By Garrick Hoffman and Patrick Doyle

Liberal Arts and Liberal Arts – English Majors

Review of the Issue: …And Justice For All (1988)

Garrick:

My second-least-visited ‘Tallica album of their first five (save for Kill Em All, which is my least favorite),…And Justice For All nonetheless boasts some killer songs (“One” and “Blackened” in particular) and doesn’t come up short in the ass-kicking department.

But what happened with that production? Even though its raw, gritty sound gives the album teeth, thus enhancing its genuine metal quality, it still sounds a bit flat. The bass is virtually inaudible, and the drums sound like they’ve lost some sonic dimension to them. Evidently the bass inaudibility is credited to drummer Lars Ulrich, who, according to the [i]…AJFO mixer Steve Brown, was solely the culprit for the album’s lackluster sound quality. Brown also said in an interview with Ultimate Guitar that the bass playing itself “was perfect,” but Ulrich insisted on lowering the sound of it because they may have been “looking for more garage-type sound without bass.”

As a former Metallica fan boy who once foolishly considered getting a Metallica tattoo on my arm, I’ve never really given [i]…AJFO my time of day. Whether that makes me a coward as a diehard fan is certainly debatable. I never grew overly invested in it, and I think it’s because the album never totally captured me.

Regardless, …AJFO is completely fortified by the songs “One” – a legendary gem that stands as their third-most played song – “Blackened” and “The Shortest Straw.” The title track, “…And Justice For All” and “Eye of the Beholder” boast some seriously killer riffs. Strangely, the title track and “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” have a sound that one might mistake for American patriotism, but then enter the lyrics and, “Ahh…nevermind” is what comes to mind. The lyrical content in the album largely revolves around politics and injustice, as well as war (“One”) and discrimination (“The Shortest Straw), which was fairly unique at the time for thrash metal bands.

Overall impression: …AJFO is a strong-ish album with a bounty of infectious, instrumental prowess, but both the production and the overall sort of “forgetability” hinders its infallibility. Once the last track ends, a sour, disappointed look spreads across my face, and the only word that comes to mind is “meh.”

Good lord, someone give me The Black Album to clean my system of Justice.

Patrick:

  And Justice For All is noted for being the first Metallica album to arise from the death of bassist Cliff Burton. A bus fell on top of him.
The album begins like the others with a bunch of hazy guitar licks, then suddenly it takes a turn into a sudden riff city. The production here seems a lot weaker than the others. Lars Ulrich’s drumming sounds like he is hitting a soup can. It sounds really tinny.
Did he say “die” again? He totally said “death.”
You can’t even hear the bass guitar. I wonder if that’s because they were all scared that with Burton being gone that they’d bomb the whole thing.
This is Metallica’s most political album. They sing and play music about political subjects. It doesn’t seem to purport any stance in particular, but just makes observations, or the stance is opposition against “The Man” and the “sh*t” that goes down.
The title track’s opening is very pretty. It has a sort of Celtic sound.
Why does the guitar sound that present but then when the whole band joins in, it sounds like it got sucked into a black hole that isn’t cool and mysterious, but confusing?
I switched headphones, curious if the ‘phones are the culprit, or if the band is just bombing.
-sigh-
The saving grace is that the songs are really algebraic and constantly shifting in focus, like when you step outside on a hot day and the sun is in yr eyes. Maybe Metallica were in Adult Ed while this album was recorded.
Wow, the mixing is really odd here. The comments on the YouTube page (I tried three different videos to see if the mixing is the same) are all about how the mixing is odd or the lack of bass. Are we all insane? Error 404 Bass Not Found.
Why am I dreading on this? It just doesn’t sound like the albums from before, that had that particular thrash sound that people come to ‘Tallica for. This album just sounds really flat and like if an ant colony picked up instruments and were trying to overthrow their queen, but less badass than that.
It makes me feel sort of awkward sitting in the library on Easter Sunday with this playing.
“Eye Of The Beholder” has nothing to make it stand out from the rest.
“Freedom of Choice/Choice is made for you, my friend” are some of the lyrics. I like the album [i]Freedom of Choice[i] by Devo. Maybe they should’ve taken tips from Devo.
And here we go into the intellectually diverted, beer-guzzling success story of “One.” The song I’ve been told I “just have to listen to” by people who say Metallica aren’t just a bunch of bros who totally lost the plot.
Enter the same Celtic sounded guitar thing. Hetfield’s singing is starting to make me feel really weird. I want to scratch itches that don’t exist.
Holy sh*t, I remember on a trip to a house on the beach for a week, my dad’s girlfriend’s daughter and her friend sang “One” when it got heavy. I really like the heavy part. Y’know, where it goes “dundudndudndudndun.”
The rest of the songs after “One” sort of fade into one another, still showing the geometric song structures, that hollow sound and pronouncing the beginning of “the end” for me with them.
Frankly, when Cliff Burton died, so did the parts of Metallica I especially like. “Blackened” and bits of “One” (the heavy parts, not the pseudo-humble-intellectual-soft-spoken-bullsh*t) have some flavor, but the taste is mostly stale. I feel like if you bought this album you’d get one of those salt packets you aren’t supposed to eat with it, to maintain the flavor. Hmm.
If you’re mad about how I think of …And Justice For All, just wait ‘til I listen to The Black Album.

Up Next: Metallica (AKA “The Black Album,” 1991)