USA Today reports that with its sinister growls, guitar blitzes and machine-gunned drums, METALLICA's ninth studio album, out Friday, is drawing comparisons to a ferocious '80s streak that preceded the band's latter-day alt-rock shift.

Embarking on Death Magnetic, Metallica felt pulled toward a buried lodestone: Master Of Puppets, hailed as one of thrash-metal's peaks. On tour in 2006, the 20th anniversary of Puppets, the band began playing its early masterwork in full.

"We decided if that's the bar, let's get as close to that without copying it," says drummer Lars Ulrich, 44. "In the '90s, we stayed as far from that side of Metallica as we could."

That detour culminated with 2001's departure of bassist Jason Newsted (replaced by Rob Trujillo, 43), 2003's introspective St. Anger album and 2004's soul-baring Some Kind of Monster documentary, which revealed band therapy sessions and guitarist James Hetfield entering rehab.

"Remember, the movie had a happy ending," Ulrich says. "By the time the St. Anger tour was over, we realized we could make a record without falling into the old traps."

When the band started working again, "there was no film crew, no psychologist, no hand-holding producer," he says. "That's a bygone era. It was the four of us sweating and having fun with some of the hunger and attitude from back in the day."

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