How good is Metallica’s new album?
Fans already know “Death Magnetic,” the legendary metal group’s ninth studio disc, as a heartening return to form. Droves of them snatched it up on its Sept. 12 release, gradually pushing it past platinum status and justifying the giddy critical response.
In this chilly recording industry environment, that’s good news for a 27-year-old band that has courted the ire of its supporters more times than anyone cares to remember.
But for drummer Lars Ulrich, the real test of the album’s quality is in the songs’ “comfort level.”
“I don’t want to use the word ‘effortless,’ because some of them are complicated,” he said over the phone from his fifth-grader’s flag football game outside San Francisco. “But they feel very natural, kind of like putting on an old pair of shoes or that leather jacket you haven’t worn in 10 to 15 years.”
Metallica, which plays the Pepsi Center on Tuesday with Down and the Sword, has practically taunted fans over the past decade with albums that toned down the genre-defining thrash metal in favor of relative genre excursions.
“Death Magnetic,” produced by studio Svengali Rick Rubin, may not possess the blisteringly fast double-bass hits of discs like “Ride the Lightning,” but it at least reinstates Kirk Hammett’s famously bloodthirsty solos — and seems unafraid to trample well-worn ground.
Ulrich is so confident in the new songs he’s even — gasp — willing to trot more of them out in concert.
“On the ‘St. Anger’ tour I think we only played two or three from that album, but it was always a struggle,” he said. “Most of the stuff on that album was put together on a computer, but most of the stuff on ‘Death Magnetic’ is more old-school. It’s just four guys playing and hanging out. Rick Rubin really wanted that organic approach to it.”
Rubin has produced artists as diverse as Beastie Boys, Neil Diamond and Slayer and is known for his ability to reinvigorate creatively dormant acts. And Ulrich, who has known the man for two decades, still doesn’t have a clue why that is.
“I don’t know if it’s a mirror, a cheerleading type thing or a confidence booster,” he said. “Rick is not a musician or a technical guy. He doesn’t sit there and turn knobs and push buttons. But when you sit down and talk about your music, there’s almost like a psychological element in it.”
Ulrich is reluctant to compare Metallica with other acts into which Rubin has helped breathe new life, such as Johnny Cash, Diamond or Tom Petty. But he sees similarities in Rubin’s approach to different artists.
“In our band, we’ve had such a need to continue to feel that we were evolving and always challenging ourselves, but in the wake of that comes this almost mindless straying and running and chasing all these different things,” Ulrich said. “Rick reined us back in without having us feel like we were being compromised. He has a way of getting you to the points where it doesn’t seem contrived and it doesn’t seem like you’re backtracking or copying what you’ve done before.”
As the band continues its first North American tour in four years, the full-circle confidence in its latest album translates to a show that emphasizes the new album while still delivering hits fans came to hear.
For the unusually outspoken Ulrich, that’s a calming thought, especially after nearly three decades as a band.
“We steer passions in people, and I don’t take that lightly. After all this time, I’ll take all the good with the wincing and the complaining and the dissecting, because people still care.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
Metallica
Metal. Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle, with Down and the Sword. Tuesday. 7 p.m. $59.50-$79.50. 303-830-8497 or .
