Not What It Could Have Been
I know I am in the minority here, but to me this is Metallica's most overrated album. I almost feel guilty for feeling this way about "Justice" since so many others think it's a masterpiece. Makes me wonder why I don't "get it." Maybe it's the shoddy production. My God, I have blues recordings from the 1920's and '30s that are better produced than this. There is no excuse for an album recorded in the late 80s to be this poorly mixed. Where is the bass? Why do the drums sound like pop guns? Second, some of these songs seem to be long just for the sake of being long. Mind you I have nothing against long songs, but some of these songs in particular the second half of the album, seem to go on forever. It's not that they are bad songs but they seem to go nowhere with nary a hook to be found. I guess in short I find several of the songs to just be boring. On the positive, "Blackened", "Justice", and "One" are great tunes. But as a whole this just doesn't hold up and doesn't compare to "Master Of Puppets" or "Ride The Lightning". I would even probably put "Kill 'Em All" ahead of "Justice". Granted the songwriting and lyrics were much more mature on "Justice" and the intentions were good, but IMHO this is far from the masterpiece some would have you believe. Maybe if this gets re-mastered I'll change my mind.

One....that's all i have to say
This is another masterpiece in their impressive catalog. This album includes what is probably my favorite Metallica song ever, which of course is "One". I don't know what it is about this track, but when that instrumental comes in, there isn't another song on the planet that gets me more pumped. If you are a runner like me it is definitely a great song to add to your running playlist. My other favorites are the title track, "...And Justice For All", "Blackened", and "To Live Is To Die". Oh yeah and stop complaining about the production on this record. It sounds good in my car!

Metallica's Heaviest Album!
In 1988, the band's fourth album, "...And Justice For All" came out and it topped the last three in heaviness. It is the first recording to feature bassist Jason Newsted while the rest of the band remained the same: James Hetfield on vocals/rhythm guitar, Lars Ulrich on drums, and Kirk Hammett on lead guitar. The production by Flemming Rasmussen is notable for the lack of bass, but still I enjoyed it as much as the others. The band's songwriting reaches epic proportions more often than not here as the shortest song lasts for over five minutes.

I cannot listen to Metallica without being reminded of the year 1998. That's when I bought all their albums up to Garage Inc, at that point, their latest album. It was my last year of life in my home country of Argentina! In fact, my very last day there was December 15, 1998 to be precise! Anyway, before going into the song detail, there's a thing that I would like to point out. I noticed a songwriting pattern that most of the songs (five-minute range and up) from their early period (first four albums) seem to follow. Usually, after an intro and the two verses/choruses, a mini-jam develops (it could be instrumental all the way or include some vocals too) in the middle before going back to a verse or chorus. I really like this structure, and I'll go ahead and tell you that, for me, these middle jams are the highlight of the songs! Let's go through the best cuts.

After a short, melodic, harmonized guitar fade-in, the first trash metal riff opens the album and the song is called "Blackened". It's the only song to get a songwriting credit from new member Newsted. The lyrics deal with the obliteration of planet Earth. The chorus is really catchy, but like I said, the riffs in the middle totally rule and so does Hammett's solo, that includes shredding, tapping, phrasings that resemble his earlier solo on "Whiplash" and it finally concludes with tremolo arm pyrotechnics! A great way of starting the album!
The title track is the second song, just like in the previous two albums and it's a metal masterpiece that lasts for nine minutes and a forty two seconds. A haunting melodic intro starts it, then Hetfield sings some lyrics that criticize the law system, and there's another awesome mid-jam too with some harmonized guitar melodies. Now let's go to "One", the album's biggest hit. It follows the half ballad/trash metal structure. An anti-war song this is that features a cool solo in this ballad part. About half way through the heavy section comes in with that fast rhythm guitar that seems to mimic the sound of a fire arm and afterwards comes Hammett excellent second solo which made it to the top ten of Guitar World's greatest solos of all time list! Surprisingly, as he said in interviews, Hammett was displeased with the results of his first attempt, so he re-recorded it at a later point but was never totally satisfied with the results, but he did a good enough job for sure!

The mostly instrumental "To Live Is To Die" is yet another gem. Note that bassist Cliff Burton gets a songwriting credit. The lyrics seem to talk about his death. A memorable acoustic theme introduces it before it moves into the heavy section where awesome riffs come one after another! Hammett plays a shattering lead too but my favorite part of the song is when it slows down for a melodic section with short guitar overdubs that seem to mimic the sound of a violin. At nine minutes and forty eight seconds, it's the longest song. The same acoustic intro theme is brought back for the outro and the final song "Dyers Eve" comes rushing in without warning! It's a pure trash metal song all the way through and it's one of the best! The topic of hate is explored in the lyrics but it's the mean riffing and Ulrich's stellar dual bass drumming here that really takes the song home!

Now it's on to the album's not so best songs (for me of course). "Eye Of The Beholder" is a great collection of furious riffs with Hetfield singing about the topic of freedom. Some tremolo arm pyrotechnics are utilized at the start of the solo. The best part is in the middle, where one of the riffs introduced at the beginning is slightly altered and it sounds better! "The Shortest Straw" is probably my least favorite song here, but much more than just listenable though. As always, there are a lot of good riffs and melodies included. The songs "Harvester Of Sorrow" and "The Frayed Ends Of Sanity" deal with the topic of mental health. In the former, I liked the clean guitar arpeggio in the beginning. Note how it is then played with the heavy distortion. That's good sense of dynamics. The latter is another example of a monster middle jam! Hammett really tears it up! Tons of memorable riffs too!

This is not one of my top five favorite Metallica albums, but as you can see I like it a lot still! The rhythm guitar parts sound fresh even today! So if you're looking for a great metal album, then you can consider adding this masterpiece to your collection!
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later...

Magnum Opus
Who would have thought that Master of Puppets could be topped? And Justice For All is Metallica's greatest work. This album is a masterpiece that will stand the test of time.

This album does the group justice.
In an attempt to follow up their masterpiece, "Master Of Puppets", Metallica basically took that album's formula and turned it up a notch. Indeed, the songs on, "...And Justice For All", have that same progressive edge as the ones on, "Puppets", with the layers of guitars, complex time signatures, and the shear length of the songs but while the previous album was set to 10, this one's set to 11. Two of the songs clock in at over nine minutes and at nine songs long and over an hour in length, this was their longest album at that time.

The progressive formula is taken as far as it can go on this album. Many of the songs have multiple riffs and doom and gloom lyrics that put to shame anything on their previous albums. It should be noted that the production on this album is unlike any other of the groups records. The recording and mixing make for a sparse sound with thinner than usual guitars and drums that click more than they thud. Sometimes, the drums simply don't seem to want to mix in with the rest of the mix. The Bass is not a noticeable as on other Metallica albums, (appearently, new bassist Jason Newsted was being, "initiated" into the band by having his instrument nearly removed from the mix).

Despite these short comings, the album is still among the group's best work. Maybe do to the fact that this is their last album to feature the raw, underground thrash that would be largly done away with on, "The Black Album" or because the group managed to continue on even after the unfortunate death of bassist Cliff Burton. Or it could simply be because this is the most progressive album they ever did and will most likely ever do. It should be noted that the anti-war lament, "One", features Metallica's first taste of commercialism as the song was their first to have it's own MTV video. Metallica's transformation into a more "pop" oriented MTV band would of course become complete by the time the afterformentioned, "Black Album", came out. Because of this, many people see, "Justice", as being the group's swan song...or at least for their years as a true, underground thrash band.