Review by Ben for Metallica - ...and Justice for All (1988)
Metallica's flawed masterpiece and one of the defining moments of my life.
Most fans of metal music can easily look back on a particular band that first inspired them to delve into what can be a fairly inaccessible genre of music. I’m sure that in the majority of cases, the band in question was not from one of the more extreme styles of metal such as black metal, death metal or grindcore. The reason for this is that most people need an entry point where they can come to grips with a more accessible level of extremity before being equipped to take the next step. For me, there’s no question that Metallica were the band that kick-started my obsession. It would only be a matter of weeks from the time my brother (to whom I will be forever grateful!) handed me a cassette containing ...And Justice For All back in the late eighties, that I would be delving into the likes of Slayer and then Sepultura, followed shortly by Deicide, Morbid Angel and Bathory. These days there’s pretty much nothing that I find inaccessible from an extremity point of view (I'm not suggesting I find enjoyment in every style I hear), so I’m fairly unlikely to find many metal albums out there that are simply unapproachable given my experience. Yet despite this development of boundary limitations, my love for the band and the album that started it all has never diminished. The shining light of Metallica may have faded to black (sorry) long ago, but their heritage can never be taken away from them, or their fans.
Released on August 25, 1988, ...And Justice For All is the first full length album by Metallica after the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident during the Master of Puppets tour. Jason Newsted had been selected from a long list of auditioning hopefuls to fill Cliff’s massive shoes and had displayed decent enough skills on the Garage Days Re-Revisited EP that the band had recorded as a test run for their new line-up and studio. The amount of effort that the band went through to find the right guy along with the significant preparation they put in to make sure they were ready before re-entering the studio makes it astounding that the blaringly obvious flaw with ...And Justice For All is that Jason is almost entirely inaudible. It’s a shame too, as this lack of low end, plus a generally sterile production overall, is a blemish on what is otherwise a fantastic and landmark album. Master of Puppets had already shown signs of the band adding a bit more complexity to their sound, but these progressive elements really came to the fore on its follow-up. The tracks are far greater in length than on previous releases which the band utilised to play around with complicated structures, branching off on technically adept tangents before returning to earlier established themes. As an album it makes for a fascinating journey, but it’s not surprising that the band rarely play these lengthy and complex tracks (such as the title track and To Live is to Die) in the live arena.
Lyrically, the album’s subject matter relates to injustice in the legal system (the bound and broken Lady Justice on the cover should give that away), freedom and war, and this sort of political and social commentary in Metallica’s music helped to establish these themes as “the new Satan” of metal music. While the level of complexity and increase in running time set ...And Justice For All apart from Master of Puppets, the band were forming a successful template of starting and finishing their albums with bursts of aggression, placing a ballad midway through to change things up, and including an epic instrumental in the bottom half. It’s a structural flow that works perfectly, running the gauntlet of emotions between two blood-pumping bookends. That being said, the album does have that midpoint lull (The Shortest Straw through to Frayed Ends of Sanity) that the band never seemed to be able to eradicate from their albums, but considering the general level of quality and surrounding classics like Blackened, the title track, One, To Live is to Die and Dyers Eve, it’s easy to forgive them. Over two decades have passed since Metallica changed my world, which is plenty of time for me to come to the realisation that ...And Justice For All is not the holy grail of all things metal that it so apparently was in my teenage years, but it holds a nostalgic place in my being and is just too damn important on a personal level for me to rate it anything below full marks.