Really good riffs, solos, and compositions throughout. I really like the drums too, beats the negativity that is thrown around about Lars' drumming.

great to see an 8+ rating as well (for Metallica, i just add 1.5 for post-Black Album stuff given how much people love to hate and diss the band )

highlights for me: Screaming Suicide, You Must Burn, Room of Mirrors, Inamorata

Give it a listen and move one, better things on the horizon, like new Overkill - Scorched.

It's just ok, listenable and easily digestable heavy rock for people who probably aren't into more extreme metal music to begin with. Nothing particularly great nor awful musicwise.

I'm struggling with this one, there's some great moments here and there, some excellent riffs and a solid all round performance, especially by Hetfield. Unfortunately there's too many moments where they simply go overboard making it feel wee bit uninspiring, I feel like the majority of the songs could have been cut shorter, it becomes a chore to get through, especially after a few spins.

Definitely feels like they stretched a bit for the 72 minute runtime as it was losing my attention a by the end, but overall it's fine. Nothing stood out as noticeably great or bad, it's safe, polished, modern Metallica

Written by MegaTornado on 14.04.2023 at 21:40

This is a great contender for the worst ever Metallica album. It's like a lame lame version of Load/Reload awful era. Only 3-4 songs are good: Mirrors, Too Far Gone, Shadows and maybe Chasing Light. Inamorata is a bad copy of Fixxer, Unforgiven 3, etc.

So you like 3-4 songs and yet give it the lowest rating (1 - worst ever)? Makes no sense to me...

Good ideas with sloppy execution, what I'm missing here is variation (riffs repeating too much for my liking), more creative drum fills to spice up the transitions and overall just other ways to embellish the songs.

It's an inoffensive but bland listening experience.

Pure disaster!! The worst album of Metallica.

Written by Khold Baroness on 15.04.2023 at 03:35

Pure disaster!! The worst album of Metallica.

If it was a pure disaster it would deserve much less than 5/10.

Clearly there's not that passion to make aggressive punching music for them anymore. Shame, because everytime when they're going faster it starts to feel more interesting. And James still got it. But most probably there will never be another thrash metal album by them.

Other than James' voice sounds better here than he did in the last 20+ years, everything is below average. digesting a single after single was okay, listening to everything in a bunch it's a chore with way too long songs, especially with such a flat production - it works ok on the metal side of things, when it gets Sabbath-ier and slower it's bedroom producer quality imo. A big eh.

Written by Khold Baroness on 15.04.2023 at 03:35

Pure disaster!! The worst album of Metallica.

St. Anger and Load are much worse than this. And even Death Magnetic I dare say.

Written by MegaTornado on 14.04.2023 at 21:40

This is a great contender for the worst ever Metallica album. It's like a lame lame version of Load/Reload awful era. Only 3-4 songs are good: Mirrors, Too Far Gone, Shadows and maybe Chasing Light. Inamorata is a bad copy of Fixxer, Unforgiven 3, etc.

In addition to what JohnDoe said, why do you rate all three albums a 1 if this is a 'lame lame version of Load/Reload'? Wouldnt it make sense to differentiate the ratings? You can also use numbers in between 1 and 10, please make use of them, that is part of our rules of voting.

People saying this is their worst album clearly haven't listened to Lulu or even St. Anger. The problem with this album is that it's overlong. They should've trimmed 20 or even 30 minutes. Cut both the album and the gap between the releases in half and we would probably have a more focused Metallica because with a 77 minute album you need way more variation than this album offers. With that said I like the overall tone of the album and I prefer the two shortest songs Lux Æterna and Too Far Gone?.

If this album was released 20 years ago it would have probably been very good. Now it's just generic Metallica sound with no Metallica soul. It's not particularly bad, but nothing special. Good production though as always.

I know most people don't like St. Anger, but it's much more fun than this one.

Once i give the new album a couple more listens, I will rank their albums (12), excluding Lulu, and see how challenging making such a list would be.

It's just sad with all the production tools they have as biggest metal band they can't get creative ,it basically the same 2 riffs all over the album..

Not great, not terrible. Most of the songs lack variety and are too damn long. They do get little more interesting towards the end of the album. If Darkness Had A Son is a standout track for me.

One or two good riffs. Overall, It is incredibly boring.

