Old school Metallica fans and Hardwired...To Self-Destruct

I am an "old school fan". Justice was my first album and Kill Em All my second. I lost track of 'em in the 90's in the Load era but then circled back maybe 5 years ago. I like it all, even Lulu and St. Anger. Death Magnetic was incredible even with the mastering issues. The new one kicks immense ass, instant classic and bonafied masterpiece!!!

 

My favorite album of theirs is Ride the Lightning but I always thought side one of Justice was them perfecting their 7-8 minute structure. Side two was the beginning of a lot of the bloat and questionable lyrics that appeared on their later albums. I have the DVD-A of Black but that's strictly for nostalgia - I haven't put it on in years, where every once in awhile I'll put on one of the first four. The one I listen to the most, though, is S/M, though I do skip several tracks.

 

I've been enjoying the hell out of this record. It feels like the real deal. "Death Magnetic" brought some speed back but seemed contrived. And screw that "Unforgiven Part 27" crap. The best track on the record was "My Apocalypse", and "Hardwired" is an entire album of that quality.

I like the black album hits as much as the next guy, but theother half of the album is pretty fforgettable. I mean, how many times have you heard a fans calling out for "The Struggle Within" at concerts? And "Nothing Else Matters" should be ****ing burned.

I got no problem with the band stretching out in the 90s. I like about half of "Load". "Outlaw Torn" is boss. "Reload", however, is a useless piece of **** that should have stayed on the cutting room floor.

I was about ready to give up on them after the Segar cover thing but "St Anger" brought me back into the fold. I realize I'm some sort of saddist but dammit I really like the album. Its very therapeutic.

Anyway, "Hardwired..." is a Godsend. They've truly recaptured their mojo. Now please don't let them lise it again.

 

Nice, another one! I've always liked Lou Reed also, so really enjoy Lulu.

 

I'd argue that Load and Reload are better than anything they've done since then, if only because the band was experimenting, exploring new things, and showing they were cognizant of the wider musical world. You may not like the music, but they didn't give a sh!t. They were looking beyond the formula they'd established. I think LuLu and the symphonic piece they did with the San Francisco Symphony are of the same vein.

Everything since then has IMHO been a contraction - nothing new or innovative, but rather a band trying to seize past glory by returning to a formula they know.

 

Disagree with this but to each his own. Why is everyone always over analyzing what direction they are going? Look, Death Magnetic was a huge return to glory and this album even tops that. Why would anybody be disappointed with them for trying to replicate the masterworks unleashed in their first four anyway??!! That is exactly what they should have been striving for and they succeeded big-time. I've never questioned them and never will. There is a huge group of people that will say this new one sucks WITHOUT EVEN LISTENING TO IT! Give me a break!

 

St. Anger gets your foot pressing down in the gas pedal, no doubt about that! Lou Reed is an incredible artist, I've got pretty much all his stuff and just consider LuLu to be another in the discography cannon. It was his last too which makes it sort of special.

 

They've only put out one album since Lulu. Hardwired topped the US, Canadian, Australian, Irish, New Zealand, and German album charts (peaked number two in the UK). Seems to me that they're writing a new chapter.

 

Death Magnetic was the album that got me used to the idea of Metallica being relevant again. I liked it but didn't love it. Still haven't gotten tired of Hardwired!

 

When they're going number one and multi-platinum, they're relevant whether we like the music or not.

 

Metallica fans are a fickle breed. I am one of them.
A buddy turned me onto them through Ride the Lightning when it came out in the summer after my freshman year of high school, and I soon had it, Kill 'Em All, the Creeping Death EP & Metal Massacre Vol 1 on vinyl. I was there on release day for Master of Puppets, and got to see them open for Ozzy on the Ultimate Sin Tour (and blow them off the stage). The show they headlined a couple months later at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago is still one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Cliff's death hurt. Really hurt. But they nabbed the bassist/songwriter from one of my favorite newer bands, so it would all be ok. The $5.98EP smoked, and Justice was better than I expected it to be without Cliff. The Black Album through the Load albums were an understandable change of course, but the band became bloated & ugly. If you saw them live you were lucky to get a medley of tunes from Kill Em All, and dealing with the fans was something "Newkid" was forced to do. They treated him so poorly he left his favorite band.
It was great to hear they were dealing with their demons (and watch it on Some Kind Of Monster). But while St Anger may have been therapeutic for them, it wasn't for me. Death Magnetic was a step in the right direction. It's a shame it's so painful to listen to. There's some good stuff on there.
So when I saw the boring, spinning videos for Hardwired & Moth I was immediately turned off. But I got lucky and a buddy lent me his Deluxe 3 CD of Hardwired while I awaited my red 2 LP in the mail. On first listen the album was ok, but it was disc 3 that did the trick. Sure the covers are good (I hadn't heard them), but it was the live versions of the old stuff that hooked me. The sound quality was pretty good, the playing & vocals weren't bad, but it just sounded like they were having fun again! So I finally checked out all the "making of" videos of the album tracks on YouTube (as recommended by Forum members), and I liked Metallica again. I liked Metallica again!
Cliff is gone. There will never be another Ride, Master, or Justice.
Listen to the live stuff on disc 3 of the Deluxe Edition, watch the Hardwired making of videos on YouTube, and then listen to Hardwired...To Self Destruct three times. Then TRY to stop listening. And most importantly, enjoy Metallica again! I know I am...

