Metallica's Death Magnetic gets a release date, single

At long last, Metallica's ninth studio album is wrapped up (complete with apropos cover art) and has an official release date: Sept. 12th. Always ones to push the envelope before shredding it into oblivion, they've decided to release it on a Friday, bucking the usual trend of Monday-Tuesday release cycles for albums. Metallica will likely be making the entire album playable on Guitar Hero III that day as well, so attentive gamers should keep their ear to the ground.

The last five years have been a bumpy road for the Bay-area thrash progenitors; the near-universal panning of 2003's St. Anger prompted the four-piece to take a long, hard look in the mirror. After extensive self-reflection in the form of a pink slip to Bob Rock, longtime cohort to Slayer and Jay-Z Rick Rubin was anointed to produce Metallica's quote-unquote return to form. With tracks like "The Unforgiven III" on the menu for Death Magnetic, it's hard not to get one's hopes up.

The first single, due for release in late August, is "The Day That Never Comes." The band is currently prepping a video for the single that they claim is apolitical, despite seemingly being set in a Middle Eastern warzone. "That's the beauty, I think, of writing vague but powerful lyrics — that someone like a movie director can interpret it in his own way and obviously, someone creative is able to take the metaphors and apply them to whatever he needs in his own life," frontman James Hetfield explained to MTV. "The main theme is the human element of forgiveness and someone doing you wrong, you feeling resentment and you being able to see through that in the next situation that might be similar and not take your rage or resentment out on the next person and basically keep spreading the disease of that through life."

Somewhere out there, Dave Mustaine is still crying.

Related links:
News: No Metallica, Beatles for Guitar Hero just yet
Metallica.com
YouTube: Metallica - "Enter Sandman"

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