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NEW YORK (CBS) ― Like most everyone else who's invested emotionally and financially in Metallica for the last 20 or so years, I was terrified that Death Magnetic, their first new CD release in five years, was going to go much the same way as their previous three studio albums.

Straight into the toilet.

Then again, as bad as 2003's St. Anger and most of the prequel documentary Some Kind Of Monster were, who could really blame many in Metallica's army of fans for abandoning their posts and the band?

Make no mistake, every band, including the likes of a U2 and Judas Priest, is entitled to a clunker once every millennium (listen again, if you dare, to Pop or the disastrous Nostradamus), but Metallica was also coming off 1996's Load and the even more lackluster ReLoad in 1997. They had cut their hair. They had forgotten about the epic song. They were trying to change with the times, but were failing miserably in the process.

Yet, miraculously, the four rockers, now in their 40s, have made an incredible return to prominence with Death Magnetic. This is the album your older brother has been waiting for since sometime in 1990, when the tour supporting the Metal album classic And Justice For All … was wrapping up. This is the album that will make the 30-something, who was a serious supporter of the whole anti-"selling out" mantra, want to go into his closet and wipe the moth balls off his jean jacket, grow his hair long and set up an appointment or two with the chiropractor.

Death Magnetic is that good.

Clocking in at just less than 75 minutes, Death is a grandiose endeavor that should have been the follow-up to And Justice. Some will say it's more like 1985's cult classic Master of Puppets, but it seems to sound like a combination of all the great Metallica releases. There is a little bit of everything.

It was released on Sept. 12, which was a Friday. Most American releases come out on Tuesdays so that they can get a full week of sales before debuting on charts. But Metallica ran into all kinds of issues with Internet leaks, so they chose to just get it out there. It won't make any difference. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the new album will sell somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 copies and will debut at No. 1 on the U.S. Top 200 Album Chart.

Having said all that, don't expect to hear any of Death on Top 40 radio. Unlike the band's all-time classic self-titled release from 1991, this one is not going to fire up the music fan who thinks "Enter Sandman" is the greatest thing since 8-track tapes were retired.

It's much more sophisticated than that. It's raw, but yet highly polished.

Death Magnetic features 10 songs, many of which are well over seven minutes in duration, including the 10-minute freak of nature instrumental "Suicide & Redemption."

Back in 2003, Metallica made the misguided decision to rein in guitarist Kirk Hammett. They basically told him, "No solos for you." That decision was just one of many that destroyed any hope St. Anger had. The band opted instead for a kind of thrash metal sound that featured non-stop lyrics about singer James Hetfield's struggles with a bad childhood and substance abuse. Drummer Lars Ulrich went from bombast to some kind of trash can sound with his snare and the base lines were done by then-producer Bob Rock.

It was a disaster. Whatever faith the hardcore Metallica fan had left quickly dissipated into a cacophony of four-letter words and the swearing off of what was at the time still the best Metal band in history.

New producer Rick Rubin changed everything. For Death he told the band to write the other half of Master of Puppets.

The result is an album that is both high voltage and highly thought out.

Hammett is the star. He's all over the place. His guitar work, though often borrowing from the past, is electrifying. You need only listen to the solos on the sure-to-be favorite "All Nightmare Long" to realize that when Hammett is firing on all cylinders, Metallica is at its best.

Many will criticize the album's lyrics. The theme, of course, is death or dying or killing or maiming or whatever, but who really cares? Most Metallica fans want the heavy rhythm guitars, changes of tempo and Hetfield's sneering vocals at the expense of what they are actually trying to say.

You get them all here.

Critics of Metallica say that this album sounds too much like the past. Well, when you try and fail miserably to change your sound and approach over three successive albums, who can really blame anyone for trying to go back in time and re-capture that which made you great? Sure, they borrow here. Odds are, fans will say that the first single release, "The Day That Never Comes," sounds like a continuation of their all-time classic tune "One." It does. But again, there's more than enough here to allow it to stand on its own.

And what's with this "The Unforgiven III?" Like Metallica really needed another slow ballad-type of tune. Isn't it just overkill? Not really. "The Unforgiven III" may share a name with the hit from the black album and the follow up on ReLoad, but that's about it. The new one is a meandering monstrosity that gives the listener a lot of everything.

Without going too much into detail on the other tracks on Death Magnetic, it's pretty safe to say there will also be serious fan lust over several other songs, including "Cyanide," "The End Of The Line," "Broken, Beat & Scarred" and the last track, "My Apocalypse," a nod at Justice's "Dyer's Eve" and Puppets' "Damage Inc."

If Metallica can reconnect with its old fan base, which Death Magnetic did with this fan, they will see a resurgence in popularity and less dismissive "They sold out" banter. Fans will not go to their shows just hoping to hear all of Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning and the aforementioned Puppets and Justice. The true measure of this album's success will depend on how people react to Death live. You can bet everything you have that their play list will feature at least seven tracks off the new album.

It will be amazing to see Metallica perform the new material, and not only because the songs are epic, but also because it will take a Herculean effort to pull them off. But if they take the gusto they showed in the studio out with them on the road, there won't be a disappointed person in the house.

Bon Scott, the immortal singer for AC/DC who died long ago, once sang about Metallica circa 2008 without even knowing it.

"I'm dirty, mean and mighty unclean
I'm a wanted man
Public enemy number one
Understand
So lock up your daughter n' lock up your wife
Lock up your back door and run for your life
The man is back in town
So don't you mess me 'round"

Is Metallica still evil? Yes, they certainly are.

Rating: 9.1 out of 10.

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