After the unfortunate leaking of Metallica’s Death Magnetic by a French record store, the new songs are out there and getting people talking. The band is reportedly remaining good-natured about the gaffe, accepting the likelihood of such things in big, bad 2008. They’ve even countered the leak by streaming Cyanide on metallica.com.

Unfortunately, though, many fans haven’t shown as much goodwill in return. Several tracks (included below) have attracted criticism for calculatingly aping formula of early, pre-therapy Metallica albums. It seems there might be some weight to those rumours that producer Rick Rubin instructed the band to re-bottle the energy of Master Of Puppets and …And Justice for All. Anyway, here’s a selection from Death Magnetic for your perusal (unless they’re elaborate fakes, Ben Folds style?). Who would’ve guessed there’d be an Unforgiven III?

Unforgiven III

Suicide & Redemption

The Judas Kiss