...And Justice For All (Metallica, 1988)

Whether viewed as the last "golden age" Metallica album, or the beginning of the Newsted era, ...And Justice For All occupies a unique spot in the band's history. It was literally released in the shadow of death, that of bassist Cliff Burton. While Burton didn't exactly play the standout role in the band's sound (he was, as was his successors, routinely buried underneath Jame Hetfield's forceful rhythm guitar), he played an enormous part in crafting the band's early image and served as a mentor figure to the other three. The result is an album that is alternatively sad and angry album in both lyrics and music. While none of the tracks address the Burton matter directly (except maybe "To Live Is to Die" whose only lyrics are from a dark poem written by Burton), all are extremely pessimistic even for a band not exactly renowned for writing "happy" songs. On top of all of this, the production is raw and tinny, with newbie Jason Newsted utterly buried to inaudibility in the mix and Lars Ulrich's drums pop and click in ways they probably shouldn't.

Nevertheless there is still a lot of "classic" Metallica on the album. Throughout the 1980's the band enjoyed messing with tradition by pushing album running times to the limit of a 12 inch vinyl record and with Justice they went ahead and broke it. While the compact disc easily holds the entire album on a single disc, the vinyl package transformed into an awkward two record set since no machine was capable of carving such fine lines into the vinyl. The album structure also follows a familiar structure, putting the long-running title track in the second position, the even-longer instrumental in the second-to-last slot, and the most thrashing tracks in the opening and closing spots. The band would pretty much throw this entire structure out the window for their smash-hit (and successful rebranding effort) self-titled album three years later.

While I was familiar with the albums following this one, until I finally broke down and got Death Magnetic, I had not acquired a Metallica album in over twenty years, stopping after this one. To me, Metallica after this album wasn't really Metallica anymore. Furthermore, their increasingly lazy manner of releasing albums eventually convinced me they were phoning it in since the mid-1990's, even if the albums were as long as a single CD would permit. It took another production/personnel nightmare, the album St. Anger, to help them turn the page and make a return to form, though it was quite a 20 year diversion. Welcome back, Metallica!