And Justice For All was released in 1988, after what was an extremely difficult time in the personal lives of the members of Metallica. While touring their previous release, Master Of Puppets, their tour bus was involved in an accident that killed their bass player Cliff Burton.
This album sounds different to every other Metallica record, vocally gruffer but with thinner orchestration. Drums tick and pop, rather than bang, the guitars sound dryer and thinner, and thereâ™s little in the way of bass. The guitars even occasionally resemble electric violins or cellos - particularly on the closing track "Dyers Eve".
The songs are longer too. And as the sound has become thinner and tauter the songs have grown grander and more epic. These are musicians becoming more ambitious craftsmen and experimenting as a result.
Part of this experimentation sees the group explore their progressive streak, but thankfully the speed with which they dispense time changes, new ideas and new phrases that prevent this going on for too long.
As a record it's complicated, aggressive and hugely technically ambitious (so much so that the majority of these songs have only rarely been reproduced in their entirety live), and contains snatches of some of Metallica's finest work – “Blackened” and “Frayed Ends Of Sanity” stand out in particular, both full of ideas, crackling with aggression and neck-snapping hooks.
However, itâ™s a shame that the rigor applied to recording ideas wasnâ™t applied to making the album sound better, the thin production gives the whole record a monochrome, slightly one-dimensional feel.
It's as if such was their confidence as a group that they were determined to pursue and express every idea as it occurred in every song, and there are lots of them so they get bigger and grander, but sometimes needlessly so, this lack of economy can leave you feeling like a spectator.
As a result this is a less inclusive, more introverted and frankly quite gloomy record. Although itâ™s mightily impressive, perhaps in hindsight this is one effort best left to the completists.
Album Title:...And Justice For All Artist | Group:Metallica Label: Elektra Release date:1988 Genre:Heavy Metal Number of track(s):11 File format:mp3 Total duration:01h:23m:43s:708ms Total size:199.0173 MB
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 One (Live) ...And Justice For All (Live)
Track Info
File name:01 Blackened.mp3 Duration:6mn 41s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:16.0 MiB Track number:1
File name:02 ...And Justice For All.mp3 Duration:9mn 47s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:23.1 MiB Track number:2
File name:03 Eye Of The Beholder.mp3 Duration:6mn 30s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:15.6 MiB Track number:3
File name:04 One.mp3 Duration:7mn 27s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:17.8 MiB Track number:4
File name:05 The Shortest Straw.mp3 Duration:6mn 36s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:15.8 MiB Track number:5
File name:06 Harvester Of Sorrow.mp3 Duration:5mn 46s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:13.9 MiB Track number:6
File name:07 The Frayed Ends Of Sanity.mp3 Duration:7mn 44s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:18.4 MiB Track number:7
File name:08 To Live Is To Die.mp3 Duration:9mn 49s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:23.2 MiB Track number:8
File name:09 Dyers Eve.mp3 Duration:5mn 13s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:12.6 MiB Track number:9
File name:10 One (Live).mp3 Duration:8mn 0s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:19.0 MiB Track number:10
File name:11 ...And Justice For All (Live).mp3 Duration:10mn 6s Bit rate:320 Kbps Bit rate mode:CBR File size:23.8 MiB Track number:11