Serving as a series of firsts for the band, 2008's Death Magnetic was not only Metallica's first album in five years following 2003's St. Anger, but also the first with renowned producer Rick Rubin, first with bassist Robert Trujillo and first on Warner Bros. Heavy and thrashy, unafraid to embrace the band's past yet still breaking new ground, guitarist Kirk Hammett called Death Magnetic the "best album we've put out in, say, 15 years."

Having been availed of long-time twiddler Bob Rock's expertise and unifying qualities, the band wanted to see what happened when working with the decidedly hands-off Rubin. His message, when the band entered the studio in April of '07 to record, was simple; don't be afraid of your past, don't be afraid to rediscover your roots, embrace the ethic of performance over editing and get back to what Metallica essentially is.

Thus began months of work with hands-on engineer Greg Fidelman handing the daily duties and Rubin overseeing and dropping in for tête-à-têtes to make sure matters remained on course. In essence, Rubin removed himself from the process as an ally to anyone and forced Metallica to find their own solutions and resolutions. He also made everyone re-record entire parts if they were unhappy to avoid a pro-tools dominated approach to creation, the idea being that it was always about the performance.

The popular response was enormous, with the album crashing the charts at #1 and critical acclaim acknowledging that this was, indeed, the return to form that Metallica had threatened for so long. The groundwork for Metallica's creative process had been laid with St. Anger and the results were both clear and abundant on Death Magnetic, with killer cuts such as "The Day That Never Comes," "Broken, Beat & Scarred" and "All Nightmare Long" becoming instant fan favorites.

"A stunning, overdue return to the shock and rush of the band's speed-metal monuments, 1984's Ride The Lightning and 1986's Master Of Puppets." - Rolling Stone