The document discusses the user's opinions on several Metallica albums, including Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice for All, and The Black Album. It provides details on songs, recording processes, band member changes, touring, and comparisons to other bands' albums from the same eras. Specific facts highlighted include Cliff Burton introducing the band to music theory before Ride the Lightning, Kirk Hammett replacing Dave Mustaine, and Burton's tragic death in a bus accident in 1986 while touring.

2. In my opinion Ride The Lightning is one of my favourite albums as it
contains a lot of my favourite songs such as Ride The Lightning, For Whom
The Bell Tolls, Fade To Black and Creeping Death. Creeping Death also
features my favourite solo from the album as well as one of my personal
favourite songs that I would love to see live as the break down after
the solo with the ‘DIE’ chant is something that comes across great
on the live versions of the albums and especially the Metallica
movie. Whilst researching the albums and some statistics
I found a lot of interesting facts out about the album with
some-things being about the studio version of the
album and others being about the live gigs and
tour dates. Such as the fact that the intro to the
song For Whom The Bell Tolls with the bell being rung in
the background isn’t actually a bell at all and that it is actually
drummer Lars Ulrich in a big empty concrete room with a big
iron anvil and a hammer comparable to a sledge hammer.
Another thing about Ulrich is that up until starting to record
Ride The Lightning, Ulrich didn’t actually know the basics
of rhythm and timing and would often increase and decrease
tempo when playing live as well as in the studio so before recording
the album Ulrich was taught the basics by Roadie Flemming
Larsen and producer Flemming Rasmussen. After Lars
was taught the basics the album was then produced in
3 weeks in Copenhagen in Sweet Silence Studios, this
was Ulrich’s choice as he liked the work that Rasmussen
did on Rainbow’s Difficult to Cure. Rasmussen
agreed to work with Metallica without even listening
to them beforehand even when his studio employees
questioned the talent of the band. One of the better things about the
album is the fact that this album is the first album that starts to
show the bands musical growth and lyrical
sophistication, this is because bassist Cliff Burton introduced
the entire band to the basics of music theory and had more input
when it came to the song writing of the songs.
This album was also a bit of a change to the band themselves as at this
point in time they decided to kick out lead guitarist Dave Mustaine
for his drug use and abuse as well as his alcohol abuse and violent
behaviour as well as personality conflicts with the band members,
this then lead to the band replacing Mustaine in the same
afternoon with Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammett. This then lead to
Mustaine creating Megadeth which set out to rival Metallica as
he was pissed off as he believed that Hammett stole his job
and got popular with riffs that Mustaine wrote himself. The
group Megadeth then grew and grew and became on of
the biggest bands in Thrash Metal alongside
Metallica and then they became part of
“The Big 4“ of Thrash metal bands.
I personally think that Creeping Death is
one of the best songs to play live as the audience
participation is a key-part of the song. At around the 3
minute mark the music starts to slow down and the chant
from the crowd begins to fill in the
background of the live track as well as when
actually being at the gig live.
This song basically brings all of the crowd together
along with the band to make them all one big voice and
this makes the songs sound amazing live.
At this time in the music you can see there is a massive
difference between the English and the
American metal scene. If you listen to Ride
The Lightning and then listen to Judas Preist’s
Defenders of The Faith as well as Iron Maiden’s
Powerslave you can see there is a massive difference
between the 3 albums. The American album is a lot
heavier and harsher than either of the British
albums. Metallica kept a lot of their own Thrash
themes with the album but incorporated a lot more slow
and melodic pieces into the song.

3. I think that Master Of Puppets has a very strong intro that comes from having
Battery and then it being followed up by Master OF Puppets, after the intro
songs I’m not a massive fan of the rest of the album to the degree that I can’t
remember specific lyrics for specific songs, but I do enjoy some of the songs
in the album such as The Thing That Should Not Be as it is a relaxed melodic
and repetitive song, but it also contains some very heavy and metal riffs that
speak to Metallica’s thrash roots and this is something that I can get behind.
This album also begins to show Metallica’s progression in the music industry
as they started to make songs that were less thrashy and a lot more melodic
and sophisticated in the music that they were creating. Metallica were starting
to develop from the music they were making in Kill Em’ All. This began to
foreshadow the build-up to The Black Album and ...And Justice For All whilst also
adhering to the older thrashy Metallica sound. In my personal opinion Master
Of Puppets and Battery are the most memorable songs off the album to me and
this helps to solidify them as my favourite songs off the album with my favourite
solo off the album going to Master OF Puppets. I also believe that both of these
songs are fan favourites as they have a great participation parts where the
crowd can join in.
Around the time that Master OF Puppets was being made and released there
were some other albums being released by the likes of Iron Maiden and Slayer
bands which have some similarities to Metallica in the music that they created
but some differences. Slayer have become one of the biggest thrash bands in the
world along with joining the ranks of ‘The Big 4‘ and in this year they released
the massive hit of Reign In Blood. Master of Puppets was more commercially
viable than Slayer’s Reign In Blood as Master had more symphonic and
melodic elements. As well as Slayer’s Reign In Blood there was Iron Maiden’s
Somewhere In Time. Whilst both of the artists had massive fan groups, the
much more commercial and more accepted image meant that Maiden beat out
Metallica in getting on the Billboard Charts, with Master Of Puppets being 29th
and Somewhere In Time came 11th. But in time all of the albums became even
bigger and bigger hits with Master Of Puppets going 6x Platinum in the US
alone.
Through all the time that Metallica have played live they have played the song
Master of Puppets over 1,600 times with some of their other popular songs being
played over 1,000s of times

