Hardwired... to Self-Destruct

Scott Hardie | May 2, 2017
I've been debating whether or not to bring up Metallica's late-2016 album as a discussion topic here. I guess with the election results happening around the same time, I didn't want to talk about it or anything else, and now almost half a year has passed. But I know of at least two other Metallica fans on here who must have opinions on it, and I'm finding myself curious what those are. I'll share my own thoughts after opening the floor.

Erik Bates | May 2, 2017
[hidden by request]

Matthew Preston | May 2, 2017
I've listened to it a few times while working around the house and it keeps me motivated. I thought it was worth the purchase and will listen to it again as the years go by. I don't know if I was just used to the overall length of St. Anger, but this album seemed to go by faster than normal. I also really liked St. Anger.

Scott Hardie | May 5, 2017
Erik: If you want to give it another try, you might check out "Halo on Fire," which is relatively mellow and (imho) pretty good, particularly the song-ending groove that it launches into around the six-minute mark.

Metallica spent the 90s and early 00s churning out bland, shitty rock songs, with a few notable exceptions. I thought 2008's Death Magnetic was an aggressive and mostly successful attempt to return to the intricacy and intensity that defined their 80s peak. Hardwired... to Self-Destruct continues on the same mission; while the songs are not quite as complex as on the last album, it's definitely making an effort to stay faithful to the aesthetic and energy level that Metallica started their career with. (I don't count the intervening Lulu as a Metallica album; it's like they were merely hired to be Lou Reed's backup band.)

That said, man do these guys need a good editor to tell them to trim out the parts that aren't working. Bob Rock was a lousy producer in a lot of ways during their Top 40 Radio years, but at least he understood how to chisel down an eight-minute drag to a tight, solid four-minute song. The opening barnstormer "Hardwired" is the only song here that feels like it's the right length, and it's by far the shortest. I love long epic songs ("Creeping Death" will forever be Metallica's single greatest work), but only when all of the component sections are good. The two best songs on this album, "Halo on Fire" and "Spit Out the Bone," get lost in endless meandering bridges to nowhere; it's especially bad in the latter case because "Spit Out the Bone" is such an intense thrash-metal song interrupted by a minute-long bridge that just keeps getting slower and slower, dissipating the song's energy. That section feels like unfinished bits and pieces from the demo tape that should have been trimmed from the final album. (And what's with the unnecessary little coda at the end of "Halo on Fire" anyway? It should end with Kirk's riff; those extra ten notes by the band feel out of place.)

I'm one of those music nerds who believes that eight is the magic number of songs on an album; it allows for variety and showboating while forcing the artist to trim unncessary filler. I'd keep the aforementioned "Hardwired" and "Halo on Fire" and "Spit Out the Bone." The singles "Atlas, Rise!" and "Moth Into Flame" (a song about Amy Winehouse of all things!) are both keepers. It took a few listens, but I've grown to love "Now That We're Dead" and "Dream No More," which return the band to classic subject matter (the afterlife and Cthulhu). And even if its middle section is kind of mediocre, the pummeling intensity of the intro and outro of "Confusion" warrants inclusion. This album should be only those eight tracks, dropping the other four losers, and trimming out the bits and pieces of the remaining songs that aren't working. Even if the full 77-minute album is pretty good overall, there's an even better 45-minute album lurking within.