METALLICA - ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ (2016)

18 November 2016

METALLICA are truly in a unique, yet self-contradictory position. Due to their vast popularity, the band’s very name has the gravity to render all debates around them meaningless. This is as much of a guaranteed win for the band, as it is also an existence devoid of challenges and meaning. Metallica have been carrying on outside the realm of expectations and the cultural zeitgeist for a long time. They are now not leaders, nor followers. They are what they are.

This is why their new double album ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ exists in a plane, squished between “this is exactly what we were waiting for!” and “did you really expect anything different?!”

Yes, this band has always been great and has always been writing good songs – there are many on this album too. Yet, in the same time its creative horizon seems to be already filled to the max, leaving no capacity for new, great ideas.

What METALLICA have done in ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ is to ditch the dominating trend in much of contemporary metal – to make everything super intense and pack it with music. Instead, they have opted for building each of the 12 tracks around one central idea each, leaving these ideas enough room to breathe. As a result, at a micro level the songs often feel monotonous and dragged out – while at an album level, the bigger picture is dynamic and diverse.

The beginning and the end – ‘Hardwired’ and ‘Spit Out the Bone’ – are the most relentless, speed-obsessed thrash metal METALLICA have played since 1988.

Between these two outer points, the tempos are much more restrained. On one hand, you have songs like ‘Atlas, Rise!’ and ‘Confusion’ that slide on the frontier between thrash and NWOBHM.

On the other, there are tracks like ‘Dream No More’, ‘ManUNkind’ and ‘Am I Savage?’ that would have fit quite well on ‘ReLoad’. ‘Now That We’re Dead’ stands out with the fact that in it the drumming is the thing that makes the song exciting, while the riffs revolve around a single, rather simple idea. ‘Halo of Fire’ switches between melancholy and heavy riffs, before erupting into a dragged out guitar harmony, which is among the album’s most vivid moments.

How much it stands out is actually a symptom about the main flaw of ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ – that there are not that many really special moments spread on two CDs and 77 minutes. This is one of those albums that you have to stubbornly give a chance to, listening to them again and again, carefully looking for the nuggets of musical gold in them. Growing to love such an album is possible, as long as you ate the type of person who has the patience for it.

Source: RadioTangra.com

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