| Ride the Lightning (Megaforce) 1984 1. Fight Fire with Fire 2. Ride the Lightning 3. For Whom the Bell Tolls 4. Fade to Black 5. Trapped Under Ice 6. Escape 7. Creeping Death 8. The Call of Ktulu (instrumental) Metallica's second release and just as good as it's debut. Everyone likes For Whom the Bell Tolls and Creeping Death and thinks they're the best songs ever (at least the Metallica junkies). I think the best ones, however, are Fight Fire with Fire, Ride the Lightning, and The Call of Ktulu. The only problem is that this album is slower than Kill 'em All in many places. |
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| Kill 'em All (Megaforce) 1983 1. Hit the Lights 2. The Four Horsemen 3. Motorbreath 4. Jump in the Fire 5.(Anasthesia)--Pulling Teeth (instrumental) 6. Whiplash 7. Phantom Lord 8. No Remorse 9. Seek and Destroy 10. Metal Militia This is Metallica's stunning debut album. Kill 'em All was originally released on Megaforce, but then it was bought out by Atlantic and Metallica would later go onto the Elektra label. I got this album my freshman year in High School. My buddies and I thought The Four Horsemen, No Remorse, and Seek and Destroy were the best songs on the earth. After I got out of my 'Metallica is the best' outlook on music, I thought Hit the Lights, Jump in the Fire, Whiplash, and Metal Militia were the real good tracks on the album. Cliff Burton's Pulling Teeth bass solo made me cream my pants when I found out that a person could do that with a bass guitar. The Four Horsemen was the rewrite of Mechanix (which can be found on the No Life 'til Leather demo and Megadeth's Killing is my Business) Personally, I like Mechanix better, but that's my opinion, so don't email me about how Metallica are radd to tha maxx. Probably my favorite Metallica album. |
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| Master of Puppets (Elektra) 1986 1. Battery 2. Master of Puppets 3. The Thing That Should Not Be 4. Welcome Home (Sanatarium) 5. Disposeable Heroes 6. Leper Messiah 7. Orion (instrumental) 8. Damage Inc. Master of Puppets is probably Metallica's best release. Battery, Disposeable Heroes, Leper Messiah, and Damage Inc. are my favorite tracks off of this album (but like every Metallica up to this point, all songs were pretty good). Welcome Home makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside when I listen to it and Orion has a mean bass solo after the 4:00 mark. Unfortunately, I wore the album out and I barely listen to it anymore. Blakk Totem did a neat cover of Battery that sounds Megadeth-ish. On a side note, Dave Mustaine sued Metallica after the release of MoP for not crediting him on Leper Messiah. Dave supposedly wrote the intro to the song and Metallica didn't cite him for his work. (I can see why, if Dave did write the into [which I think he did], Metallica wouldn't credit him because of his Megadeth releases of Killing is my Business... and the thrash classic, Peace Sells...) |
| ...And Justice for All (Elektra) 1988 1. Blackened 2. ...And Justice for All 3. Eye of the Beholder 4. One 5. The Shortest Straw 6. Harvester of Sorrow 7. The Frayed Ends of Sanity 8. To Live is To Die 9. Dyers Eve This is an epic album of proportions and probably my least listened to Metallica album that I have (next to the Black Album and Load). At this point, Metallica did a lot of things they said they wouldn't do (hop onto a major record label [Elektra] and make a music video for MTV [One was their first video and there wasn't any VH1, just MTV]) and it pissed a lot of fans off. It irritated me a little bit because it turned them into hypocrites. Jason Newsted (formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam and now in Voivod) makes a stunning debut in the opener Blackened (probably my favorite track of the album). Unfortunately, much of his work is stifled by James and Lars in the coming years and we don't get to hear much of his Flotsam and Jetsam-ish ideas. Still, the album is good nonetheless. |
| Metallica (the Black Album) (Elektra) 1991 1. Enter Sandman 2. Sad But True 3. Holier Than Thou 4. The Unforgiven 5. Wherever I May Roam 6. Don't Tread on Me 7. Through the Never 8. Nothing Else Matters 9. Of Wolf and Man 10. The God That Failed 11. My Friend Misery 12. The Struggle Within At this point in Metallica's stellar career, they had reached the top of the mountain. Unfortunatley, they were also brainwashed into making more radio-friendly tunes like Enter Sandman and Unforgiven. Still, this album does have its good tracks like Sad But True, Wherever I May Roam, and Of Wolf and Man. The stupider tracks on the album are Enter Sandman, Through the Never, My Friend Misery, and The God That Failed. Maybe it should've been renamed to the Thrash Band That Lied or something. Again, this is my opinion, so don't e-mail me about how I suck and I don't know what real music is. |
