TODAY IS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 10:52am by Axl RosenbergOn August 25, 1988, Metallica released what many consider to be their last great album, …And Justice for All. To my ears, this would probably be my favorite Metallica album of all time if not for the lack of bass (Which, to this day, I think was an idiotic way to haze then-new-now-former bassist Jason Newstead – I mean, why would the band punish themselves by damaging their own album? How does that pay tribute to the memory of Cliff Burton? It doesn’t). Justice features Metallica at their heaviest, and, often, their proggiest. I’ve been trying all week-end to think of words that could do Justice, um, justice – but I just can’t. And I probably don’t need to to: I’m sure you all have your own feelings on this classic recording.
So here’s Metallica performing the title track on the Justice tour in ‘89. After the jump, keep the celebration going with more live clips, the now classic video for “One,” and some other cool shit.
Here’s Metallica performing “Blackened” on the same tour…
…and here’s that legendary video for “One”…
…and finally, here’s a cool t-shirt that the Dillinger Escape Plan have had made up to celebrate the anniversary:
DEP’s song “82588″ is named in Justice’s honor. Here’s what DEP front dude Greg Puciato told us about the song when we interviewed him last year:
“82588″ is obviously the release date for Metallica’s …And Justice for All. Do the lyrics song in any way to …And Justice for All?
Not at all.
Thematically? No way at all?
Well what I try to do with song titles – and this probably won’t make sense to a lot of people – I try to name songs like not what they have to do with lyrically, but more what they feel like, you know what I mean? Like if you look at the song, and it makes me feel a certain way, I’ll try to find [a title] that goes along with that, just vibe-wise. When you’re listening to the song and you look at the title, I want the title to feel like the song, not necessarily having anything to do with the lyrics. And, to me, “82588″ was very anti-septic sounding, it was the song that was the most like Calculating [Infinity] as far as it’s really atonal, there’s not much melody, even the riffs aren’t melodic riffs, they’re more like stabs, like (makes stabbing riff noises). They’re real cold, and to me, one of the things about …And Justice for All is that is was very cold and anti-septic and brutal.
It also happens to be my favorite record of all time (laughs), so it was like an easy way to put in a little homage to something that I feel like, if I’d never heard it, I would never even be playing music. That was the record that bridged me from Guns N’ Roses and stuff like that to, like, death and crazy stuff like that.
THE SHIRT IS ONLY ON-SALE TODAY, so go to DEP’s MySpace page RIGHT NOW if you wanna buy one.
-AR
I think this and MOP is their best work, Justice also features one of my favourite Metallica songs: Dyers Eve! Thrash Metal at it’s best!
I’ve always maintained that these are my favorite songs Metallica ever wrote, but holy jesus does this album sound terrible. Awful production all around.
If there was ever an argument to be made for re-recording classic material, I’d love to hear it with this record.
Best Ranked Metallica albums(IMHO):
1986: Master of Puppets
1984: Ride the Lightning
1991: Metallica
1983: Kill ‘Em All
1988: …And Justice for All
2008: Death Magnetic ( I know, but just from what I heard its better than the last three albums)
1996: Load
1997: ReLoad
2003: St. Anger
I’m not really sure how you put Metallica in front of Kill Em’ All. This makes absolutely no sense in my mind.
The Ultimate Metallica Albums:
Justice
Master
Black
All the rest (best to worst)
Kill
Lightning
Anger
Load
ReLoad
Which category will Death Magnetic fall under, I wonder?
are you guys aware of the “and justice for jason” album floating around the interwebs?
Anyone who heard the debut Flotsam & Jetsam album knew what Jason could do with the bass and with songwriting. One of the few predictions I ever got right was Metallica replacing Cliff with Newsted. It’s a shame they never really took advantage of the guy’s talent and instead relegated him to recording his parts after Lars and Hetfield basically wrote the whole albums.
They should kick Lars’ ass for not tuning his toms correctly.
That t-shirt is badass, my favourite band paying tribute to one of my favourite albums. Dyer’s Eve is just incredible.
justice
lightning
puppets
kill
anything else isn’t Metallica. like Van Halen after 1984. it’s not that tidy of a comparison cause Metallica’s new member can’t be blamed. but same deal.
You’re all a bunch of fucking cunts. You’d have to be retarded to call the production on this album ‘awful all round’. What a Fucking Muppet. Somebody should re-record you, you fucking silly cockhead.
Justice is definately my favorite Metallica album but I do agree that the production had some issues. When played loud on a system with decent bass the low end always tended to frap out and cover the rest of the frequencies. A re-recording would be a big mistake (especially with the way James sings now-a-days). A remaster with a good producer could be in order though!
I think Ride the Lightning is the best Metallica album. I mean, Creeping Death…
But, Justice is still amazing all the same.
Axl,
Some guy added bass to Justice a while back. Competently played, well mixed. Email me if you want me to send you a copy (once my computer goes back online).
The overall theme on this album is despair, darkness, loss of life, loss of hope… you get the idea. This album is so fucking dark that IMHO it shadows everything they have done before. It’s a homage to Cliff, afterall, and I believe it’s their feelings put into music.
And as for the opener, Blackened, they were dealing with global annihilation themes that are all the rage this day!! they were talking about pollution way before this whole “green” thing became fashionable!!