Cool bootleg, Freddy.

I remember having a dubbed tape of the Garage Dayz ep for the longest time before I finally found a cheap used copy. Played that tape to death too. Love that ep. Probably one of the 1st albums that I knew of that was all-covers, which initiated my love of cover/tribute albums. And like Freddy, this was my introduction to The Misfits, Holocaust, et al.

Hey Freddy, that cover looks kind of familiar....

'The 5.98 EP' like Freddy I bought this on vinyl and I still have my original vinyl copy. This album was the first to introduce me to Holocaust, The Misfits ( I didn't even know who Glenn Danzig was at the time this EP was released) Budgie and The Killing Joke.

Thanks to this EP I discovered bands that I might have dismissed without hearing the cover versions by Metallica. A cool fun little EP and one of the few albums I have bought on the day of the release.

Still playing catch up...

Anyways, Ride The Lightning was the first Metallica album that I ever heard. My tennis team buddy bought the album at either N.R.M. or Music Land. For those who aren't familiar with those stores, it was the 80's retail equivalent of F.Y.E., and just as over priced. I remember my buddy showcased the album by closing all of the doors on his Impala, as myself and few of the other guys walked down the street. As we walked, you would've sworn that somebody had been trapped in the trunk, due to all the rattling & shaking. Even though I had been into the metal genre for the better part of 2 years, if there was such a thing as losing one's virginity to a certain style of music, then I was deflowered that day.

Our family hadn't had gotten cable t.v by this time, so my only outlet for music beyond the predictable stuff on F.M radio, was through watching MTV at a few of my friends houses. As much of a novice as I was to this genre, I was certain that I had never heard something so fast, yet also so melodic. Considering I only had an afternoon paper route by age 14, and my Mother dictated where most of my money went, I did what all kids did at my age. No, NOT STEAL! It was off to the high speed dubbing procedure, and nothing but the best with the old Maxell 90. For you youngsters out there, those would be tapes.

As far as the music was concerned, I remember constantly playing "Fight Fire With Fire", and "Ride The Lightning". In fact, I was consumed with those two tracks. The fastest song I had heard up until then, was probably "Freewheel Burning" by Judas Priest. The thing that resonates the most about the album as a whole, was my ability even back then to appreciate all 8 tunes on the album. There was simply no filler, and those same feelings remain with me today. Ride The Lightning is the creme de la creme in not only Metallica releases, but metal or just albums as a whole. It's brilliant!

I bought the $5.98 LP and the $9.98 CD and to this day I dont know where they are or who has 'em, shame on me......

The 5.98 thing was the last great project metallica did (IMHO)

I still don't get the hoopla regrding "...and justice for all" and still havn't owned anything afterwards. I still have a vinyl copy of "Justice" due mostly to the album artwork.

I had a tape of The 5.98 EP that I found (no case) and loved it but at the time I had no idea the songs weren't actually Metallica songs. I had a crappy tape player that ate the tape to hell and really p*ssed me off (being a rare tape I wasn't able to replace it-when they released the souped up Garage Days I was anti-Metallica and never got it). Found a cheap used copy of the tape several months ago (I make sure to play it on a good tape player from now on).

MoP: The blueprint for thrash metl, and one of my all time favorites. Maybe even my personal number 1, if I had to choose one. Everything just worked here. They were still heavy as stink, played faster then most, but also added so much more to their music. Perfection!

Cliff 'em All: Perhaps the best home video ever!

Garage Days Re-Visited: An awesome break-in for Jason, and a cool covers album. Metallica could do no wrong by now, imho.

Metallica - ...And Justice For All


Track Listing:
1. Blackened
2. ...And Justice For All
3. Eye Of The Beholder
4. One
5. The Shortest Straw
6. Harvester Of Sorrow
7. The Frayed Ends Of Sanity
8. To Live Is To Die
9. Dyers Eve

In 1988, Metallica released their follow-up to Master Of Puppets, ...And Justice For All. Justice builds on Master Of Puppets's mix of progressive nature and pure thrash riffing. It is truly Metallica's high point when it comes to subject matter and composition.

The album follows the template of song order as on the previous two albums (explained in the Ride The Lightning review). The album kicks off with "Blackened", a full-bore thrash song that is definitely more complex than "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Battery". The increased complexity showed that Metallica had improved as songwriters, in terms of musical composition. The progressive wankery is also on display in the title track and the instrumental, "To Live Is To Die" (both over nine minutes long!).

