...And Justice for All (album)

Overview

The final album in the loose trilogy of Metallica albums that includes Ride the Lightning (1984) and Master of Puppets (1986), ...And Justice For All, is the most musically complex of the band's classic thrash metal in the 1980s. For many fans and rock critics, the album is the end product of the evolution of Metallica and stands as the apex of the band's development of the thrash metal style. Like those of previous albums, the lyrics on ...And Justice For All discuss politics and social issues while avoiding mysticism and the occult. However, lyricist James Hetfield is more direct than ever before in his views. At the same time, and despite Hetfield's aggressive singing style, the lyrics refrain from overt confrontation or ringing calls for revolutionary change. Instead, as drummer Lars Ulrich explained it, the ideas expressed in the lyrics merely represented "interests"1 of the band, and were meant largely to be "documentary"2 in nature.

Related Topics:
Ride the Lightning - Master of Puppets - James Hetfield - Lars Ulrich - 1

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...And Justice For All continues the development of the modular song structure so characteristic of thrash metal. Like those on Master of Puppets, the songs on this album are long and have many riffs, particularly during the middle (or bridge) sections. Furthermore, the actual production of the album marks an important development in the recorded history of metal for its clean and crisp atmosphere. Ulrich's kick drums don't "thud" so much as "click", while Hetfield's guitar timbre dials out almost any sense of mid-range frequencies. And, in one of the more famous of Hetfield and Ulrich's controversies with bassist Jason Newsted, the album almost completely lacks bass guitar. The standard explanation for this combines Newsted's absence from the mixing sessions (where he might have asserted his opinion) and the lingering issue of his "newness" within the band following the tragic death of Cliff Burton in September 1986.

Related Topics:
Jason Newsted - Cliff Burton

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Unusual production aside, ...And Justice For All was Metallica's breakout album and reached No. 6 in the Billboard charts. While overshadowed commercially by the band's following album (1991's Metallica, aka "The Black Album"), this album nevertheless confirmed Metallica's large-scale arena status.

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