(Rated this album with 10 out of 10) Reviewed by
armadillo
from St. Louis Mo
After the death of bassist Cliff Burton, Metallica releases an album that retains their classic thrash-headbanger style but with longer and more technical songs full of message and emotion that ties "Master of Puppets" as their best album. The songs are darker, heavier, longer, and the lyrics focus more on dying than killing. I've heard it said that the procuction is bad and that the drums sound bad, but I totally disagree. In fact, these are the best-sounding drum tracks I've ever heard. Also, LONG SONGS ARE AWESOME! The album starts with the coolest introduction to any CD I've ever heard. "Blackened" is a fast song with environmentally-oriented lyrics (I think). The next song, "And Justice for All," targets corruption in justice. It's slower and kind of keeps on jamming forever. "Eye of the Beholder" crunches out as one of Metallica's best. "ONE" IS THE GREATEST SONG EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Exploring the feelings of a wounded soldier who longs for death, this song is so perfectly written it cannot be described in words. It has the best melodic riff and the song changes into a double-bass drum thrash at about 4:30, and then the guitar joins. If you don't know what I'm talking about buy the CD and listen to it at the highest volume possible. The video for this song is by far the most powerful music video ever-if you don't get chills, check your pulse! They should have left a few minutes of silence after "One" so you can catch you're breath and kind of reflect back on the song in awe, but unfortunately they didn't. The next three songs are all as good as any (the introduction to "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" is pretty tight). "To Live is to Die" would be an incredible instumental by itself, but it isn't an instrumental because there are eight lines of spoken lyrics near the end. What makes this song even better is that the lyrics were written by the late Cliff Burton (he helped write the song itself too). The solos and drum fills inserted all over the place also help this song one of their best. The final song "Dyers Eve" has a cool title which has nothing to do with the lyrics, but it is the best song after "One." If you're not chanting "DEAR MOTHER, DEAR FATHER!" by the end of the song, you're deaf. Fast, tight, and angry, it's impossible not to be impressed. What a great CD.