4. I’m not the biggest fan of ..And Justice For All, I do enjoy some of the songs from
the album but in general I’m not the biggest fan of it. My favourite songs off
the album are the self-titled ...And Justice For All as well as the almighty ‘One’.
I think that overall the album is very good but it just doesn’t appeal to me a lot
as I enjoy the more thrashier and heavier music from older Metallica so this
album doesn’t appeal to me a lot. The concept behind One was the Book and film
Johhny Got His Gun, but the conversation about the song pre-dates
the band even knowing about the film or book. The beginning of
the song sprung to Hetfield having an idea about what it would
be like if you couldn’t reach out and communicate with anyone
around you. The idea then stuck as an idea until James came
to record ...And Justice For All. When he came to record ...And
Justice he thought back to the idea of the song he had. When
it came to making the song and music video the band used
clips from the film as it struck a similar comparison to the themes in
the song but eventually after having enough of having to pay royalty
fees to the owners of the films rights, Metallica bought the
rights to the film so they didn’t have to pay the rights
for showing the clips.
The album artwork for the album
was based on concept art from the
minds of James and Lars which
depicted the iconic Lady Justice being
dragged along the floor. Roger
and his brother Stephen the art
directors for the album really enjoyed
this idea as it was a simple representation of
political and legal injustice at the time
I feel like one of the most
iconic parts of ...And Justice is
the album artwork alongside One.
On the night of the 26th of November when travelling between tour dates in Sweden
Hammett and Burton were playing cards and they decided to draw cards to pick bunks on
the tour bus. During interviews some of the tour organisers talked about the
conditions the band travelled in. One of the main things the organisers talked
about was the fact that the tour buses that the band travelled in, in 1986
were a lot different from the buses that bands travel in now. Mick
Hughes who was a Sound Technician at the time said that the
buses were like passenger coaches with bunks bolted into
them. Back to the cards, the two were talking over sleeping
arangements as Burton had thought that Hammett’s
bed looked the comfiest and he wanted to swap but Hammett
didn’t want to give up his bunk. So the pair started
drawing cards to choose who get the bunk,
Burton chose the Ace Of Spades, he then
decided that we wanted Hammett’s
bunk and Hammett allowed the
swap and slept near the
front of the bus. On the morning of the
27th the band members were woken abruptly
when the bus started sliding from side to
side, the driver claimed to have hit a
patch of black ice but Hetfield claims to
have walked the road multiple miles and
not seen a single patch of black ice and
claims the nus driver was either drunk or tired.
The resulting sliding lead to the bus flipping
on its side and Burton being thrown out of the
window. Attempts were made to save
Burton by lifting the bus but after attempting
to lift the bus the crane slipped and the bus was
dropped again. Some people claimed that
Burton was still alive but some
people believed that he dead on first
impact. Burton was cremated and his
ashes were scattered at the Maxwell Ranch
in California, Orion was played at the
ceremony. After the news broke Metallica’s
ex-guitarist wrote Megadeth song In My Darkest
Hour and Anthrax dedicated their Among The Living
album to him.

