Following on the heels of Ride the Lightning and Mater of Puppets, ...And Justice for All is a little underwhelming for me. It still seems to strive for the general sound that Metallica had achieved on those previous albums but falls just a little short. The energy of the guitar isn't as present as before and the overall structures of the songs feels almost like an imitation of what they'd done before that just barely misses the mark. On top of this a lot of album feels drowsy, almost? Especially in the first half, the raw energy that was so appealing is sorely missed and leaves a good chunk of the album feeling aimless and unmemorable. Thankfully the latter half of the album manages to pick up and regain the power in the feel and sound of the music. In terms of lyricism, the album continues and expands on the political nature of a lot of the songs on Master of Puppets and takes even wider swings. To me this feels like a bit of a double edged sword because while I feel that the band is very good at tackling harsh subjects and think that the wordplay and delivery are both still pretty good, the messaging and pointedness of it are dulled by how wide-ranging the subjects they take on are, both because of how many there are (again, especially on the first half) and how oddly vague some of the songs are about their subject matter, namely the title track. I still enjoy the critiques of contemporary political/social topics and, again, think they're handled well and don't consider this to be too big of an issue. Other than that, ...And Justice for All is pretty much more of the same from the band as they've put out previously but not quite as refined as their lauded outings from a few years prior. Not a bad showing that you'd probably enjoy if you were intrigued by said prior outings.
Highlights: One, The Shortest Straw, To Live is to Die, Dyers Eve.
Rating: 4/6
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