...And Justice for All (album): Difference between revisions

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...And Justice for All is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on August 25, 1988 through Elektra Records.

It is their first studio album to feature bassist Jason Newsted and without former bassist Cliff Burton. The front cover depicts the statue of Lady Justice cracked and bound by ropes, with both of her scales filled with dollars and both of her breasts exposed. The words "...And Justice for All" are written in graffiti to the right. This was used to symbolize that Justice had been raped, which is the main theme of the album as expressed in songs such as "Eye of the Beholder" and "...And Justice for All". The album has sold over 8 million copies in the US alone according to the RIAA.

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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"^[3] of the band, and were meant largely to be "documentary"^[4] in nature.

The production of the album is noted for its unusual, and at times "one-dimensional", post-production mix. The quality of the album's sound has been described as "cold", "thin" and "flat", due in part to the way the instruments were recorded. The bass drums don't "thud" so much as "click", while the guitars "buzz thinly".^[5] 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 in most songs.^[5] This has been attributed to various reasons, such as Newsted's doubling of Hetfield's guitar parts,^[6] his 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. ^{[citation needed]} The album was released on two LPs at the usual single-LP price, since the band thought that putting the album on a single record would have diminished its fidelity.^[7]

The album continues the trends set by the previous albums Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets by having a fast paced, striking song with a melodic, slow intro as the first track, the title track as the second track, a slower, heavier track as the third track, a heavy metal ballad as the fourth track, and an instrumental or mostly instrumental track as one of the final tracks.

Despite its unusual production, ...And Justice for All was Metallica's breakthrough album and reached #6 in the Billboard charts.^[8] Though it would soon be over-shadowed commercially by the band's following album (1991's Metallica), 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.^[9]

In 1990, "One" received the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, as well as being Metallica's first Grammy Award.^[10]

"One", a single on the album, is used on the game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock having been noted for its rapid-paced and rhythm-changing ending solo. In fact, the solo was ranked #7 in Guitar World's ranking of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time.

"Blackened" and "...And Justice for All" are both used as downloadable content in the Metallica 3-Pack on the music video game Rock Band.

The album was ranked at number nine in IGN's Top 25 Metal Albums.^[11]

Metallica released their first music video for "One", after years of resisting pressure to release videos for their tracks^[12]. The video incited controversy among their fans, who had valued the band's apparent opposition to MTV and other forms of mainstream commercial metal. "One" entered the Top 40 on March 25, 1989 at #35.^[13]

Hammett noted the length of the songs being problematic for fans and the band. "Touring behind it, we realized that the general consensus was that songs were too fucking long," he said. "One day after we played 'Justice' and got off the stage one of us said, 'we're never fucking playing that song again.'"^[14]

In spite of this, the song "One" quickly gained a permanent fixture in the band's live playlist since the release of the album ^[15]. The only other song off of ...And Justice For All that has come close to this is "Harvester of Sorrow," a song that was played live heavily after the album's release but has only begun to be played again recently.

On June 28, 2007, Metallica played the title track for the first time since October 1989, in Lisbon on the first show of their Sick of the Studio '07 tour^[16] and made it a set-fixture for the remainder of that routing. In 2008, "...And Justice for All" was played again during their 2008 Tour.

To date, "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" and "To Live Is to Die" remain the only songs from the album that have never been performed live in their entirety. Instead, the band played segments of them during solos or impromptu jams.

Since 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.^[17] On the most recent tours Blackened was often used as a set opener, though usually with a shortened guitar solo and instrumental section.

Along with "Dyers Eve", the instrumental "To Live Is To Die" is one of the most demanded songs to be played live of Metallica's catologue, it is unknown if Metallica will play this song live, due to the song being made up of deceased bassist Cliff Burton's final riff tapes, but the instrumental "Orion" also written by Burton off the previous album Master of Puppets has since been played live.

• James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm guitar
• Lars Ulrich – drums
• Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
• Jason Newsted – bass guitar, backing vocals

• Flemming Rasmussen - producer

"The Prince" was also released on the "Harvester of Sorrow" CD single, and later on the Garage Inc. covers album.

• " Eye of the Beholder" - 1988
• " ...And Justice for All" - 1988
• "Harvester of Sorrow" - 1988 (UK)
• "One" - 1989

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