"The Day That Never Comes" is what Metallica fans felt they were pining for while awaiting the follow-up to 2003's ill-received album "St. Anger." Rock DJs have pounced on the track, making the band the first act this decade to notch a pair of top five rock debuts. But they're not just banging "Never" because it's an event record: It's a masterful blend of the quartet's classic sound with the Metallica of today, quenching fans' lengthy thirst for a true dose of metal from one of the genre's cornerstones. The clean, meandering route follows the soulful interludes of "Fade to Black," then reveals its ace around the four-minute mark: galloping beats and guitar-heavy fire whose opening chords recount instrumental treatise "Orion." Metallica has forged a comfortable reunion between its gutsy thrash parentage and its contemporary musical maturity. Thank God. —Christa L. Titus