Metallica is my favorite band in the whole wide world. I own albums, shirts, stickers, posters, and an immense selection of their discography in my iTunes. I was naturally euphoric when they announced their new album would come in November, and got progressively more excited as they released music videos for some of the album's songs. Now that the album is here, I can finally deliver some cohesive thoughts about it; even though my feelings are mixed, overall, I am mostly satisfied.

Before reviewing this album, I first have to clarify that I was always a big fan of "Death Magnetic," and that I think that album gets a lot of hate it doesn't deserve. Songs like "All Nightmare Long," "The Day that Never Comes," and "That Was Just Your Life," are phenomenal pieces that really show how talented these musicians are. That said, the production on that album is truly chaotic, and that is the first problem the band fixed with their newest release.

"Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" sounds absolutely amazing; clear riffs and vocals, crisp drumming, sharp tones and excellent mastering make Metallica sound as great as they did back in 1991. James "Riffmaster God Supreme" Hetfield made sure that all of his work was top notch, delivering catchy riffs all over and doing as much as he can with his old-man voice. Likewise, bassist Robert Trujillo has found his footing with the band and blends just well with Hetfield's music. Drummer Lars Ulrich and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett are were some of my problems lie, but I'll touch on that later.

Also, for practical reasons, I'll just refer to it as "the album," seeing that the title is obnoxiously longer than it needs to be, and it actually really sucks, like, a lot.

There are many things to like about this album, and certainly not too many things to dislike. Like I said, the energy Hetfield puts into his singing is admirable, and the riffs he composed are mostly magnificent. Songs like "Moth Into Flame" and "Atlas, Rise!" show Hetfield's dedication as a front-man, especially the former; the first time I heard Moth's chorus I was stunned by how catchy but serious and headbangingly cool it was. Other songs like "Hardwired" and especially "Spit Out the Bone" showcase Hetfield's roots, and give a hint at how he used to sing twenty years ago, and show us that he can't do it anymore, but he can try and still sound awesome.

I'm gonna stop for a second and talk about "Spit Out the Bone." What an in-cre-di-ble song it is. Seriously, it's amazing. It's everything I wanted from this album and everything that is right about this album, combined into a 7-minute beast that never slows down and features a bass solo, Hammett doing arpeggios, Hetfield screaming his lungs out, and Ulrich giving it all with the double pedal and fast tempos. Literally, everything done right in this album is summarized in this song, and if the other songs in the album borrowed things from this song alone, it would be at least a 9/10, easily.

Nevertheless, not everything is as great. Like I mentioned before, Hetfield's old man voice is really getting to him, and it makes me feel like I'm listening to some old guys playing fast music, instead of, you know, f*cking Metallica. Good songs like "Dream No More," or lesser songs like "Am I Savage?" lose a lot of points due to Hetfield's energetic but lackluster voice. His passion makes up for it sometimes, but it can't save the more filler-like songs on the second half of the album.

That's another one of my problems. This album is very long – 77 minutes in total – but about half of it feels like filler, and that's just heartbreaking. The second disc, except for "Spit out the Bone," which closes the album, is extremely underwhelming in every sense; musically, lyrically, vocally, rhythmically, it's just lacking. Songs like "Here Comes Revenge" or "Murder One" feel like the same song going on for too long, and punch a big black hole in an otherwise more than decent first half of an album. It's sad to see that Metallica's tribute to Lemmy can be summarized with "meh."

Before diving into some of the other problems, I want to talk about some other good things in this album. Hammett's solos in "Halo on Fire," "Dream No More" and "Spit out the Bone" are marvelous; "Dream No More" as a whole sounds a lot like "Sad But True," and that's not a bad thing at all. Lars Ulrich has lost a lot of his touch over the years, but songs like "Hardwired" prove that he can still be metal AF, and other songs like "Now That We're Dead" show that he still has a lot of groove to his playing.

Hetfield's lyrics are generally very good, as usual. Although less stellar in the second half of the album, the overall messages in the songs are clear and deep enough to have something to be appreciated. "Moth Into Flame" talks about the dangers of addiction and fame, while "Hardwired" comments on society's tendencies to sink itself. Songs like "Now That We're Dead" or "Lords of Summer" have lyrics that are a lot less serious, but still work without being cheesy in any way.

"Lords of Summer" is definitely one of the highlights of the album, being, in my opinion, the second best song of all – and it's a bonus track! A song written years ago, played on tour and released as a demo, "Lords of Summer" shines in all the ways "Spit out the Bone" does, being everything the album should have been. It's a shame, really, because the bloated "2 CDs and a bonus 3rd one" package the album comes in could be easily shortened to one CD, including "Lords of Summer" as a main track and taking out five (!!!) filler songs.

Let's talk about that now. It is very, very sad how the second half of this album came to be. It was announced some time ago that Hammett lost a phone with recordings of all of his ideas for the album, which led to this album to not include a single song credit to him, and I think it shows. The filler songs feel like whatever Hetfield had left in his mind after recording the great songs, explaining why most of them sound the same and feel uninspired.

And talking about sounding uninspired, let's talk about Hammett's solos for a second. Like I said before, Hammett has three standout solos in the album, not because they're great – although Bone's is – but because they don't suck. Seriously, somebody should tell ol' Kirk that hitting notes on a scale and raping a wah-wah pedal doesn't count as soloing, because that's what he seems to be doing since "Death Magnetic" eight years ago. Even his live "improvisations" consist of this, and it's very tiresome. Even good songs like "Hardwired" or "Moth Into Flame" fail to become masterpieces because the solos are just so sh*tty With only minor exceptions, Kirk's overall work in the album is very weak, and makes me especially disappointed, knowing this is the guy who played the solos for "One" and "Fade to Black" back in the 80s.

Lars is the other weak link, sadly. He hasn't done any great drumming since 1988, but he has been consistently good and more than capable of delivering good work, even if it's not top notch. In this album he plays his heart and soul out in some of the songs, like "Spit Out the Bone," "Hardwired" and "Lords of Summer," but he mostly just phones it in with the same 4/4 sections; it's definitely one of the things that make the filler songs feel as boring as they do.

Before closing, I want to talk about "Halo on Fire" for a bit. I don't think it's a great song, but it's one of the most angering songs in the album to me, because it has the potential of being amazing. "Halo on Fire" closes the first CD perfectly, as it features everything that's right about the first half of the album, and everything that's wrong with the second half. The first half of the song is boring and kinda repetitive, with Hetfield's oldman voice being a standout disappointment. However, the second half of the song has one of the best bridge breakdowns in the whole album, and one of the most interesting solos Hammett has played in years. I think this song could be reworked a little bit and turned into more of a ballad, and easily fit with the rest of the first CD as a "standout piece" in this messy album.

Like I mentioned before, this album would be one of the best in Metallica's whole catalog if they would've stuck with the 8 good songs they have; it wouldn't be as long, too, which would be awesome. It's very sad for me to say that I don't love this album, because there are songs that I think deserve all of my love and admiration for my favorite band in the world. Fortunately, none of the filler songs are bad enough for me to consider them "bad," therefore making half of this album to be just unremarkable, while the other half is excellent.

If I had to give this album a rating, it would be an 8/10, because the good songs are simply too good. I hope we don't have to wait another decade for Metallica to deliver a new album, and I seriously hope that the reviews I've been reading online get to Hetfield's ears and make him reconsider the other musicians' positions in the band.