, the “x band is cool but after their first demo, no, after their first rehearsal actually, became sell-outs” you’re not going to bother anyways. But I’m going to express my worthless opinion anyway, not that it matters, it’s a Metallica release we’re talking about after all, you will listen to it over and over.
Death Magnetic was kinda good. Sound-wise they returned to a style that is close to what I like. But it was lacking on musical compositions. If you asked me to mumble the basic melodies of it today, I wouldn’t be able to remember a thing, this has changed here. Yes, Hardwired is an album I will listen to many times, because I, in fact, like it a lot. It came as a surprise for me (my bad), a well worked album that sounds spontaneous in some parts. Hetfield has put a lot of work in his vocals, riffs have that Metallica trademark and there’s variety in the songs.
Because yeah guys, that’s how they do, they don’t have the “let’s play the same things over and over” logic, something that’s been proven throughout their career with either positive or negative results. The whole world has listened to “Hardwired”, “Atlas, Rise!”and “Moth Into Flame” and all of them are kick ass songs. “Now that you’re Dead” resembled Black Album in my opinion (which is good) and I loved that. “Dream No More” sounds like Ozzy in some parts; especially in the beginning it had a Perry Mason atmosphere surrounding it (not melody-wise). I wasn’t really fond of it.
“Halo on Fire” stuck in my head after the first seconds even though is a somewhat difficult song, with all its alternations. The composition is well worked, it reminds me of a more mature version of Metallica, Hetfield’s performance and also the guitar melodies were a delight. “Confusion” would be one of the most predictable songs out of all, in my opinion, a song that I was definitely expecting to be on the album, if you know what I mean. “ManUNkind” reminds me of “Load”, isn’t it funny how everyone used to badmouth Load and Re-Load, and now I see all the music experts saying they liked them. It’s cute but not the best from the album. “Here comes enter Sandman”…..Sorry, “Here comes Revenge”. Good, just good. Same goes for “Am I Savage” and “Murder One”. “Spit out the Bone” is the closing track of the album, maximum kickass-ness, that’s what we likeeeeee!!!!
It doesn’t require that much of an analysis, I bet that by the time you read this review, all 7 of my die-hard followers, oh hey Fanouris (and yeah, I know them by their first name), you already have a strong opinion of yours. What about mine? Year 2016, new Metallica album, good overall, 6 out of 12 tracks I really like, great enjoyment. Nowadays, is hard to find 6 tracks to enjoy in an album, especially when it’s not a debut album. Because in debut albums, usually the band has been gathering/preparing songs for years, and then in the next releases they don’t have that surprise element anymore, but also their inspiration declines.
The hard part is to find a motive to release a new album with 6 kickass tracks, when you’ve already been a band for 5000 years, you’ve performed in front of 8 and a half million people at Timbuktu, when you have so much money that you’re using them as kindling in your fireplace to BBQ sausages. And I don’t want anybody to say “Come on, they’re in it for the money, they are sell-outs”. Cause yes, they are! And they have tons of money. And yes, they are celebrities. And they will make even more money. GOOD FOR THEM. They’ve worked for that money. And they still do. And they deserve to be rich. They turned millions of people into metal heads and inspired thousands of artists to write kickass albums just so they can be like them. Enough is enough.
4,5/6 (Safe grade, I know, but since they have other albums that are 6/6, I can’t give more)
Elias Hatzialexis
“So, you’re back?” was my initial thought when I first listened to “Spit Out The Bone”. Let’s dive into it. 8 years have passed since Metallica’s last release (Death Magnetic) and the agony, after hearing rumors about new material coming out, was too much. In few days the new Metallica album will be finally released. So, for those of you that were drooling anytime you saw Hetfield wearing a sleeveless jean jacket with patches of bands like Vardis, Diamond Head, Tygers of Pan Tang and other similar British bands, you better stop drooling and chill out. Metallica didn’t release a new “Kill em All” and they are not completely back to their speed/thrash repertoire.
The album includes moments from the whole spectrum of their career, emphasizing on the metal side of things. For those of you that were expecting a “back to the roots” album, there’s the thrash-y title track, plus “Speed of the Bone”, first one resembles the fast parts of “Master of Puppets” whereas the riffing on the second one brings back memories from their classic metal days (especially on the lead parts that sound like the “Kill them All” era) but also a modern touch due to the production. “Moth into Flame” also has fast moments while in “Atlas Rise!” Metallica sound a bit Iron Maiden-ish for the first time. “Here comes Revenge” and “Now that we’re Dead” are mid-tempo songs that sound like a reference to “Black” album and obviously, there’s “Dream No More” that is similar to the “Load” era while keeping metal elements on the chorus. These are the songs that stood out most to me. Hammet’s work on the leads was very impressive. In this album you’ll find many great and well played solos. “Murder One” is Metallica’s tribute to the recently deceased Lemmy, referencing titles of Motorhead s0ngs. That’s romantic (in a good way) of them, but the song wasn’t special to me.
