Metallica Forge Iron Sounds of the Past on ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’

Brett Callwood

Bands can ignore the opinions of their hardcore fans. When musicians do what they want, with little regard for outside viewpoints, great things can happen. Members of Metallica have allowed themselves the space to experiment over the past 20 years, and they’ve been pilloried for it. The band’s new album has been released, “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct” could be seen as either a return to form after this period of experimentation or a bland release in its old style. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

This certainly isn’t the arena rock of “Load” and “Reload.” It’s also not the awkward yet wonderfully grotesque “St. Anger.” It’s not the Metallica-lite of “Death Magnetic.” And it’s sure as hell not the chugging dark cabaret of the universally despised “Lulu” featuring Lou Reed. What we have here is what appears to be a genuine attempt to recapture the energy, the fire and the adrenaline that the band displayed on its first five albums. In other words, the band has tried to give its fans exactly what they’ve been asking for since the release of the “Black Album” in 1991.

It’s semi-successful. Taking a step backwards is only OK if the band really wants to. On the opening track, “Hardwired,” which climaxes with the line, “We’re so f**ked, Hardwired to Self-Destruct,” Metallica sounds like a traditional, angry thrash band again. James Hetfield is fired up vocally, and the rest of the band is on-point.

Fans will call it a return to form because songs such as “Spit Out the Bone” and “Now That We’re Dead” are sonically far closer to “Master of Puppets”-era Metallica than anything else the band has released in two decades. But the counterpoint to that is that the tunes are simply not nearly as powerful. 

Still, this album is fun, energetic, and far from a disaster. But that same statement can be made of every Metallica album.

“Hardwired… to Self-Destruct” is available on Apple Music Nov. 18.