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...And Justice for All is the fourth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. The album was released on August 25, 1988 through Elektra Records. It was the group's first full studio album to feature bassist Jason Newsted, following the death of Cliff Burton in 1986. Newsted had previously appeared on the Metallica E.P. The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited, which was his first recorded work with Metallica. ...And Justice for All was certified 8x platinum by the RIAA on June 9, 2003.

The front cover depicts the statue of Lady Justice cracked, bound by ropes, her breasts exposed, and both of her scales filled with dollars. The words "…And Justice for All" are written in graffiti-like lettering to the right. The cover art was created by Stephen Gorman, based on a concept developed by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. ...And Justice for All was Metallica's final collaboration with longtime producer Flemming Rasmussen. The album was initially released on one vinyl disc, but soon after re-released (without additional tracks) as a double-album. It is the world's best-selling thrash metal album.

Background and production

...And Justice for All was recorded across four and a half months in Los Angeles' One on One Recording Studios, being like the predecessors Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets co-produced by Flemming Rasmussen. Rasmussen was initially unavailable for Metallica's planned start date at January 1, 1988. So the band brought in Mike Clink, who had caught attention as the producer of the Guns N' Roses album Appetite for Destruction. But things did not work out as they forecasted, and three weeks later drummer Lars Ulrich called Rasmussen, who had become available. Rasmussen heard the demos for the album on the flight to Los Angeles on February 14th, and upon his arrival Clink got fired. All the band had done while waiting for Rasmussen was check the sounds, switch some guitar amplifiers and record cover tunes — something they had done to start the recording sessions with Rasmussen "to fine‑tune the sound while they got into the studio vibe". The tracks were "Breadfan" and "The Prince", later released as b-sides of the "Harvester of Sorrow" CD single and included on the compilation album Garage Inc. in 1998. Clink was also credited for engineering the drums on ...And Justice for All.

Rasmussen's first providence was to adjust and arrange the guitar sound, which the band had not been satisfied with. The producer said that as "the guys were in a layering mode, aiming for perfection", both a guide track for the tempos and a click track for Ulrich's drumming were employed. The band would perform in the live room, with the instruments being recorded separatedly - "if Lars needed a break, we’d start doing the guitars and lead vocals on those songs that already had finished drum parts." - usually starting with drums, then guitars, and finishing with bass. Each song used three reels, one for drums, one for the bass and guitars, and one for anything else. Frontman James Hetfield wrote the lyrics as the recording went along, at time not having them finished as the song started recording, which Rasmussen attributed to Hetfield "wasn’t really interested in singing" in lieu of "wanting that hard vibe.”

Music and lyrics

...And Justice for All has a dark lyrical material features a conceptual uniformity around notions of political and legal injustice, as seen through the prism of war, censored speech, and nuclear brinkmanship. Lars Ulrich described the songwriting process as "our CNN years", with him and James Hetfield watching the channel in search for song subjects - "I'd read about the blacklisting thing, we'd get a title, 'The Shortest Straw,' and a song would come out of that." According to Allmusic, "at the time, prog-metal was fairly underground (although such Metallica albums as And Justice for All were as dense and layered as prog albums)".

The album is noted for its dry, sterile production. Rasmussen said it was not his intention, as he attempted to get a sound filled with ambience like in the previous two albums, and he was not present for the album's mixing, for which Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero had been hired beforehand. Rasmussen felt that, in his absence from the mixing process, Thompson and Barbiero ended up using only the close microphones on the mix and none of the room microphones, thus causing the "clicking", thin drum sound. The sound has nearly-inaudible bass guitar, which Rasmussen claims was ordered by Hetfield and Ulrich after hearing the initial mixes, resulting in his belief that "Jason , Toby and I are probably the only people who know what the bass parts actually sounded like on that album". The duo defended that that most of Newsted's bass lines closely followed the rhythm guitar lines to the point of being indiscernible from each other. Newsted was quoted as saying "The Justice album wasn't something that really felt good for me, because you really can't hear the bass".

