Am I Savage yet? No, you’re not James Hetfield and, at 53, I don’t see you ever becoming ‘savage’. The stars have aligned in 2016 for METALLICA to finally release another album in the form of Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, their first album since Death Magnetic.

I’ll be honest with you, it’s not bad, but also not very good. If I was to place Hardwired with another METALLICA album it would go alongside both Load and Reload. There are one or two standout songs to head bang to but the rest sound samey. It’s not bad musically; it’s just dull and uninventive. Maybe I’m comparing this new album too much to the three masterpieces from the Cliff Burton era, but I find it hard to believe that the band who produced metal such as ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ‘Seek and Destroy’ now make generic hard rock like ‘Confusion’ and ‘Now That We’re Dead’.

“It’s not bad but also not very good”

If you do want to listen to some decent heavy metal/hard rock, Hardwired isn’t the worst choice. The title track ‘Hardwired’ deserves credit for being one of the best songs METALLICA have wrote this century - not like that is a challenging task. It’s the one true thrash metal song on the album which reminded me of classic METALLICA we all know and love. ‘Am I Savage’ also features an excellent riff and is, all in all, a pretty good song. After those two songs though, there’s nothing which really stood out. Listening to Hardwired reminded me of when I used to listen to Reload over and over. There are memorable songs like ‘Fuel’ and ‘The Memory Remains’ but, after those, I couldn’t name another. Hardwired feels the same.

I hate to be negative towards Metallica as I love them, but I got nothing from this album. Hardwired… to Self-Destruct isn’t worth buying, but there are a few decent songs.

2.5/5