METALLICA released "Death Magnetic" on September 12th, 2008, and ended one of the longest crises of confidence in metal history. After the divisive "Load" albums and the widely mocked "St. Anger," the band brought in producer Rick Rubin, who pushed them back toward long, multi-part thrash arrangements with guitar solos restored after Kirk Hammett's absence from the previous record. "All Nightmare Long," "The Day That Never Comes" and the ten-minute instrumental "Suicide & Redemption" deliberately echoed the structures of "Master of Puppets." The album topped the charts in more than thirty countries, though its brickwalled mastering triggered one of the loudest volume-war controversies of the decade. Whatever the arguments over the sound, it restored METALLICA's standing with an audience that had spent a decade drifting away.
