Metallica: Beyond Magnetic

"And hate is a train

A beast awakened by your call

And hate is a train

A beast that never slows at all"

Genre(s): Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal

Label: Warner Bros.

Year: 2011

Track List

1. Hate Train

2. Just a Bullet Away

3. Hell and Back

4. Rebel of Babylon

Before the review, I just want to say thanks to my friend Kyle for recommending that I check this out.

Beyond Magnetic is the newest extended play record by the world renown American Thrash Metal band Metallica who boast having two of the most influential people in the Metal Universe today, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. The band also boast some of the most recognizable and memorable songs such as Enter Sandman, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets and Sad but True just to list of a few. As far as favorite piece of work goes for me, with Metallica it has to be the 1991 release Metallica aka  The Black Album. This album holds most of my favorites songs, two of which I mentioned above.

Honestly, I haven't been too impressed with Metallica's work as of late. I thought that Death Magnetic was bad, only to be beaten by the album previous, St. Anger. Hate if you want, but remember, this is just my opinion. If you like the albums, more power to you! Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean you can't enjoy them if you so chose.

Then I heard Lulu.....If you can make St. Anger and Death Magnetic look good, your not even trying anymore. And others would agree with me. Rolling Stones gave it a 3/5, Metal Hammer Germany gave it a 4/7 and Sputnikmusic gave it a 1.5/5. Needless to say, Lulu didn't break Metallica's bank account.

But back to the record at hand. Beyond Magnetic is a album that consist of four songs that where recorded, but never released on, Death Magnetic. It was also released to coincide with the bands anniversary shows, of which they released a new song on all four nights of the show. The album has done well so far, with releasing around 36,000 copies in the first week alone and landed in the number 32 spot in the Billboard 200.

Now that we have a little back story, I suppose I should tell you how I feel about it. After all, you didn't come here just to read my rants and information you already knew, did you?

If I had to say how I feel about this album in one word, it would be "eh". I've heard a lot worse, but I've also heard much MUCH better. At first it had me interested, but as time went on I became less interested. And seeing as I rate on a scale of one to ten, well....I would have to say that this particular EP gets a 3/10, my worst score yet. I will say that it had potential, but I fear that Metallica has been on a steady decline in producing good, quality stuff over the last few years. And it disappoints me because The Black Album is what actually got me interested in these guys in the first place. And ever since then they have been putting out things that are less than interesting in my opinion.

Hopefully they'll get back on the ball and start making good records again. But maybe that's just me.....and Rolling Stones magazine....and a few other people....eh, maybe I'm not alone in this. Oh well. I give these guys a 3/10.