10 Greatest Comeback Albums In Rock

There's a good chance that thrash fans had sworn off Metallica long before Death Magnetic was even a thought. Some may think that they started to go downhill during the Load era or even during the sessions for the Black Album, but the horrible sound of St. Anger was what really started to sink them, sounding more like pampered rock stars who could put out anything and get some sort of profit out of it. That was the therapy album though, and now that they were on more level ground, Death Magnetic was the sound of them coming back much stronger.

For all the experimental songs that they were making for the past few years, Death Magnetic picks up almost exactly where And Justice For All left off back in the '80s, with James Hetfield back to the downpicking rock god he always was and writing some of his most demonic riffs in ages. No longer concerned with radio play anymore, these songs also stretch out a lot more, going back to the more episodic song structures of Master of Puppets like on All Nightmare Long or their ultimate epic ballad The Day That Never Comes.

And given the fact that we heard almost no shredding for almost a decade, hearing Kirk Hammett come back into the fold playing solos was what most of the metalheads were clamoring for. Metallica could have put out almost anything and it would have been better than St. Anger, but this wasn't just pushing an album out for the hell of it. This was a full blown heavy metal resurrection.