Hear This: Metallica – Hardwired

18th November: metalheads, mark that date on your calendars.

Because that will be the day that the first Metallica album in eight long, hard years will be unleashed into an unsuspecting world.

We have three months until the record – Hardwired… To Self-Destruct – but Metallica have dropped the first taster in the form of single ‘Hardwired’.

It is an amazingly promising single. After making several missteps in the past with the terribly produced and unbelievably boring St. Anger (2003) and then the poorly mixed, overly long Death Magnetic (2008), it looks like Metallica are finally back to what brought them to the dance: balls-to-the-wall speed, anarchic and pissed off lyrics, and a flurry of fast guitars from James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett.

‘Hardwired’ has truly come out of nowhere. The band’s drummer and founder Lars Ulrich told fans about it literally minutes before the single hit the web on a Facebook livestream and then – with none but a small few aware – it was released like a rabid dog off a chain.

This could signal a return to musical form for Metallica, who have never truly been able to capture lightning in a bottle since their self-titled classic album 25 years ago.