Death Magnetic

Death Magnetic
Metallica studio album
Publication (s)	September 12, 2008
Label (s)	Warner Bros. , Universal Music Group (DE)
Format (s)	CD , LP
Genre (s)	Thrash metal , heavy metal
Title (number)	10
running time	74:41
occupation	Vocals , guitar , piano ( The Unforgiven III ); 1st and 2nd guitar solo ( Suicide & Redemption ): James Hetfield Guitar , back vocals ( The End of the Line , All Nightmare Long ): Kirk Hammett Bass , back vocals ( The End of the Line , All Nightmare Long ): Robert Trujillo Drums : Lars Ulrich
production	Rick Rubin
Studio (s)	Headquarters Studio Sound City in Van Nuys , Los Angeles (USA) Shangri La Studios in Malibu, California (USA) HQ in San Rafael, California (USA)
chronology St. Anger (2003) Death Magnetic Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct (2016)
Single releases August 21, 2008 The Day That Never Comes August 26, 2008 My Apocalypse (digital only) September 2, 2008 Cyanide (digital only) September 9, 2008 The Judas Kiss (digital only) December 12, 2008 All Nightmare Long April 3, 2009 Broken, Beat & Scarred

Death Magnetic (English for. " Death Magnetic ") is the ninth studio album by American metal band Metallica . It was presented exclusively by the band on September 12, 2008 in the O ₂  World concert hall in Berlin and was released worldwide on the same day. It is the band's first album to feature Robert Trujillo as bass player. In addition, with Rick Rubin, a new producer appears for the first time since Metallica 1991, after the five previous studio albums were all produced by Bob Rock , who also played the bass on St. Anger .

construction

The structure of Death Magnetic partly follows that of the "classic" Metallica albums from the eighties . For example, the fourth track The Day That Never Comes is a semi-ballad, the penultimate track Suicide & Redemption is an instrumental piece and the last song My Apocalypse is a shorter, faster song. However, contrary to most previous releases, the album does not contain a title track; the expression "Death Magnetic" comes from a line of text from the song My Apocalypse . With The Unforgiven III , the album also contains the third part of the Unforgiven series , after The Unforgiven (from the Metallica album ) and The Unforgiven II (from ReLoad ).

Cover design

The cover shows a white coffin lying in a pit. The coffin seems to be magnetic, so that a typical magnetic field forms around it, on which the loose earth aligns itself according to the field lines . The Metallica logo and the words "Death Magnetic" are emblazoned in silver over the entire scenario. The booklet has coffin-shaped cutouts that become smaller from side to side, so that when viewed from above, a spatial effect appears that gives the hole in the ground depth. The Metallica logo and CD title are attached to the outside of the jewel case on a transparent sticker.

A special feature is the return to the traditional Metallica logo. After a redesigned logo was used since Load , which was changed again for the release of the album St. Anger , the original one is now used again. However, this has been slightly revised; The "A" now tapers to a point in the middle and is not angled on the left and straight on the right as with the first "fish hook logo". The "C" also corresponds to the "C" at the end of the lettering "Death Magnetic".

The band photo of Metallica, which stretches over the last two pages of the booklet and shows the quartet leaning against a dirty concrete wall, was shot by Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn . The cover photography was done by Andy Grimshaw, the album design by Turner Duckworth.

Pre-releases

As early as mid-August 2008, Metallica began to gradually publish song excerpts in the order of the album's track list via their official website. On August 25, 2008, the last song on the album, My Apocalypse , was also made available in full. Cyanide followed on September 2nd and was played live for the first time at the Ozzfest 2008 in Frisco , Texas in early August .

On September 2, 2008, the album was accidentally sold a few times in France and shortly afterwards it spread worldwide via the Internet. Drummer Lars Ulrich saw this calmly in a radio interview: “We are ten days before the release. Seen that way, we were lucky. If the album leaks around the world today or tomorrow: Have fun with it. Really. We're lucky that it didn't fall off some vice before. The year is 2008, and that's the way it works these days, so we don't mind. We are happy."

Metallica responded to this "incident" on September 5, 2008 by releasing the songs All Nightmare Long and Broken, Beat & Scarred and The Judas Kiss on their official website.

Criticism of the production

The album is seen as a prominent example of the " Loudness Wars ", as it has hardly any dynamics due to the high compression and the resulting high volumes , the sound is distorted and clipping occurs.

