I hear you man. Their new album is pretty good though. I was impressed. All Nightmare Long is great, the video is straight insane. Some for real messed up stuff going on in it lol. If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest going to youtube for it, it's wild.
We will never again see the "80s" Metallica though, those days are behind us. Bands evolve. That's that. Those that don't evolve at some point eventually fade into obscurity. The reason we will never see the "80s" Metallica again is the same reason that we still have the pleasure of having those rough bastards melt our faces off today.
Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath....those bands stayed strong for years upon years b/c they kept experimenting, trying new things, and evolved throughout the years. While consistent, I don't think you can really call any of them repetitive. Very very few Led Zeppelin --> the epitome of all things great about rock and roll lol --> songs sound alike...
Fortunately we have the CDs, vinyl, and memories to take us back to the early Metallica days when we used to break our necks headbanging.
In the words of Andrew Bryniarski from "Any Given Sunday" - "Metallica rules. Hetfield is God. You shall bow down."
