Band:	Metallica
Album:	Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	November 2016

Disc I [CD]
01. Hardwired
02. Atlas, Rise!
03. Now That We're Dead
04. Moth Into Flame
05. Dream No More
06. Halo On Fire

Disc II [CD]
01. Confusion
02. ManUNkind
03. Here Comes Revenge
04. Am I Savage?
05. Murder One
06. Spit Out The Bone

Disc III [CD] [Deluxe Edition Only]
01. Lords Of Summer
02. Ronnie Rising Medley
    1 - A Light In The Black [Rainbow cover]
    2 - Tarot Woman [Rainbow cover]
    3 - Stargazer [Rainbow cover]
    4 - Kill The King [Rainbow cover]
03. When A Blind Man Cries [Deep Purple cover]
04. Remember Tomorrow [Iron Maiden cover]
05. Helpless [Diamond Head cover] [Live at Rasputin Music]
06. Hit The Lights [Live at Rasputin Music]
07. The Four Horsemen [Live at Rasputin Music]
08. Ride The Lightning [Live at Rasputin Music]
09. Fade To Black [Live at Rasputin Music]
10. Jump In The Fire [Live at Rasputin Music]
11. For Whom The Bell Tolls [Live at Rasputin Music]
12. Creeping Death [Live at Rasputin Music]
13. Metal Militia [Live at Rasputin Music]
14. Hardwired [Live in Minneapolis]

Metallica face a rare challenge that few bands experience; when you set the high standard for a whole genre, one that many bands and fans measure against, it is a sharp double-edged sword for the band, as all future releases will be expected to match such lofty heights. It is with this blade the band fall upon their sword with Hardwired?, an album that is quite strong but nowhere near the highs the band have hit previously.

Hardwired's sound can best be described as thrash filtered through Load, a tamed thrash or hard rock with a bite. Some songs lean on more on one sound than the other; "Moth Into Flame" being more thrash of old while "Here Comes Revenge" is a hard rock tune with thrash riffs. It works well at creating a sound that allows the band to nod to the old school without needing the all-out power of old.

It is the thrashier songs that the band excel themselves, with "Spit Out The Bone", "Moth Into Flame" and "Atlas, Rise!" being the choices for the representatives of this album should any greatest hits ever be put out by the band. The thrashier songs are probably the best ones of the album; that is not to say the hard rock songs are not without merit, "Now That We're Dead" and "Confusion" are enjoyable listens, but they never rise above average in the way the aforementioned three comfortably do.

The album sounds clean and the guitars have a welcome crunch to them, with the bass adding a good low end. I've never been a fan of Lars' drum sound and that is much the same on here; while not saying he is a bad player, it doesn't endear itself to my ears. That said, the band maintain a high level of musicianship that is prominent throughout the album.

The weak point of this album is that it is too long for its own good; several songs run on too long, hanging on a riff that isn't strong enough to carry it for the excessive length, or feel overly crammed full of content that the song suffers as a result. "Halo Of Fire" is a prime example of this; a song that feels like it had to be altered beyond recognition to fit in so many ideas, it staggers between them unnaturally and never gets interesting as a result of it, aside from the ending guitar riff that should have featured far more prominently. The band have never really excelled themselves lyrically (thematically maybe) and this is continued on this album with little of positive to note, although admittedly it only becomes a problem when the band drop clunkers such as "We're so fucked! Shit out of luck! Hardwired to self destruct!", being about as edgy as a circle.

Overall, Hardwired?. is a good album that could have used a lot of editing down, cutting parts or re-organising songs to feel more streamlined and less bloated for the sake of cramming in all the ideas they had at their disposal. Sometimes less is more; I just wish someone would have told them that at the time.