10 Perfect Metal Albums With ZERO Bad Songs
3. And Justice for All - Metallica
Yes...there's probably half of Metallica's catalog that I could have put somewhere on this list. Across their '80s run, you could throw a dart at any of the releases by these thrash titans and still find something of quality. If we're talking the peak of their musical prowess though, the most air tight might have to be And Justice for All.
Which is saying something considering how long some of these songs run. Being the first outing without legendary bassist Cliff Burton, this is what sounds like Metallica's attempt at prog rock music, stuffing one riff beside another to create sonic architecture with guitars, from the opening strains of Blackened to the first song that got them MTV airplay with One.
There are also some decent social commentaries on this record, with the title track being described by James Hetfield as their "CNN Days" and To Live is To Die being a touching tribute to Cliff's memory in instrumental form. By the time you get to Dyers Eve, it feels like they've taken all of the heaviness of the past decade of being a band and put it into 5 of the most intense minutes of music they've ever made. Even though this was the last pure thrash album before their gamble with the Black Album, this is one hell of a sendoff.