Track Listing

1. That Was Just Your Life
2. The End Of The Line
3. Broken, Beat & Scarred
4. The Day That Never Comes
5. All Nightmare Long
6. Cyanide
7. The Unforgiven III
8. The Judas Kiss
9. Suicide & Redemption
10. My Apocalypse

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57151 in Music
• Released on: 2008-09-12
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Limited Edition, Box set
• Running time: 75 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
As many of their early fans would agree, Danish-Californian quartet Metallica seemed to lose it around the mid 90s. Dropping the hard-nosed, blue-collar appeal they had cultivated with their initial slew of albums, the band began to pander to a more commercial audience with diluted outings such as Load, Re-Load, Garage Inc.--not to mention 2003’s risible St Anger. Death Magnetic, Metallica’s first album in five years, is hence much anticipated. Will it be a long-awaited return to form, or a failed attempt to rekindle their inaugural power? In truth, it’s a bit of both. Helmed by veteran producer Rick Rubin, Death Magnetic reinstates many of Metallica’s early motifs--searing riffs, shredding solos, pounding drums--and even updates them with a huge, 21st century sound. The album has a decent selection of heavyweight thrills and spills, from the haunting, evocative opener "That Was Your Life", the live jam groove of "The End of the Line" and the flesh-ripping "Broken, Beat & Scarred". While Death Magnetic doesn’t come anywhere near the smouldering genius of Master of Puppets or other formative Metallica records, the band haven’t sounded this vital for many years. Reason enough for fans to rejoice. --Danny McKenna

CD Description
'Death Magnetic' is the ninth studio album from heavy metaltitans Metallica, who link up with producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Slayer) for the first time. Epic guitar solos from Kirk Hammett, constant speed changes and multiple riffs per song make the follow-up to 2003's 'St. Anger' a throwback to the band's pre-1990s style. James Hetfield's vocals and the pounding rhythms of Lars Ulrich are as powerful as ever, while Bass player Rob Trujillo appears on a studio recordingwith the band for the first time.

Customer Reviews

Only for the nutters!
Radiohead did one, Nine Inch Nails did one, The Verve did one, and it seems like every major band's doing one - Metallica no exception.

4 stars goes to both the album itself as well as the set. While Death Magnetic pales in comparison to the first decade of their career, it's easily the best thing they've done since ill trodden attempts at blues rock and garagey nu-metal.
Production wise it's good but poor mastering means there is some distortion in unnecessary places, but this is not the band's fault and unfortunately a lot of new albums and remasters are like this. Yet it still doesn't take away the power of the riffage that is a combo of their cult and mainstream years. Hetfield may sound more like an angry teacher than a Sergeant and Lars' beats lack 80's creativity, but they do their best here. And as for Kirk - an explosion of solos is natural after being tied up for the last album. Unfortunately, despite the full band writing effort, Rob is still only a little audible, but that said I think too much bass at the forefront would have diluted the songs. Don't put him up front just because he's 'new' (at least they didn't bury him like Jason on AJFA).

The coffin box itself is white, sturdy and about arm's length in size. The CD included is the limited edition Digipak version which looks better than the Super Jewel box version, but it's only drawback is that like the St. Anger case, the cardboard is prone to easy wear and peeling on your shelf. The concentric hole through the pages also obscures the lyrics.

Then there is a 'Demo Magnetic' CD which is fairly late stage demos of all the album songs with original working titles. Many songs sound very similar to the final versions, most changes being lyrics or arrangement ideas. For demos, it's quite well produced but you won't listen to it too much. You'll just want to own it as a completist.

Then there's a DVD of extra stuff not found on the £10 Mission Metallica site. It's not similar to 'A Year And Half...' or 'SKOM', so just expect raw footage - just longer - on here. It's fascinating if, like with Demo Magnetic, you're interested in seeing the scaffolding of the album.

The t-shirt is in the large size only for UK buyers but will be okay for the average person. It's 100% cotton in black with the band logo and album name on the back, and a white coffin attracting 4 Metallica logo M's on the front. It's quite stylish.

The flag is a full size flag that you can drape outside your window or whatever...This item though feels a bit like it's padding the set with novelties. The same goes for the very thick cardboard picks and laminate in lanyard (despite the cool ribbon on it with the Metallica logo and album name).

The coffin shaped poster is basically a large blown up image of the inner back of the lyrics booklet.

Finally there is a credit card with a code which entitles you to download the recently passed Berlin, or upcoming London O2 show for free. It's assumed much of Death Magnetic live has/will be aired, making this essentially a CD of 'Live Magnetic Plus Live Rarities'.

Also note the sticky logo on the shrinkwrap doesn't re-stick on the box, which is a small shame.

This box is pretty expensive, perhaps less than some but it's just about value for money. You're no less of a fan if you don't buy it, but if you want to be immersed in all things DM to the max, it's a worthy purchase save for the few filler items.

One little minor thing...
Okay, first of all Metallica are amazing, so it would be difficult for me to rate anything other than 5 stars - this boxset is great. It's got enough in it to make the price well worth it.

Although I don't like the T-shirt much (as I can't work out whether or not the front image is supposed to be a little skewed), the box set is cool.

The only minor thing I will say against it, is the Image that appears on the front of the coffin, is in fact on the plastic shrink wrap around the cardboard coffin, so once you take of the shrink wrap, off comes the logo. If you are careful, I suppose you could try and unpick it and stick it on to the box, but all the same its a little bit of a let down.

Still 5 as the 2 CDs, DVD and download of the O2 gig are worth the money alone.

Great Comeback!
I think this the best Metallica album since the self-titled "Metallica" (aka Black Album) and maybe better than the latter.
The production capacities of Rick Rubin make the difference and Metallica rock as if this was a CD done right after "Kill'em All".
In a nutshell I think with this effort Metallica wanted to demonstrate that they can rock still big time (if anyone had any doubts they could this is). Their sound links well with the pre Black Album era whilst portraying the well in the future.
I think its definitely a great buy.