Metallica - "... And Justice For All"
- Released: 1988
- Produced by: Flemming Rasmussen
Album : Metallica - And Justice For All (1988)
Album : Metallica - And Justice For All (1988)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Studio album by Metallica
Released August 25, 1988
Recorded January–May 1988 at "One On One" Studios in Los Angeles, California[1]
Genre Thrash metal
Length 65:35
Label Elektra
Producer Metallica
Flemming Rasmussen
..And Justice for All is American heavy metal band Metallica's fourth studio album released August 25, 1988, by Elektra Records. It is the first studio album to feature bassist Jason Newsted and without former bassist Cliff Burton, due to his death in September of 1986. The front cover depicts the statue of Lady Justice cracked and bound by ropes, with one of her scales filled with dollars and one of her breasts exposed. The words '...And Justice For All' are graffitied to her right.
History
The final album in the loose trilogy of Metallica albums that includes Ride the Lightning (1984) and Master of Puppets (1986), ...And Justice for All, is the most musically complex of the band's classic thrash metal in the 1980s. For many fans and rock critics, the album is the end product of the evolution of Metallica and stands as the apex of the band's development of the thrash metal style. Like those of previous albums, the lyrics on ...And Justice for All discuss politics and social issues; however, lyricist James Hetfield is more direct than ever before in his views. At the same time, and despite Hetfield's aggressive singing style, the lyrics refrain from overt confrontation or ringing calls for revolutionary change. Instead, as drummer Lars Ulrich explained it, the ideas expressed in the lyrics merely represented "interests"1 of the band, and were meant largely to be "documentary"2 in nature.
...And Justice for All continues the development of the modular song structure so characteristic of thrash metal. Like those on Master of Puppets, the songs on this album are long and have many different, unique riffs, particularly during the middle (or bridge) sections. Furthermore, the actual production of the album marks an important development in the recorded history of metal for its clean and crisp atmosphere. Ulrich's kick drums don't "thud" so much as "click" (by boosting the higher frequencies and/or by using a coin (e.g., a New Zealand 50 cent coin taped to the bass drum for when the beater head hits, providing the "Metallica click;" this will provide the sound but damage the drum skin quickly), while Hetfield's guitar timbre is processed by a complex equalisation scheme that dials out almost any sense of mid-range frequencies, while boosting portions of the treble & low bass frequencies. And, in one of the more famous of Hetfield and Ulrich's controversies with bassist Jason Newsted, the album's production almost completely lacks identifiable bass guitar (although a remixed version with bass added has been circulating around peer-to-peer networks). The standard explanation for this combines Newsted's absence from the mixing sessions (where he might have asserted his opinion) and the lingering issue of his "newness" within the band following the tragic death of Cliff Burton in September 1986.
As said by the band in their magazine SO WHAT!, they wish that they could re-mix the entire album because the drums and guitar overpower the bass completely. Some believe this is because Jason Newsted was new to the band and they wanted to frustrate him, though many, including Newsted himself, have stated this is due to the bass lines copying the rhythm guitar parts too closely.
Unusual production aside, ...And Justice for All was Metallica's breakout album and reached No. 6 in the Billboard charts. Though it would soon be over-shadowed commercially by the band's following album (1991's Metallica, aka "The Black Album"), this album nevertheless confirmed Metallica's large-scale arena status.
The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance in 1989, but with much controversy, it lost to Jethro Tull's Crest of a Knave. In 2007, the win was named one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history by Entertainment Weekly.
"One" was Metallica's first music video and incited much controversy among Metallica fans, who had valued the band's apparent opposition to MTV and other forms of obvious commercial metal.
In 1990, "One" received the first-ever Grammy award for Best Metal Performance, as well as being Metallica's first Grammy award.
The album was ranked at number nine in IGN's Top 25 Metal Albums.
The album continues the trend of previous albums Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets with a fast heavy song as the first track, the title track as the second track, a fast ending complex ballad as the fourth track and having a lengthy instrumental among the last tracks.
Live performance
The song structures on ...And Justice for All were so complex that the band apparently had some difficulty reproducing the songs precisely for their Damaged Justice tour shows. The band stated many times in subsequent years that this kind of difficulty was the primary reason for the relatively simpler song structures on their next album, Metallica. Hammett said: "One day after we played 'Justice' and got off the stage one of us said, 'we're never fucking playing that song again.'" On June 28, 2007, Metallica played the title track for the first time since October 1989, nearly 18 years ago in Lisbon, Portugal on the first show of their Sick of the Studio '07 tour and have made it a set-fixture for the remainder of that routing.
In spite of this, the song "One" quickly gained a permanent fixture in the band's live playlist since the release of the album.
Metallica played "The Shortest Straw" live for the first time on this tour. This was performed at Castle Farms in Charlevoix Michigan.
To date, "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" and "To Live Is to Die" remain the only songs that have never been performed live in their entirety. Instead, the band played segments of them during solos or impromptu jams.
As of the group's 2003–2004 Madly in Anger with the World Tour, many of the songs from the album have begun to appear in the group's live performances, with in particular "Dyers Eve" making its live debut.
Personnel
* James Hetfield – rhythm guitar, vocals
* Lars Ulrich – drums
* Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
* Jason Newsted – bass guitar
Track listing
All songs written by Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich except where noted.
1. "Blackened" (Hetfield, Newsted, Ulrich) – 6:42
2. "...And Justice for All" – 9:45
3. "Eye of the Beholder" – 6:30
4. "One" (Hetfield, Ulrich) – 7:25
5. "The Shortest Straw" (Hetfield, Ulrich) – 6:35
6. "Harvester of Sorrow" (Hetfield, Ulrich) – 5:45
7. "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" – 7:43
8. "To Live Is to Die" (Hetfield, Cliff Burton, Ulrich) – 9:48
9. "Dyers Eve" – 5:13
The Japanese version of the album contains "The Prince", a Diamond Head cover that the band felt did not musically belong or fit in on the album. It was also released on the Harvester of Sorrow CD single, and later on the Garage Inc. covers album.
