... AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

"Blackened" - Dang the drums sound like a guy smacking away on paint tins and the bass thrums so that my sub woofer doesn't understand what it's being fed.. Aside from that this is kind of what I expected after the last album.

"And Justice for All" - A thrash metal dirge? Holy Hell - if you can't produce an album or mix sound then my advice is - don't. More of the same musically. An angry Hetfield continues his rantings. Relating to the music you may as well start up a petrol lawnmower and yowl angrily to it rythmically as far as I'm concerned while some guy smacks away at paint tins and another guy strangles a cat. Towards the end the music slows and tries to sound dramatic.

"Eye of the Beholder" - Lovecraft again. There was a damn good computer game rpg released with the same name way back. I have read here many times that these guys were supposed to have influenced "Dream Theater" more than a little - that doesn't gel with me at all. I love Dream Theater's music and if they sounded like this that wouldn't be the case. Can Hetfield sound like anything aside from sounding angry?

"One" - Starts off nicely in a softer vein although later I'm not sure that this track knows what it wants to be as far as the drummer is concerned.

"The Shortest Straw" - That dang lawnmower keeps chugging away.

"Harvester of Sorrow" - Drop a bomb on that lawnmower, please someone!

"The Frayed ends of Sanity" - With a title like this track has I just know what I'm in for. I'm quite convinced that if it wasn't for Lovecraft this band would have gotten much less attention than it did. The whole thing is just the same old same old once you've heard one Metallica track - an exercise in mind numbing, migraine inducing boredom. Hetfield doesn't know how to do anything other than shout out his anger. The rest of the band knows how to chug along and they almost turn each musical instrument into a rythm instrument. I wonder how this would sound with just bongo drums and Hetfield's form of crooning.

"To Live is to Die" - Nice acoustic guitar opening - seems to be popular with these guys. Thing is if I wanted to listen to pretty acoustic guitar there are any number of artists who do that well. Awwwww no - the danged lawnmower is still around. Some melody, please guys! At least Hetfield stays out of this one.

"Dyers Eve" - I'm really glad to see that this is the last track.

Terribly mixed and produced although I'm not sure that I would have wanted to hear this in any better condition. Those who love melody stay well clear - there is none. Trying to hum most of this in the bath would sound really wierd. Because there are those who love Metallica out in PA land I will give this two stars instead on one. To my ears this music is about as progressive as a rock is - it just sits there looking the same no matter what angle you gaze at it from. If you want to listen to some cobweb destroying stuff Pantera, Anthrax, Saxon, Krokus, Iron Maiden, will do that well enough without the mind numbing boredom attached - at least they can play music without it all sounding like its all a part of one giant angry track.

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