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...And Justice for All (album)

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...And Justice for All is the fourth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on August 25, 1988 through Elektra Records. It is the first Metallica studio album to feature bassist Jason Newsted because of the death of the band's bassist Cliff Burton in 1986. (Newsted had previously participated on the cover album The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited EP which was his first work with Metallica.) ...And Justice for All was certified 8x platinum by the RIAA on June 9, 2003.[4]

The album's dark lyrical material features a conceptual uniformity around notions of political and legal injustice, as seen through the prism of war, censored speech, and nuclear brinkmanship. This is musically accompanied by what may be the most complex song structures in Metallica's discography. The arrangements are particularly complicated for a thrash metal album, being likened to progressive metal in their complexity.[5] The album is also noted for its nearly-inaudible bass guitar (Newsted was quoted as saying "The Justice album wasn't something that really felt good for me, because you really can't hear the bass") and dry, sterile production, and therefore has been called a "slightly flawed masterpiece and the pinnacle of Metallica's progressive years" by Allmusic.com.[6]

The front cover depicts the statue of Lady Justice (also known by fans as Doris) cracked, bound by ropes, her breasts exposed, and both of her scales filled with dollars. The words "…And Justice for All" are written in graffiti to the right. The cover was made by Stephen Gorman after a concept by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.[7] It was also the first Metallica album not to feature an instrumental track (although "To Live Is to Die" is mostly instrumental, with the lyrics consisting only of a short spoken word section).

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [8]
Sputnikmusic link
Punknews.org link
Metal Storm link
BBC Musicmixed link
MSN Music link
Robert ChristgauC+ link
The Daily VaultA- link
Rolling Stone link
Metal Hammer
Kerrang!
Q

The album was the best selling Metallica record upon its release. Metallica released four singles, "Eye of the Beholder", "Harvester of Sorrow", "...And Justice for All" and "One".

...And Justice for All was Metallica's breakthrough album and reached number six on the Billboard 200.[9] Though it would soon be over-shadowed commercially by the band's following album Metallica (1991), ...And Justice for All 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.[10]

The guitar solo of "One" was ranked number seven in Guitar World's compilation of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time.

The album was ranked at number nine in IGN's Top 25 Metal Albums.[11] The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Metallica released its first music video for "One", after years of resisting pressure to release music videos for its 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.

Live performances

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.'"[13] He is also quoted in an interview for SoWhat! magazine as saying "'Justice' was a bit much for me. I couldn't stand watching the front row start to yawn by the eight or ninth minute."

In spite of this, the song "One" quickly gained a permanent fixture in the band's live setlist since the release of the album.[14] The only other song from …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. "Blackened" has also recently seen some exposure in the World Magnetic Tour.

When the song "One" is played live, the war sounds heard at the beginning of the song are often lengthened to sometimes around two minutes instead of the original twenty seconds. When the war sounds have reached a conclusion, after having a pitch-black stage, fire will erupt from various points of the stage.

Sixteen years after "Dyers Eve" was recorded, on March 5, 2004, the band performed the song in its entirety for the first time ever on the Madly in Anger with the World Tour at The Forum in Inglewood, California.[15]

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 2008-2010, "...And Justice for All" was played again on rare occasions during their World Magnetic Tour.

Also on September 19, 2009, "The Shortest Straw" made its way back into the set lists during their World Magnetic Tour after a 12 year absence, not being played live since February 9, 1997.

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, impromptu jams, or, in the case of "The Frayed Ends of Sanity," in a "Justice" medley featured on the live album, Live Shit: Binge and Purge.

"Eye of the Beholder" has not been played live in its entirety since 1989. One such performance appears on Metallica's live extended play, Six Feet Down Under.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by James Hetfield, except track 8 by Cliff Burton

No.TitleMusicLength
1."Blackened"James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Jason Newsted6:41
2."...And Justice for All"Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett9:46
3."Eye of the Beholder"Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett6:29
4."One"Hetfield, Ulrich7:24
5."The Shortest Straw"Hetfield, Ulrich6:35
6."Harvester of Sorrow"Hetfield, Ulrich5:45
7."The Frayed Ends of Sanity"Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett7:41
8."To Live Is to Die"Hetfield, Ulrich, Cliff Burton9:49
9."Dyers Eve"Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett5:13
Total length:65:25
Japanese version
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
10."The Prince" (originally performed by Diamond Head)Sean Harris, Brian Tatler4:26

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

Cliff Burton receives co-writers credit on "To Live Is to Die" as the bass line was a medley of unused bass recordings Burton had performed prior to his death. While the original recordings are not used on the track, the compositions are credited as written by Burton and are played by Metallica's bassist at the time, Jason Newsted. The words spoken towards the end of the song ("when a man lies, he murders some part of the world...") by Hetfield were written by German poet Paul Gerhardt, but are misattributed to Burton in the liner notes.

Personnel

Production

Chart positions

Album

Year Chart Position
1988 Billboard 200 6
UK Albums Chart 4
2007 Finnish Album Chart[17] 8
2009 Mexico Album Chart 92

Singles

Year Song Chart Position
1988 "Harvester of Sorrow" UK Singles Chart 20
"Eye of the Beholder" UK Singles Chart 27
"One" Billboard Hot 100 35
UK Singles Chart 13

Certification

Since the beginning of the SoundScan era in 1991, ...And Justice for All has sold 5,330,000 copies.[18]

Country Certification
United States 8x Platinum
Finland Platinum[19] 51.051+
Germany Gold[20] 250.000+
Norway Gold [21] 50.000+

The album's most famous song "One" was featured as a playable track in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as one of the most difficult songs to play. "One" was also included in the newer Guitar Hero: Metallica, along with "Dyers Eve" and "The Shortest Straw". Samples from the album are used in NHL games. The songs "...And Justice for All" and "Blackened" are available as downloadable songs for Rock Band 2. On the TV show Californication, the title of the Season 4 finale is named out of the album's title track.

References

  1. ^ http://www.metallica.com/Media/Albums/albums.asp?album_id=5 Metallica.com - ...and Justice for All
  2. ^ http://www.metallica.com/timeline.asp?page=events&n_categoryid=823&year=1988?sPosx=41 Metallica.com timeline
  3. ^ http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1473275/06252003/metallica.jhtmlHetfield interview mentioning One on One studios.
  4. ^ "Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
  5. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:2952
  6. ^ "...And Justice for All". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  7. ^ ...And Justice for All CD cover booklet.
  8. ^ Allmusic Review
  9. ^ "...And Justice For All". Billboard.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-03. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  10. ^ "Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets". EW.com. 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |best fucking album ever! format= ignored (help)
  11. ^ IGN Advertisement
  12. ^ "Metallica Timeline September 1988". rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  13. ^ "The Black Album James, Kirk, Lars". metallicaworld.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  14. ^ "Metlists, Inc. - One". metlists.com. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  15. ^ "March 5th, 2004; The Forum, Inglewood, California, POR". livemetallica.com. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  16. ^ "June 28, 2007; Super Bock Super Rock Festival, Lisbon, POR". livemetallica.com. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  17. ^ Finnish Album Chart - Search. Retrieved on 2009-07-08. Archived 2009-07-20.
  18. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=132493&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blabbermouth+%28Blabbermouth.net%27s+Daily+Headlines%29
  19. ^ IFPI Finland Searchable database - Gold and Platinum. Retrieved on 2009-07-07.
  20. ^ Template:Cite gold platin
  21. ^ http://www.ifpi.no/sok/index_trofe.htm
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