Just listened to the new Metallica single from the upcoming Death Magnetic album, “The Day That Never Comes”. Like most dupes out there, I am naturally rooting for the band to have a return to form with this LP. Of course, I know they will never truly return to form, for too many reasons to get into right now. Still, they are the same band that produced four heavy metal classics in the 80’s, and even in their slump, were able to put out one of the most fascinating rockumentaries you’re ever likely to see, even if you’re not a fan, in Some Kind of Monster. I still like them, and was pretty excited after hearing their recently recorded cover of Iron Maiden’s “Remember Tomorrow” on the Kerrang! Maiden Heaven tribute released a few months back with an issue of the magazine.

This new single has been likened (by the band’s management) to some of the pseudo-ballad classics of old, like “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”, “Fade to Black”, and “One”. Does it match up to any of those? HELLLL no. Not even close. Is it a good song in it’s own right? I’m still on the fence there, it’s too early for me to say. Granted, you have to like at least a little bit of later day Metallica in order to appreciate this, so if you want a thrash tune like you’d find on Kill ‘Em All, well, just go ahead and skip this.

I’d have to listen again to confirm this, but “The Day That Never Comes” seems to have a very similar song structure to “One” (which in turn ripped off the structure from “Free Bird”), so I can only guess they were trying to recreate a Justice vibe here. The drums thankfully no longer sound like tin cans as they did on St. Anger, so that’s a welcome relief. Guitar solos are also back, although the band has once again ripped off Megadeth in this department. Kirk Hammet sounds eerily similar to Dave Mustaine during the epic solos towards the later half of this track.

Two things let me down with the song. First, the lyrics are crap. To be fair, most fans know that James Hetfield usually ends up jotting some garbage down on a piece of paper five minutes before the vocal tracks are due to be recorded, but still… they’ve had some good lyrics in the past. I’m not that big on the words to begin with, I prefer the actual music, but when they’re this lame it becomes a distraction and you simply can’t ignore it. The other thing that hurts the song is the singing. Damn, is Hetfield’s voice getting progressively worse, or what? Not that he was ever a really good singer in the Dio/Halford/Dickinson mold, but it’s after hearing vocal performances like this that I wonder what Metallica’s fate would’ve been if they actually had gone through with their idea of hiring John Bush to sing for them and become a five-piece back in the early 80’s.

So my conclusion? “The Day That Never Comes” is Load-era Metallica, but with some balls added. I’ll listen to the new record when it comes out, but I’m not overly enthused about it. Hopefully I can be pleasantly surprised.