With a clever mix of nostalgia and freshness, Metallica arrives with a powerful 11th studio album that shows that the beast’s wild instincts are still very much intact.
James Hetfield felt the urge to create somewhere in the midst of a pandemic, when he picked up his acoustic guitar to do a tamer version of Blackened. He had in his bag some good riffs laid during the rehearsals of the concerts following the release of Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, nuggets that were then carved out as a group, when the leader of the Californian quartet was finally able to find his friends in the studio.
The result lives up to the reputation of the greatest metal band in history; 77 minutes of inspired music that casts a wide net, tapping into the band’s vast background, but finding a way to dare. Crown of Barbed Wire, for example, is not carried by Hetfield’s sacrosanct power chords, but rather spurred on by Kirk Hammett’s intricate chord progression that lends texture and richness to this excellent metal piece; the singer expresses here rather vocal registers that he has not often explored. The voices are also exploited in a beautiful way in Shadows Follow, this time with the help of powerful harmonies which bring a dose of freshness to a song that is nevertheless heavy at will. You Must Burn! is another composition with almost gothic flavors, the prog bridge metamorphosing into a Sabbath lament fueled by disturbing glissandos from Rob Trujillo’s guttural bass.
However, we are on familiar and reassuring ground with the pure thrash metal of Lux Aeterna or Chasing Light, or even with the most classic 72 Seasons, Too Far Gone? and Room of Mirrors, the latter two featuring notably satisfying guitar duos perfect for twirling your hair – if there is still hair, of course. Finally, we cannot ignore Sleepwalk my Life Away, an astonishing cross between Enter Sandman and grunge with Stone Temple Pilots sauce.
In short, an album that refers to the first 72 seasons of a life, 18 years that define our existence according to James Hetfield, depending on whether we decide to break up or embrace our past. For the leader of Metallica, it is obviously an excellent source of inspiration.