This is likely what some of y'all have been waiting for from me. 🤣
Alrighty dudes and dudettes, the female Eddie Munson has returned once again to ramble on about music. Save your breath if you care to call me a poser for enjoying Metallica, the real posers are the kind of people that wear Metallica shirts without knowing the band one bit. I could give a lengthy fuss about those people, but we'll save that for another time.ANYWAY! It's Christmas season, and apparently Metallica decided to give us all some new sound waves to headbang with Krampus to. Not long ago as I left work, driving down the road I had Pandora hooked up to the stereo. This unfamiliar song comes on, but with a familiar sound. I thought "da fuck? Is this a rarity?" Later on at a stop I peeped at the screen and saw a bright yellow album art with the sharp M slapped on the front. "Lux Aeterna?" Wonder where they got that name from. Come to find out, some people have had some mixed views on this one.
As for me, I see a return of thrash. If you compare the sound of anything from Kill Em All era, Lux Aeterna resembles that. Their early album had hard-driving rage drenched in booze with enough upbeat influence from bands of NWOBHM. Kill Em All was Metallica's baby steps stomping into the music world. And to me it appears that they once again want to channel their early years back through.
Lars over many years has gotten a lot of hate over his drumming. Sure, he has never been a first class drummer, but there has been a few times he shown some good sound, such as in ..And Justice For All (the album). This song is another example of it to me. Yes, it is still a fairly simple beat. But it was like that in the early days. We'll see how he does playing this on stage though. Kirk pulled out some kick ass 80s vibe riffs. Was it from the collection of hundreds of riffs he had on a phone he lost years back? Who knows.
As for Robert, well what can I say. A lot of us wish the bass god Cliff Burton could return from the dead and reclaim his spot in the band. But Robert Trujillo is a bass ninja in his own way, which he has proven in many bands (he showed off the highest of his skills in Infectious Grooves if you ask me). He proves it in this band too and doesn't stop on that.
James? *Sigh* I hate to say but Papa Het is one of my complaints about this song. His voice seems to have grown a little soft. Before you bash me, let me say this. His voice, despite being familiar, has changed ever since he was in his 20s. In his early years he had a higher screech before he had a total lion roar. And of course in this time he's much older, so it's to be expected for his voice to have something different. But comparing Lux to something from the last album (like the song "Hardwired") there's a difference. It seems to resemble more of how he sounds live. Your free to disagree.
My other complaint is the production. If you put together the albums Death Magnetic, Hardwired To Self Destruct, then this one new song, it sounds like all the songs are on one giant album. The production has been the same for awhile. Don't get me wrong, I like how "sharp" it is. But I always had preference in production from the Black album (especially) and Master of Puppets. When potentially three albums altogether sound like one, that can get boring.
All in all though, this was a cool surprise from Metallica. What are your thoughts?
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