Blackened US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Twenty-five years on from the Black Album conquering the globe, what can these gods of Metal do to justify their position on Mount Olympus? We've all heard umpteen reports of the lads getting back to their roots and rediscovering their mojo, yet this time even the most jaded and cynical old thrash metal stagers have been forced to admit that the band are on fire - deploying savage riffage and finely honed songcraft with ruthless efficiency, yet more importantly sounding like they're having a blast doing it, the double-platter both connects with the spirit forged in a garage decades ago yet blasts that template to the stars and back.

Review: It isn't much of an understatement to say that thrash metal giants Metallica got off on the wrong creative foot entering into the 21st century, with 2003's controversial St. Anger still causing ample debate amongst the fanbase to this day. A five-year respite would see a re-channelling of their ethos and approach, resulting in 2008's exceptional return to form Death Magnetic, which finally saw the band crack the code of how to modernise their signature formula without losing sight of why it resonated with so many headbangers in the first place. Following another near-decade long gap, 2016 saw the arrival of Hardwired...To Self-Destruct; a project that furthered their sonic realignment with a near 80-minute opus of lengthy compositions, galloping riffage and anthemic hooks; harking authentically back to the progressive, controlled meanderings of their late 80s peek. If its predecessor was the re-charting of course, Hardwired can easily be accepted as the arrival at the shore of placated fan acceptance and fluid artistic rediscovery.