As the Musikexpress reported in October 2008, several thousand fans requested a revision of the album via an online petition. Drummer Lars Ulrich, on the other hand, defended the sound of the album in interviews, while Ted Jensen, who was responsible for mastering, distanced himself from it. Kirk Hammett sympathized with the fans and admitted to hearing unwanted clipping "here and there".

Death Magnetic was also available in the Guitar Hero video game series . The pieces of music in the game are mastered much more quietly, are not distorted and have a significantly higher dynamic, so that they are considered to be of higher quality. Several unofficial, fan-produced remasters of the album based on the Guitar Hero version spread across the Internet - the fact that the separate soundtracks for guitar, bass, vocals and drums can be extracted from the game contributed to this .

In 2015, an official remaster of the album was finally released, in which the quality defects of the original version were largely remedied.

Track list

The music written by: Hammett, Hetfield, Trujillo, Ulrich; all texts written by: Hetfield.

1. That Was Just Your Life (7:07)
2. The End of the Line (7:51)
3. Broken, Beat & Scarred (6:25)
4. The Day That Never Comes (7:55)
5. All Nightmare Long (7:57)
6. Cyanides (6:39)
7. The Unforgiven III (7:45)
8. The Judas Kiss (8:00)
9. Suicide & Redemption (9:56)
10. My Apocalypse (5:00)

Singles

The Day That Never Comes

On August 21, 2008, the band released the first single The Day That Never Comes in advance as an audio stream over the Internet. The accompanying video was shot on August 1, 2008 near Los Angeles. It was published on the official website on September 1st, one day before the premiere on German television on the music channel MTV . The style of the song is reminiscent of the semi-ballads Fade to Black (from the album Ride the Lightning ), Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (from Master of Puppets ) and One (from … And Justice for All ).

All Nightmare Long

On December 12, 2008, All Nightmare Long was released in a Collector's Edition of two CD and one DVD single. In addition to the album version of the title track, CD 1 contains the titles Wherever I May Roam and Master of Puppets in live versions (recorded on September 12th in Berlin). In addition to the re-released album version of All Nightmare Long, there are two other live versions on CD 2 from September 12th: Blackened and Seek & Destroy . The third part is released on DVD and contains a ten-minute mini-documentary about Metallica's day in Berlin (September 12, 2008) including a 20-minute excerpt from the record release party that day. The DVD also features a 15-minute film of the rehearsals for Metallica's appearance at Rock im Park in summer 2008.

All Nightmare Long rose on December 26, 2008 as the highest new entry at number 15 in the German single charts.

Broken, Beat & Scarred

On April 3, 2009 Broken, Beat & Scarred , as well as All Nightmare Long appeared in three different Collectors versions across Europe, except in France, where the single was only released on April 6. CD 1 contains the studio version of Broken, Beat & Scarred and live recordings of The End of The Line and Broken, Beat & Scarred . CD 2 also contains the studio version of Broken, Beat & Scarred and live recordings of Stone Cold Crazy and Of Wolf and Man . The DVD single contains the music videos from Broken, Beat & Scarred and The Day That Never Comes and a press kit for the album Death Magnetic .

The live recordings are all from the performance at the O2 Arena in London on September 15, 2008.

In Germany the single reached number 35 in the top 100 of the singles charts, and in Austria it reached 74th place in the top 75 of the singles charts. In Finland it even reached fourth place.

Editions

Death Magnetic was published in several editions in Germany:

• Jewelcase version
• Limited Deluxe Coffin Boxset (including demo CD, making-of DVD & various merchandising items)
• Limited digipack version
• Limited vinyl box

Chart successes and sales figures

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Death Magnetic   DE 1 09/26/2008 (38 weeks)   AT 1 09/26/2008 (22 weeks)   CH 1 09/28/2008 (20 weeks)   UK 1 09/20/2008 (11 weeks)   US 1 09/27/2008 (50 weeks)

