Unless you’ve been under a rock today, you probably know that Metallica revealed “The Day That Never Comes,” the first new music from their new album, the Rick Rubin-produced Death Magnetic, which will be online and in stores on September 12th. Clocking in at nearly 8 minutes, the track is already inspiring debate on the web, including nearly 600 comments on Blabbermouth.net, always the epicenter of heavy metal.

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The good news is, it’s pretty good.

My buddy Jon was the first to email me after hearing it, excited to let me know that in his opinion the new single is “Without a doubt the best thing they have done since the Black album… destroys anything from the last three albums.”

Meanwhile, my buddy Rob emailed to say “I just listened to it full volume 3 times in a row. It takes a while but then turns on the after-burners. Good stuff. Looking forward to the new album…sounds like Rick Rubin got them back on track.”

Metal comrade D.X. Ferris just sat there throwing the horns, over and over again. Of course, he always does that even when there’s no music playing. (cheap plug: check out his latest interview for the Slayer book.)

Elsewhere on the internet:

Stereogum sez:

Death Magnetic Metallica is all about bringing it back to the classic era. Clocking in at 7:56, you’d think this was the track to make good on that. And you’d be right! For the last three minutes. And if “bringing it back” means “rewriting old songs.” At 5:00 “The Day That Never Comes” becomes the last half of “One.” (Literally.) Before that, it’s “Unforgiven” meets “Fade To Black.” (But not really as good as that.)

lalate says that this is single number 40 for Metallica. Wow.

And Word to Your Moms sez “I give them an A for effort and a B- in execution. This is definitely a huge improvement from Load/Reload/St. Anger days…”

I don’t have reaction yet from my pal Chris Akin, and he’s either thrashing away with the song on repeat, or disgusted. I’m guessing he’ll dig this one.

If you’ve heard it, what do you think?

Here’s some bonus listening material for you all – Apocalyptica’s Eicca Toppinen interviews Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich about the new album and all things Metallica related.

Speaking of Lars, you can’t forget Napster Bad, can ya? (warning: contains lots of NSFW language.)

Napster Bad

One more Metallica-related bit – check out a VERY cool interview that the band did below with Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album Kill ‘Em All.

Behind the scenes footage from the video shoot for The Day That Never Comes

Relevant Links:

Metallica’s official website

Purchase Death Magnetic on CD or Vinyl