Chula Vista

It was 26 years ago. You're not holding them to today's standards, right?

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Mondo Bungle

AJFA used to be my favorite Metallica album. RTL took it's place. I still really like every song on that album. Shortest Straw is the lowest point for me, but Eye of the Beholder, Blackened, Dyers Eve, Harvester of Sorrow, TLITD and the title track all honestly rank among my favorite thrash songs.

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Frownland

I'm holding it to the standards of what I consider good music. There are angry works that were released before that album.

It's cool if you dig it, I was just playing with my comment towards Wpnfire.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Ninetales

Lol "at today's standards" so making good music has somehow changed in the last 30 years? As much as I do think metal has gotten exponentially better than the 80s, there are, imo, much better metal bands that existed in the same era than Metallica.

Oh and yes it's been said but skilled =/= good. I have no music background so what do I even know about technical skill? Nothing. But ya if I never hear Metallica ever again I wouldn't bat an eyelash

Chula Vista

Fair enough.

Again, fair enough. But keep in mind that your opinion is based on hindsight. I was almost 30 when AJFA was released and can attest that it f*cking crushed everything else that was going on at the time.

It's no Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets but it was a monster when it hit. Not my fave but definitely in their top 5.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Neapolitan

It certainly didn't crush Starfish or Daydream Nation.

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Chula Vista

Sonic Youth sucks.

*runs*

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Frownland

I thought you were cool!?

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Wpnfire

I don't really know of another "angry" album from that time period except Killing is My Business by Megadeth. That is an angry album by a pissed off, recently fired Mustaine sure, but it is nowhere near as focused or channeled aggression as much as ..and Justice For All is. The anger of ...And Justice is not nearly as apparent beneath some of the progressive structures, but it is there. "To Live Is To Die" is a tribute to Burton, and the song flows immediately into "Dyers Eve." I've always thought of that transition as a period of somber mourning before a brick wall of angry metal playing reminds us all that none of the band members thought his death was fair. The remaining members did not want to spend the entire album talking about just that one topic, and turned their anger on other topics which is where you get most of the other tracks for that album, and their anger trigged the creation of other tracks like "Dyers Eve" where Hetfield crucifies his parents...with music. The entire album was them veting in one way or another.


This is 1:1 what I think about this album, like, to the letter.

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Zer0

I like ...And Justice for All, but it's certainly not their best album or the best metal album of 1988. I would even say that it was the beginning of the downfall for Metallica creatively speaking. Despite the production my only other gripe with it is the length. The Shortest Straw sounds like a b-side and should have been left off the album. They also could have shaved at least two minutes off the title track.

Also, Napalm Death released From Enslavement to Obliteration in the same year. I know which album I would go for to hear something angry and groundbreaking from 1988.

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