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

Huge fan and I love all of it, yes, even St. Anger.

 

I'm not just an old school Metallica fan, so my opinion is a bit biased. However, what I love about Hardwired is that it feels like it's Metallica being Metallica again. They're not concerned with being blisteringly heavy (St. Anger) or trying to force a thrash sound again (Death Magnetic). They just wrote songs that felt in-the-moment for them. And you know what? They ended up with some pretty strong material. Spit Out The Bone alone is worth the price of admission, and really, it's what Death Magnetic should've been. Crunchy, thrashy, heavy, great lyricism, and melodic. That is the Metallica of old right there. Sure, it's only one song, but it showed that they could still do it when they weren't trying to force it on every damn song. Every song has a unique feeling, it's fun, it's not trying to be something it isn't. That's how Metallica should be. They shouldn't be trying to incorporate thrash over and over again. That ship sailed decades ago, and shame on Rick Rubin for even attempting to get them to try so hard to achieve something that was long gone.

Thank goodness Metallica smartened up and just had fun writing songs again.

 

Son, are you kidding me?!

 

No matter how hard I try, I just can’t get into St. Anger at all. People always say the Black Album, or the Loads were sellouts, IMO St. Anger was their true selling out pout and it failed miserably. Kirk was right in the Some Kind Of Monster doc when he was told that there were gonna he no solos on the album, and he said that by doing that they were dating the album to a trend that was happening at that time. He should have stood his ground and insisted solos but he obviously backed down to Hetfield and Ulrich and probably didn’t wanna ruffle any feathers.

 

Heh. Not even close to joking.

Can you honestly say that you hear a "Battery," a "Leper Messiah," a "Ride The Lightning," or even an "Escape" on Hardwired? I mean, I could write the tracklist for every song on their first 4 LPs and ask if you hear anything on Hardwired that matches up that quality.

That's the question posed by this thread. How does the album match up to old school Metallica, not whether you think Hardwired is good...or not.

 

I can - Spit Out the Bone is one of the best songs in their entire catalog, it's got everything they're known for.

 

After even more time has gone buy I think hardwired is the only album that fits in with everything up to the black album. Pretty much what I thought before. There's about 6 tracks on it that are classic IMO 4 if I want to be harsh that could fit nicely side by side the first 5.

Death Magnetic was good in spots but it sounds like ass, and the music isn't good enough to break through that mess of a sound. IMO anyway and yeah the less compressed version still sounds like ass. Ass on a diet.. smaller ass.

Hardwired sounds freaking good !

 

I think Moth Into Flame is honestly one of the best songs theyve ever done. Classic imo.

Atlas Rise is almost to that level.

Spit Out the Bone as well.

I love the rest of the album but those id put alongside the classics any day.

 

Just face the facts matey. Metallica are pop Metal. It pains me to say it, but they always were. Thrashtastic in their day, but still more poppy than any of the other thrashers of the day. They understood dynamics and hooks. Glorious hooks btw.

 

Agreed. Good point.

 

Hardwired is a classic imo.

My opinion doesn’t count more, but I’m a 53 yr old Anaheim Woodstock/Radio City “dive” club leftover.

The entire album is new “old” again as much as can be expected.

Moth, Atlas, Spit...all have Cliff smiling...& Mustaine smirkin’

 

While I agree with you on the guitar solos thing (And the out of tune snare was annoying - check out the video on YouTube where someone replaced Lars' Puppets snare with the St. Anger one for master of Puppets if you want a good laugh), that album was by far the least commercial thing they have done, so I am not sure what they were selling out to. It's not like radio ever embraced that album at all.

 

St Anger was the bands attempt to make an album in the style of Korn, SOAD ect, release what they thought was the kind of primal anger that kids around that time wanted but in a Metallica way. The riffs were basic, the lyrics were tortured and there were no guitar solos, all hallmarks of the heavy music that was around at that time. In that respect they were selling out as they were chasing a trend (in their own way).

Radio probably didn't embrace the album because the songs were too long and mostly lame.

 

Keep coming back to the title track; what an absolute thrasher. Put the song in their original tones and you've got something that would not be out of place on KEA or Ride the Lightning. Case in point...

 

This record holds up. I play it all the time. Easily best record since Justice. I even saw them in concert and was happy to hear the new stuff. Whatever they did on Hardwired I hope they can find the recipe again and make another great album like this.

 

That's the track that made me check out the new album. Really caught my attention and piqued my interest.

 

I actually Never really listened to it , do due to this thread I will....

 

I'm listening to Hardwired right now for the first time in probably 8 months or more and it really is a great album. Every song is killer. And the sound quality is superb, I'd say the best SQ of any of their albums. It is definitely their best album since Justice, no question in my mind.

 

We're not on the same page. I would say there are 6 maybe 7 very good to great songs, the rest should've been used as b-sides or ideas to be explored or abandoned later.

 

No worries. We can't all be on the same page all the time!

 

Maybe they'll go back to their old schedule of releasing albums every 2-3 years!?! That means one is due this year!

I can hope, can't I...

 

They finally played "Here Comes Revenge" live!

METALLICA Performs 'Here Comes Revenge' Live For First Time (Video)

 

I never "disavowed" them, but Load, Reload, and St. Anger did little for me. Death Magnetic had some promise, but Hardwired totally brought be back.

 

ABOUT FREAKING TIME!

Seriously, that is one of the best songs on the album, imo. How it took them this long to bust it out blows my mind. Shoulda been in the sets from day 1!!!