Metallica: 10 Most Brutally Heavy Songs - Ranked
2. Blackened
There was a lot of unknown elements for Metallica going into the making of And Justice for All. The band had come off one of the greatest albums in metal history but had tragically lost Cliff Burton in a bus accident while on tour. Instead of cowering to pressure, the band forged ahead with new bassist Jason Newsted and channeled all of their frustration into their songs.
The intro to "Blackened" features a reversed-guitar passage that almost feels like bringing you to the top of a metal rollercoaster before the big descent of the main riff. The central riff of the song was actually written by Newsted, with its atypical time signature and intense BPM. This was also the time when Hetfield's voice was at its most ferocious, with him barking like a dog as he sings of the death of the planet as we know it.
As heavy as the track is, this was also the beginning of the band's experimentation with more complex material, with much of the song being dominated by changing tempos and some of the most superhuman feats of guitar downpicking. There have been many different sonic identities of Metallica, but this is the one instance where every single heavy element started to come together.