Chuckles the Angry Wolf's Tasty Nuggets: ...And Justice For All

Metallica's epic concept album about the loss
of the American Dream & societal decay,
...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

Yet another new feature in the neverending depth of my mind, I'm going to start a CD review archive. I'm not going to review any & all cds b/c frankly I'm not as cool as the dudes in the music biz or magazine biz that get advanced copies of whatever. Nay! I am going to review CDs that are in my CD library & hope maybe it'll wake some people up to the beautiful brutal chaos that is:

METAL

Now, not all CDs I have are metal but most of them are. So I'm starting with the metal CD that forever changed my musical world, Metallica's 1988 epic, ...And Justice For All.

...And Justice For All was released by Metallica in 1988 when they were at the pinnacle of the metal music world & the rulers of a kingdom which they had built themselves the old-fashioned way: on strictly word of mouth, bootleg tape swapping (oh the irony there for current Metallica!) & non-stop touring & high-energy live sets.

Metallica had always dabbled in the epic song structures of 5-6 minute songs starting with Ride The Lightning, expanded it on Master Of Puppets & then coming out with an album full of 6, 7, even 9-minute plus epics. This album introduced me to the concept of "the long song" & how a song can "change in the middle of it." Little layman's terms from back in the 13 yr. old days.

Metallica even scored a Top 40 hit off this album with the antiwar metal classic with the famous several minute machine gun jam outro, One, which was the first real metal song I had ever heard & I was instantly hooked the 1st listen. Audio heroin, if you will.

This album has it all, all the obligatory guitar licks, memorable riffs, solos, tempo changes, differing time signatures, complex song structures, bridge & interlude laden tracks, you name it. A true air guitarists' dream this album is. Nothing overly complex but enough licks to make your buddies' go, "Whoooooa, dude... do you like... play guitar & stuff?"

Great album lyrically as well with songs ranging from death of the planet, the corruption of government & the justice system, societal decay, all the usual metal topics but well written.

The only drawback of the album is the thin production. The guitars sound "hollow" compared to today's metal sound production (to be fair most 80s metal does though) & then there's the infamous lack of audible bass sound on the album.

If this album had come out say 10 years later when metal sound production had really developed to get all the nuances of layers of a band's compositions to be able to be discerned, it'd be the best overall metal album of all-time, IMO. As it is, I still easily put in my personal top 5 albums of of all-time just on song compositions alone.

Not a dull moment on the album, IMO & the music on this album does a really good job of relaying the dark & depressing & sometimes reflective somberness of the songs' themes. My favorite tracks on the album are the title track ...And Justice For All & the almost-instrumental, To Live Is To Die, which is one of my favorite songs of all-time.

This was also the full album debut for bassist Jason Newsted replacing the legendary Cliff Burton who had died a couple years prior. And of course there was the infamous Jethro Tull winning the inaugural metal grammy over this album... f*cking ridiculous...

...And Justice For All (1988) Elektra Records