• AllMyVinyl #117
• Band: Metallica
• Album Title: Hardwired… to Self-Destruct
• Release Date: 18 Nov 2016
• Date purchased: 14 Jan 2021
• Location purchased: Walmart
• Color of vinyl: orange (or as they call it – “flame orange”)
• Number of discs: 2
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

This is one that for sure I pushed off about a week because honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write.  As my series has gone along I’ve noticed that I’ve written longer and longer articles, mostly because of stuff I remember.  But this time I don’t remember anything.  It’s why I stalled for several days, hoping I’d recall something to write about this one, but nothing ever came.

There’s nothing wrong with this album, I have it filed in my memory as a damn good album, and I expect when I listen to it, I’ll enjoy it, but when I picked up the vinyl and look at the track listing, I can think of just three of the songs by name.  I’d like to blame that on my life events at the time but I don’t remember anything in particular that would have taken my time so much I didn’t get into this album.

What I DO remember however is that when I bought this on vinyl it was the first time I ever owned it on any physical media.  This was an album that came out long after I was entrenched as an Apple Music user, so when I did listen to this album it was streaming.  I never bought it on any physical media format.  This was bought from Walmart in one of a couple orders that covered their entire recorded output in one package (minus 72 Seasons which wasn’t out yet).  This particular package included “And Justice for All”, “Metallica” (aka The Black Album), “Kill ’em All”, “Ride the Lightning”, “Master of Puppets”, and of course Hardwired.  Hardwired was a double disc release.  The Walmart exclusive was what they call “Flame Orange vinyl” – it’s basically orange.

Musically, it was the first really stable release in awhile.  The album before this (Death Magnetic) was heralded as a return to form, but for the purposes of this article was an album with a proper band again.  Two before this (St Anger) was the one that had Bob Rock on bass following the departure of Jason Newsted.  So Hardwired was the first album to have the same lineup for two albums in a row (aka stable lineup) since Reload nearly 20 years prior.

There’s one thing I never liked about this album from the start though – that’s the art design.  It’s a weird morph of the four faces of the band members in distorted fashion.  It just never did anything for me.  I wonder if subconsciously it had some affect on my lack of enthusiasm for the album – but if that is the case, it was never a conscious thought.

I was always going to check this out – I’ve been a Metallica fan since Puppets was the newest album, but I know about them before that.  Until Metallica stops making albums or I depart the planet myself, I’ll always get their shit.  They’re an “automatic” band for me, there was no doubt there.   That’s about as much as I can think of for my intro, because I didn’t really have a big history with this one.

One thing before I play some tunes.  I really love the fact that the vinyl here makes it QUITE CLEAR which “side” you’re listening to.  So many albums make it super hard to figure out which side is which, as they make the “Side A, B, etc” text SUPER small.  Or the equally as annoying “This side / other side” stuff where they have full artwork with no text on one side, and all the text on the other side.  Hardwired here has VERY distinct “Side A / B / C / D” on the four sides of the two discs, so there’s no mistaking which side is what.  I wish more albums were clearer in that way.

Time for some tunes (There’s a lot – it’s a 77 minute long album)….

Hardwired – As the song that leads off the album, it’s up to that song to make the first impression – the song that will form the basis of your opinion of the album as whole.  Hardwired delivers.  The main thing at the start of the song is it has Lars out in front more than usual.  It’s usually a riff to the face first, but that wasn’t the first thing here.   Once the full band kicks in, it’s basically early thrash-y Metallica.  So..  a classic Metallica sound.  It doesn’t let up – it’s got no major time changes, no changes in direction.  Just a good leadoff song.   Loved the bridge before the solo (yay! Solos!),  I found myself doing some head banging at my desk at 7:30AM (when I started doing this), so that works right out of the gate.  Not the most inventive guitar work here, but in terms of making you get into the song – it definitely works.

Atlas, Rise! – This was the third of the “instant gratification” tracks released before the full album came out, and the one I enjoyed the most.  It’s not necessarily because of the riffs that I like this one – I just like the phonetic way the words “Atlas Rise” are delivered in the song.  There’s a part where the song reminds me of Iron Maiden.  Specifically the part with the lyrics “Die as you suffer in vain / Own all the grief and the pain / Die as you hold up the skies”.  It has a very Maiden sound.   But I really love the words “Atlas, Rise!” – those two words make the whole song for me.  Musically I think the song ends better than it starts.  At the start I was more focused on the words – at the end I was more focused on the guitar.  :)

Now That We’re Dead – This has a slower, more crunchy riff to start the song.  Not a thrash riff for sure.  Even the middle part of the song has a slower vibe for Metallica.  It’s not “Unforgiven” slow, it’s just for them a slower track – which for some bands wouldn’t be slow at all.   The main part of the song doesn’t do a lot for me, but I REALLY loved the guitar solo part.  That was awesome, and it seemed to drive the end of the song as the song past solo was harder than the earlier part.  Was almost like the solo said “Hang on, I can save this one”.

Moth Into Flame – It’s interesting that Hetfield has said that the inspiration for the song was the singer Amy Winehouse and how her life crashed and burned.  Musically, it bears zero resemblance to what she did (which is really great too IMO).  This was the second single/instant grat song.   Quite like this one.  This has a few different guitar sounds that pop up during the song, I enjoy the different sounds here.  One of my favorite parts is the bit “Seduced by Fame – A Moth into the Flame”.  There’s a pause and a fraction of a second of total silence in the middle of that I think that works very well.  Effective use of silence in a song, IMO.   Good track.

