BEST METALLICA ALBUM

http://www.faithcolumbuswi.org/Pictures/PastorBob.gif
http://www.fairvote.org/irv/muppets/muppets2.jpg

OBVIOUSLY

Pastor Of Muppets?

A 2CD version of the 3CD (without the solos you just skip every time) that was in the Binge & Purge box would be the best Metallica thing ever.

You don't want a whole cd of Lars Ulrich's drum solos?

I have no taste, I know :-(

I bet you have a box set of Cliff's solos.

Cliff Richard?

http://panther1.last.fm/avatar/20b31eab074427ddf8865204e2f514b1.jpg
http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/71871/yuppies_qjpreviewth.jpg

The black one. The early stuff is too extreme, "Load" and "Reload" are grunge-AOR (although better than most other grunge-AOR it must be added) while "St. Anger" is just plain rubbish.

Pastor Of Muppets?

Isn't that what I just said?

I have always thought Ride the Lightning blows Puppets out of the water.

Ride The Lightning.

Second place: Garage Inc.

I went for Ride The Lightning as well actually.

master of puppets.

ok wtf why does ilx keep eating my posts

Master of Puppets vs. Justice for All, can't decide!

yes you can. One of them has bass.

ok wtf why does ilx keep eating my posts

Because not even on ILM is anyone allowed to defend St Anger

I like how overwrought and labored over AJFA sounds, there is some seriously crazy shit on that record.

But no bass!!!

and fart in a can drums

I like the drum sound. :> And who needs bass on a metal record anyway.

and fart in a can drums

I thought we weren't going to talk about St. Anger!

surely guys this whole thing is just lightning puppets showdown. is always the case when it comes to deciding tallica faves.

I kinda hope poseurs like me voting for the Black Album end up beating out the vote-splitting of the 80s albums just to piss off the real metalheads.

Kill 'Em All! Because it's a NWOBHM album.

hahahah. alex this isn't the oscars

Today, I'm saying MOP. But in truth I vacillate between that and RTL and have done so for 21+ years now. I could as easily flip a coin and be satisfied with either option.

Truly trivial side note: Puppets sports not one but TWO steals from David Bowie: The title "Leper Messiah" obviously, but also the "Andy Warhol" guitar lick that links "Master Of Puppets"' bridge to its third verse.

Today, I'm saying MOP. But in truth I vacillate between that and RTL and have done so for 21+ years now. I could as easily flip a coin and be satisfied with either option.

Me too. I finally went with Puppets after "Damage, Inc." beat "Call of Chtulu" in my mind.

yes, Charlie, but it could be the Grammys (where Jethro Tull = ReLoad)

I'd be cool with never hearing Fade to Black again as long as I live.

...And Justice For All, if it had better production, would've been the best. I partially agree with Jordan, the band created arrangements where bass wouldn't be necessary. While this may have been unfair to Newstead, I think it was pretty damn innovative. The rest of the production does suck though.

Had me at hello: Blackened's lofty intro solo, which raises the listeners up out of the glowing, foggy mists only to hammer them senseless with Lars' whiplash inducing drumming. All as the basis for ... an environmental screed?

The only thing I don't like about the record is "Dyer's Eve", whose lyrics are uncomfortably whiny.

hahah, pretty bizarre that jethro tull was even competition in the first place

crest of a knave? is that even reverred among jethro tull fans?

Seek and Destroy: Metallica
Metallica - C or D?
Dave Q on Metallica!
Metallica
Metallica: Iggy Pop dug 'em, everyone dug 'em, then they released a video... Old Metallica is weirdly mysterious... Like Led Zeppelin....
Dead sacred cows partially rescuscitated: 'Metallica'
defend the indefensible: METALLICA
why are metallica missing from the new rolling stone album guide book?
Vragen aan Metallica

hahah, pretty bizarre that jethro tull was even competition in the first place

That's what happens when you let Chuck do the Grammy nominations :D

just to be pedantic, "Garage Days Revisited" (1987) is actually called "Garage Days Re-Revisited"

hahah
'vraagen aan metallica'
i have a lot to say on that thread

haha brigadier

"Kill 'Em All" wins on the strength of "The Four Horsemen" alone.

i picked MoP like any normal, sane person would. But the Garage Days Re-revisited on budget cassette was the most influential in my life.

Garage Days was indeed fantastic.

I'm drunk and playing old school Metallica at 2:30 in the morning. Woow to me!

Go Marty!

i really like the production on AJFA! since when was bass a necessary feature of thrash?