 

Very true. I should have said relevant to me

 

I wasn't a big fan of this one at first....but boy, is it growing on me!
Finally something I can enjoy from Metallica after the long hiatus of "meh" releases.

 

Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets are IMO the absolute pinnacle of the old school metal genre. Nothing can be done in that vein which will unseat those two classics. However, for me the band has been on a slow downward spiral ever since. And Justice was a good if bloated album destroyed by poor sound quality. Black was at the time an interesting change and a fresh sound - but also represented the beginning of their descent into their 90s irrelevance. From metal masters to just another band writing pop tunes - something they're not really well-equipped to do since they don't have much in the way of melodic inventiveness.

For me their last few albums have been an obvious attempt to return to their early form. But to me it sounds largely forced, lazy and contrived. The power and creativity of their material also seems to be quite limited by Lars' amateurish and uninventive drumming. While I do prefer Death Magnetic and Hardwired to anything they've done since the early 90s, to me they sound quite mediocre and if any band not named Metallica had released them nobody would have noticed.

 

I think if you like Hardwired overall, then you should reassess The Black Album.

 

I think the two recent albums were a decent return to form.

The problem for me is the 1989 ...AJFA tour really made an impression on me. That concert was unlike anything I've ever seen before or since, and its tainted my view of everything that has come after. I have friends who saw them with Cliff who feel even stronger than I do. Its not an elitism thing, it just turned out that way.

Like when I saw Pink Floyd in 1994, and an old timer said he saw them on the Meddle tour and the band just wasn't the same after they started playing stadiums.. Its fine that people like newer Metallica, but its just a different band to me. I do listen to a few newer songs here and there, and even enjoyed the 3D movie, but the new stuff is just ok.

 

For me 80s Metallica is pretty much the only stuff from the band that matters. Haven't heard the new one. Was not thrilled with one of the preview songs I heard, but could've easily been a lot worse. The positive reviews are making me curious about the album though. Not enough to buy it or sit through a marathon listening session even if I could hear it for free. I never got into the Black Album and have been thinking about giving that one another try, since I haven't heard it in a LONG time.

 

On first listen, Atlas Rising was a quick favorite. By the third listen, Dream No More had become, and still is, my favorite. While Lars claims a Memory Remains vibe in the making of video, I quickly noticed the reasons why I liked it:
1. Down tuned guitar similar to an old Metallica favorite.
2. Similar subject and lyrics to that same song.
"He sleeps under black seas waiting"
vs.
"He watches, lurking beneath the sea".

"Madness they say"
vs.
"In madness you dwell".

"Cthulhu awakens"
vs.
"He awakens".

It's totally The Thing That Should Not Be part two! And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I love it!

 

I used to think that as well, going about 15 years without listening to Justice for All. Having revisited the album recently I've changed my opinion and enjoy listening to it again. However, I still do consider the album, the beginning to the end, but man what a run up to that point.

Everything since, including Hardwired has been just 'ok' with St. Anger for example, being terrible.

 

Not a bad idea. There were a few songs that I did like on that album. "Through the Never" and "Struggle Within" always sounded good to me. Listening with fresh ears may be worth a shot.

 

I felt the same way about the bonus disc. There's this energy to the live tracks that had been missing. At one point James yells "Metal up your Ass!" They dedicate a song to Cliff and even mention Paul Baloff from Exodus! You can tell they were totally getting into the feel of early Metallica and I think it rubs off on the newer songs.

 

I have heard it.

You nailed it - they're replicating. They're striving to do the same thing they did 30 years ago. Some people are fine with that. As for me, I heard it all when it was new (I'm that old). I don't want or need to hear more of the same.

 

Yes, LuLu followed Anger and Death and preceded Hardwired, but that wasn't my point. My point is that album showed more daring and experimentation, than St Anger, Death Magnetic, and LuLu. People hated it, but it showed more originality than any of those three.

As to topping the charts, that's a measure of popularity, not necessarily quality or originality.

 

You said that they were "trying to seize past glory". Hardwired proved that they're still the biggest band in the world. That's new glory.

 

New glory treading old ground.