5. In my opinion The Black Album is one of my favourite albums as it contains some
amazing songs that came back to the thrashier and less symphonic style of Kill
Em’ All and Master Of Puppets. Some of my favourite songs are ones such as
Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters and Sad But True, all of these songs have
a mix of symphonic and thrash which is probably the best mix of the songs. But
my favourite has to go to The Unforgiven as the solo in the song is amazing and
shows the work that the band can do. The album contains the majority of my
favourite Metallica songs and this is why it has solidified itself as my Number 1
favourite album from the band. It also contains some of the most popular songs
from the band.
This album is very emotional for the band as during the time of recording and
making of the album Lars, Jason and Kirk were all going through divorces. In
this album the band members poured all of their emotions into the album and the
songs and Kirk funnelled his guilt and failure into songs such as Sad But True.
The reason that The Black Album sounds a lot heavier than previous Metallica
albums is the fact that previous to recording this album the band thought that
the E note was the lowest tuning until they met with Motley Crue were they were
introduced to Drop D, Metallica then tuned themselves down to Drop D and this
allowed songs and riffs from songs like Sad But True to become massive hits.
The story behind the Black Album’s cover is that when it came to designing the
cover for the album the band looked through magazines and other albums that
were out at the time and saw a massive amount of the similar look of cartoon
characters, steel, guts and blood and they were sick of the same look, the fact
that all of the band members liked black as a colour probably helped as well,
so when it came to making the cover the band said “Here it is, Black sleeve,
Black logo, Fuck You“. The Black Album is probably one of Metallica’s more well
known albums as it is one of their most popular albums going 16x Platinum in
their home country, this is no small feat with the band selling close to 17 million
units in the US alone with it being sold more in different countries as well, the
previous album from the band went 8x Platinum so the band doubled the sales
for the album in just 3 years.
At the time that The Black Album was being released there were other albums
that were producing similar albums to the content that is in the album. I think
that 2 albums that convey this concept is Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell and
Anthrax’s Persistence Of Time. These two albums are similar to the content in
The Black Album. The songs from both of the albums have elements of faster
more thrashier elements alongside some of the slower riffs and melodic parts.
This is evident in songs such as Anthrax’s Got The Time where the song begins
with a slower intro riff that is very iconic to any Anthrax fan or a lot of people
who are fans of metal, then the song jumps into a very fast paced guitar riff and
then it goes into the song.
There is also the massive cult hit of Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell, this song
is very fast and has a lot of distortion and this is something that is followed
through in Metallica’s album as well with the band being classed as a thrash
band they like to have heavy and fast elements. I think that the
early 1990’s were good years for metal in general as the Black
Album was such a cultural event for Metallica
and other band with Cowboys From Hell
being one of Pantera’s biggest albums.

6. I think that the Through The Never album was well executed as a live album,
the album has a great mix of the sound coming from the stage and enough of
the crowd to bring in the atmosphere of the arena that the band were playing in
and this is my favourite part of the record as if you just listen to the album the
atmosphere helps to make the listener feel like they are there at the
concert and this feeling is achieved very well in this album.
I also believe that Through The Never is one of my
favourite albums as it contains a lot of my favourite
songs and even makes some of the songs were I
wasn’t the biggest fan of the original version
and makes them better such as Fuel, the
original version of the song is too slow for me
but the version in this album is fast and
much more thrashy which is what I prefer.
But it also add’s to some of the songs that
I really love such as Creeping Death and
One, the extra sound effects and the
showmanship of the movie version of the
song and listening to the album just
reminds me of the movie versions with all
the lights and the screens and the band
telling the story of the songs. This is
something that I would personally love to see
live in person myself someday as Metallica are
amazing with the live performances.
One interesting thing about this album is the fact that all
of the songs on the album are the actual live versions
of songs that the band play in the movie version of
the album and this is very cool as you can hear
small incidents and accidents happening and then when you
watch the movie you see these accidents come to life. I think that the album gets
another dimension of reality after watching the movie as you notice all of these
little things that you might have missed on the first listen.
One of the most surprising thing about the song list from Through The Never is
the fact that ...And Justice For All is included in the track list as the band said
they would never play the song again as it was too long and wasn’t as fun
for the audience as it was for the band. They said this back in 1988
after they released the album ...And Justice For All and
saw that the crowds weren’t as excited
during the song as they were in other songs
so they stopped playing it, the song had only
been played 230 times up until 1988 whereas now the
song has been played an extra 43 times, this shows
that the band still believe that the song is not a live
song but still enjoy it. But the song One from the
same album has some of the elements of the
slower song but a lot more faster parts and
that song has been played live 1474 times.
At the time of the album being released
there were some live albums but at the
time the band were competing against
some other thrash bands but also against
the newer up and coming metal bands
that are becoming largely popular with
the similar audience. This is evident with
bands such as Machine Head releasing their Machine Fucking Head
Live album which is largely received as being amazing and has a
lot of atmosphere and all the aspects that people want to see in the
live albums, Machine Head have a harder time with the reach
of their music as it is a lot more primarily heavier and not as
mainstream and approachable as bands like Metallica.
Then there are bands like Trivium who have been around since
1999 and they have expressed that they have as a band drawn some
inspiration from Metallica and this is evident in the music that they make
as some of the songs have heavier sections and some have the melodic and
symphonic parts which Metallica aren’t against using. I think that Trivium’s
Vengeance Falls is a great example of this as it has a good mix of hard metal and
symphonic elements.

