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8.0
91791
8.0 |
Q
An album that sees Metallica extend their legacy by saluting it. Print edition only
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8.0
91792
8.0 |
Mojo
Freed from that angst, the group sound more savage, more inspired and, crucially, more fun than they have for a quarter of a century. Print edition only
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8.0
91796
8.0 |
PopMatters
The subject matter might be bleak, but there’s a lust for life on this album that will leave a smile on the faces of their millions of fans, and even on a few of those grumpy old ones
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8.0
91798
8.0 |
Rolling Stone
The mostly epic-length tracks are melodically assured furies of serial riffing and tempo shocks
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8.0
91801
8.0 |
NME
Metallica still – in their fifties – remain both vital and innovative. And nobody in rock has earned those plaudits more
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8.0
91830
8.0 |
The FT
The band chugs through a landscape of glowering riffs, lightning-flash solos and scorched-earth drumming
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8.0
91838
8.0 |
The Observer
Their 10th album is an attempt (and a more successful one than 2008’s patchy Death Magnetic) to replicate the glories of their first three. The back-to-basics approach serves them well
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8.0
91842
8.0 |
musicOMH
There’s plenty of returning to old ground, but this is not a derivative record
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8.0
91805
8.0 |
The Guardian
Some judicious editing could have made it a classic, but either way this is a triumphant return to form
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8.0
91860
8.0 |
All Music
What impresses here is the thought and musicality within the compositions and the performances, elements that have always been at the band's core and shine brightly on Hardwired...To Self-Destruct
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8.0
91876
8.0 |
Clash
Some of Metallica’s strongest work since 1991
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8.0
91879
8.0 |
The Digital Fix
A welcome return from the Bay Area boys, may they continue for years to come
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7.5
91880
7.5 |
Spectrum Culture
If this is the group stripped free of its self-imposed limitations, Metallica may be ready to cast off the burden of being a legacy act in favor of reclaiming its place at the top of the metal mainstream
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7.0
91928
7.0 |
FasterLouder
While Hardwired… is far from a perfect Metallica record, it’s easily their best album since 1991
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7.0
91974
7.0 |
Paste Magazine
The best Metallica record in 25 years, but it’s not going to blow mind
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7.0
91800
7.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
If you’ve followed Metallica beyond the black album, you’ll find a very good, honest, release in Hardwired...
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6.5
91852
6.5 |
Pitchfork
Metallica's latest attempt to revisit their early days: the only difference is that this time the band sound like they’re actually trying, and maybe even having a bit of fun
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6.0
91808
6.0 |
The Irish Times
Despite its comparatively humdrum second half, however, there is a twisted pleasure to be found amidst the debris
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6.0
91790
6.0 |
Exclaim
Though it will undoubtedly exceed listener expectations, Hardwired… still shows Metallica are at their best when they're loud, fast and mean
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6.0
91848
6.0 |
The Arts Desk
If the best of what’s here had been presented on one disc, it could lay claim to be the best material the band has put out in a quarter of a century
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6.0
91968
6.0 |
No Ripcord
Not a perfect album by any means. It's too long, with too many tracks that go nowhere. But those songs that do work are some of their best in the last couple of decades
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6.0
91901
6.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
This is essentially the same stuff they released in 2008, and since there are 77 minutes of it, it's entirely too much of the same stuff
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5.8
91799
5.8 |
Consequence Of Sound
At nearly 80 minutes, it’s understandable for an album like Hardwired to have lulls, but it grows too comfortable too early, and even then it still trips and falls over itself
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5.5
91858
5.5 |
Gig Soup
21st century Metallica has been polarising, and while ‘Hardwired…to Self-Destruct’ might be a step up, it’s nothing new
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5.0
91845
5.0 |
The Quietus
Hardwired… to Self-Destruct is better at mimicking old Metallica than Death Magnetic. Even so, there’s an undeniable hollowness to the record
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5.0
91803
5.0 |
A.V. Club
It’s not so much that Metallica is incapable of writing a good song in 2016; it’s just a little too complacent to write a truly great one
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3.0
91943
3.0 |
Drowned In Sound
The idea of Metallica returning to their Eighties highs in 2016 is, ultimately, faintly ludicrous. Nobody in the universe needs the new Metallica album to be anything more than a respectable excuse for the band to keep touring the world
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