Oh man, I totally agree. But I got clowned on by Nick Danger from 104.5 yesterday for stating that opinion to him
This album actually got a lot of good publicity pre-release from some pretty hard-core Metallica critics like metallicasucks.com. I don't understand how these people liked the album so much. Lars' snare drum sounds like a coffee can, there are no guitar solos, and very limited melodies. Although good riff-based metal can be sweet, the riffs need to be good. While some of what I listened to had some good riffage, it just seems pieced together.
Overall, I think that if this album was some new band's debut album, it wouldn't even be getting airplay.