It seems popular to think that Load, Reload, and St. Anger are the worst Metallica albums. If that’s the truth, they fell off after the Black Album. In this case, Death Magnetic is a comeback album, not the creative zenith before their worst albums because it happened after their worst albums. With that said, my vote would be And Justice For All… if we’re speaking about their creative zenith. It’s the most progressive musically. The Black Album is more representative of their sound at the zenith of their popularity.
Yep agreed. I think it’s fair to call the black album a successful and good album for what they were trying to do, which was walk back the progressive metal thing and go for punchy simpler music. Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters are basically pop classics now, which in the case of Sandman is really something as it’s undoubtedly a metal or heavy track.
Otherwise yea, Justice is awesome, and my personal favourite, however much Master might be objectively better or more consistent. Something people forget about Justice, but which always resonated when I first gave it a listen, is the progressive themes.
First four tracks: Blackened, And Justice For All, Eye of the Beholder, One, which are thematically Environmentalism, Corruption, “Manufactured Consent” (free thinking), War.
Yea … apart from the “loudness wars” tone, which in the early 90s might actually have come off as an attempt to get back to the garage band early days vibe, it’s very easy to imagine Death Magnetic as the follow up to Justice.
Funny with Metallica … I think there’s an argument that Death Magnetic (2008) is, for the thrash fans, the “Black Album” they wanted.
It seems popular to think that Load, Reload, and St. Anger are the worst Metallica albums. If that’s the truth, they fell off after the Black Album. In this case, Death Magnetic is a comeback album, not the creative zenith before their worst albums because it happened after their worst albums. With that said, my vote would be And Justice For All… if we’re speaking about their creative zenith. It’s the most progressive musically. The Black Album is more representative of their sound at the zenith of their popularity.
Yep agreed. I think it’s fair to call the black album a successful and good album for what they were trying to do, which was walk back the progressive metal thing and go for punchy simpler music. Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters are basically pop classics now, which in the case of Sandman is really something as it’s undoubtedly a metal or heavy track.
Otherwise yea, Justice is awesome, and my personal favourite, however much Master might be objectively better or more consistent. Something people forget about Justice, but which always resonated when I first gave it a listen, is the progressive themes.
First four tracks: Blackened, And Justice For All, Eye of the Beholder, One, which are thematically Environmentalism, Corruption, “Manufactured Consent” (free thinking), War.
The bad thing about Death Magnetic. You have the loudness war thing about the album. To an point you have people saying the Guitar Hero version sounds better then the album version.
Bad mastering in an album has ruined many great albums.
I feel like this is a based take (as a Death Magnetic fan myself). My favorite is still the Black album, but Death Magnetic is a very close second
Yea … apart from the “loudness wars” tone, which in the early 90s might actually have come off as an attempt to get back to the garage band early days vibe, it’s very easy to imagine Death Magnetic as the follow up to Justice.