...The Bad Boys of Metal are back

I’ve been a Metallica fan since 2nd year high school when most of my friends were into grunge. Though I was hooked to Nirvana, Mud Honey, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, I wanted more. The energy brought by these bands just can’t contain my youth. But when I heard “Sad But True”, I know, this would be my soundtrack.

Tapes were being circulated between friends as we could only afford that much from our allowances, back tracking to their past catalogues and compiled them to 90 or 120 min cassette tapes. “Kill ‘Em All”, “Ride The Lightning”, “Master Of Puppets” and “…And Justice For All” were played almost everyday. My crappy cassette player just did all the magic. Auto Reverse was my best friend.

Metallica has evolved so much since the “Black Album”, even accused of being a “sell out”. But whatever people have said or would say against them, I have remained loyal even with their “un-metal” years. Their Anti-Napster days and their documentary, “Some Kind Of Monster”, I should say, the band with the real “Testicular Fortitude”. They really have the guts and were never afraid in exposing their weaknesses. I also believe, with their stand against piracy, has helped define the line in the evolution of music distribution even when some are trying to ride-on with what was popular at that time just to get support from fans and would be fans. In short, these bands are just plain, afraid.

And now, 5 years after St. Anger, Metallica is finally back. Listening to “Death Magnetic” reminds me of the glory years of thrash metal. New riffs, old vocals, artillery-like drums, pounding bass and killer solos have produced the Metallica I used to know.

Sounds so fresh and I can just feel the energy and the excitement of its music. My favorites so far are …all of them.

Welcome back, Metallica. I hope they could visit Oz soon.