Metallica’s latest is quality thrash that gets a little tiring

When a band releases a record that’s poorly received, it’s common for them to see it as a reason to revert. Those return-to-form albums may revisit the sound of a bygone era, but rarely, if ever, do they capture the spirit so crucial to their creation. That was the case for Metallica’s 2008 album, Death Magnetic. As a response to 2003’s endlessly lambasted St. Anger, it was a marked improvement, though it was far from flawless. While not directly positioned as such, Metallica’s 10th album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct feels like another attempt to course-correct after the band’s wonky collaboration album with Lou Reed, Lulu. And though Hardwired adds more of a concept than Death Magnetic had—it’s billed as a double album—it doesn’t offer anything profoundly new, either.
Though this downplays that Metallica is pretty good at being Metallica. Opener “Hardwired” is incredibly effective in bringing people right into the band’s world, full of chugging riffs, machine-gun drumrolls, and just the right amount of guitar soloing. Each one of the first three singles released from the record—“Hardwired,” along with “Atlas, Rise!” and “Moth Into Flame”—rank as one of the best thrash-metal songs the band has written since the 1980s. They’re quick, punchy, songs that boast memorable riffs and play both to the band’s strengths as well as its most notable weakness.
What’s often understated about Metallica’s best work is that it found ways to utilize Lars Ulrich’s subpar drumming, hiding his flaws beneath the band’s inventive song structures. Metallica is often its most effective when guitarists Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield write riffs that allow Ulrich to catch a groove and run with it for as long as he can. When Hammett or Hetfield begin to outpace him, Ulrich loses the plot, often dampening the power of a band that can shift grooves with the best of them. And while Hardwired does a good job of making these songs work within the band’s limitations, its outsize conceit is what sinks it.