... AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

In late 80's I was huge fan of Metallica. First album I got was Master Of Puppets and it was something different than the stuff I listened to at the time. It was far more aggressive than Iron Maiden and Helloween. In the other hand same melodic. So I became a fan. ...And Justice For All is fourth album by the band and guys managed real progress here. With the first sounds of Blackened we can hear extremely clear production. Almost clinical. Some say there's not enough bass depth on the release but I don't think it's fair to say someone screwed production up. It's all intented. Lars Ulrich used some triggers and the massive energy that explodes with the beats is truly amazing. Tracks on the album are mostly long. 10 minutes of title song and same for To Live Is To Die which is instrumental piece in fact (spoken word appears for a while however). All songs are really great and you won't find bad track on the album. Some are more complicated some less. But still very energetic and pretty complex. Eye Of The Beholder is propably less complex than others on the release but it holds the line. The most popular song on Justice is of course One. First Metallica video with the story based on wartime novel Johnny Got His Gun. Excellent concept and true virtuosity. But my favorite solo Kirk Hammett played in Dyers Eve. It's fast and really complex. I think he did for this album more than for previous ones. He proved that he could play the way hard rock guitarists did in 80's. Fast arpeggios and all the stuff. ...And Justice For All is one of the few records that last for more than hour and I can listen to it at one spin. Probably the best Metallica album. And definitely the most mature record. A must.