... AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

The Masterpiece of Trash Metal... The Masterpiece of Metallica... And also one of the Masterpiece of Prog Metal! And I am not mad!!! Sure '...and Justice For All' is a pure Tech Trash Metal album in the pure tradition of Frisco's Bay Area! But is reductive (though correct) admit this. '... and Justice For All' is also one of the best examples of Prog Metal. In the correct view Tech Trash Metal of Frisco's Bay Area is a genre extreme close to Prog Metal because is a sort of Extreme Tech Speed Metal without Prog elements (but the Prog elements are not part of the music of all Prog Metal band... Is the facts that demonstrate this truth!). In my opinion also Megadeth have produced good Prog Metal albums in 90's but Megadeth have just produced a music difficult to play and listen... What about Flotsan & Jetsam, Annihilator, Death Angel and Slayer? All these bands may well be described as Prog Metal groups, given the complexity of their songs. Personally I know several people fan of Prog and Prog metal who love Tech Trash Metal. Even for the complexity of the songs.

It should be noted that generally never person described Metallica as Prog metal band. Correctly '... and Justice For All' in my mind sounds like an album of Annihilator, but with all the ingredients of Prog Metal (which only occasionally Jeff Waters uses include in his compositions). Pointing out that complexity is not synonym of Prog, but that complexity is a component of Prog is clear that Tech Trash Metal could also be seen, although with many differences, as one of the fathers of Prog Metal. Moreover Death is the band that invented Death Metal and between thousand incarnations came to produce at least two Masterpiece of Prog metal (Ok, in this case of extreme Metal Prog... What real difference does it make?) And we must remember that Death Metal is one extreme son of Trash Metal. In all of this metallica's two guitarist are also two rthythmics twin axemen. This because James Hetfield is also the vocalist of the band. For this motive the rhythmic guitar parts of Metallica's compostions are simple but with a beastly compression of the sound. The guitar soli are extreme complex and proper for the type of Metallica's guitar soli (other for time signature) Metallica are not a Prog Metal band.

But '...and Justice For All' is a great combination of Tech Trash Metal and early Prog Metal. More of the riff guitars of '...and Justice For All' are pure Prog Metal riffs in Trash Metal field. Sure the drums parts are extreme complex (and I am not referring only to the speed of execution of the songs). 'The Shortest Straw' is a clear example of complexity in all sense. Certainly '...and Justice For All' and 'One' have all the Prog Metal feeling and structure: these two songs are not two trash Metal songs but two Prog Metal song (it must be said that this was a final result to a composition close to the final result). 'One', then, is a typical Prog Metal ballad. Also 'Harvester Of Sorrow' is a Prog Metal song. In this case this fact is a too casual result of a song with a great mid tempo signature. The rest of the songs are correcty great Tech Trash Metal songs.

In conclusion '...and Justice For All' is a Tech Trash Metal album or a Prog Metal album? As in the case of Maiden's 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' (Classic Metal or Prog Metal) we can not say with certainty which of the two musical genres that encompass: a hybrid is really unique and inimitable. And for this fact magic. However, '... and Justice For All' is an album that if you love Prog Metal and you look for the roots of Prog Metal it must not miss in your discography.