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| Load (Elektra) 1996 1. Ain't My Bitch 2. 2x4 3. The House Jack Built 4. Until it Sleeps 5. King Nothing 6. Hero of the Day 7. Bleeding Me 8. Cure 9. Poor Twisted Me 10. Wasting My Hate 11. Mama Said 12. Thorn Within 13. Ronnie 14. The Outlaw Torn Oh God. I shouldn't've stolen this from my brother. The album opens up with a heavyish sound of Ain't My Bitch, but then turns into pure crap when we hit The House Jack Built. It's funny what 5 years of not producing any albums can do to a band (or more specifically, what Bob Rock can do). I admit I do kinda like Until it Sleeps, Bleeding Me, Mama Said, and Outlaw Torn, but Metallica used to be a thrash band and have copmletely changed into a pop rock band. And the cover sucks, too. I don't want to see semen of an album cover. If I wanted to do that I'd wack off onto a glass table and look under it. Lucky for me, I didn't buy Re-Load. |
| Garage Inc. (Elektra) 1998 Disc One 1. Free Speech for the Dumb 2. It's Electric 3. Sabbra Cadabra 4. Turn the Page 5. Die, Die My Darling 6. Loverman 7. Mercyful Fate 8. Astronomy 9. Whiskey in the Jar 10. Tuesday's Gone 11. The More I See |
Disc Two 1. Helpless 2. The Small Hours 3. The Wait 4. Crash Course in Brain Surgery 5. Last Caress/Green Hell 6. Am I Evil? 7. Blitzkrieg 8. Breadfan 9. The Prince 10. Stone Cold Crazy 11. So What! 12. Killing Time 13. Overkill 14. Damage Case 15. Stone Dead Forever 16. Too Late, Too Late |
| Die hard Metallica fans look no further! You don't have to fork out money to get the songs off of Garage Days Revisited or Garage Days Re-Revisited. All of Metallica's cover songs are featured on this two-disc set that has recent Metallica sound. Now if they would only play that heavy again, I'd be happy. My favorite covers are probably Turn the Page (Bob Seger) Am I Evil?, Blitzkrieg, and Breadfan (Diamond Head). I like Overkill, too. |
| S&M (Elektra) 1999 Disc One 1. Ecstasy of Gold 2. Call of Ktulu 3. Master of Puppets 4. Of Wolf and Man 5. The Thing That Should Not Be 6. Fuel 7. Memory Remains 8. No Leaf Clover 9. Hero of the Day 10. Devil's Dance 11. Bleeding Me |
Disc Two 12. Nothing Else Matters 13. Until it Sleeps 14. For Whom the Bell Tolls 15. Minus Human 16. Wherever I May Roam 17. Outlaw Torn 18. Sad But True 19. One 20. Enter Sandman 21. Battery |
| This is Metallica probably at it's neatest sound. They tried to fuse ...And Justice for All and Ride the Lightning in with their new crap. The good part is they've included songs like Call of Ktulu, Wherever I May Roam, Battery, and Master of Puppets. The bad thing is they've included songs like Memory Remains, Hero of the Day, Devil's Dance, Until it Sleeps, and Enter Sandman. Thank God they didn't have Enter Sandman as a finale or I probably wouldn't've watched the DVD as much as I have. And that's another thing, the DVD/CD are way overpriced (at $35 and $25, respectivley). I did think the performance was great, though. It's too bad that there is a lack of material from Kill 'em All. |
| St. Anger (Elektra) 2003 1. Frantic 2. St. Anger 3. Some Kind of Monster 4. Dirty Window 5. Invisible Kid 6. My World 7. Shoot Me Again 8. Sweet Amber 9. The Unnamed Feeling 10. Purify 11. All Within My Hands I was like a little kid in a candy store when I purchased this one. I had just come back from US Army boot camp (from June 11-Aug 22, 2003) and was eager to hear what Metallica would sound like. I was highly disappointed. OK, Frantic is an alright song, but after Dirty Window, the album kinda goes downhill. Metallica have gone into a Godsmack-ish sound here, and it really, REALLY sucks. Gone is bassist Jason Newsted (who left to join Voivod, probably because James and Lars stifled his ideas) and in is Robert Trujillo. I was hoping that with a new bassist, the Metallica of 1983 would re-appear, but sadly, Metallica have gone more downhill. Kirk Hammet claimed that "Metallica hope that with our new sound, we will inspire bands to play faster and more aggressive." Faster? More aggressive? The only thing that's aggressive on this album is the name and the fastest song is Frantic. Metallica need to look up what fast really means. In Megadeth's recent years, at least they've gone back more to the old ways before they broke up. But, I guess if you like the new Metallica trend, you can fork over the money for this rediculously priced album. |
| Metallica started out as innovators in the thrash/speed metal genre of the '80s. In the late '80s and '90s, we have seen Metallica turn into a more pop rock, radio friendly band. Though there have not been many lineup changes in the years, there have been many sound changes. In their 20+ year career, Metallica are still going with their latest release St. Anger. |