190.🤘Metallica’s Legacy Era: Death Magnetic, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, & 72 Seasons

The End of a Nostalgia Test Podcast Metallica Journey

[embed]190.🤘Metallica's Legacy Era: Death Magnetic, Hardwired...to Self-Destruct, & 72 Seasons Dan & Billy welcome back longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast Allstar Jeremy Madson for the final episode of the…podcasts.apple.com

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Dan & Billy welcome back longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast Allstar Jeremy Madson for the final episode of the Metallica Eras journey, The Legacy Era: Death Magnetic, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, & 72 Seasons and put them to the ultimate test — THE NOSTALGIA TEST!

“That’s an interesting comparison, Metallica to The Beatles […] The Beatles, depending on how you count them, were only around for, like, six or eight years, right? And they were hyper prolific. They put out all their shit, and that was basically Metallica from however you wanna measure it, from, from Kill ’Em All up to Black or even through Justice, right? They cranked out just, like, absolute pinnacle, God-level material. But instead of, you know, tearing each other down and going off and doing their own thing, they just decided to stick around.” -Jeremy Madson

Dan, Billy, & Jeremy talk about the most recent albums of Metallica’s long and confusing career, Death Magnetic (2008), Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (2016), and 72 Seasons (2023). They try to figure out why Metallica made these albums, if they should’ve stopped after Death Magnetic, Metallica’s consistent cover art fails since Load, and why does Metallica insist on recording songs longer than 3.5 minutes at this point. Is Death Magnetics’ mixing really a problem, especially after Saint Anger or is it just some bulls*t to complain about? Their conversation inevitably returns to the influence of Lars on the band’s trajectory after the death of Cliff Burton and how the band might have imploded anyway if Cliff didn’t die. At the end of the episode, and this is an epic one so hang on and hangout, the guys give their individual rankings of all the studio albums from worst to best (minus LuLu, Garage Inc, *& the live albums) and Jeremy creates an aggregate scoring of all 11 albums.

Listen to the other Metallica Eras Episodes:

• 136:🤘Metallica’s Thrash Era w/ Longtime Friends Billy D’Elia & Jeremy Madson
• 142. 🤘Metallica’s MTV Era: The Black Album, Load, & Reload
• 172. 🤘Metallica’s Saint Anger & Some Kind of Monster Documentary Era: How Metallica Almost Died

Listen to the episode that started it all:

• 128. 🤘Metallica’s the Black Album w/ Longtime Friends Billy D’Elia & Jeremy Madson

Jeremy’s Aggregate Metallica Album Ranking

Aggregate Key

KEA = Kill ’Em All RTL = Ride the Lightning MOP = Master of Puppets AJFA = …And Justice For All Black = Metallica/Black Album L = Load RL = Reload StA = St. Anger DM = Death Magnetic HW = Hardwired… to Self-Destruct 72s = 72 Seasons

This musical voyage was very eye-opening for me, because as a Metallica fan I was able to face albums that I had written off to see if I was caught up in the hate-hysteria or if I truly didn’t like albums like Load, Reload, St. Anger, and the three most recent albums. Sometimes as fans we feel we have ownership over the artist and the creative direction of their work, and maybe the fans can be right sometimes, though I’ve learned I need to let my favorite artists to fail, and sometimes fail tremendously. I fail all the time.

From Load to 72 Seasons, it’s been very difficult to be a fan of Metallica, though I love this band and will love them as they make mistakes, make great songs, and as they change era to era as they see fit to do so. That’s my role as a fan, to be there for the artist. If I don’t like something, I’m going to voice that opinion, though every artist, every person gets a chance to reflect, create, and then reflect again, and create again. As a writer and podcaster, myself, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, yet because I’m not as globally popular as Metallica my mistakes go unnoticed. I’m allowed to mess up in private.

Take The Nostalgia Test Podcast, in the 6 years it’s been out we’ve made a ton of mistakes. The sound started off horribly, the editing was too choppy, I became obsessed with sounds and drops in the edit, and our technology fails all the time. Yet, through it all we continue top correct those issues and create episodes.

But we’re not Metallica. We get to fail quietly

The beauty of being human is we learn from making mistakes and taking risks. We have to take risks in order to grow and be better, to come upon something extraordinary hiding behind so much garbage, to make life worth living. Saint Anger, for me and my friends, was a huge mistake in the career of Metallica. Some people like some of those songs, and though we feel they’re wrong, we all get to be the fan that we want to be (but they’re wrong hahaha). We like what we like. The band does what they do. We get to witness a raw human journey in art.

I saw a video recently on Instagram where these two dudes were talking about who they think the biggest sellouts are in Metal, and the one guy said Metallica. Here’s why he’s wrong. A band that sells out has no regard for their fans; they hate their fans and are only creating product to sell on the open market. Their focus becomes money not risk taking or courageous mistake making on the journey to something even better. A sellout removes all soul from the music, takes no risks, and is unable to evolve, feels no hurt, is nihilistic, and they feel they’re more important than the fans.

Metallica are not sellouts. They love their fans. Do they make some questionable albums? Sure. Has Lars said some f***ed up things? Yep. Do the older fans miss the Metallica from the 80s? Of course. Yet, through all of that, Metallica is out there making music, touring, and performing setlists that honor and celebrate their entire career. They don’t refuse to play their hits and they’re leaving their hearts and souls on the stage every night.

