10 Albums That Fell Apart During Production

When Metallica released Death Magnetic in 2008, metal fans across the world breathed a huge sigh of relief. The backlash behind St. Anger was still fresh in everyone's minds, and it was nice to see that the greatest thrash metal band in the world can still write headbangers when they wanted to. After a few years sitting with the record though, fans started to notice that those old production habits die hard.

Compared to the pristine sounds of the Black Album and even Load and ReLoad from the '90s, pairing Metallica up with Rick Rubin made for an awkward rub, with the live room feeling starting to grate on people. Though Rubin had many experiences bringing Slayer to prominence during thrash's prime, the loudness wars that were going on around this time made everything much too abrasive after a few listens, with the trash can snare of St. Anger being replaced with drum hits that sound like static whenever they hit.

While St. Anger had the unholy pairing of bad songs and terrible production, Death Magnetic still feels like Metallica picking up where they left off back in the '80s, with songs like The Day That Never Comes and My Apocalypse taking that same nervy energy that you heard on Master of Puppets and bringing it into the modern age. The backlash of the past few years may have been unforgivable for some of the hardcore thrash fans, but Death Magnetic could easily serve as a reminder of why these guys were so respected back in 1986.