It has already been 5 years from the ambiguous experiment of “St. Anger” and the await of the millions fans of Metallica is coming to sanctuary with their brand new album “Death Magnetic”, as the numerous questions of how Metallica will sound like and what they still have to offer to metal are answered in the most convincing way.

Ex post speaking it is a fact that “St. Anger” had definitely a positive mark that could not have been predicted at the time of its release: it showed the way. A way that Metallica had carved and despite any deviations from it prove, in the year 2008, that they can still easily follow it.

Leaving the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the recent past, personal conflicts and lack of obvious orientation, the period of inner search, introversion and disputes is finally over. Metallica by “Death Magnetic” appear eager, coherent, confident and with certain aim returning in a most satisfactory manner to those characteristics that made them great and influential in the 80’s, combing them with the best elements of the modern era. Inspired riffs and solos, changes during the tracks, speed, energy, feeling, aggressiveness are the lost link that reconnects the band with its good past without repeating it.

“Death Magnetic” lies somewhere between the spirit of “Master of Puppets” and “And Justice For All” produced by Rick Rubin who manages to bring the previously mentioned characteristics forward. The 10 tracks of the album, long in duration and rich in tempos changes form a multifaceted album. The opening “That Was Just Your Life” with its spouting pace in the nature of a musical manifest, clearly states the return following the tradition of the first driving tracks like ”Fight Fire With Fire”, “Battery”, “Blackened” with Hetfield “spitting out” the lyrics. The next “The End Of The Line” standing more modernized and complex involves elements from their more recent period. Following, “Broken, Beat & Scarred” with a riff that gets stuck in your brain at first hearing and with a mid-tempo groovy rhythm rousing everyone while after the first half of the track speed is increased. “The Day That Never Comes”, which is the first single of the album, continuing the tradition of “Fade To Black”, “Welcome Home” and “One” concentrates in 8 minutes the best elements of Metallica and will be thereafter remembered among the band’s classics. “All Nightmare Long” in next is a speed/thrash hymn with its refrain lifting the song. Sixth track is the rhythmic “Cyanide” with Trujillo’s contribution evident while the tradition of “Unforgiven” continues with “The Unforgiven III” which begins with piano and continues with a guitar part of the “Load” and “Reload” days. A personal persistence of Hetfield to a specifically dark lyrical subject. An 8minute musical journey with continuous changes in rhythms and riffs is offered by “The Judas Kiss” and the instrumental “Suicide & Redemption” brings memories from old glories without reaching the same levels though. The “Death Magnetic” is ideally closed with the shortest track in duration in the cd; the 5minute “My Apocalypse”, a thrash hammering in the path of “Damage, Inc” and “Dyers Eve”.

The effort of a rigorous comparison of “Death Magnetic” with the previous 80’s releases is de facto unproductive, so much because their first four records are unique and related to a musical scene that was created and flourished back then, as well as because they have been sat to the highest levels of metal history which cannot be easily approached. Thus, only in the long run the valuation of “Death Magnetic” as an asset of the entire discographic presence of Metallica can take place in its true dimension. “Death Magnetic”, though, convincingly reconnects Metallica with the sound and spirit of the 80’s era with a strong foot in today and this by total recall of a movement that remained incomplete for many years and Metallica possess it as few: root to riff.