Cliff Burton receives co-writers credit on "To Live Is to Die" as the bass line was a medley of unused bass recordings Burton had performed prior to his death. While the original recordings are not used on the track, the compositions are credited as written by Burton and are played by Metallica's bassist at the time, Jason Newsted. The words spoken towards the end of the song ("when a man lies, he murders some part of the world. These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives...") by Hetfield were written by German poet Paul Gerhardt, but are misattributed to Burton in the liner notes. Still, the second half of the speech ("All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?") were written by Burton.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	C+
Q
Rolling Stone
Piero Scaruffi	7/10

...And Justice for All was Metallica's best-selling album upon its release. Metallica released four singles, "Eye of the Beholder", "Harvester of Sorrow", "...And Justice for All" and "One". ...And Justice for All was Metallica's breakthrough album and reached number six on the Billboard 200. Though it was over-shadowed commercially by the band's following album Metallica (1991), ...And Justice for All confirmed Metallica's large-scale arena status.

The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance in 1988, but with much controversy, it lost to Jethro Tull's Crest of a Knave. In 2007, the win was named one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history by Entertainment Weekly. The guitar solo of "One" was ranked number seven in Guitar World's compilation of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time. In the same magazine's 2006 reader poll, …And Justice for All placed 12th on a list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums.

The album was ranked at number nine in IGN's Top 25 Metal Albums. The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No. 42 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". Metallica released its first music video for "One", after years of resisting pressure to release music videos. The video had some controversy among their fans, who had valued the band's apparent opposition to MTV and other forms of mainstream commercial metal.

Live performances

Hammett noted the length of the songs being problematic for fans and the band. "Touring behind it, we realized that the general consensus was that songs were too fucking long," he said. "One day after we played 'Justice' and got off the stage one of us said, 'we're never fucking playing that song again.'"

In spite of this, the song "One" quickly gained a permanent fixture in the band's live setlist since the release of the album. The only other song from …And Justice for All that has come close to this is "Harvester of Sorrow", a song that was played live heavily after the album's release but has only begun to be played again recently. "Blackened" has also recently seen some exposure in the World Magnetic Tour and for the Sonisphere festival.

When the song "One" is played live, the war sounds heard at the beginning of the song are often lengthened to sometimes around two minutes instead of the original seventeen seconds. When the war sounds have reached a conclusion, after having a pitch-black stage, fire will erupt from various points of the stage.

Sixteen years after "Dyers Eve" was recorded, on March 5, 2004, the band performed the song in its entirety for the first time ever on the Madly in Anger with the World Tour at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

On June 28, 2007, Metallica played the title track for the first time since October 1989, in Lisbon on the first show of their Sick of the Studio '07 tour and made it a set-fixture for the remainder of that touring. In 2008–2010, "...And Justice for All" was played again on rare occasions during their World Magnetic Tour.

Also on September 19, 2009, "The Shortest Straw" made its way back into the set lists during its World Magnetic Tour after a 12 year absence at the Montreal Bell Center, not being played live since February 9, 1997.

On December 8, 2011, Metallica performed "To Live Is to Die" in its entirety during the exclusive 30 Years of Metallica concerts at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California.

To date, "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" remains the only song from the album that has never been performed live in its entirety. Instead, the band has played segments of it during solos, impromptu jams, or in a "Justice" medley featured on the live album Live Shit: Binge and Purge.

"Eye of the Beholder" has not been played live in its entirety since 1989. One such performance appears on Metallica's live extended play, Six Feet Down Under.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by James Hetfield, except "To Live Is to Die" by Cliff Burton

"The Prince" was also released on the "Harvester of Sorrow" and "One" CD singles, and later on the Garage Inc. covers album.

Personnel

Metallica

• James Hetfield – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Lars Ulrich – drums
• Kirk Hammet – lead guitar
• Jason Newsted – bass

Technical personnel

• Metallica – producers
• Flemming Rasmussen – producer, engineer
• Mike Clink – drum engineer on "The Shortest Straw" and "Harvester of Sorrow"
• Toby Wright – additional engineer
• Steve Thompson; Michael Barbiero – mixing
• George Cowan – assistant engineer
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• James Hetfield; Lars Ulrich – cover concept
• Stephen Gorman – cover art
• Pushead – illustrations
• Ross Halfin – photography
• Reiner Design Consultants, Inc. – design, layout

Charts

Album

Singles

Certification

Since the beginning of the SoundScan era in 1991, ...And Justice for All has sold 5,330,000 copies.

