Metallica - ...And Justice For All
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Music Reviews of ...And Justice For All
Music Review: Some people...
Rating: 4 Stars
... are complete and utter morons who deserve a steel-toed boot to the head.
Out of all of the Metallica albums, this probably receives the most mixed reviews. First off, you have the nay-sayers who are attacking this album's production values and supposed absence of the bass guitar, these people are effing retards. Despite what the MTV/TRL pop crowd says, the production is the best i'v ever heard from them in overall qaulity verses heaviness AND you CAN hear the bass; ever hear that stange "buzzing" sound in the songs on "Justice"? yup, thats Jason's bass. Also take into consideration that this came out after what is quite possibly one of the most overrated albums of all-time, "Master Of Puppets", so it would be naturally hard for "Justice" to be as popular as it's older brother.
Then there is the crowd that actually knows something and agrees that "... And Justice For All" is by far the greatest album Metallica ever put out. I agree, i think this absolutly kills "Master Of Puppets", technically, lyrically and artistically. Even though it hinted their future venture into the commercial realm with the bands first music vido "One", and many complain that this was where Metallica first drew up the blueprint for selling out, i have always maintained that there was no way that they could of topped this, i kind of expected the "Black Album" to be a softer, maintsteam affair.
Please, stop comparing this to MOP, sure, it may not have Cliff, but since when was bass THAT important anyway? it is no more then a support instrament, i play it myself and realize this. It's all about the guitars folks, this is heavy metal, not swing jazz. You will find Hammett and Hetfeild at the absolute best in their entire careers right here. And for the morons hoping this will get remasted, expecting this to have some miracle improvment in sound... please, just shut up now... you can't improve a recording that was recorded 17 years ago or any time for that matter... remastering is the biggest gimmick in the recording buissness, they simply sound a notch "louder" and thats it, it is a lame attempt from record companies to make gullible people pucha$e albums they already own.
Anyway, this is Metallica's best album, period. Every song here is perfect, it is almost like a compostion, the 10 minute title track alone is worth the price. The lyrics are brimming with anger and intelligence and they are delivered witfully with James's snarls and growls. And despite what some people say about Lars, he is a talented drummer, just listen to his skin-work on this thing... it's mind-blowing.
I almost forgot... to the guy below me... who the hell are you? Jason Newsted was/is a phenomenal bassist. You can't compare him to Cliff really, it is unfair because they have completely differant styles of playing. I know that Cliff Burton is more popular, but still... to call Jason's playing "mediocre" is just ignorant and downright foolish. I would like to see you play better then Jason! Infact he was incredablely under-utilized in Metallica i think, he is an exellent songwritter, just listen to the first two Flotsam Jetsam albums, he wrote a majority of the songs on those two albums before being recruitted by Metallica.
Music Review: Tinny production but solid as iron otherwise
Rating: 5 Stars
Following the death of Cliff Burton there was a big question mark surrounding Metallica's future. The band wasted no time recruiting former Flotsam & Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted and churning out the covers EP "Garage Days Re-Revisited", but the issue remained just how much of an impact Burton's influence had on Metallica's material.
When "And Justice For All" was finally released in late 1988 it was not only a breath of fresh air but the dawning of a new era as well. "Justice" furthers the sociopolitically charged vision of "Master of Puppets", a bit icier and more distant, but no less potent in either it's intelligent lyrics or the increasingly challenging song structures. "Blackened" is the lead off track, and despite having enough song ideas to fill an entire EP, the melange of riffs works well as a cohesive whole. Metallica weren't the first thrash band to express an environtmental lean, but with lyrics such as "see our Mother [Earth]/put to death/see our Mother die" there weren't many fans who were ready to write them off as born again hippies.
The title track and "Eye of the Beholder" continue to heighten the standards for the rest of the album until we at last arrive at what is perhaps Metallica's all-time magnum opus: "One". When Lars announced in pre-release interviews that the song would be about a guy with no appendages, no sense of sight and sound, and no way of communicating with the outside world it reminded of those old jokes. Ie. what do you call a man with no arms and no legs that hangs on the wall? Art. What do you call a man with no arms and no legs swimming in a pool? Bob. Etc etc.
Of course the end result turned out to be nothing so exploitative, but instead a tone poem set to the theme of the old Dalton Trumbo flick "Johnny Got His Gun". This is not only one of their more complex songs thematically but it's far from aimless art school wankering, building up to a riveting climax and a powerful denouement. As a postscript, "One" has turned into one of those oft-played tunes that has more than worn out it's welcome amongst many rock fans, similar to other songs like "Stairway to Heaven" (or "Highway to Hell" for that matter). However, that in no way detracts from the objective quality of the song, and it's only the radio programmers we have to blame for ruining all of the above examples through unmitigated repetition.