"The Shortest Straw" showcases another on Metallica's bonecrushing riffs as well as some expert drumming by Lars. Though many would say Lars is a "good, not great" drummer, he definitely exhibits some skill on this record. "Harvester Of Sorrow" is the album's anti-drug song (Drugs destroy dreams, kids. This coming from pot smokers (Lars) and alcoholics (everyone in the band)).

The obvious highlight of the album is the ballad, "One". With layered guitars, expert drumming, a great solo, and anti-war imagery, it is no wonder "One" got Metallica their first Grammy. It was also the first, and best, music video produced by the band.

One sticky point for many people on the album is the production. Many complain about the thin guitar sound and bass drum click. Everyone complains about the lack of bass guitar. Whether it was due to lack of mixing input from Jason or James and Lars hazing Jason, it is a crime that the public isn't able to hear Jason's bass playing. Flemming Rasmussen must have been a figurehead at this point. It seems that Lars and James were in complete control of the band in all aspects.

Overall, Metallica puts out one hell of an album even after Cliff had passed.

My Rating:

9.5/10

Like you said, horrible clicky drum sound, inaudible bass, paper-thin guitar, and crappy "James going through puberty" vocals. The only songs I like are "One" and the title track. The rest...

:eyesore:

While ...And Justice is my least favorite album of the first four, I like it much better than anything that has followed it. The only real issues that I have with it are the production and the seemingly self-indulgent nature of most of the tracks here as they can be a bit too "progressive" for their own good.

(Beware: old guy about to go down memory lane. If this sort of thing bores you, skip this post and come back later. Thanks.)

To say I was stoked for the release of AND JUSTICE FOR ALL back in '88 would be a severe understatement. I was literally counting the days!! In June of '88 I finally saw Metallica for the first time on Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour and even though I had sh*tty seats (upper tier of Giants Stadium in NJ, BEHIND the frickin stage!), it was still a great show and a dream come true to finally see "my band" live. They previewed one track from the soon-to-be-released album during their set, "Harvester of Sorrow," (since it was hard to understand James' stage patter from way up in the boonies, my friends and I thought the song was either called "Harvester of Souls" or "Harvester of Stones" up until the album came out...haha). Later that summer (a month or so before the album was released) I was record shopping in NYC and found a British 12-inch vinyl single of "Harvester" (b/w "Breadfan" and "The Prince") which I of course snapped up immediately and pretty much played the grooves out of for the next couple of weeks.

Fall of '88 arrived, I started college in New York City, and finally the big day came... or I should say, the day BEFORE the big day... I happened to be in a Crazy Eddie's (remember those?) record/tape department on a Monday night with my college buddy Sean, on the night before JUSTICE was due out. I had planned to come back to the store the next day to buy a first day of release copy of JUSTICE, of course, but we just happened to be in the mall bummin' around anyway so we stopped in to browse. Lo and behold, what did I happen to notice in a box on the floor in a corner, but a sh*t load of AND JUSTICE FOR ALL cassettes, all priced up neatly and waiting to be put out on the shelves the next morning. Needless to say I snapped up one of them and ran to the register; I was afraid that perhaps they would'nt sell it to me since it wasn't supposed to be out till the next morning. Either the guy behind the counter didn't know that or didn't care, cuz he sold it to me with no hassle and I walked out of there on a cloud. (haha) My pal Sean left empty handed however, because he was holding out for a CD copy and there were no CDs in the box. On the bus all the way back to campus he kept glaring at me and saying "You lucky son of a b*tch." Haha.

Anywhoo, I was not disappointed with the album in the slightest; it pretty much became the soundtrack to my Freshman year of college. I managed to see the band again on their headline tour for the album (Meadowlands Arena, July of '89 with The Cult opening) and that was another huge show for me. I look back on that gig now and think to myself that it was possibly the last time that Metallica could be considered merely a "big metal band" (i.ie only popular amongst the metal crowd) because in the very near future they became simply a big BAND, period. That '89 show was kinda like the end of an era for them (and for me), though of course I didn't know it at the time.

I have owned three copies of JUSTICE over the years (two cassettes, one CD) and though nowadays I look at it with more of a critical eye than when I was a young fan boy (why does the title track have to be so frickin' long? Where's the bass? Why is the production so godawful?), it still remains one of my favorite albums. Any time I put it on the stereo it brings back a rush of memories and I'm taken back to a much simpler time in my life when all it was about was METAL, and it was all I needed.