Not bad not great but the best of the band since Death Magnetic IMO better than Hardwire, I heard the best solos of Kirk Hammett in a long time. the main thing with Metallica its the high expectations we have so this is what it is no more no less just this. You like it? You don’t? It doesn’t matter

Written by JoHn Doe on 15.04.2023 at 10:26

Written by Khold Baroness on 15.04.2023 at 03:35

Pure disaster!! The worst album of Metallica.

St. Anger and Load are much worse than this. And even Death Magnetic I dare say.

Don't you dare to mess with my Death Magnetic

Nah, seriously. This one was (in the first listening) an entertaining album. Surely will grow in me. But indeed there's very little of Thrash Metal. Anyway, nowadays Metallica makes the music that they're most confortable to make (and that is not an equal to "make music to sell", cause that would be true, then we would get more Black Albums).

With 'Tallica always will be very divisive viewpoints, and I consider in this case only the ones that give me really valid reasons about why they love or hate their last effort. In my case, I insist, was a nice listening. Sure, there are better proposals this year, but not because of that I'll be away in the future of this album (especially when I'll be writing a review for this one in the next days for a Latin American webzine).

Written by deswesher on 15.04.2023 at 19:00

One or two good riffs. Overall, It is incredibly boring.

Just being curious, what do you expect from a Metallica album to be something you'll like, bro?

I really need to solve that, in order to understand more the reckless hatred from some people towards them (man, not even when I heard for the first time St. Anger I felt anything of resentment or worse towards them -maybe a confusing disappointment, but the remaining hope of a rebirth from them, something that, at least for myself, happened with Death Magnetic - ).

People split down the middle in debates over the quality of the new Metallica album, meanwhile there's me listening to Kill 'Em All for the 50th time in a row like

Enough good ideas for a fun and tight EP, but certainly not enough to keep me engaged for even half its runtime. I find myself enjoying the shorter and faster songs more on this one.

Written by JoHn Doe on 14.04.2023 at 21:44

Written by MegaTornado on 14.04.2023 at 21:40

This is a great contender for the worst ever Metallica album. It's like a lame lame version of Load/Reload awful era. Only 3-4 songs are good: Mirrors, Too Far Gone, Shadows and maybe Chasing Light. Inamorata is a bad copy of Fixxer, Unforgiven 3, etc.

So you like 3-4 songs and yet give it the lowest rating (1 - worst ever)? Makes no sense to me...

I was wondering the same....😂

Written by deswesher on 15.04.2023 at 19:00

One or two good riffs. Overall, It is incredibly boring.

Looking at the votes you have given earluer, I wonder whether you have ever listened to Metallica before?

Is it that bad?? No...not at all. Its as good as Hardwired and then we all know that they can never ever match the standards they have kept for their own bad.... Move on and listen to the new Metallica.
They could've probably removed that last track from it and nothing would've changed. Maybe the listening pleasure could've become better. The length us the only minus point I see here. There are half a dozen good songs here. You must burn and chasing lights are really good. 72 minus Inamorata =

Its been 3 days continuous spin...and you know what??... This thing is an absolute grower... If it were any other band, so many would've agreed with me by now that some tracks are growing listen after listen. Unfortunately its Metallica and everyone wants to be the first to despise it!!!!.....there are no instant hits here... But real grower...

Makes me very sad listening to this.
you got the idea that this are songs that didn't made it to their Load an Reload albums. and them albums are already terrible.
this album is even worst then those two.

Written by MegaTornado on 15.04.2023 at 13:12

I am starting to think too that St. Anger(which was an insult to metal and to their legacy because of the lack of solos) is more fun than this boring poor copy of load/reload awful era.

Ok, I am quoting myself here because I was so wrong... After a few listens more I take everything back: this album is really really good! The songs that sound like Load/Reload(which I don't like) are actually very good songs. So many vocal hooks, James is a monster, so many catchy riffs and harmonies. Black Sabbath is all over those slow songs. This album is a grower. Only thing I don't like yet is some of Kirk's solos. Drums are generic, but don't disturb me. Overall a great album

Written by metalbrat on 17.04.2023 at 16:33

Its been 3 days continuous spin...and you know what??... This thing is an absolute grower... If it were any other band, so many would've agreed with me by now that some tracks are growing listen after listen. Unfortunately its Metallica and everyone wants to be the first to despise it!!!!.....there are no instant hits here... But real grower...

Yes, I was one of the guys that didn't like this at first. Now I really understand it, songs are stuck in my head, Hetfield voice is incredible, but also so many good riffs, harmonies and very strong song arrangements