If they remastered AJFA they might win back some fans. I don't know what they fuck they were thinking with that. I believe it made the whole thing seem less organic and more by-numbers math rock devoid of emotion. Of course, the lyrical content was pretty lacking, too. Who wants to hear forced-rage farce about pollution from when James was obviously watching the news trying to find something to write about or a song about a guy who got fucked up by a landmine and is now lying in bed?

i do! blackened and one rule!

you've just broken my brain... never will it mend. NEVER!!!! Now, I can't remember anything. Can't tell if this is true or a dream. Deep down inside I feel to scream.

Meh. "And Justice..." is pretty bland save for "To Live is to Die" and "One." If the story is true about them mixing out the bass because Newstead wasn't Burton, it just goes to show what asspunks the rest of the band is.

Never really cared for that album, save for the aforementioned tracks. Definitely the beginning of the end for Metallica. "To Live is to Die" is pretty god-damned indispensable, though.

That one part in "To Live is to Die" where everything drops out except the clean-sounding guitar gives me goose-bumps. Amazing shit.

i think justice features the best lyrics hetfield ever penned! i also think the aggression of the record in general suggests that the rage wasn't so forced.

i think it's a great album and metallica's third best. what lets it down for mine isn't so much the production, but rather the general feeling of draginess found on a couple of the tracks. also, i'm very sick of 'one'. excellent song though

Lets just cut to the chase and say everything up to The Black Album was brilliant, from there on it was a downhill slide into mediocrity.

Justice's my number one, just before Kill Em All.

Remastering that album won't bring the bass back though, it'd need a fully redone mix - but did they keep and store all the old recording tracks? BTW there's someone on the web who has mixed in some of his own, newly recorded bass tracks, which doesn't sound half bad actually.

You need bass-I don't care if it's thrash or show tunes, give me some bass. Speaking of bass, Cliff Burton had a pretty ugly tone.

But the guitars had a ton of low-end, right??

Tough one to answer, because the first five studio records and St. Anger all have their merits.

I'm going with Master of Puppets by a slight margin over Ride the Lightning ... though as someone mentioned upthread, that's subjectto change given the day or the week. Master of Puppets just has a ferocity to it that makes it extraordinary (beginning of "Disposable heroes, end of "Sanitarium"), and then it has these incredibly beautiful out-of-left field moments (the intro to "Battery," pretty much all of "Orion," the beginning of "Orion" and obviously the first solo to the title song). Ultimately, though, what puts it over the top is Cliff Burton's bass playing ... there's a reason that guy has the cult following he does.

Ride the Lightning is amazing, too, but more for the mere ambition of mixing a pop sensibility in with the classical longings and those incredible Hettfield riffs -- "The Call of Ktulu" and the title track are the best examples, I think. The melodies on RTL, though, are a little blander overall that on MOP; well, sans "Fade to Black."

FWIW, I think St. Anger is astonishing, which not necessarily a synonym for great (five out of 11 songs pretty much stink). One of the ballsiest records of this decade, and I personally think the drumming (and the drum sound) is genius -- I love the criticisms of "bad production" when in fact they did that on purpose.

As for Burton's ugly tone, seems to me that was the point. Metllica's business plan -- fast, loud, sharp, smart (musically, anyway) and ugly.

I always wondered if they got Kerry King in to do the first solo on "Trapped under Ice"on RTL. That's a very un-Metallica like solo.

...And Justice for Jason

Hey was there an original Garage Days Revisited?

like NOT Garage Days Re-Revisited, the famous one:

<IMG SRC="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Garagerevisited.jpg";>

but was there an original Garage Days Revisited, because otherwise why would the one above be Re-Re-visited??

doi

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Garagerevisited.jpg

Yes, there was. My brother had it. It was the b-side to a Creeping Death single, I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeping_Death

Garage Re-Revisited was one of my favorite "albums" of theirs ever for the longest time. I just loved that bass intro to 'Brain Surgery and would always play it on guitar. When I first heard the original versions, I thought they really sucked in comparison to Metallica's. Now, of course, I don't really think that way.

But, it just occured to me that since I gave up on Metallica back on AJFA (never bought it, hated listening to it when other people played it), I never actually HEARD the Garage, Inc. album. In fact, I remember looking at it once in the store and just thinking what a shame it was that this band sucked so much dick now and never actually looked at the songs.

