Death Magnetic is Metallica's attempt to get back on the ball after experimenting on St. Anger. It's a typical length of 10 tracks and an hour and fourteen minutes.

It starts off with "That Was Just Your Life," a generic Metallica sounding song that combines the sounds of the Metallica (Black) album and Load. It seems to drag on a little bit towards the end, without offering much to keep your interest the longer you listen, but on the plus side is a classic sounding Hammet solo.

Next up is "The End of the Line," which continues in a similar sound, but the opening riff seems a lot like a modified version of Pearl Jam's "Animal" riff. It's a varied song, with a decent solo and pretty good drums.

"Broken, Beat & Scarred" offers stop and go drums, a pretty good riff that would not be out of place on And Justice, and a pretty decent breakdown towards the end. The solo is a little weak though. The chorus of "Show your scars" is a little lame to be honest.

"The Day That Never Comes" is a softer song. I had heard this on the radio before listening to the album and didn't realise it was Metallica at first. It's not really either a good or bad song, but instrumental break towards the end seems a little out of place though.

"All Nightmare Long" has a really cool opening riff. The rest of the song is decent, except for the lyrics.

"Cyanide" is another typical Metallica sound song. Pretty bland though.

"Unforgive III" is another softer song, more similar to "Unforgiven," but it doesn't offer as much. Pretty good solo though.

"The Judas Kiss" is another typical Metallica sound song.

"Suicide & Redemption" features some pretty deep bass. It's also a pretty nice instrumental.

"My Apocalypse" is a fast paced track, similar in a sense to "Battery," but they lyrics are, well, apocalyptic.

Overall it's a contiguous album, but some of the tracks feel a bit long, and the lyrics are generally weak. It's a little disappointing that this is what they came up with in five years since St. Anger, but it's not a bad album. It's just a little tame, where their previous albums pushed the boundaries. St. Anger at least experimented, and you heard similar sounds in bands after that. This would probably fit in right between the Black album and Load sound-wise.

On a rating of 1-5, I'd give it about a 3 1/4, where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent, with three being average.