With “Death Magnetic”, Metallica heavily tried to satisfy many fans from the old days that were disappointed with the more experimental records the band had done before. This album goes back to the thrash roots of the band and could have been the successor of the band’s masterpiece “…And Justice For All” but it ultimately isn’t. The only comparable basis of both records is the bad sound and production but they also differ in this point. While “…And Justice For All” had a very thin production with a bad drum sound, “Death Magnetic” sounds overproduced and is a perfect example for the loudness war trend.

The band simply isn’t able to go back to the power, originality and authenticity of the early days. Most of the songs are still enjoyable but offer nothing we haven’t heard in a similar and often better way before. The riffs feel worn out, the song structures are predictable and the pieces themselves are often too long and miss the point. The second half of the record is slightly more experimental but not in a good way. “The Unforgiven III” is absolutely unneccessary and can’t catch up with the previous two parts at all and “Suicide And Redemption” might be the worst instrumental track the band has ever done and is artificially stretched to an unhealthy length of almost ten minutes. The experiments are missed but at least the band still knows how to write good thrash metal songs.

After all, there are some highlights in the first half of the record. The first single “The Day That never Comes” sounds like a modern copy of “One” but as I liked the original track, I also like the new one that mixes a very melodic first half with an energetic thrash shredding passage in the second half. I can understandthe low rating of the song as it isn’t very original but I must admit that this track is catchy and very emotional and convinces with its traditional charm.The best track immediately follows with “All Nightmare Long”, a great thrash song with a lot of energy that never gets boring in comparison to many other overlong tracks on this album. The song has some really sharp riffs, amazing guitar solos, fast and energizing drum parts and a very good vocal performance even if James Hetfield even adds more than before some “ehh’s” and “aah’s” to his words. Even if this has somewhat become a trademark I would like “James-eeh Hetfield-ahh” to stop this as it sounds quite silly on a full album. The third and last highlight of the record is the next track called “Cyanide”. It’s a slower track with a nice pumping bass line and a groovy feeling and an intensely menacing atmosphere that copuld have fit on the records of the nineties as well as on the records of the late eighties.

In the end, Metallica offer nothing new but throw in some solid and catchy thrash metal tracks where the band goes back to the roots. This record is a decent effort and surely has its moments. Most of the the songs are energizing and work very well in concert, too. The record has a great flow and clear line and might please to a larger fan basis than the previous albums. On the other side, the band though threw almost all experimentations and variations overboard and can neither surprise the fans nor catch up with their first four records while the modern loudness war sound ruins a certain charm that this record could have thanks to the overrated Rick Rubin.

After the disaster piece "Lulu" and the overall very negative reactions, Metallica try to beg for pardon with this release and want to underline their thirtieth anniversary at the same time. During their four anniversary concerts in San Francisco, the band presented a brand new track each night and released this EP with the four tracks exclusively a few days later. What we have here are four tracks that didn't make it on Death Magnetic. They exactly sound like the overall sound of this record and have a quite mediocre production by the overrated Rick Rubin.

When we listen to the songs, it gets quite clear why they didn’t make it on the record back at the time. The tracks sound too alike to many solid tracks on Death Magnetic and desperately try to sound like the band's early thrash albums, but horribly fail. The tracks have more or less memorable riffs, always the same vocal ranges, quiet inaudible bass lines, and a mediocre drumming that sounds too loud and present once again. After a few minutes, everything is said in the songs but Metallica need to stretch them too artificially epic lengths. In fact, many old metal bands seem to think that long tracks are epic tracks but they're all wrong. I miss the band's ability to write short and sweet killer tracks like "Fight Fire With Fire", "Battery", or "Dyers Eve".

"Hate Train" is an overall solid track, but sounds like a stretched version of "Fuel". What really annoys me about the track is the pronunciation of James Hetfield. He always sings in a very artificially aggressive way and adds the letter "a" to many of his words like "stand-a", "you-a", "send-a" and so on. He always had this tendency, but it just sound too ridiculous on this one. Maybe he should take some lessons in speech and language pathology and correct this strange trademark.

"Just A Bullet Away" should have ended after four minutes, but has an unnecessary melodic break that destroys the dynamics of the tracks and leads than back to the original style. This is as predictable as it is boring.

"Hell And Back" starts promisingly, but turns around worn out riffs again after awhile. The whole tracks sounds as if the band had recorded two minutes of music and aligned the same bit two times for a length of four minutes before another predictable bridge with a guitar solo kicks off as in any other standard Metallica track from Death Magnetic or the early days. The chorus is repeated as often as in some tracks on Lulu.

