...And Justice For All

Metallica: James Hetfield (vocals, guitar); Kirk Hammett (guitar); Jason Newsted (bass); Lars Ulrich (drums).

Recorded at One To One Studio, Los Angeles, California between January & May 1988.

Following the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton, Metallica regrouped with Flotsam & Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted to record this ambitious double album. Metallica made their reputation playing complex music at superhuman speed, and when James Hetfield's lyrics caught up with his compositional skills, the band became a force to be reckoned with. Everything came together on 1986's MASTER OF PUPPETS, and JUSTICE picks up where PUPPETS left off.

Utilizing intricate yet crunching riffs, layered guitar melodies and intelligent lyrics, Metallica forged an identity as the leader of '80s metal. Hetfield's lyrics are often quite dark, touching on injustice (the title song), insanity ("The Frayed Ends Of Sanity") and his own troubled childhood ("Dyers Eve"). They also had a progressive streak a mile wide, as shown in the involved arrangements that often brought the song lengths close to 10 minutes. JUSTICE also marked a turning point for drummer Lars Ulrich, who began replacing his off-kilter playing with a more straightforward groove approach, and for the band, who made their first video (for "One") and thus scored their first hit.

What the critics say...

Q (Summer/01, p.127) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Featured much overblown riffage and the future classic 'One'..."a