Earlier today, legendary Bay Area thrashers Metallica, unleashed the first single from their upcoming ‘Death Magnetic’ album, entitled “The Day That Never Comes”. I’ve listened to this new tune nearly a dozen times this afternoon to really get a feel for it. I wanted the overall excitement of hearing a new Metallica song to wear off before posting a clearheaded review of it here. And I honestly have to say, even after repeated listens, this is an impressive song. With a slow, melodic, ballade-sque first half, I’m reminded slightly of classic Metallica songs such as “Welcome Home” and “Fade to Black”. Somewhat generic-sounding at first, I’ll admit, but the melody really is catchy… and once this track hits the five minute mark, things evolve into something any ‘tallica fan of old can appreciate.

Finally… goddamn finally… Metallica has returned to their thrashy roots. We’re treated to some truly inspired and interesting riffage… something I’ve been personally waiting for from James, Kirk and the boys for nearly a decade. Kirk lays on the lead guitar work pretty solidly through the solos, and things get mixed up quite a bit with some attention-keeping changups throughout. For the first time in a long time, I’m impressed.

Surprisingly, one of the largest concerns of this new album to many, the vocals, sound excellent. James’ voice is clean and strong, and the lack of “hey heeey heeeeeeys” or anything of the such gives me hope that ‘Death Magnetic’ may be something worth checking out after all. Luckily for us, gone are the tin can snare drums and subpar production of the despised St. Anger days. Although this is a lower-quality webstreaming version of the track, it’s easy to tell that some time and effort has been put into properly producing this album.

Now that you’ve read my take, crack a beer, raise the devil horns, and take a listen below:

UPDATE (08-21-08): Updated MP3 from 96kBit/s webstream version to high-quality 256kBit/s version. You’re welcome.

After only 20 years or so if waiting around for Metallica to write some new material that I could happily hear and not want to aurally castrate myself, James, Lars and the boys have finally penned some material worth taking a listen to. With some interesting riffage and a few tempo changes throughout, the new track “Cyanide“, which the band played at this past weekend’s Ozzfest, is hopefully a good indication that Metallica is working to release an album worthy of their once respected name. That album, “Death Magnetic” is slated to hit September 12th… and for the first time in years, I honestly look forward to it.

UPDATE: I changed the video to use the newly release soundboard recording version. Much better sound quality! Enjoy!