Hey so you know how Metallica like 30 years ago would turn brains to a paste with their frenetic thrash sounds? They found the sound again! Or they pulled bits from older tracks and smooshed it into this new really great song, Hardwired. Either way, this song shreds and I imagine there is a large cohort of metalheads who are now confused and excited and possibly aroused at the prospect of a new Metallica album.

I’ll admit I haven’t been the biggest Metallica fan since Reload. There were a bunch of solid hard rock tracks on the Black album and Load, but the drums on St. Anger and Death Magnetic sounded weird and tinny and it just didn’t vibe with me. I wanted to hear the same crude Bay Area Thrash that launched them into the stratosphere in the first place. But if this song is a framework for the album, I may be listening to it a ton.

The vocals are great and don’t have quite as many of the ungh’s and hah’s as their previous stuff. And did I tell you about the drums? They sound straight up legit. There are bits throughout the song that remind me of bits from Kill ‘Em All, particularly the guitar solo has a strong Hit the Lights vibe to it. Which is fine, it’s their music if they want to go back to a well so be it. And that well is so fantastic that they ought to do it more often.