Am I Savage? – This starts off faking you out thinking it’s going to be another track like Unforgiven, but it isn’t.  It is still a slower paced song, however.   The title makes me think of “Am I Evil?” which doesn’t have anything to do with this, but my brain went there when I saw the song title (especially with a question mark).   This does have some of my favorite things (time change), and different sounds, but overall this song doesn’t do much for me beyond the guitar solo.  Not bad, just doesn’t grab me.

Halo on Fire – My stupid brain thought – Master Chief?  It’s the longest song in the album at 8:15 – but it doesn’t feel like that at all.  Quite like this musically.  The underlying beat that runs through it is great, some great guitar flourishes scattered throughout on top of the base sound.  A few different time changes scattered throughout – different sounds.  My kind of long track.  I’m well known for preferring the faster 3-4 min long songs, but if we have something 8 mins or longer it’s this kind of track I like.  Would have loved to have seen this performed live (I haven’t’ seen Metallica live since 1991).  Actually listened to this twice in a row on the vinyl play through today.  This is probably my favorite overall song off the album.

Confusion – After the majesty of the last song (which I think would have worked well as an album closer), we get the first song on “Side C”.  It’s not bad at all, but after the last one, it felt like a bit of a let  down.  I probably shouldn’t do that – the song deserves to stand on its own.   Ends with a nice beat with the drums out front a bit.  Liked that.  Overall, it’s “there”.  that’s not to say it’s bad, I enjoyed it while listening to it, but just didn’t find anything super awesome that made me go “Oh yeah – THAT!”.

Dream No More – Nice chunky kind of riff that drives this song.  Vocally it’s a little different.  There’s some background vocals singing along with James.  I’m not sure if it’s James singing with himself or it’s someone else doing backup.  Either way, it’s a sound that both sounds like Metallica and doesn’t sound like Metallica at the same time.  I like that.   Don’t mistake my lack of words for a lack of appreciation.  I really enjoyed this song, but just took it in, vs breaking it down to write about it.

ManUNkind – I was so put off by the music video for this, I have no desire to listen to the song.  PASS.

Here Comes Revenge – I really loved the guitar sounds here.  Kirk knocks it out of the park here.  Big fan of what he did in this song.  So much so I can’t remember much else about the song despite just listening to it.  I just hear the guitar work.  Lyrics – irrelevant.  REALLY darned good song – I give it that rating due to Kirk.  It’s also a longer one at 7:26 – but like the other long one I called out, it doesn’t feel like it at all.  Song moves long nicely, doesn’t bore me, or get bogged down in “look at what I’m doing here”.

As we approach the end of the album, I’m starting to feel the length.  There’s been a few albums I’ve listened to where the sheer length of the thing make listening to it a slog.  Now that’s not happening here, but it took until Song 11 at around an hour in to make me notice “Oh yeah, this is a long ass album” – I suppose that’s a good thing?  I wasn’t checking the clock wishing it would be over, but it isn’t a 37 min full album like the generation before Metallica tended to put out.  :)

Murder One – Another one where I feel the guitar solo is the best part of the song.  It’s not just straight up Kirk riffing either, it’s got a nice flow to it – sounding a little like Ritchie Blackmore in places.  Now Kirk Hammett and Ritchie Blackmore don’t really sound like each other a whole lot, but in a few small places of this song I could hear Ritchie a bit.  Nice driving beat under all of that work too.  Good song if perhaps not the top track on here.  Good solid album track.

Spit Out the Bone – The last song on the album starts off with that faster thrash-y sound that’s been missing since the first song.  Open with trash, close with thrash, and a lot of other stuff in the middle.   It also has a bass heavy sound in the middle, something that’s unique on the album, don’t usually hear Robert out front like that.   Lyrically, James Hetfield has this quote about the meaning of the song..  “We could be a much more efficient race if we just allow computers to help us. And yeah, they are helping us, but how far does that go? All of that craziness. So ‘Spit Out the Bone’ is that your bones aren’t needed. They break.”  Musically as I said this is mostly thrash, but it’s not 100% thrash for all 7 mins of the song.  But still, on the faster side.  Good song, but I think I would have preferred Halo on Fire to close out the entire album.  Very thrash-y ending to this song, though.  With again some good Kirk stuff.

This is the end of the base album.  12 songs.  However, the deluxe editions contain 14 more songs, with 10 of them being live.  The remaining four are mostly covers.  The one that is not is a track called “Lords of Summer” which was a re-recording of a track they demoed in 2014 (so not that far back).   The other three are studio recordings.  One is a medley of Ronnie James Dio songs that appeared on the Dio tribute album “This is Your Life”.  The others are songs created for other band tribute albums.  They’re “When a Blind Man Cries” (Deep Purple) & “Remember Tomorrow” (Iron Maiden).  Good tracks.

In summary, it’s a decent album.  Perhaps not top of the list of Metallica albums, but there’s nothing here that should turn off the dedicated fan base like Load and Reload did.   There’s a few killer tracks on here, but nothing that really rises to the level of things like “Master of Puppets” I suppose.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing – not everything thing a band puts out can be the best thing ever.  Metallica albums are always something to enjoy when they come out (Yes, even St. Anger).  I’ve been there since the days of Cliff Burton, and nothing will stop me from listening to them now.  This album is another good, solid Metallica album with moments to be enjoyed.  One thing that does stick in in the review is how many times I mentioned Kirk Hammett.  I really enjoyed his guitar playing here.  Far more than I usually do.  Kudos to him for his work on this one.

Perhaps the fact that there isn’t a “Master” type track on here is why my opinion at the start was blank.  I had forgotten about how good Halo on Fire was.  Give this thing a spin, you might have forgotten a bout some of the good shit on here too.

This is the part of my pages where I put videos.  For this album Metallica released a video for every song on the album.  I’m not putting them all on this page – if you want see all of them, you can use the “Complete album on Youtube” link at the top of the page, they’re all in a playlist there.