The truth is, "And Justice For All" is equally as compelling as "Master of Puppets" from a songwriting and performance perspective. There is only one reason I can see that it doesn't get the same amount of reverence as its precursor, and that is the infamous production of Fleming Rasmussen. Fleming also produced "Puppets", and this would be his last Metallica production, so he has been given the blame over the years for essentially ruining what should have been a flawless masterpiece. However, with the similarly awful production on "St Anger" I can't help but wonder if the band members didn't push for this sonic experimentation themselves.
Here's hoping that one day the masters will be brushed off and remixed (a la the Beatles' recent "Let It Be: Naked") and "And Justice For All" will be recognized for the landmark that it is.
Music Review: Justice Has Been Done
Rating: 5 Stars
Before Metallica went mainstream, they were known for playing brutal speed metal. With each of their first four albums, the band developed their thrash attack into something more artistic. Creating incredible music while not giving up their raw power. For their fourth album, released in late 1988, Metallica shows the fans what they can really do.A new line-up is present on this album. Due to the tragic death of original bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident more than a year earlier, the band recruited Flotsam and Jetsom bassist Jason Newsted who, although not having the audacious bass prowess of Burton, is a good addition to the band. The rest of the line-up remains the same. James Hetfield, the mastermind behind the band, resides over guitars and vocals, spewing forth angry, topical lyrics while pounding our riffs. Kirk Hammett follows suit on the riffs and stands tall when its time for his solo. Lars Ulrich's best drumming can be found on this album: strong, consistent and fast, completing the Metallica assault.
The album begins with Blackened, which is a fast and hard opener. James and Kirk throw the riffs at you while Lars and Jason set strong rhythm. The title track is a 9 minute plus epic that is simply incredible. Wonderful lyrics, awesome guitars, perfect rhythm, great solos. Eye Of The Beholder is a bit different. It has a darker tone and a slower tempo than the first two but the vocals, guitars, and drumming are great. One is a masterpiece. With lyrics based on the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, the song starts slow with some clean guitar and evolves into a powerful piece of metal. This song is definitely a landmark in Metallica's career and Hetfield's songwriting. The speed picks back up with The Shortest Straw, which is another all-out song with great guitar and cool lyrics. Harvester Of Sorrow is another slower song, like Eye Of The Beholder but without the dark tone. The riffs and rhythm are heavy but played at a slower tempo while not sacrificing strength and power. The Frayed Ends Of Sanity is one of my favorites because of the power, speed and lyrics of the song. The song opens with chanting and bursts into a harsh song about insanity. Awesome song. To Live Is To Die, the last song the band wrote with Cliff Burton, is another one of the magnificent instrumentals the band is known for, but this one tops them all. The song starts clean and works it way into slow distorted riffs and rocks on from there. The finest moment of this song is when all the instruments become quiet and a lone guitar plays a clean, classical line and evolves from there. The song blasts straight into the final track, Dyer's Eve, which is the fastest and angriest song on this album, or maybe even faster and angrier than anything they've ever done. Lars' double bass drumming is beyond awesome, the guitars are extremely fast and the vocals and lyrics are wonderful. Awesome closing track.
Now, over 13 years since its release, And Justice For All stands as one of Metallica's best efforts. Fast, loud guitars over powerful rhythm is the style and they do it best on this album. Metallica fans will be pleased as well as fans of other metal bands (Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer). This album is another Metallica masterpiece. Pick it up.
Music Review: Ignore the production, FOOLS!
Rating: 5 Stars
Production is not everything, and it's not that bad either, theres MUCH worse production out there, quit whining about it, Thrash wasn't really meant to have clean production, it was meant to sound old school/raw, no, you can't hear the bass, it's not there, although I would love to hear the bass, and Jason is a very good player, for Metal, the guitar, drums and vocals pretty much make it up, although, I do love bass solos, and there is none here, but oh well, I've always dealt with the production, at least it isn't muddy sounding.
Anyways, this is a VERY underrated album, coming off the great Master of Puppets, which went very well, they came out with this, and it's an excellent follow-up to MoP, although most songs aren't as fast as some on MoP, they still rule, for the most part, the songs are long, and epic, the shortest track is 5:12, most of them shoot towards 6-10 minutes, especially the title track and To Live is to Die, it's very different from MoP, more melodic, and like I said, more epic, but full of killer riffs, great solos, and James' vocals just rule, especially on this album, the songs are very catchy, and well structered, put together very well, Eye Of The Beholder is probably the slowest track on here, but it's a very good song, and catchy, a run down of the songs...
