Metallica-...And Justice For All (1988)
Artist: Metallica
Title: ...And Justice For All
Label: Elektra
Format: Cassette
Cat #: 9 60812 4
Year of Release: 1988
Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1988
Listed Condition: VG+/VG+
Sell Date: 8/8/25
Sell Price: $22.00
Discogs Last Sold: 8/1/25 VG+/VG+ $13.99
Low: $5.00
Median: $12.99
Average: $13.34
High: $59.99
Current low price: $8.00
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 13
Have/Want: 1235/471
Where: Williamsburg, VA
Time it took to sell: 2 years
Where and When Bought: Facebook marketplace $2 lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A
Sad To See It Go: No
Part of the first five album foundation that made the band, the 4th Metallica album on some days might be my personal favorite. I certainly bought the CD the first week if not day it came out at Tower Records on Mass Ave in Boston. When I found this cassette in a lot of $2 tapes, I knew instinctively this single title would possibly flip to pay for the whole lot, which it did. Metal tapes sell.
The narrative always seems to come up that new bass player Jason Newstead got the short shrift in the mix. Since I'm a treble up, bass down sorta guy, I always thought this album sounded great as is. What stands out most of all listening to this today is how FAST it sounds. The band is still coming out of the thrash metal tradition and although there were "slow epics with solos" like "Fade To Black" or "Sanitarium" on the last two albums, there wasn't the initial mainstream crossover success that "One" had. Initially, "One" just seemed part of a proven band formula.
As usual, the "thrashiest" (on this case "Dyers Eve") would be my first "favorite song on the record." However, ultimately what made Justice was the transitional chugging riffs of "Blackened" and "Eye Of The Beholder." These parts transcended the songs they were bound to, but the songs themselves were great. The first half of the record is top tier territory, so is interesting to have it divided by two cassette sides with "One" at the midpoint. Since I always heard it as a single CD, I always thought of that track as "somewhere in the middle of the record" and not a side closer. The vinyl I never had, but it always seemed like a double EP in that format and not a structure that was to be taken seriously.
A bridge record in more ways than one.
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
Comments
Post a Comment