Review Summary: Metallica is back. Somewhat.
This album, in my opinion, is by far, one of their less-great albums. It is most definitely not my favorite. This album was produced by the legend, Rick Rubin. We all know that he is MUCH better than Bob Rock, a.k.a. "the man who single-handedly destroyed Metallica." But anyway, here's the Track-by-Track:
That Was Just Your Life: Not too amazing of an opener to Metallica's latest effort. The lyrics are a little "eh" to me. Definitely not the best song. 2.5/5
The End of the Line: Again, not too great. Looks like the first part of this album isn't too great, huh? The lyrics are, again, "eh" at most. Points for using the words "catatonic", "asphyxia", and "karma amputee". 2/5
Broken, Beat & Scarred: The album begins to shine a bit here. This song has an awesome opening, in my opinion. The repeats of "Show your scars" are pretty cool, if not a bit overused. The part where James sings, "What don't kill ya make ya stronger" is just horrible, though. Still, a bit of a better song. 3/5
The Day That Never Comes: One of my personal favourite songs from this album. Melodic intro, add drum beats in, leading into James singing, "Born to push you around, better just stay down." Personally, the song reminds me a bit of prison fights, or being bullied. Either way, it's a good song. 4.5/5
All Nightmare Long: Ah, the one song that authentically replicates the good ol' thrash metal days. Most of this song is crazy fast. The opening, with (I'm pretty sure) only drums and guitars, sounds really good. It's catchy. Once it starts picking up though, is when the song really shines. The first lyrics of the song, "Luck....runs....out." are pretty awesome. The chorus is my favorite part of the song. "Hunt you down without mercy, hunt you down all nightmare long..." This is a definite favorite of mine. 5/5
Cyanide: Another good song. Nice intro. I like almost everything about this one. I don't really know what else to say about it, other than the instrumentation is really well-done. 4.5/5
The Unforgiven III: The third "Unforgiven" out of the trilogy, it is also the first (and only) to not feature the opening horn. Instead, it opens with a piano playing a beautiful melody. This leads into guitar joining in, which keeps going, picking up as it goes, until James comes in with the lyrics. I enjoy this song. It is probably my second favorite "Unforgiven", after the first one. 5/5
The Judas Kiss: One of the heavier songs, probably my least favorite off of this album. It has nice riffs, but I think James' voice sounds like pure garbage on the "So what now? Where do I head?" part. "Into abyss, you don't exist, cannot resist, the Judas kiss" sounds rather cliche, as well. 2/5
Suicide & Redemption: The instrumental track. It's not bad, really good, actually. It's nice to have another instrumental from the boys of Metallica. Not really much else I can say about it. 3/5
My Apocalypse: The shortest song from the album, it's also one of my least favorite. It has some pretty violent lyrics, which are awesome, but I just don't like how it sounds. In other words, good lyrics, below-par instrumentation. 3/5
