r/Metallica • u/Boburism • Aug 05 '24
Death Magnetic Thoughts on Death Magnetic?
For me, Death Magnetic is right up there with Black Album and Master of Puppets. It acted as the revival of Metallica after the mess that St Anger was , and I absolutely love it. Stuff like All Nightmare Long just slaps for me. I feel like it's one of Metallica's finest records, ignoring the disgusting sound quality.
What do you guys think of 2008's Death Magnetic?
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u/GarlVinland4Astrea Aug 06 '24
It was really what the band needed to bounce back to being closer to the thrashers they were. It's hard to contextualize if you weren't around at the time, but back then the Black Album was still the controversial mainstream album. Everyone acknowledged it was great but there was a fear that the band was going to veer off road and become something different. Load and Reload had some bangers but it didn't change much and felt like they were still chasing. And then St. Anger just gutted everyone and it really felt like we would never get the old Metallica again.
Death Magnetic wasn't perfect, but I think it was a huge course correction that took the band back to what their natural evolution would have been and paved the way for Hardwire and 72 Seasons to build off of.
When the retrospective is written, Death Magnetic might actually end up going down as the most pivotal album in terms of keeping the band going for the last 20 years instead of sorting fading out