Heavy Metal Music

Though he made his biggest splash during his tenure as the bassist for Metallica, Jason Newsted has been a ubiquitous metal sideman, playing alongside Ozzy Osbourne and Voivod. At the helm of Newsted, his eponymous solo project, he finally gets to take center stage with his aptly titled full-length debut, Heavy Metal Music. Armed with a massive collection of riffs and a growl that sounds a bit like former bandmate James Hetfield, Newsted comes bursting out of the gate with an album that makes good on the simple premise put forward by its title with a collection of songs that feels like classic meat-and-potatoes heavy metal. There are no attempts here to reinvent the genre or reshape the way you look at music. Instead, the album just offers up a heaping pile of midtempo heaviness that harkens back to Metallica's middle years. ~ Gregory Heaney, Rovi