Listened to it a few times now. Not sure if I'd say it's better than DM, about the same, different strengths and different flaws. Feels like a heavier Load.
I like to varying degrees between good-great:
Hardwired
Atlas Rise
Moth into the Flame
Dream No More
Halo on Fire
Confusion
Spit out the Bone
Lords of Summer
The rest kinda don't do much for me at this stage. Maybe they'll grow on me. Right now they're filler in an 80 minute album. My opinion of it as a whole would be higher if it had 3-4 less songs. So - it has both more good songs and more shit songs than DM. Again - makes me think of Load, which was a too long album with a bunch of great songs and a bunch of filler.
It sounds a lot better than DM. ie. they didn't completely butcher the production job.
On the other hand I'll agree with the above comment that said some songs drag on too long, even the good ones. Long songs are great, but not when they just repeat sections tacked onto the back end without actually adding anything new. They've done it before, they used to do it better. Metallica's inability to self-edit is nothing new.
My last thought is that the whole 80 minutes has a very similar tone and structure. I feel like it misses 1-2 softer songs (Nothing Else Matters, Unforgiven) to break it up, or something that breaks the verse-chorus-verse-chorus flow (Sanitarium, One, an instrumental).
Overall - Mostly enjoyable, some individually great songs but as a whole album has some obvious filler and flaws. There's a lot to like but I don't think any of it reaches Metallica's best or 2016's best.
2.5 stars