"Angel Of Babylon" starts off slow, then kicks off as another fast-paced thrash track, but when I start to get bored the song has some interesting breaks and variations without losing its energizing spirit. The vocals especially show some great efforts and are quite catchy. We even have a little bass solo line in this track, but once again the band could have shortened this track about two minutes or so. Nevertheless, this song is without a doubt the best one on here and is the only one that should have made it on Death Magnetic instead of, for example, "The Judas Kiss". It's not an excellent classic, but surely a pretty good song.

In the end, this is a rather mediocre attempt to beg for pardon, but for most of the fans this strategy worked surprisingly well. People easily change their minds. After "Lulu", many never ever wanted to listen to this band and now everybody says they are back in strength. I can't agree on this. We have three mediocre and one quite good song. The tracks suffer from their useless length, their bad production, and their similarity to Death Magnetic. In the end, I would only recommend this release to diehard fans as anybody else might skip this and listen to the better tracks on Death Magnetic instead. There are too many flaws on here to say that this is a worthy release.

For many years, Metallica didn't release any live release but during the last years, they even release too many DVDs, Live EPs and similar stuff and it's hard to point out which of all those releases is worth to be purchased and which one is not. Even though many of these release are officially only available in a limited number of countries, there are many exceptions and you can still easily purchase the stuff on the internet. The DVD we have here has officially been released in a couple of countries in Latin America but I have been able to buy this in my local music store for a good price. Without a doubt, this is a worthy and quite intimate release and maybe one of the best choices for you among the other stuff that has been released recently.

The sound quality is excellent on this release and the images are pretty good as well even though I have seen better productions. The Mexican crowd is energizing and incredible as always. The stage decoration is almost inexistent but that has almost always been the case for Metallica. The performance they deliver in here is so energizing that you simply don't need anything else to change your mind and feel the atmosphere. The only negative point is that the camera cuts too often and the live document is especially filled with too many quick zooms that make the whole spectacle difficult to watch. But once you're used to this, it gets better as time goes by.

In my opinion, the set list is also very well chosen. With the exception of "Load" and "Saint Anger", a track from every other regular studio album album is performed on here plus a good cover version of Killing Joke's "The Wait". The choice for the tracks from the last album is pretty excellent and includes the incredible high speed thrash monster "All Nightmare Long", the great classic half ballad "The Day That Never Comes" that kicks off very slow, calm and atmospheric to finish with a true blast and the slower and more groove orientated banger "Broken, Beat And Scarred". These tracks are probably my favourite ones from the last output along with "Cyanide". Apart of that, many classics from Metallica's discography are included and the concert even kicks off with three songs of the masterpiece "Ride The Lightning" which is one of my favourite Metallica albums. The only thing I might criticize on here is that the recordings of the tracks are not from the same day and concert but are a mixture of the three different shows at Foro Sol in Mexico City. You can see that the colours of the guitars, the clothes and the crowd changes if you pay enough attention to this document. The performances are still amazing but I would have preferred the even more energizing flow of one single evening shot in Mexico than this very good but not perfect and somewhat odd potpourri of different show snippets and documentary passages which is the final result.

This DVD also features some filming material from behind the scenes of the concert featuring interview passages with band members and fans and a couple of great and intimate impressions where we can learn more about the band's ideology and pride and the passion of their fans. As the concert itself is truly glorious, the name of this recording is indeed very well chosen.

The only other negative point is that these passages are packed within the songs of the concert and can't really be seen apart of it as an extra. This hasn't been the best choice because it strangely interrupts the flow of the concert. Even though both concert and the documentary passages are interesting and appealing, the mix of both of them doesn't fit together in my opinion. Iron Maiden have shown with "Flight 666" how it should be made and Metallica should have released one DVD with the concert only and another one with the documentary passages.

In the end, we only have three little negative points but many positive aspects concerning this release. I would still chose this document rather than "Français Pour Une Nuit". The set list is outstanding, the crowd is simply amazing and the band is in absolute top form. Note that a limited special edition of this release even contains a second DVD with more songs that have been shot during several days at the same location. A few rare and interesting gimmicks have been played and it's a sad thing that Metallica didn't decide to release this extended edition all around the world but I guess this was strange management decision to make more money and appeal to more collectors and diehard fans.

The Chinese metal band The Last Successor delivers great epic progressive metal with power and folk influences. I found their debut record by pure coincidence and consider myself as a fan right now. This band surely merits a larger focus and not only because they are exotic. Their music is really professional and elaborated. The music is diversified but still filled with straight riffs and catchy piano melodies. The vocals are exotic but never oout of place and powerful. The production is quite good and the box set of this record is very beautiful, too. This is a beautiful gem I would like to purchase if I have the occasion to do so.

