Is and Justice for All an acceptable album Cliff Fans ?

[MAJOR METAL]

For many here Metallica died with Cliff Burton ( All praise and peace be upon his name ) Do you think the And Justice for All album is an acceptable album ?

[Nino Valenti]

I try not to think in terms of before Cliff, after Cliff...

Justice is an Awesome metal album. All it needs for me it for the bass to be a little more audible.

[groovaholic]

I think AJFA was a very solid record, but I (like most bassists) would have liked the bass to be audible on it.

Then again, the bass wasn't all that audible on Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning, or Master of Puppets.

I liked the bass tone (and mix level) on Garage Days. Not sure why James felt that Metallica sounds better with 1 dimensional, boxy low end and reverted back to the undefined rumble of the earlier albums for AJFA.

I like the '90 box set of the shows from AJFA and the Black Album tours--you can actually HEAR the bass, and I think Jason was doing good stuff there. And, of course, the Black album sounds great.

It'll be interesting to hear their next album--if Robert's influence comes through in their writing and mix.

I thought that St. Anger sounded like CRAP--they should have scrapped the CD and just provided the audio from the (included) DVD -- release it as a "live in-studio" album.

I hope they continue to innovate and challenge themselves; the results COULD be interesting.

[Rickett Customs]

I just believe James Hetfield became too controlling at the time after Cliff's death (Between writing and "say so")(Which for Cliff's era of the band, he had alot of input and contributions), which threw Newstead's work directly in the "back seat" for this album, which If I were to guess, I don't think Cliff would have wanted it that way (IMO).
So, bass-wise, In Justice for all is not acceptable (IMO). For the writing aspect of the rest of the instruments, very acceptable.

[shannons]

AJFA is still my favorite Metallica record....but I wish the bass was more audible.

[casualmadness]

Not really a big fan of AJFA but it wasn't bad. However, IMHO it is a million times better than everything that has followed.

[fenderhutz]

AJFA is my favorite of all time really. Songwriting is superb. You can feel the emotion in the songs when they recorded that.

[capnsandwich]

I think Cliff would have approved of that album. The albums after that, no freakin' way. That album was the last great work that Metallica did IMO. That was their sound. That was their "Moving Pictures", like Rush had. After Moving Pictures Rush kind of got a little weak. So did Metallica after AJFA. The corporate side of music began to take over and it became a bunch of radio-friendly country metal. Cliff Burton would not approve of that. All of this IMHO.

[Depth_Charge]

I am a die hard "Cliff era Metallica fan" and love the music he contributed towards, especially his work on Call of Ktulu and Orion.

That said, AJFA is an awesome album in its own right and I spent many hours listening to the album. I have wondered how Cliff would have approached writing the bass parts, but I still think Jason did the album, and the band, justice. For all

[MAJOR METAL]

Why do many of you feel that Cliff would not approve of the Load albums ?

[casualmadness]

Originally Posted by MAJOR METAL

Why do many of you feel that Cliff would not approve of the Load albums ?

Because it wasn't Metallica...it was Bob Rock.

[*smb]

I'm not a huge Metallica fan though I do have all their albums. I rate Justice below Black. I think the problem with Load/Reload and also St Anger was the band were too self-aware and thinking too hard about what they should be doing or what the fashions in metal were.

[Benjamin Strange]

I didn't feel that Justice is a good record at all. The "songwriting" is scattered and unfocused, and the tone is simply terrible.

Bands live and die based on their chemistry between the bandmates. Losing Cliff was the end of the Metallica magic.

[jollygiantchris]

Originally Posted by MAJOR METAL

Why do many of you feel that Cliff would not approve of the Load albums ?

unspired songwriting to say the least, a far more compromising sound, and the band basically went with the trends in popular music at the time (MUCH shorter song forms, far less complex music, few if any soloing i don't recall any on load or reload but then again i threw my copy of reload out and i only listen to hero of the day off of load) ESPECIALLY with reload. i mean **** man listen to load and reload and then go put on master of puppets or ride the lightning it doesn't even sound like the same god damned band

to use an analogy if music is a conversation with load and reload metallica was lying :P if not just to all of us then at least to themselves

and besides the poor mixing job and justice for all is a great album still that id recommend

[StanFan]

I love the songs on Justice, but admit that the album did lag at points (most notably on Frayed Ends Of Sanity). I also think Jason was a great addition for Metallica and although he doesn't shine on Justice, his playing can be heard on the Black album, Load/Reload, and Garage Inc. Overall I'd say I dig Jason's playing more than Cliffs (still like the guy). And there's no point in bringing up what Cliff would have thought of their work without him because all we can gather from him is through bits of interviews that are 20 years + old.

[Josh Ryan]

Blackened is an awesome song, the rest is OK. the tone is terrible though.

I listen to BTBAM's cover of Blackened, it sounds better.

I love Puppets, Lightning and Kill 'Em All, after those three they moved in a direction I did not like. I'm interested in what Rob Trujillo (sp?) brings, if he gets to bring anything, to the next record.

+1 to Ben Strange.

[Baryonyx]

Blackened is awesome and the rest of the record is solid stuff. Not as good as Load or Reload though, which are my favourite Metallica albums.

[BadB]

I think Justice and Puppets were their best albums, even though they could each use a re-mix on the bass. Newsted is a solid bassist. Sound engineers never did him any 'Justice'.

[SirCanealot]

Originally Posted by BadB

I think Justice and Puppets were their best albums, even though they could each use a re-mix on the bass. Newsted is a solid bassist. Sound engineers never did him any 'Justice'.

There's a rare remix of Puppets and Ride with far improved bass (guitar/drums sound a bit better as well). You can actually hear the bass on Puppets a lot of the time with a little EQ on your end! Amazing.

Unfortunately they added some dynamic range compression to the remixes (Why? To an audiophile gold disk?!), but it's not too bad...

[perogato02]

Now if we are talking about the best Metallica-album ever, it would be 'Master Of Puppets', without a doubt. And of course that is with Cliff on bass