If you’re curious about what Metallica’s new album Death Magnetic sounds like, they have offered a stream of the entire Death Magnetic album on their Web site. Surprising, given their earlier stance against Napster. I’m happy to see them trying to move past all of that.

As a big fan of their earlier records, I was very curious to hear the new album, especially given the hype around Rick Rubin producing the album. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. However, I think the album is actually pretty good. I don’t think it’s a full return to their earlier glory, but if Master of Puppets and And Justice For All are on one end of the scale and St. Anger is on the other, Death Magnetic definitely trends more towards the former records than the latter.

ZZ Top has recently signed to American Recordings for their next album, which will be produced by Rick Rubin. Rubin’s been awfully busy lately producing Metallica’s next album, Jakob Dylan’s new album and now ZZ Top’s next album:

The veteran rock trio is planning to hit the studio with Rubin producing, for an album more in keeping with “La Grange”-era ZZ Top than its pop-friendly ’80s sound, according to manager Carl Stubner.

I’d love to see ZZ Top going back to the La Grange days. In other ZZ Top news, they have recently released a new live DVD titled Live From Texas 2007.