Blackened 5/6, EXCELLENT opener, very catchy and heavy, anti-war song, a very cool chorus too
...And Justice for All 5/7, BY FAR, one my favorite tracks on the album, the nice melodic acoustic intro, and then the drum beat leads to the guitar riff, love the way they did that, it's long, and epic, and great, and heavy
Eye of the Beholder 5/6, A slower song, but you know how Metallica were, slow songs were heavy also, it kind of mixes elements of Blackened and the title track, very cool
One 5/7, ABSOLUTELY KILLER, one Metallica's best songs, it's about war you can tell, very nice the way the melodic music leads into where it gets heavy, and then all of the sudden, it gets fast as F*CK, killer!
The Shortest Straw 5/5, Not much to say about this one, it is a good song, cool chorus
Harvester of Sorrow 5/6, A very heavy chunky song, catchy as all hell, love the leads, and the riffs
The Frayed Ends of Sanity 5/7, ANOTHER favorite of mine, I love the way this song was put together, heavy as hell, well written, cool lyrics too, the way James laughs at the end "MEEEEEEYAHAHAHA!" is just awesome
To Live Is to Die 5/6, they pull off another great instrumental here, right up there with Pulling Teeth, The Call of Ktulu, Orion, Cliff wrote the lyrics towards the end, may he be remembered, killer bassist!
Dyers Eve 5/6, the shortest song on the album, clocking in at 5"12, a nice way to end the album, very cool riffs, lyrics, nice closer
Well, there you have it, AGAIN, a great album, and very underrated, just because of the production, it mostly got ignored, and that's BULLSH*T, don't pay attention to the production, it's not THAT bad, sure, it could have been better, but it could have been ALOT worse, it has a nice old school sound to it, very good album, it's always been in my top 10.
Music Review: For Metallica, "Justice" would be the pinnacle of their art.
Rating: 5 Stars
Few bands can so utterly dominate their genre as Metallica did in the mid to late 80's. Quite simply, if you were a teenager into heavy-metal between 1985-90, then you were a Metallica fan. I was just such a teenager, and I worshipped Metallica.
I can still remember the day that "...And Justice for All" came out. I hated it. But, because it was Metallica, I kept on listening, and listening.
Before long, I fell in love with this album, and I would see the band 3 times on the "Justice" tour alone--hey, I even managed to be down in the very front for a couple of the shows and received the most coveted prize in all of Metallica fandom: James Hetfield's beer cup.
With "Justice" Metallica had reached the peak of "Metallica-ness", if that makes any sense. THIS was the band that they were meant to be. Jason Newstead had just joined the group, the band had dipped in to their own pockets to cover the cost of a double album so that the fans who only had a turntable and not a CD player or cassette deck would not have to pay extra for the vinyl LP, and James Hetfield's Fu-Manchu was starting to take shape.
Now, most fans--and the band members themselves--love to point out how "shoddy" the production values are on this record. Indeed, Metallica repeatedly complains about how unhappy they were with "Justice". I think otherwise, and perhaps I am the only one in the world who does.
The truth is, very few bands have the guts take actually take a step backwards in production values from one album to the next. When they do, the result is usually a great album. If anything, most bands tend towards increasingly complex production from album to album causing most fans and critics to look back longingly at a band's first album--which was probably very underproduced--as being that band's finest work. Was Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Couldn't Stand the Weather" better that "Texas Flood"? Was the Cult's "Sonic Temple" really better than "Electric" or "Love"?
Getting back to "Justice"... Lyrically (sp), this is clearly Hetfield's finest hour. We find him matured and thoughful, leaving behind the adolescent subjects of "Phantom Lords" and "Leather Steeds" of his earlier works. Musically, and I am a guitar player myself, the guitar work on "Justice" is the most interesting of all. After playing guitar myself for 20 years, I still really can't execute the main riff to "Blackened" properly--might help if I actually practiced. Moreover, Hetfield takes guitar harmony into some interesting new directions. There just hasn't been anything quite like those guitar harmonies before or since. The ONLY thing I would change about this album is the level of Newstead's bass. There isn't any, and it's ridiculous.
After "Justice" Metallica would go on to become Superstars. What followed was a watered down version of the band. True, they captured more "market share", but in the process they dilluted the product. "Justice", however, is the real thing. The "Black Album", though, was an opiate, Metallica Lite.