Metallica – Hardwired… to Self-Destruct

metallica_2016

The title song ‘Hardwired’ makes for a lively albeit lyrically poor start, but gets the listener pumped and sets a hopeful tone for what’s to follow. Unfortunately, from then onwards, the redeemable segments and moments are few and far between, as the album plateaus flat with one extremely bland and repetitive mid/low tempo composition after another. It’s hard to determine which one is better or worse than the other, and save for ‘Moth Into Flame’ and ‘Spit Out The Bone’, all songs are equally uninspired and do nothing more than rehashing past work. The band has not only lost the creative fire with which they architected the blueprint for heavy metal in the early ’80s, but are also completely devoid of the adventurous attitude that resulted in the Black album, ‘Load’, ‘Reload’ and ‘St. Anger’, albums that will always be respected for being genuine and honest efforts, regardless of success or failure. ‘Hardwired…’ falls in no man’s land in terms of its significance in the band’s repertoire, and much like ‘Death Magnetic’, will not stand the test of time.

That being said, it does possess two undeniably excellent songs, ‘Moth Into Flame’ standing out head and shoulders above everything else on this album as the best song on offer and the only one memorable and repeatworthy with its catchy guitar harmonies and vocal melodies. The very last song ‘Spit Out The Bone’, for those album listeners that haven’t already fallen asleep by the time they get to it, is the other strong composition on here, a raging thrash tune that’s certain to please old-school Metallica fans. Besides, James Hetfield’s vocal delivery throughout the album is surprisingly commendable, and honestly, triumphs his output on ‘Death Magnetic’, as he seems to push his singing voice with greater range, strength and purpose than he has done in recent years. The performance by his band mates is also adequate in delivering these songs. But the biggest drawback of the album is in its songwriting, and if the fact that it took them eight years to come up with these 12 songs does not indicate the clear lack of ideas and inspiration, the final product sure does.

As Porcupine Tree frontman and solo artist Steven Wilson rightly pointed out while addressing the audience during a recent Los Angeles concert, some bands take so long to release new albums and are so hesitant to do it that if it’s not well-received they may never do another album. There’s no doubt that Metallica’s large fan-base will make this new release a financial success overwhelmingly superior to that of most other metal bands in existence, but whether perceived as a standalone album or a piece of the career puzzle, it makes little to no impact. Let there be no more albums, let ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ be Metallica’s swansong, because it’s the worst album of the band’s career and neither the fan nor the critic should suffer the pain of listening to anything potentially worse.

Rating: 3/10

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Record Label: Blackened
Release Date: November 18th 2016

Track Listing:
Disc One
01. Hardwired
02. Atlas, Rise!
03. Now That We’re Dead
04. Moth Into Flame
05. Dream No More
06. Halo On Fire
Disc Two
07. Confusion
08. ManUNkind
09. Here Comes Revenge
10. Am I Savage?
11. Murder One
12. Spit Out the Bone

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