And here’s the moment you have been waiting for “Are there any good tracks in this album?” tracks comparable to their classic ones? Is there a song that will make you spend any savings you got or even get a loan to go on a night out and start hitting on girls that are wearing leopard print fur and foxy boots? Songs that will make you need a new neck because yours got destroyed from merciless head banging? Hardwired…to Self-Destruct is a typical release where its tracks will replace Metallica’s old classic ones, for one to two tours maximum, and that’s about it. You won’t find a new “Whiplash”, “Battery”, “Fight Fire with Fire”, “Call of Ctulu”, “Blackened” etc in this album (replace those with any classic song you prefer).The “stand-out” tracks I mentioned previously fall into the “ok songs” category in my opinion, but nothing spectacular. I’m not really sure if Metallica can or are interested in releasing a new “Kill em All” or “Ride the Lightning” (quality wise) and I’m not going to bother analyzing whether this classic metal vibe on this album is pretentious because of the retro-lust that’s been going on in the metal scene. I’m just listening to an album that was made too easy and laid back from a band that has nothing to prove to anyone.
4/6
Leon Pavlou
It’s been 8 years since the release of “Death Magnetic” and Metallica present their 11th album Hardwired…to Self-Destruct. After 8 years you wouldn’t want to release this “thing”, let’s be honest. They’re definitely the biggest Metal band out there but their talent on composing new songs has been already dead and buried. When they released the first two songs, “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct” and “Moth Into Flame” I dare to admit that I enjoyed them and I also liked the production and the music a lot. There wasn’t anything special about them, but they had that unique style that made you think it could only be Metallica’s work. And after these two…chaos! Long tracks that keep repeating the same rhythm over and over, and slumps in the song-writing that are out of hand. Cheap solos for Hammets standards, while the drumming part is lacking on emotion and imagination, as always. The track “Murder One”, the Lemmy tribute song, sucks, I’m only mentioning it because it was the one I was expecting the most. The last track of the album, “Spit Out the Bone” is probably the most powerful one, it was mentioned in many magazines as the best closing for a Metallica album. For a powerful and “to your face” Metallica song, it has the smallest balls I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to talk about every song separately, there’s no point in that, they just released an album so they have a reason to go on tour, sell merchandise, give interviews and to create some buzz around their name. The album has no purpose and nobody will remember it after a few years. Metallica will always be on top, not only because of their historic releases in the past but also because even now the audience can’t get enough of them in any of their amazing shows. The album was released by Blackened recordings in a double disc, in a triple deluxe version for the passionate collectors and also in a 3 vinyl box set, their pockets must be thrilled. To sum it up, there are 2-3 interesting songs the album is boring in general, indifferent with a very good production and with very good sound as well. And let’s all shout at Lars that he needs to learn at least the basics and that after black album he keeps becoming worse and worse, I’m pretty sure that in the next album he will just hire someone to play the drums for him. In an attempt to have a different closing, Metallica will always be the band that heavily influenced metal and not only metal, served the hard sound the best way possible, leaving a huge mark on it.
3/6
Leon Douras
The truth is, I’ve been upset with Metallica for 20 plus years now…
The band i’ve loved so much along with everyone else, the band that has been the soundtrack of my life in a way, the band I’ve grew up with and offered countless emotional moments to me, became a money-making business, produced only a bit of music that varied from average to bad, and generally had nothing to do with the band that had a huge impact on the metal scene (and rock in general). Their main interest for many years now has been the preservation of their colossal brand name, through countless tours and weird projects, while music it self comes second…
That being said, when “Hardwired” came around, which is ok but not extraordinary, i took it with plenty of skepticism and even more…rage for the reason behind Metallica’s new release, 8 years after the mediocre/average “Death Magnetic”. The next 2 tracks that appeared (“Moth Into Flame”, “Atlas, Rise!” were way better samples than “Hardwired” and my rage started to die down.
As of now, that I’ve li
stened to the whole “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct”, i feel like i have to give them a chance again, because i have to admit that the album is good. I’d dare to say very good… After many years there are inspiring riffs, nice intros, smart structures and track-building, play style worthy of Metallica’s value, but mainly, I’m listening to songs that made me think “Yeah, that’s Metallica!”.
“Halo on Fire” for example is a great song, that goes to show that they still can make music, same goes for “Atlas,Rise!”, “Confusion”, “Dream No More” and the general feel you get from this album is that it’s very good and it deserves a closer look, since after all these years, Metallica finally gave us back the chance to love their new music.
Lots of credits go to Hetfield for his overall work, especially on the vocals, he has improved so much that you can barely recognize him at times. Hammet that got lots of complaints for the 3 first tracks that were released, managed to leave his mark after all, while Ulrich and Trujillo are doing exactly what they should, the best way possible.
My only objection would be on the production, which is definitely great, but personally I’d prefer a bulkier one. It seems as if Metallica chose to retain their rough rock sound that’s typical in their shows the last couple of years.
To sum it all up, Metallica in 2016 are definitely unable to to help in the evolution of metal any further. They used to, many years ago, in such a way, that it’s been written with gold letters in the book of history of Rock music. Some would say, that Metallica have nothing to prove. And that’s where i disagree. They had to prove, that after all those years they wasted on mediocre stuff, silly fights, stupid publicity, irrelevant projects and earning millions of dollars, they can still make great music, utilizing some of their best past moments that helped them, rightfully, to become so famous. Since they managed to convince me, and sooth rage of decades, then it’s for sure that they will satisfy all their fans.
4/6
Petros Mihopoulos
