Your favorite Metallica album?
 

With their new album being released sometime next year, I figured it was appropriate to see which of their past nine albums was your favorite.

Here's my personal rundown of their albums:

Kill' Em All: I never could get into this one. I'm a fan of good production value, and this just sounds like it had no budget as well, and it's too dated.

Ride the Lightning: This one is their first album with memorable songs. "Fade to Black" comes to mind.

Master of Puppets: This is their most liked album among fans, and I can see why. It's their first album that really solidified their place in metal music, even though they weren't famous at the time.

And Justice for All: This is my personal favorite. Even with Cliff Burton gone, they managed to pull off a kick-ass record that surpassed Puppets in the intensity of the music. "One" was the first song I ever heard by them, so I'm biased towards this album. :)

Metallica (Black Album): Their most commercially successful record, and the most trashed by dedicated fans second to St. Anger. While the black album is their sell out record, I can't really blame them for making it. Without this release, most of us might not have ever heard of Metallica. Besides, for a commercially successful metal record, this still kicks ass.

Load: At this point in the career, they're not even metal anymore. Commercial success clouded their creative vision at this time, but I have to say that this album isn't that bad. Sure, it's not Puppets or Justice good, but it's still heavy enough as well as having that unique Metallica sound.

Reload: Basically a B-side to Load, and my opinion is the same here.

St. Anger: Their most hated record, and deservedly so. The drums sound like trash cans being banged on in a storage garage, the songs are way too long, the lyrics are tired and uninspiring, and the production sounds like it was recorded with the same technology that Kill' Em All was produced with. There is a few good moments here, but they're not worth scouring the whole album for.

Death Magnetic: A definite improvement over Anger, but still very disappointing. It's like the band forgot how to make kick-ass music, and they sound like they're tired of recording in general. Nothing about this album blew me away.

I sincerely hope their 2014 album that they've been working on blows all metalheads away in terms of heaviness, creative lyrics and songwriting, as well as a new-found energy in recording and touring again.

So with that said, what is your favorite Metallica record?

Good post but I'm guessing that this should be merged in the Metallica thread. Of course Kill 'Em All had a tight budget, as early thrash was an underground movement that had a limited budget but it's still one of the best albums that they ever put out. I'm one of the few people on this forum that doesn't mind St.Anger;)

Kill Em All slays. Looking at it as a thrash album is kind of misleading though. Sure it kicked the whole shebang off, but it's far closer to the NWOBHM than to Slayer or Exodus. One of the best traditional heavy metal albums of all time.

Not to mention that the cover of "Am I Evil" from that time period blows Diamond Head's version out of the water.

+1 production value on that record kicked major ass. I wish all Metallica albums sounded as good as Kill Em All. I can see some similarities to the British Scene indeed.

Sure agree with that, I always think of that album as the birth of thrash, but I guess it's really just the perfect bridge between the NWOBHM and thrash.

I actually prefer the Diamond Head version of the song;) but I guess most won't agree with me there.

Thou art a fool. The Metallica version creates the perfect dark atmosphere that the song calls for. It just sounds so sinister and heavy. The head bangs whether you will it to or no. The Diamond Head version just sounds obsolete by comparison.

I miss me some Cliff Burton...

the correct and only answer is the black album

RtL is the first one with memorable songs? Do fans not lose it when they hear the opening riff of "Seek and Destroy"? What about "Motorbreath", "The Four Horsemen", and "Jump in the Fire"?

That being said, I did in fact vote for RtL.

I went with Kill'em All indeedy... by far the very best Metallica album, with some Mustaine's compositions.