And Justice For All - Metallica > Reviews > WHEN A MAN LIES, HE MURDERS SOME PART OF THE WORLD

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	Many good songs, some of which Metallica still play a lot today .
Disadvantages:	Thrash metal might not suit all tastes, not much in the way of bass .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

=BACKGROUND=

"And Justice For All..." was Metallica's fourth studio album, released in 1988. This was also the first studio album containing original to be recorded since the tragic death of Metallica's bassist for their previous albums, Cliff Burton, in a tour bus crash in Sweden in 1986, and the first original album for new bass player Jason Newsted, who had joined Metallica after leaving Flotsam and Jetsam, another metal band.

=TRACK LISTING=

There are nine tracks on the AJFA album. These are listed below, as well as their duration.

1. Blackened (6:40)
2. ..And Justice For All (9:44)
3. Eye of the Beholder (6:25)
4. One (7:24)
5. The Shortest Straw (6:35)
6. Harvester of Sorrow (5:42)
7. The Frayed Ends of Sanity (7:40)
8. To Live is to Die (9:48)
9. Dyers Eve (5:12)

As you can see, most of the tracks are of a relatively long length, with To Live is to Die being the longest at 9 minutes, 48 seconds.

=COVER/INLAY=

The cover of the album has the Metallica logo, with a detailed illustration of the Blind Lady of Justice, with money tipping her scales, being torn down by ropes tied to various places. This is the first hint at what could be classed as a recurring theme in the album, that of disenchantment with the 'system' and how things take place in the world.

Inside the cover, is a booklet with all of the lyrics to the songs, some cartoon images and photographs of the band, as well as the usual Metallica messages to fans, friends and bands they've toured with, of the time.

=TRACK ANALYSIS=

1. Blackened.

This track is a fast thrash metal track, as are a lot of the tracks on this album, which seems to deal with how the world is being destroyed by man, and basically warns that if we don't get ourselves sorted, we might end up destroying ourselves. Half way through the track, it slows down a little, but then goes back to the same frenetic pace to end. Good track, probably one of the better ones on the album. 8/10.

2. ..And Justice For All

This track again is fast, but not as fast as Blackened was. This track deals with how justice always seemed to benefit the richer people, and how those who dare to oppose them are often crushed for doing it.Another great track which is one of my personal favourites. 9/10

3. Eye of the Beholder

More excellent riffs in this track, and it also seems to have a bit more in the way of bass in this track than the previous. This track deals with how the government often takes away the freedoms of the people, as it mentions in the lyrics:

"Independence limited/Freedom of Choice/Choice is made for you my friend/Freedom of Speech/Speech is words that they will bend/Freedom with their exception"

and

"You can do it your own way/If it's done just how I say."

All in all, this is another one of the good tracks on this album 8/10.

4. One

This song is the joint candidate for best track on the album. The song deals with a soldier who was badly injured by a landmine, and has forced him to live the rest of his life on life support machines, since he is unable to do anything himself anymore. The song is the soldier's cry for release from this life, as the lyric "Oh God help me/Hold my breath as I wish for death" indicates. The song's intro is that of a battle going on, and slowly fades from the battle to the guitar with the rotors of a helicopter, which is a nice touch. This song illustrates the horrors of war perfectly and has been used for a film as well. [I forget the name of the film, if anyone can help me out with this I'll edit the op and credit them for the info :)] Great song. 10/10

5. The Shortest Straw

Another thrash song, with more lyrics dealing with disenchantment with the system, seemingly indicating that "The shortest straw" of the title has been pulled for the people by those in power. Not one of the best songs on the disc, in my opinion. 5/10

6. Harvester of Sorrow

This song has a nice long tuneful intro, and is a lot slower than most of the other songs on the disc. This is another one of my favourite songs, as it has a good beat, and has a much better tune than most of the songs on the disc, except To Live is to Die and One. 8/10

7. Frayed Ends of Sanity

This song is again a thrash song, with very little bass, which makes me wonder if they actually used Newsted much for this album, or whether how this album turned out is why they had Bob Rock produce their later albums instead of Flemming Rasmussen, who produced the others. Seems to deal with the thoughts of an insane person, as he goes deeper into madness. OK song, not brilliant though. 6/10

8. To Live is to Die

The second candidate for best song on the album, this track is a masterful piece of music. An instrumental for the most part, but including some lyrics written by their late bassist Cliff Burton in the middle of the track, this is more or less a tribute to Cliff, and an excellent piece of instrumental work to do so with, in my opinion. 10/10

9. Dyers Eve

This track follows on instantly from To Live is to Die, and basically pure thrash, played even faster than Blackened. Seriously, this track plays so fast that there are rumours that the reason Metallica don't play it live is because they can't, and that it was manufactured from several separate guitar riffs that were played by Hetfield and Hammett in the studio. Whatever the truth to the rumour, this is a good track which changes the pace nicely from To Live is to Die

=FINAL VERDICT=

As a Metallica fan who started listening to their stuff relatively late (my first song was Unforgiven II, as my Garage Inc. opinion states), I like this album a lot, but it isn't as good in my opinion as Master of Puppets (or at times, Ride the Lightning), which came before it, or the later albums they produced. Whether this was because they were in this transitional period between the style they had in Puppets and the more mainstream music that started appearing at first in the Black Album, I don't know.

The bass wasn't particularly present much in this album either. Whether this was done because Jason was a new guy to the band and they wanted to cover up some mistakes he made or something, I'm not sure. But I have heard plans to remaster the disc to try and bring out the full potential of the bass, which might see me re-reviewing it in future if that is true.

In short, if you're a Metallica or metal nut, buy this disc, but if you're looking to buy your first Metallica disc, I recommend you look to the superior Master of Puppets album or the Black Album (also known as "Metallica").