The new Metallica album is due out soon! I have my worries about it and miss 90s metal. I know most people are into the earlier albums from Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax but my favorites were “The black album”, “Countdown to extinction” and “The sound of white noise” respectively. I was never into the straight out thrash metal with thin guitar tone and lack of melody. I admire the power of those three albums. They had strong composition, melody, harmony, and lyrics. After that point things all seemed to go downhill. Metallica came out of a five year tour with haircuts and a new sound that was quite disappointing. Megadeth had another set of good albums but then released “Risk” a little too close to pop and lost one of my favorite musicians “Marty Friedman”. Then they sort of fell off the map. Anthrax had a decent album that (if I remember correctly) was performed by their drummer “Charlie” on all instruments. It was still that same good melodic metal but at that point they were off the map as well.

Now I hear about this new Metallica album and watched some of their fly on the wall videos of them recording it. I get the distinct feeling that they are attempting to recreate the “Black album”. I could just be hopeful for that, but they seem to have a nice polished sound again and quality production standards. James has been learning to sing and working on his ear. He references a small keyboard for his pitch more than a few times in the videos. Roberto Trujillo appears to be a seasoned studio session player. He has great chops and a keen ear. He has this crazy bass guitar tone that happens to sound like a keyboard pad synth. Kirk is recording while using a wireless rig for some reason. That bothers me to no end. He also has this horrid air noise/hiss that is going to be a bitch to remove from the track later on. His solo work is a tad outside his normal comfort zone. They had him recording one portion of a solo without the backing so it would have a very free feel and not lock in time. He is also using more open strings on his solos than normal and he is upset that it may sound a little too “Angus Young” as he puts it. There are many guitars and rigs they are trying out and swapping in and out for different parts of individual songs themselves to get the exact tones. This attention to detail in the tonal quality of every little sound is astonishing and exciting to me. Lars has many takes and is protooling them together, picking and choosing the best of the best as usual. The odd thing I find is that he is selecting what licks kirks solos will have or not have. There was even a long discussion about a pickslide; The tone of it, length, volume, and reasoning. (Before Lars even Heard it). I admire him taking part in the decisions as usual, however it just has to make Kirk feel like a hired hand at times. Guitar solos are back and I hope they capatolize on this with the album. I feel that Megadeth will be in their next Album with Chris on guitar. (Very talented touch tapper!)

They have a song called “The Unforgiven III” on this one and they are working to make it dynamically the same as the first one with the heavy verses against a clean chorus. I am excited about this album and with the tons of free shows you can download from their website, I feel that they are attempting to reedeem themselves to the internet world…. remember napster. I hope this album really sets a new standard for melodic metal and hard rock. Because if not, I will have to do it myself.