...And Justice For All: 20 Years Later

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the songs or the performances but the record definitely could’ve sounded better.

no it couldn't!

there's no bass tho

also drums sound kind of funny

To ease my misgivings over the bass/other misc. issues, I like to think of AJFA as sonically one big rhythm guitar

i mean i like it!

I enjoy this album very much

anybody have a parametric equalizer hooked up to their stereo?

Lars on fire

Helluva way to deal with Jaymz's recent news

Shortest Straw ftw

This album

Anyone complain about the bass sound above?

What bass sound?

Oh wow, they actually played my favorite song once, in its entirety, and did it justice (lol): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF5OHUXamFQ

Which is the one that was supposedly "unplayable," due to punch-ins and overdubs and stuff?

I know it's traditionally metal and all, but I guess James still gets a pass for the Iron Cross?

That's Dyer's Eve. They've now played it, with Lars gutting the drum part.

XPS

Iron crosses have a long history in California Biker/Surfer/Hot Rod culture. One of the times he cleaned up, Hetfield really got into Hot Rods, which I imagine informed both the cross and pinstriping on his guitar.

https://www.hotrodders.com/forum/maltese-cross-14960.html

Just searched "Dyer's Eve demo" on youtube on a hunch, and there you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtSwgCEktE

See, Lars used to be able to play that ridiculously fast & long double bass part in the verse even without punch-ins.

But the Maltese cross is not the Iron Cross. That's an Iron Cross, which is associated afaik just with Germany. Right?

(Not picking a fight with James, who already has a history of being associated with or saying questionable stuff about a bunch of bad shit.)

I remember hearing this version on a bootleg in a used CD store listening station when I was a kid, and realizing that the best riffs are the actually the ones under the solos (maybe because James doesn't have to sing, or even lock in with another rhythm guitarist): https://youtu.be/WAfcp54co4M?t=257

I don't hear any double bass on that demo in the verse? Sounds like a simplified drum beat compared to the studio recording? Unless that was the joke...

Or it could be the shittiness of the recording and my waning hearing. I hear something approximating double bass but it's faint

I hear something approximating double bass but it's faint

That's our Lars ....

;)

I'm on headphones and can definitely hear it throughout (not a lot of attack on that demo recording), and his time is super tight compared to most live shows.

Lars rules

Lars is like Ringo: love him or not, I can't imagine anyone else in his place.

Or I guess I can imagine it, but wouldn't want it.

Protect Lars

Imagine being in your 50s and having legions of lunkheads caring about your double kick skills

Seriously, not least because all the young guns trigger anyway.

My god the instrumental section beginning four minutes into Eye of the Beholder is tight.

yeah that's my fav part of the song

i listened to that tune a lot during Trump's inauguration week lol

Great track.

the drums on “harvester of sorrow” are so fucking good

Best Metallica album. Fuck bass.

otm

The way that it's mixed, there are enough bass frequencies between the drums and rhythm guitars. This isn't to say that Jason wasn't shafted or that, if recorded differently with his parts higher in the mix, Justice could have been a different and possibly even better album. Regardless, it's a first-class record that achieved what it set out to do.

No one's listening to (this kind of) metal for the low-end rumble of the bass. Even Cliff, he often seemed to be playing fuzzed out co-lead that blended in with the guitars. I assume Jason isn't doing much different. I think the general thinness of the whole recording is pretty beneficial, because god knows how bad it would have sounded had they brick-walled everything like they did later.

Master of Puppets has great songs but when I listen to it now I just think about how much better it would sound recorded/mixed like AJFH

In my old age, I've mellowed my AJFA bass opinions. They're more in line with peace's and Josh's posts – yeah, there's no bass there, but it still fukkin jams.

I disagree with you, man alive. I do think that Masters sounds richer, fuller, thicker. Even that razor-sharp sheen at the end of The Thing That Should Be is, shall we say, more loaded than any similar riffs on AJFA.

Justice still sounds tinny in a lot of places, and my memories of it from a cassette tape that likely had too much tape inside it, it didn't sound great. CDs didn't help it much either.

BUT – despite all that – it's still a classic album.

the remastered albums feature Cliff loud and clearly, and he added a ton. granted, a lot of the songs, he was just doubling, but he's playing a unique, pulsing bassline on "Jump in the Fire", there's the intro to "For Whom the Bell Tolls", there's his work in Orion, there are the swells that open "Damage Inc", like.....people were listening to Cliff!

MoP still has that '80s reverb-y snare sound (and it's a great sounding classic album, don't get me wrong), but I think of the sound of AJFA as chrome-plated, or like a modernist sculpture.

Neanderthal otm, losing Cliff meant losing a creative force. Just so happened that Jamz and Larz were firing on all cylinders at that point, which made up for it

Oh, for sure, Cliff was an unusual talent, doubly unusual in that he was probably the biggest and brightest musical star of that era of Metallica. I mean, still not sure people were necessarily listening to Metallica *for* Cliff, other than "Orion," but he definitely added a lot (though again, kinda like a third guitarist). But clearly what he added wasn't 100% essential, because " ... And Justice" rules. The band didn't begin to decline until Lars and James shifted gears.

Until they stopped watching CNN together.

Cliff factored a lot more into the writing than Jason did.

he had 9 co-writing credits on RTL/MOP, even had one on "To Live is to Die" on AJFA.

He had 11 total across all albums (including "Anesthesia").

Jason had 3 total across his entire Metallica career.

I've never listened to the riff tracks discs that came with the boxed set. Are there Cliff riff tracks?