Released: 1988
Tracks: Blackened; …And Justice for All; Eye of the Beholder; One; The Shortest Straw; Harvester of Sorrow; The Frayed Ends of Sanity; To Live is to Die; Dyers Eve
Best track: could be any depending on my mood
Track to skip: none
I mentioned in the last review (
Garage Days) about the bass issue for this album. Jason Newstead got his introduction on that EP, but this album was the first major release to feature him. Fun stuff – he’s nearly inaudible. I don’t know why, either. Maybe James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich instructed the guys mixing the album to keep him out of the mix? You know, it really doesn’t bother me. As a bassist, it doesn’t make me love this album any less because I can’t hear the bass player here. Sure, you can pick him out every once and a while – near the end of the title track, beginning of Eye of the Beholder & the slow part of To Live is to Die, to name a few spots. It doesn’t affect the quality of the album, however. There are so many seemingly millions of guitar overdubs that Newstead’s bass would almost get in the way. Truthfully, if I had never been told that the bass was mixed really low, I would have never noticed. There are so many great guitar parts…THAT’S what I always pay attention to. Lars’ bass drum also obscures the “bass player” in many places. There are these weird moments with his bass drums, especially when he’s doing double bass stuff, that bring this extra bit of low-end, extra “oomph”.
It’s a testament to the strength of the band – specifically Hetfield & Ulrich – that they could lose such a vital part in Cliff Burton and still come out with such a fantastic album. Really, front to back, this is such a great piece of work. It’s incredibly solid all the way through. That’s why I can’t pick a “best track” out of the bunch – every track on here is great. I originally thought, “yeah, it’s Shortest Straw or One…no, maybe it’s Frayed Ends of Sanity…no, it’s definitely To Live is to Die…aw hell no, it’s Dyers Eve…no, well, One is a pretty freaking amazing song…” Yeah, you get my point. Oh, and yes, I simply love Blackened, Justice & Harvester too. I love everything here; there’s not a bad second of music on the disc. Maybe I have some bit of bias because I’ve been listening to it for so long, but I really just enjoyed the hell out of it listening to it again. I always do.
Blackened is such a downright ruthless way to start an album. That’s one great trait of the band, always starting out the albums with a bang. Hit the Lights, Fight Fire with Fire, Battery, Blackened and even Enter Sandman – Metallica always knows how to begin an album. As everyone knows, One was the surprise hit single from this album and still one of the band’s most loved songs. Both die-hards & casual fans love the song and it’s not a surprise. One is a f’n awesome song. These guys really know how to write a good song. All of the songs on here, they’re all so well-written. There are so many intricate twists and turns in the riffs and the guitar playing in general. Nothing is remotely predictable here and that’s what I love about this album. Even in heavy metal circles …And Justice was such a hugely original and influential album…just completely unpredictable.
I can’t say enough how much I love this album. It was the natural extension of what the band had been doing since they started. Listening from Kill ‘em All onwards, it was obvious they’d end up making this album. It was clear they’d get more and more progressive until they hit the point where they were seemingly at the edge. Yeah, I think this album is that edge. Beyond it? Who the hell knows – not many bands are willing to push themselves past the edge. It’s like they push and push until they get to that place where they have mastered everything they know…and then there’s nothingness. Like the edge of a cliff, where in front of you is a vast blackness. Do you jump? Or do you turn back around? That was the decision Metallica had to make after creating …And Justice for All. We’ll see which way they went soon enough (and no, the color of the cover for their 5th album doesn’t tell you where they went).
Yes, I am giving Justice the same grade as Master of Puppets. The songwriting is better on that album, the mix is better and it features the best work from one of my favorite musicians, Cliff Burton. If he had lived to make this album with the band? Who knows how amazing it could be. As it is, they’re both excellent albums…Justice less so, but honestly not by much.
Rating: 97
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