From the amazing introduction called "Roots" on that mixes floating Tangerine Dream vibes with traditional Chinese folk sounds and score orchestrations worthy of an epic movie, the album drowns us into a very profound atmosphere.

The band delivers a perfect cinema for your mind and your ears from then on. "Way Back" starts with sounds of rifles and machine guns reminding me of Savatage's "Of Rage And War" or even Godsmack's "Straight Out Of Line". The track quickly becomes a very epic gothic track with growls, sharp riffs and also very melodic clean vocals that are surprisingly solid. Even though the song has some power metal elements, it always sounds dark and the vocals are not high pitched at all. The Chinese lyrics fit surprisingly well and don't sound out of place at all. The track has small progressive breaks that keep the tension and attention of the listener on a high level. In comparison to other bands with progressive elements, this band doesn't need endless shred guitar solos to do so but uses inoffensive keyboard sounds that create a bombastic atmosphere.

The great thing is that the band keeps this high level all over the record. "Abyss" has sharp and almost thrash riffs and starts with a pumping bass line. In contrast to this, folk elements can be heard in the beginning and the chorus is very melodic without sounding cheesy and used. The songs manage to be diversified but only in the details as they sound coherent and easy to digest.

From almost commercially orientated half-ballads such as "See Jasmine Again" to heavier tracks with epic passages and vocals somewhere between J-Rock, Gothenburg melodic death metal and Nu Metal as we can hear it in "The World", the band manages to play many different styles in a perfect manner and also has the ability to make the whole thing sound coherent and structured.

The band even gets better and better on this record. Even though there is not a single bad song on the record I must point out "Behind Lies". It's maybe the strongest track on here. It is a very harsh track with some modern elements. Powerful gothic and death growls meet hectic keyboards sounds reminding me of Dream Theater. This song is completely unpredictable with its sound effects, weird heavy riffs and an outstanding guitar solo.

In the end, this is the first Chinese metal band and album I have ever listened to and it really leaves me wanting more. My copy of this record is ordered by now and I can't wait to hold this precious gem in my hands. This is by far the greatest surprise and best album I have listened to in a while. I somewhat hesitated to give this record such a high rating but as it really impressed me and I'm sure it will even grow on me I honestly think I don't exaggerate in here. Be sure to check this out if my review awoke some interest in you as the album can easily be found online.

Unbeing are a quite unknown completely instrumental progressive metal band from Montreal. I discovered their debut record by pure coincidence. It was sold by a lable during a black metal show. Let's note that this music has nothing at all to do with extreme metal music. When I asked the guy from the label about the band about the discs he was selling he told me about this one: "Forget this one. This is weird progressive music." He gave me the advice to buy a depressive black metal record or a blackened folk release but I was strangely intrigued by the record of Unbeing. I wanted to know more about it and he told me: "It's progressive and somewhat in the key of UneXpect." As I like UneXpect I tried to take a chance and bought this release for ten bucks. When a friend of mine and I tried this album out at home, my friend was upset. "I should have bought this. That's incredible!" I had pretty much the same reaction and was positively surprised.

Now what can you expect from this album. It has nothing to do with UneXpect in my opinion. The changes of style on this album are very coherent and always fit. There are no discordant guitar riffs, bleak piano melodies or strange industrial noises on this record. It has no gothic touch. This simply is very epic diversified progressive metal with some small Asian folk influences. The album has a slightly hypnotizing and dark undertone that is difficult to describe. This is an album with a sad soul but with a lot of freewill and experimentation. It has just the right length for an instrumental record. This album never gets boring and finishes on a high note. Long tracks and short but nevertheless great interludes can be found on this technically very professional release.

Every instrument gets its moment to shine. The drumming is incredibly diversified and varies from fast beats to passages dominated by hi-hats or smooth interludes. The riffs of the guitars are heavy but not yet thrash influenced and have also some melodic parts. The bass guitar player proves his talent in short parts of the record but doesn't dominate too much on this record, a little bit like John Myung does on the records of Dream Theater. The keyboards create a lot of dreamy, weird and slightly despaired atmosphere. This is a great soundtrack for grey autumn or winter nights.

It’s useless to point out any track, this album works as a whole and the strange song titles won’t reveal too much anyway. If I had to pick up a personal favourite, I would take the opener “Octo8” because this song represents the diversity of the album very well and it immediately made me fall in love with this release. If you like this song or also the original homage to “Chuck Norris” which you can find on several places on the internet, you will also like the rest.

If you like instrumental progressive metal with a lot of atmosphere and some avantgarde elements, this record should be put on the top of your list of priority right now. You won't be disappointed by this spacey release and you should help and spread the name of this promising but rather unknown band.