KISS, those are sellouts.

In my parents’ house on Long Island is a cassette of Master of Puppets and The Black Album. These are the first albums I bought with my own money, along with a copy of Tales from the Punchbowl by Primus (hahaaha). I bought those albums with my friend at the Roosevelt Field mall when I was in 6th or 7th grade. This memory is burned in my brain and set me off on a path of music appreciation, Metal exploration, and lifelong friendships. How could I abandon Metallica, their music is the soundtrack to so many of my favorite memories.

These episodes are made with love, even when we’re ragging on Metallica, especially Lars (we love you man, if you see this, come talk to us). We’re Metalheads from Long Island, it’s how we show our love to each other, so Metallica gets the same treatment.

We hope you enjoy this final episode. Grab your concert T’s, your closets Metal friends, push yourself through the pit, and let’s scream our heads off together. Come chill!

Email us (thenostalgiatest@gmail.com) your thoughts, opinions, & episode idea for The Wheel of Nostalgia!

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Approximate Rundown

00:00 Pre Show Setup

00:23 Planning The Format

01:50 Ranking Metallica Albums

02:55 Zoom Tech and Sweater Talk

04:21 Legacy Era Intro

05:55 Skipping Lulu

06:51 Release Timeline Shift

09:38 Metallica As Corporation

11:28 Death Magnetic Relief

13:13 Rick Rubin and Album Length

16:45 Bob Rock Debate

19:34 Death Magnetic Track Takes

26:24 Unforgiven Three Debate

31:07 Production Loudness War

33:13 Producer Pop Quiz

33:48 Fidelman and Death Magnetic

34:24 Death Magnetic Nostalgia Test

35:53 Unforgiven III S&M2 Gem

36:30 Hardwired Facts and Setup

37:48 Double Album Debate

38:42 Cover Art Roast Session

40:27 Hardwired Track Highlights

45:13 Filler Songs and Titles

46:48 Every Song Gets a Video

50:52 Kirk Riffs Lost and Aging Band

52:52 Hardwired Nostalgia Verdicts

56:12 72 Seasons Stats and Awards

57:50 72 Seasons Cover and Anxiety

59:23 Song Titles and Vocal Critique

01:01:57 Lux Aeterna and NWOBHM

01:03:27 Riffs Tease Then Stop

01:05:08 Justice Tone Fan Remix

01:06:36 Why Make New Albums

01:09:34 Mustaine Stays in Metallica

01:10:45 Fixing Metallica Song Lengths

01:12:21 Cliff Bob Rock and Decline

01:13:44 Bands That Still Deliver

01:15:34 Radiohead as a Counterexample

01:16:19 Jason Rob and Lars Control

01:18:36 Do We Need New Albums

01:23:26 72 Seasons Live vs Studio

01:27:43 Meh Verdict and Listener Qs

01:31:47 Kirk Hammett Respect Debate

01:38:42 Ranking the Discography Begins

01:41:22 Reload Roasted

01:42:27 Ranking Number Nine

01:43:58 Hardwired Cover Jokes

01:46:59 Sevens and Sixes

01:48:42 Death Magnetic Cutoff

01:55:05 Black Album Line

01:59:09 Kill Em All at Four

02:01:07 Top Three Debate

02:05:41 Justice vs Puppets

02:11:03 Aggregate Scores Revealed

02:14:49 Series Wrap Up

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The intro and outro music (’Neon Attack 80s’) is by Emanmusic.

The Lithology Brewing ad music (”Red, White, Black, & Blue”) is by PEG and the Rejected

Episode Quotes

“We have decided, because of our sanity, not to fucking do Lulu […] It is, in our opinion […] not a Metallica album […] it’s just a collaborative, chaotic, mess of garbage and gobbledygook.” -Dan Dissinger

“I was very vocal about [Death Magnetic] at the time, where I was like, “Fuck, man. Metallica’s back, bro.” -Billy D’Elia

“Like, hot take [Death Magnetic], it’s compressed, highly compressed and whatever. If you’re gonna complain about this production after St. Anger, then just shut the fuck up.” -Dan Dissinger

“So here’s the question: Fundamentally, why did Metallica make [72 Seasons] and is there a reason other than to make more money […] They could go on tour playing only songs from before the year 2000, and people would come out in droves. They don’t need more albums just to tour. They don’t need an excuse to tour. They could tour until they die.” -Jeremy Madson

“That’s an interesting comparison, Metallica to The Beatles […] The Beatles, depending on how you count them, were only around for, like, six or eight years, right? And they were hyper prolific. They put out all their shit, and that was basically Metallica from however you wanna measure it, from, from Kill ’Em All up to Black or even through Justice, right? They cranked out just, like, absolute pinnacle, God-level material. But instead of, you know, tearing each other down and going off and doing their own thing, they just decided to stick around.” -Jeremy Madson

“We’re all into Metal. It’s the same way people are into horror movies, right? You wanna be kinda scared a little bit or pushing the boundaries of what’s socially acceptable to say or to believe […] you’re pushing the boundaries of society is what Metal’s about.” -Billy D’Elia