...Yeesh, that was geeky. I don't care. It's how I feel. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Sorry guys. I totally mailed that review in (I think that's the right expression). I'll be rewriting that shortly.

...And Justice For All has not aged well, at least as far as I'm concerned. I also purchased this album on the day of release, was standing over the manager's shoulder while he dug through boxes. Being much less critical at age 18 than I am now (and definitely more frequently inebriated) I played Justice constantly for a while.

Even in '88 there were numerous things that bothered me about the album. Why was To Live Is To Die so long? Why was the title track so long? Hell, most of the tracks are bloated to excessive amounts. I have no problem with long songs (in fact I love them) provided the material justifies the length. But here it sounds more like Metallica needed an editor in the studio that they didn't have.

Speaking of the studio... This album is very high on my list of "worst sounding albums of the 1980's". xyz mentioned all the usual suspects in his initial post. I was severely pissed about Jason being inaudible, especially because I liked his playing with Flotsam and he was great on the $5.98 EP. If you were ever looking for the definition of a "soulless" recording, this is the one. The drums sound like they recorded each piece individually and then mixed them together later, they sound no way connected to each other.

There are some real good songs on here. Blackened is an awesome opening track and holds up quite nicely to this day. Eye Of The Beholder was always a favorite as was Frayed Ends Of Sanity...both real memorable tracks. In fact there aren't any really "bad" songs, but in quite a few cases the length and sometimes incosistencies in the performance suck some of the life out of them. All I know is that this album wears me out.

I've tried to revisit this album recently but really just couldn't make it all the way through. Of course that has more to do with my personal taste than the album itself. I just don't feel it anymore...of course I'm no longer 18 either.

I loved it the day it came out and still do, despite all of it's flaws. Still better than anything they did that followed.

They streched things way too thin and in the wrong direction (IMHO)

A band that should have progressed way beyond other bands in that style
at that point in time, literaly dropped an egg. Kewl cover art

'...And Justice For All' is still a great album IMO, despite the production flaws and lack of bass. I personally enjoyed the longer songs and felt that the album's songs and compositions justified the songs length.

Lyrically and musically I thought they had matured, I liked and as a matter fact still like the lyrics to this album.

Like a like guys that posted on here, I bought this day of its release and it was released as a double vinyl release, and remember going home and listening to this album over and over. Since this album has been released I have heard a lot of metal bands that have come on down the pike and have used this album as their blue print.

A classic slice of metal and the last Metallica album (til the recent one) that they explored their more progressive rock influences. Still of its production flaws I would highly recommend this album to any Metallica novice.

Never could get into AJFA, I find it to be redundant and lyrically bland. I have always found Hetfield's lyrics to be generic and bland at best (at least on the first five albums). The only album I find enjoyable is Kill 'Em All and some of RTL. I try not to compare Metallica with any of their contemporaries at the time but I've always found other bands to have better musicianship and at least hold my interest throughout an entire album.

The 'tallica boys returnrf with their most ambitious work yet. With no song ticking in at under 5 minutes, many people labeled this as a progressive album. I'm not sure if I agree, but it certainly is a diverse, and almost epic album. In my opinion, this is the last classic Metallica album, still containing some thrashy tunes. "One" was to become the first Metallica tune the guys made a music-video for (there even exists 3 different version of it!). And this led to some MTV airplay, and more commercial success. The instrumental is a tribute to Cliff.

Killer tracks: One, Harvester Of Sorrow, ...And Justice For All, Blackened

MoP
aJfA
black
KeA

METALLICA release another great album!!!! They could do no wrong at the time by me! I picked up the CD when it came out and it has been a repeated play over the years. It was labeled "progressive" - and I personally feel this was the first progressive thrash album. I don;t mind the long songs, I love em! Personal favorites from this one include "Blackened", :Frayed Ends Of Sanity" and :dyers Eve"

The last great album the band would put out for quite some time as far as I was concerned. Crap-tacular production aside, a great progressive/thrash/metal album. Also contains one of my top 5 Metallica songs 'Dyers Eve'. LOVE that tune.

Many moons ago, I dated a girl whom my friends dubbed the "Harvester of Sorrow". I still laugh at that one.