Metallica - And Justice For All (1988)

I must admit I wasn't looking forward to reviewing this but I knew it had to be done. For me, 'And Justice...' is the first nail in the Metallica coffin - a sombre, plodding record that seems to exist as nothing more than Cliff Burton's funeral dirge. The band enlists the talents of former Flotsam & Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted, and we get the four horseman of the apocalypse dressed in black, bleeding black, and completely unable to breath any life into a dying monster. Suddenly, Metallica, whilst still very heavy, are no longer a thrash band - their demise confirmed on their next effort, the self-titled black record. 'And Justice...' reeks of the banal, saved by the epic and haunting yet somehow painful 'One' complete with David Lynch-inspired surreal video. Even so, the acoustic segments the band choose to use to separate their chugs are now of a duller variety, the band somehow losing the will to thrash, instead laying the Sabbath juggernaut riffs on thick, but only to create a bland elephantine dud of a record. A double album sees the band clear out their closet of three-minute thrash classics only to replace them with blackened, derivative chores. Everything about 'And Justice...' is wrong, even when they get it right - but even the minor classics, 'Harvester Of Sorrow', the uptempo 'Blackened' and the quagmire of a title cut, just ooze across the floor like some melancholic whale eager for the breath of nearby water. As musicians they can rarely be faulted, but this record sees them running in treacle and the masterful 'Master Of Puppets' seems a world away, as if the band, in their alleged maturity and professionalism, have become so bloated that to lash out a thrash riff would be considered blasphemous. No longer are Metallica part of the big four of thrash,  because 'And Justice...' sees them become a rock band on the verge of commercial suicide...which they were happy to commit time and time again over the next decade. Metallica fans may disagree but put alongside the raw energy of 'Kill Em All', or the genial depths of 'ride The Lightning', 'And Justice...' is nothing more than silt. There's nothing bad about any track, but there's nothing great either - the flatline is for all to see and hear, the band searching for a new identity perhaps after the passing of the mighty Burton, but their journey into the levels of plod merely sends me off to the land of nod.

6.5/10