In popular culture

• The album's most famous song "One" was featured as a playable track in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as one of the most difficult songs to play and in Guitar Hero: Metallica, along with "Dyers Eve" and "The Shortest Straw".
• The songs "...And Justice for All" and "Blackened" are available as downloadable songs for Rock Band 2.
• On the TV show Californication, the title of the Season 4 finale is named out of the album's title track.
• A brief snippet of the opening riff to "The Shortest Straw" is played in the 2010 indie film Hesher during the scene where Hesher meets TJ for the first time.

References

1. ^ "...And Justice For All". METALLICA.com. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
2. James Hetfield interview. VH1. Retrieved 2011-19-08.
3. ^ ...And Justice for All booklet. Vertigo Records. 1988.
4. Dimery & MacDonald 2010, p. 219.
5. "Harvester of Sorrow release date". Metallica.com. August 28, 1988. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
6. "Eye of the Beholder release date". Metallica.com. October 30, 1988. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
7. "One release date". Metallica.com. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
8. "Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
9. ^ Buskin, Richard (May 2011). "Metallica 'One': Classic Tracks". Sound on Sound. SOS Publications Group. OCLC 61313197. Retrieved January 18, 2013.
10. http://web.archive.org/web/20090321081614/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21395583/metallica/6
11. "Explore: Progressive Metal". AllMusic. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
12. "...And Justice for All – Metallica". AllMusic. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
13. Bienstock, Richard (December 2008). "Metallica: Talkin' Thrash". Guitar World.
14. Classic Albums: Metallica – Metallica. Eagle Rock, 2001.
15. Allmusic review
16. Christgau, Robert (March 14, 1989). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
17. "Review: ...And Justice for All". Q (Summer). London: 127. 2001. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
18. By Michael Azerrad (November 3, 1988). "And Justice For All by Metallica | Rolling Stone Music | Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
19. Scaruffi, Piero (1999). "Metallica". pieroscaruffi.com. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
20. "...And Justice For All". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 3, 2007. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
21. "Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets". Entertainment Weekly. 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007.
22. "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". Guitar World, About.com. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
23. "100 Greatest Guitar Albums". Guitar World. 2006. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) A copy can be found at "Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Albums Of All Time – Rate Your Music". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
24. "Top 25 Metal Albums". IGN.
25. Rhodes, Al (January 21, 1989). "Metallica '...And Justice for All'". Kerrang!. Vol. 222. London, UK: Spotlight Publications Ltd.
26. "Metallica Timeline September 1988". rockonthenet.com. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
27. "The Black Album James, Kirk, Lars". metallicaworld.co.uk. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
28. "Metlists, Inc. – One". metlists.com. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
29. "March 5th, 2004; The Forum, Inglewood, California, POR". livemetallica.com. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
30. "June 28, 2007; Super Bock Super Rock Festival, Lisbon, POR". livemetallica.com. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
31. Kaufman, Gil (June 26, 2006). "Metallica Put Catalog On iTunes — Quietly". MTV. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
32. "UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album ChartsSingles". everyHit.com. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
33. Finnish Album Chart – Search. Retrieved on 2009-07-08. Archived July 20, 2009.
34. "METALLICA's 'Black' LP Is Top-Selling Album Of SOUNDSCAN Era". BlabberMouth.
35. "Canadian album certifications – Metallica – ...And Justice for All". Music Canada.
36. ^ "Metallica" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
37. "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Metallica; 'And Justice for All')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
38. "Norwegian album certifications – Metallica – And Justice for All" (in Norwegian). IFPI Norway.
39. "American album certifications – Metallica – And Justice for All". Recording Industry Association of America.

Bibliography

• Dimery, Robert; MacDonald, Bruno (2010). Rock Connections: The Complete Family Tree of Rock 'n' Roll. HarperCollins. ISBN 006196655X. ...gave way to weirdly produced progressive metal on 1988's ...And Justice for All {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Pages with empty short description
• Metallica albums
• 1988 albums
• Elektra Records albums
• Vertigo Records albums
• English-language albums
• Albums produced by Flemming Rasmussen
• Albums certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America