| The tunes definitely have a "Justice" era feel to them and have an edge which I like much more than some of their previous releases..but this is no "early metallica, even with Rubin and the packaging evoking Metallica of old.
These guys are getting too old/rich/rehabbed...etc to have the fire they once had..time tends to mellow things out....including people(I know there are exceptions to the rule) but it must be hard to sustain what they created early on.
Two other comments:
RE: Megadeth...used to see them in the day and while they had chops and ellefson was good, they sounded horrible live and Mustaine was usually a wreck.
RE: Bass tone..typical for Metallica it sounds fairly buried in the mix, which was a disappointment to me...No Metallica bassist has had tone like Burton did on the earlier albums(which also "vintage" kinda muddy but somewhat more present in the mix)..I was hoping to really hear Trujillo but he has his role and it is the Metallica sound NOW
My .02
Mark | 
