Metallica Hardwired To Self Destruct Review

Hardwired... To Self-Destruct by Metallica

28/11/2016

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Here it is in all it's glory, Metallica's triumphant return to the world of Thrash: Hardwired... To Self-Destruct.

Label:

Blackened

Release Date:

18th Novemeber 2016

Band Members:

James Hetfield - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Kirk Hammett - Lead Guitar
Robert Trujillo - Bass, Backing Vocals
Lars Ulrich - Drums

Genre:

Thrash Metal
Heavy Metal

A few months ago I reported on the Ronon’s Reviews FB page that Metallica had promised their fans that the new record, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct would take a massive step towards their Thrash sound of yesteryear.

After a whole week of being my album of choice I can finally say, yes it does and the best way I can sum it up is, while it's not as awesome as Master Of Puppets (what I consider the greatest release from Metallica) it's definitely nowhere as shit as St Anger (we all know it's a piece of crap).

Metallica released 3 singles, ‘Hardwired’, ‘Moth into a Flame’ and ‘Atlas, Rise!’ in the lead up to Hardwired… To Self-Destruct which have had massive amounts of airtime so there is no point for me to bang on about them here.

But instead I’d like to bring your attention to ‘Halo On Fire’ which has an great intro that sounds almost Scandinavian Metal, it’s toned down during the verses but the chorus kicks it back up, this is Metallica messing around with different styles and getting it right.

‘ManUNkind’ is a weird one for me, it has hints of black album mixed with some of their later stuff but I’ll be damned, it’s a catchy track that works. But my favourite has to be the truly brilliant tribute to Lemmy Kilmister ‘Murder One’, it plays with Master of Puppets and black era riffs infused together perfectly, you can also hear that Hetfield means the words he’s singing about Lemmy and just like the rest of us misses him greatly, also Kirk’s solo is a killer.

Ever since 1997 Metallica has been suspect to me, that’s right I’m one of those people who hated what they became after the black album, to me it seemed like they sold out Thrash Metal and went mainstream.

But say what we will, I can’t take this away from them, they have come back after 8 long years with what I believe to be a masterpiece compared to their last 4 albums, proving they haven’t lost anything.

Metallica has copped a lot of crap since Load, including quite a bit from me, but Hardwired proves they can take it and roll with the punches and come back with something that will blow us all away.