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…And Justice for All is the fourth album by American heavy metal band Metallica. Elektra Records released the album on August 25, 1988. This is the first Metallica studio album to feature bassist Jason Newsted, since the death of the group's former bassist Cliff Burton. The album was certified 8x Platinum by the RIAA on June 9, 2003.[4]
The album's dark subject material, featuring references to injustice in the legal system, limited freedom, war, insanity and hate, is accompanied by what may be the most complex song structures in Metallica's discography. The arrangements are particularly complicated for a thrash metal album, being likened to progressive metal in their complexity.[5] The album is also noted for its nearly-inaudible bass guitar (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") and dry, sterile production, and therefore has been called a "slightly flawed masterpiece and the pinnacle of Metallica's progressive years" by AllMusic.com.[6]
The front cover depicts the statue of Lady Justice cracked, bound by ropes, and both of her scales filled with dollars. The words "…And Justice for All" are written in graffiti to the right. She is also holding a sword out in her right hand showing that she is prepared to take matters into her own hands. The cover was made by Stephen Gorman after a concept by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.[7]
The album was the best selling Metallica record 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 #6 in the Billboard charts.[10] Though it would soon be over-shadowed commercially by the band's following album (1991's Metallica), this album nevertheless confirmed Metallica's large-scale arena status.
The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance in 1989, 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.[11]
In 1990, "One" received the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, Metallica's first Grammy Award.[12] The guitar solo of "One" was ranked #7 in Guitar World's compilation of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time.
The album was ranked at number nine in IGN's Top 25 Metal Albums.[13] The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Metallica released their first music video for "One," after years of resisting pressure to release videos for their tracks[14]. The video incited controversy among their fans, who had valued the band's apparent opposition to MTV and other forms of mainstream commercial metal.
[edit] 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.'"[15] He is also quoted in an interview for SoWhat! magazine as saying "'Justice' was a bit much for me. I couldn't stand watching the front row start to yawn by the eight or ninth minute."
In spite of this, the song "One" quickly gained a permanent fixture in the band's live playlist since the release of the album [16]. 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.
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 twenty seconds. Also, when the war sounds have reached a conclusion, after having a pitch-black stage, fire will erupt from various points of the stage.
16 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 The Forum in Inglewood, California[17].
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[18] and made it a set-fixture for the remainder of that routing. In 2008, "...And Justice for All" was played again during their 2008 Tour.
To date, "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" and "To Live is to Die" remain the only songs from the album that have never been performed live in their entirety. Instead, the band played segments of them during solos, impromptu jams, or, in the case of "The Frayed Ends of Sanity," in a "Justice" medley featured on the live album, "Live Shit: Binge and Purge."
| And Justice For All details |
|
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | The Billboard 200 | 6 |
| UK Albums Chart | 4 | |
| 2007 | Finnish Album Chart[19] | 8 |
| 2009 | Mexico Album Chart | 92 |
Singles
| Year | Song | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | "Harvester of Sorrow" | UK Singles Chart | 20 |
| "Eye of the Beholder" | UK Singles Chart | 27 | |
| "One" | Billboard Hot 100 | 35 | |
| UK Singles Chart | 13 |
Certification
Since the beginning of the SoundScan era in 1991, ...And Justice for All has sold 5,330,000 copies.
| Country | Certification | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 8x Platinum | |
| Finland | Platinum[21] | 51.051+ |
| Germany | Gold[22] | 250.000+ |
| Norway | Gold [23] | 50.000+ |
Media appearances
The album's most famous song "One", was featured as a playable track in Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock as one of the most difficult songs to play. "One" was also included in the newer Guitar Hero: Metallica, along with "Dyers Eve" and "The Shortest Straw". Samples from this album are used in NHL games. The songs "...And Justice for All" and "Blackened" are available as downloadable songs on Rock Band 2.