#hardwiredtoselfdestruct

I always had a soft spot for Thrash metal as it was the music genre that drew me in once I felt I “mastered” playing Nirvana and Greenday covers in my childhood.  Metallica is one of those pioneers in the early days that shaped Thrash metal, but something happened to Metallica after the Reload album, and as a listener, I struggled to stay a dedicated fan, and, yes I did try.  I, personally, found Garage Inc. confusing without the foreknowledge of the album being a Metallification of other bands’ songs and pretty sure, at the time, it was a cry for help by Metallica during some sort of nervous break-down. Lulu is a creative piece of art deserving its own blurb, but I assume the experience is similar to driving home on acid with a bee in the car.  The above isn’t a dig to those who loved the albums that followed Reload as they are decent, just in my opinion, not their best work and now that we know a little about me and my opinions we can move on.

Hardwired…To Self-Destruct brings back the older style from the earlier albums starting with a solidly thrashy track Hardwired.  The album sticks more to the founding principals of Thrash without falling into the common pitfalls of all the songs sounding the same with plenty of variety.  The mix is exactly what you would expect with a lot of music compositional experience thrown on top and the production quality outshines any of the previous albums.  I was happy with remembering Metallica as a band of the past, but this album makes Metallica relevant again in the Thrash scene.

Once upon a fear returning all in vain

Do you feel that hope is fading do you comprehend?

Do you feel it terminating in the end

We’re so fucked