Singles

The Day That Never Comes   AT 25th 09/26/2008 (9 weeks)   CH 32 09/28/2008 (6 weeks)   UK 19th 08/30/2008 (6 weeks)   US 31 09/06/2008 (10 weeks) My apocalypse   AT 56 09/19/2008 (1 week)   UK 51 09/06/2008 (2 weeks)   US 67 09/13/2008 (1 week) Cyanide   UK 48 09/13/2008 (2 weeks)   US 50 09/20/2008 (1 week) The Judas Kiss   UK 79 09/20/2008 (1 week) The Unforgiven III   CH 12 09/28/2008 (7 weeks) All Nightmare Long   DE 15th December 26, 2008 (9 weeks)   AT 51 02/01/2009 (1 week) Broken, Beat & Scarred   DE 35 04/17/2009 (6 weeks)   AT 74 04/24/2009 (1 week)

In Germany, the album reached number 1 on the charts, sold more than 100,000 times within three days and quickly reached gold status. Death Magnetic entered the album charts in 32 countries around the world. In the USA, Death Magnetic made the direct jump to number one as the fifth Metallica album. Metallica previously shared the record with the Beatles , U2 and the Dave Matthews Band with four albums.

Death Magnetic earned a double platinum record for more than two million units sold in the United States in 2010 .

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Argentina (CAPIF)	platinum	40,000
Australia (ARIA)	2 × platinum	140,000
Belgium (BEA)	platinum	30,000
Brazil (PMB)	gold	30,000
Denmark (IFPI)	2 × platinum	60,000
Germany (BVMI)	5 × gold	500,000
Europe (IFPI)	platinum	(1,000,000)
Finland (IFPI)	2 × platinum	79,415
France (SNEP)	gold	100,000
Golf Cooperation Council (IFPI)	gold	3,000
Greece (IFPI)	platinum	30,000
Ireland (IRMA)	platinum	15,000
Japan (RIAJ)	gold	100,000
Canada (MC)	4 × platinum	320,000
Mexico (AMPROFON)	gold	30,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	2 × platinum	30,000
Poland (ZPAV)	diamond	100,000
Portugal (AFP)	platinum	20,000
Russia (NFPF)	3 × platinum	60,000
Sweden (IFPI)	2 × platinum	80,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	platinum	30,000
Spain (Promusicae)	gold	20,000
Turkey (MÜ-YAP)	gold	50,000
Hungary (MAHASZ)	platinum	6,000
United States (RIAA)	2 × platinum	2,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	platinum	300,000
All in all	7 × gold 30 × platinum 1 × diamond	4,113,415

Main article: Metallica / Music Sales Awards

Web links

• Detailed review on zeit.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Death Magnetic | Metallica.com. Retrieved May 6, 2020 . 
2. ↑ musicradar.com - Metallica's Death Magnetic: the track-by-track guide
3. ↑ metallica.com - A little taste of Death ( Memento from August 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ metallica.com - A bigger taste of Death ( Memento from August 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ metallica.com - Another full taste of Death ( Memento from September 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ roadrunnerrecords.com METALLICA's ULRICH Downplays 'Death Magnetic' Leak: 'It's Part Of How It Is These Days' ( Memento from September 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ metallica.com - A Feast of Death ( Memento from September 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ ^{a b} Musikexpress - DEATH MAGNETIC ( Memento from June 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from November 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/lars-ulrich-res.html
11. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Well, it's like this: There are people who just expect perfection from us. And I totally get that. And when it falls short of their standards of perfection, they're going to complain. And I totally get that, too. I do hear a bit of clipping here and there. ( Memento from November 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Mastering Media Blog - Metallica "Death Magnetic" - Stop The Loudness Wars
15. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14844/85130
16. ↑ metallica.com - Track Listing Boys and Girls (Leak Central # 27) ( Memento from September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
17. ↑ metallica.com - The Day That Never Comes ( Memento from August 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
18. ↑ metallica.com - The Day That Never Comes… The Video Premiere ( Memento from September 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ mtv.de - Exclusive Metallica premiere on MTV.de ( Memento from October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
20. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/release/1570441
21. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/release/1570443
22. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from December 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
23. ↑ http://www.gfk-entertainment.com/news/queensberry-landen-in-den-top-ten-der-album-charts.html
24. ↑ metallica.com - The Box Magnetic (Death in a Coffin) ( Memento from July 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
25. ↑ Chart positions: DE AT CH UK US
26. ↑ musik-base.de - Metallica - Death Magnetic breaks sales record
27. ↑ euroinvestor.co.uk - [1]
28. ↑ US: 2x platinum

predecessor	Metal hammer	successor
Volbeat - Rock the Rebel / Metal the Devil	Album of the year 2008	Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue