The heavy riffs and head banging sounds are back with Metallica’s new singles “Hardwired” and “Moth Into Flame”.  The band released “Hardwired” out of the blue on Aug 18 with the news of a new album (Hardwired… to Self-Destruct) and an upcoming world tour.

“Hardwired… to Self-Destruct” is scheduled to be released November 18, 2016, and will be Metallica’s first album since their 2008 album “Death Magnetic.”

Overall, the band has produced nine previous influential albums starting in 1983 with “Kill’em All.” In 1986 the band exploded with their hit album “Master of Puppets.” But it wasn’t until 1991’s self-titled (the black album) album that the band would go number one in the charts.

The band made their live debut of “Hardwired” two days after its official release at their show in Minneapolis in front of a sold out crowd at U.S Bank Stadium. This show also broadcasted a live stream where thousands of fans tuned in to watch the legendary band play the new single.

“Hardwired” currently has two official videos online that have exploded in popularity. The first video is the official music video and the second one is the live footage from their Minneapolis show. The live version has an incredible 1,910,165 views while the music video holds an astounding 14,174,952 views.

I believe this song is everything you could have asked for in a Metallica song. “Hardwired” is incredibly riff heavy with many break downs and intricate parts that keep you engaged throughout the song.

The lyrics are very aggressive in the song as well. Aggressive in a good way, as the first line in the song makes you jump and bang your head.

Plus, this song is an easy first introduction into Metallica, since it is 3:30 minutes long unlike most of their most that spans anywhere from 5 minutes to 10.

The reviews for this single have been good; so good that reviewers are starting to second guess the album. The Guardian, a UK based news company in their review of the song, said “The first track from the new Metallica album is everything you might have wanted. Can the rest of it possibly be as good?”

Well, the band has been climbing the charts with this single, so there doesn’t seem to be any reason to worry and question the rest of the album. Especially after they released their second single from “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct” “Moth Into Flame.”

“Moth Into Flame” was released this past week on Sepe 26th. The music video for this song after one day already has 705,126 views. The comments underneath the video show the excitement and love for the song.

Simon Young of TeamRock.com reviewed this song and said “It’s like one well-aimed punch in the sternum rather than a flurry of punches around the neck and face.” I couldn’t agree more with this analogy. The song is swift and packs this punch.

The tune of the guitar in the song is more melodic and more of a full tone sounds rather than the normal distortion Metallica puts on their guitars. The vocals are also quite different. Yes, James Hetfield is still growling and screaming but he turns that off for this chorus.

In the chorus Hetfield and his bandmates harmonize together to create this power vocal melody and sound.

After listening to these two singles I have to say  these are definitely some of my favorite Metallica songs, especially “Moth Into Flame”. There is something special about this new era of Metallica and I cannot wait to dive straight into the master of metal new material.

Cameron Campbell is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]