If we can believe the members of the band themselves, they felt very inspired to write new songs. I think this is the best they have delivered since Load, and that is saying something. The lyrics are dark enough, the playing is like it should be: hard and relentless. Metallica as it should be.
They really did a good job on the vinyl release, with some impressive artwork. I was trying to find out who did the job, but couldn’t find it. It looks a bit like the leaden artwork by Anselm Kiefer. The inside of the gatefold has cutouts in the shape of the title. Beautiful, but a bit impractical if you want to put back a record in the sleeve. But let’s not complain. It is certainly a far cry from the horrible job that was done on the aforementioned album.
