{"id":4218,"date":"2012-01-31T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=4218"},"modified":"2013-06-01T15:54:48","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T15:54:48","slug":"ep-review-metallica-beyond-magnetic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-metallica-beyond-magnetic\/","title":{"rendered":"METALLICA – Beyond Magnetic (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

METALLICA
Beyond Magnetic<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nVertigo (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The mighty Metallica return with a release full of songs that didn\u2019t make the cut on their \u201ccomeback\u201d album, Death Magnetic<\/em>. This collection was originally made available to their fan club members and then released to the rest of us digitally. Finally, it has been made available as a physical release to most major retailers. The EP comes nipping on the heels of the band\u2019s poorly received collaboration with Lou Reed, Lulu<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Beyond Magnetic opens with a wallop. \u2018Hate Train\u2019 hits the ground running and is the closest thing to \u201cold Metallica\u201d we have heard since \u2018The Black Album\u2019 (Metallica<\/em>). That said, it still has a lot of groove, ala \u2018The Black Album\u2019 and Load<\/em>, but just hits a little harder and grinds a little faster during the main verses (especially from the rhythm section). \u2018Just A Bullet Away\u2019 is up next and sounds more in line with what the band reached out with on Death Magnetic<\/em>. It\u2019s got some galloping guitars, some nice lead work, and plenty of quick fills that keep you engulfed in the song. Hetfield\u2019s vocals here are pretty exceptional. While he\u2019s certainly not the same vocalist he was in the 80s, he plays to his strengths more on this song than he does on the whole of Death Magnetic<\/em>. \u2018Hell And Back\u2019 is the most notable cast away here, sounding very similar to the cuts that made the album proper but lacking any sort of bite and having a heavy alternative rock edge that likely will have haters of Load<\/em> up in arms quickly. \u2018Rebel Of Babylon\u2019 is a sort of an epic, rock \u2019n\u2019 roll ride that is pretty unique for Metallica. The band\u2019s penchant for The Misfits and Danzig really rears its head here, especially in the crunchy guitar work and Hetfield\u2019s swift and overtly aggressive vocals. This song obviously doesn\u2019t fit into any kind of Metallica context and I kinda like that about it. It\u2019s one of those songs that definitely grows on you over repeated listens. <\/p>\n

While I\u2019m guessing the release of these four songs has long been in the works, you can\u2019t help but notice that this seems an awful lot like damage control from the release of Lulu<\/em>. All four songs here are, at a minimum, solid songs. The production wasn\u2019t completely finished and the raw sound actually elevates them in my opinion. It\u2019s a nice treat for fans anxiously awaiting the elusive next album but there isn\u2019t really anything on here that will make you stop and wonder why it didn\u2019t make Death Magnetic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

METALLICABeyond Magnetic Vertigo (2012)Rating: 6\/10 The mighty Metallica return with a release full of songs that didn\u2019t make the cut on their \u201ccomeback\u201d album, Death Magnetic. This collection was originally made available to their fan club members and then released to the rest of us digitally. Finally, it has been made available as a physical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metallica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4218"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12194,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218\/revisions\/12194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}