Of all the things that happened in 2016, Metallica releasing a new album after almost a decade was not something that was particularly high on my musical radar. Metallica at this point is more of an American institution or cultural touchstone like McDonald's or Reaganomics than 4 dudes that make music. Their popularity and legacy have all been written and talked about to death and you would hard-pressed to find someone out their who hasn't already made up their mind about liking them or not. Regardless of your (or my) particular opinion on their material, this past year was full of enough strange/horrible/depressing shit to make some good old fashioned Metallica seem like just the comfort blanket we needed.
The band makes their presence felt right out of the gates with opener "Hardwired", which burns through its 3 minute runtime without a second wasted before moving into the first disc proper. The quality of the riffs here are way higher than they have any right be from a thrash group who have been going for 35 years, and Disc 1 of Hardwired... bangs past with only one major pothole in the drawn out closer, "Halo On Fire". The songs all run past the 5 minute mark (and frequently cross to 7) but the sheer quality of Hetfield's riffs (ahem) manage to keep the foundations from sinking into the quicksand of 10 minute instrumentals or power ballads. "Atlas, Rise!" and "Moth Into Flame" are, simply put, some of the best songs this band has ever written and the beefier production from Greg Fidelman really bring Hetfield and Ulrich into the spotlight, and depending on who you are that may or may not be a good thing. Ulrich's playing is fairly rote throughout Hardwired... unfortunately, and he tends to repeat his fills a lot which is probably news to no one. He isn't Pete Webber or even Jerry Gaskill but the compositions here mostly give him enough space to not drag the foundations down too much. Trujillo's bass is too quiet as usual but it's the absence of Kirk Hammett that really sets this record apart from the rest of their discography, as his solos are few and far between (almost.. tastefully spaced out?!) and I have to admit I lost track of him a couple times and wondered where he wandered off too as James and Lars chugged on without him.
And then we get to Disc 2 and the whole frame starts to warp and sag. Outside of the phenomenal "Confusion", "Here Comes Revenge", and "Spit Out the Bone" we have 3 6-minute chug-fests that just don't hit the same marks as the rest of the material. "ManUNkind" is probably the strongest of the bunch but major points deducted for that pun. "Murder One" is an ok tribute to Lemmy but its weirdly inoffensive and tame, whereas "Am I Savage" just doesn't fit the rest of the songs here and sounds like it was ripped from their Load/Reload era. In the end its more good than bad, but it is interesting that they considered the material here to be worth including in the end despite the higher costs passed on to both them and the consumer as shaving just one of these songs would've given them plenty of room for a single disc release. The whole thing ends as suddenly as it begins without a moment of hesitation and the overall impression I get after popping the disc back in its sleeve is of a band doing what they genuinely love to do. No, they aren't pushing any boundaries. Yes, the songs are probably too long across the board. Yes, Lars' drum sound and style is just as restrained and thin-sounding as ever. Ultimately though, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct rises above its brickwalled dynamic range and scattergun stylistic focus to deliver some truly excellent material that I think will be remembered for a long time as some of Metallica's best pieces of music. And amid all the death and suffering and flat out weirdness of 2016, it is cathartic to be able to enjoy a big, dumb, overlong album from one of music's remaining legends. Let's enjoy them while they're still around, huh?
C+
Bonus:
The artwork and packaging design of Hardwired...to Self-Destruct deserves special mention, I think. After seeing it for the first time you probably either reflexively laughed or sighed in disappointment, as I did. After looking at it more and more, though, it's started growing on me and now I believe it's one of the more interesting pieces of album design work that I've come across recently as it balances this stark black and white negative space with this bizarre, aggressive photoshop mishmash. Your eyes can't help but be drawn in to it and its almost hypnotic, like an optical illusion - you keep thinking you're missing something hidden in there but nope, thats really all it is. Obviously its not any kind of virtuoso display in a traditional sense, but it does a good job of catching your eye and fitting the tone of the album.
The packaging of the CD sleeve and booklet are very similar in tone, but just as "your mileage may very" in terms of effectiveness. Some of the image design work is actually pretty cool looking, but to me about 40% misses the mark and coupled with the very minimalist black-font-on-white-background motif, it doesn't leave much to grab onto if you didn't like the main design dominating each page. Definitely subjective, but whether you like it or not I think the artwork accomplishes at least some of its goals by making it stick in your mind.
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