New Metallica, "The Day That Never Comes"

From approximately 1987 to 1990, Metallica was either my favorite or second favorite band on Earth (along with GnR). Sadly, the Black Album didn't do a whole lot for me, and it's been a steep decline ever since. I don't think I even made it through one entire listen of St. Anger, which even the band now seems to admit was a steaming pile of crap.

So it was with quite a bit of trepidation that I listened to their new song, "The Day That Never Comes", at Metallica's MySpace page today.

And, I gotta say... despite a slow start (James' voice is showing wear), the song eventually gets around to kicking all kinds of ass. Seriously, while I recommend listening to the entire song, you wouldn't be too out of line if you just skipped straight to the 5:00 mark and listened from there to the end.

Overall, the song seems like an intentional amalgam of everything the band has done since ... And Justice for All. In fact, it almost seems at times like they've merely cut and pasted song snippets from unused songs from 1988, 1991 and 1996 together into a whole. But ya know what? It works for me.

If the rest of the album is as good or better than this, then this band is back in a big, big way.

Oh, and by the way, I hadn't noticed this -- Metallica, Washington DC, Verizon Center, 1/15/09.