7. There was a lot of worry and hype around the new album as it was the first
actual studio album that the band had released in 8 years and some of the
albums like St. Anger hadn’t give the audience much faith in the band but there
was still a lot of faith in the band as they were so massive the album was
guaranteed to sell no matter what. I think that the album has a very strong intro
with songs such as Hardwired, Moth Into The Flame and Atlas, Rise!.
After this I haven’t really listened to the album as the overall tone of the album
wasn’t the Metallica I was used to and these songs were similar to the Metallica
I enjoyed listening to. Overall I think that this album could have achieved a lot
more in the music that was on the album with some of the songs having the
potential to be a lot heavier and have the tones of old Metallica but I think that
the band are trying to reach too many target audiences with the band trying
to reach a more mainstream audience, I think that this might have worked in
making the music that they make more approachable to the
mainstream listener but personally I didn’t really
enjoy the album as a whole and thought that
it could have been a lot better if
they didn’t try to appease the
mainstream crowd.
I think that this is also
evident with the band
going on a lot more shows
like Saturday Night
Live and performing with
singers and
musicians
who are primarily
known for singing in the
pop genre of music such as singers
like Lady Gaga.
The band set about on a massive tour after the announcement of the new
album and as they were on tour at the time of announcement and the title song
of the album was released alongside the announcement they as soon as the
announcement was made they added the title song “Hardwired“ to the tour song
line-up. We’ve known from as long as January of 2015 when bassist Robert
Trujillo uploaded a picture to Instagram of his hands in the metal horn pose
with the caption of “Rockin along“. The band also released the third pre-release
song “Atlas, Rise!“ was released around Halloween time and they worked with
Independent record stores to give away free Metallica masks which had access
codes on the back of them which allowed people to access the track half an hour
before the official release to the general public.
I think the album had some good competitors around the same time with Iron
Maiden’s Book Of Souls which was a massive hit with lots of their fans as it
kept the focus on the music that they were making beforehand instead of trying
to adapt to the more mainstream audience. This album keeps the iconic Maiden
sound of Dickinson’s iconic vocals and the more melodic sound of their music.
Then there was also Machine Head’s Bloodstone and Diamonds which is similar
to their older stuff but has changed slightly from the more thrashier style to the
newer more symphonic sound that has become a great part of some metal songs
such as One and other songs like one of my personal favourites being Mein Herz
Brennt by German Giants Rammstien.
In general I think that the album wasn’t too bad but the genre of the album
wasn’t as heavy or akin to the older style of Metallica that I am used to. Some of
the songs that were pre-release and some of the beginning songs of the album
were very good and that I actually really liked but the rest of the album I wasn’t
a fan of. I’m not saying I’m the biggest Metallica fan ever and that I understand
everything about music and the industry and that I understand how to make the
music but personally the music just doesn’t do it for me and I’m not the biggest
fan. But with all that aside, go and listen to all of these albums and form your
own opinions because that’s all that these articles have been, my own opinions.

8. InterviewLeon Boyce:
How did you first learn about Metallica ?
Through Spotify, I was listening to a metal playlist and of the songs peaked my interest and I
started from there.
What was the first song you listened to by them and were you a fan straight away or did it take
more time ?
The first song I listened to was One, and it still remains to be my favourite song to this day.
Have you ever seen Metallica live before and if so how many times ?
No, I haven’t seen them live.
What is your favourite album and why ?
My favourite album is …And Justice For All, the whole album flows so nicely and I can listen to it
from start to end.
Do you have a favourite Metallica song ?
My favourite song is One.
How long have you been listening to Metallica ?
I’ve been listening for 6 years.
Do you have a favourite version of the band, like the current line-up or previous line-ups ?
No, I don’t have a favourite version of the band I’m just a fan of the music they create.
Do you have a favourite band member and if so who is it ?
No I don’t have a favourite band member, I like them all.
Do you have a favourite solo from a song ?
My favourite solo is from One.
When listening to Metallica albums do you prefer the studio albums or the live albums ?
I prefer the studio versions of the albums over the live versions.
Do you have a favourite piece of artwork from a Metallica album, if so what is it ?
My favourite art work is either the …And Justice For All or the Hardwired to Self-Destruct, both
stand out and look great on the cover of a vinyl cover.