Posts Tagged ‘Beyond Magnetic’

Having achieved the almost herculean feat of bouncing back from the critical and commercial mauling St. Anger received with 2008s flawed but infinitely better Death Magnetic, the Metallica ship seemed to be steadying.  However, no sooner were they handed back the gun, they proceed to start shooting at their feet again and collaborate on a concept album with Lou Reed.  Cue yet more critical and commercial savaging and it seems Metallica have lost at least a little of the ‘cred’ they were rebuilding.  Was Lulu that bad?  Having not heard it myself my image of Metallica remains somewhat less tarnished than others.

Beyond Magnetic is a four track EP comprised of cutting room floor tunes left over from the original Death Magnetic sessions, no doubt issued as a reminder that things were getting better.

This is solid if not spectacular stuff, the big riffs and the groove is back but the tracks do suffer slightly from the spectre of their big brothers from the actual Death Magnetic album.  Shades of The Day That Never Comes and Cyanide can be heard in the bridges and breakdowns and the songs do occasionally feel like early versions of other tunes. 

Having said all that though, Hate Train is propelled by a classic Metallica riff that has just a tinge of ‘Search And Destroy’ about it and allows Kirk to throw in a little solo within the first 60 seconds. 

Just A Bullet Away seems to come to a natural end on four minutes before being rudely and pointlessly kicked into life again for another three minutes, it would work better as the shorter version and the temptation to skip at the break becomes harder to resist with each listen.

Hell And Back and Rebel Of Babylon are not quite good enough to be on Death Magnetic but too good to throw away and pack plenty of riff laden appeal.  What this EP does show however is that the writing juices were flowing for the DM sessions, these tracks are certainly better than just B-sides and this surely bodes well for the next proper Metallica studio set.

At their best Metallica can still knock out tunes with ease and whilst Death Magnetic may not be vintage Metallica it is certainly the best they have been for a decade and Beyond Magnetic is a worthy accompaniment to it.  If you liked Death Magnetic buy this and enjoy, if you didn’t, then it is probably already too late now to win you back and you can take away one ‘Tape’ from my rating.

Jules says…

For all your Metallica needs, visit their official site HERE.