So, just now, I checked out how many tracks there are (double CD!) and am just wondering if this is anywhere near as good as those first two Garage releases. The sort of covers on Garage Inc. mostly look like stuff they never would have "covered" back in their Garage Days (when "Turn The Page" was getting so much radio play, I had to change my clothes several times a day because I kept puking all over myself). How does Garage Inc. stack up compared to Revisited and Re-Revisited? Yay or Nay?

Who wants to go cycling in this?

http://www.metallica.com/ivergence/image/MOPbikejersey03.jpg

Metallica was inspired by the second half of the movie The Ten Commandments which is based upon the Bible tale of the plagues which were bestowed upon the Egyptians. When they saw that movie, Cliff Burton said "Whao - it's like creeping death" and everyone liked it so they put it as the song title.

My vote goes to Ride The Lightning, with AJFA and MoP close behind.
In answer dean ge's question about Garage, Inc, there are a handful of really good covers on there, but nothing anywhere approaching the outright majesty of say The Small Hours or the brilliance of Blitzkrieg.

On Garage, Inc, the Discharge cover Free Speech for the Dumb is probably a much better capsule version of the St Anger album, as it's only about 2 minutes long. The Sabbath medley is pretty great, and (probably in a very small minority here) I really like the Whiskey in the Jar cover too. Someone somewhere deep in ILM history, probably Monsignor In NYC, said that song was the best example of Hetfield's late-90s "pirate voice", and I would have to agree with that. It hardly sounds like the band that did Trapped Under Ice though, put it like that!

kill em all. just because i listen to it most these days and it kicks the ass.

ten years ago this would've been my answer:

i picked MoP like any normal, sane person would. But the Garage Days Re-revisited on budget cassette was the most influential in my life.

and garage days is probably my overall favorite. but not really an album.

How is the cover of "Astronomy"? I've never heard it, but love the original.

I have always thought Ride the Lightning blows Puppets out of the water.

You have always been wrong.

:)

:\

"You have always been wrong."

I hear that a lot

To be fair, Ride the Lightning was the first album of theirs I bought back in high school (picked solely on the strength of the fact that Kirk Hammett is depicted wearing a Discharge shirt on the back cover). It's an AMAZING record (why "Fight Fire with Fire" and "Trapped Under Ice" don't get more love astounds me). But Master of Puppets simply blows it away.

Metllica's business plan -- fast, loud, sharp, smart (musically, anyway) and ugly.

That's all relative though - nearly all of other famous speed metal bands (Kreator, Destruction, Megadeth, Dark Angel) were faster, louder, uglier. Metallica got huge because they had better riffs, better choruses, better songs, they were never very extreme.

So who is doing the best thrash bands poll?

can you have 300 entries in a poll?

Yes

But we all know Slayer will probably win it anyway.

maybe there should be a "best thrash bands minus slayer, metallica and megadeth" poll.

So Anthrax will win?

Death Angel!

personally i feel that destruction would be the inwincibulll fooooorce in that poll.

I fear the ILM Pantera fans would be out in force.

well, if i did the poll they wouldn't be on it. take that, conventional wisdom.

Someone's done it and they are.

Hmmm...I didn't consider this problem while I was making the poll. Do you think a bunch of Pantera fans would listen if I added a post saying that their vote wouldn't count?

That will just make everyone vote Pantera!! lol

Who is doing the best doom/stoner poll then?

The twisted psychology of an ILM poll is nothing I dare tamper with again.

Haha. When I did the led zep and sabbath polls I did a "do not like" option and everyone went apeshit when some people actually voted for that(without admitting it either).

If anyone does a doom/stoner etc poll then best choosing from Last Fm rather than AMG
http://www.last.fm/tag/traditional%20doom%20metal/artists
http://www.last.fm/tag/drone%20doom/artists
http://www.last.fm/tag/stoner/artists

and im sure the best death metal and black metal polls will be along at some point too.

i voted for St. Anger 'cause every last thing metallica ever did has SUCKED

Master of Puppets by a landslide. The only reason I could even imagine someone picking anything else is for personal reasons like memory triggers or their gateway album. Master was Metallica at its peak. Some of the best metal ever recorded imo.

...Or maybe that's because that's the album that got me into them. Hrm.

as much as i love puppets, i'm likely to skip through a couple of tracks each time i listen. very much a different story with lightning that i'm happy to play through time and time again

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I was obsessed with this band from age 13-15, right up until the self-titled came out. Not that I exactly hated it then (though I might now - I haven't heard it in porbably 10 years), but I seemed to get, in some way, that I wasn't going to get any more Lightning/Puppets/Justice records in the future. Besides, it was a great big world out there in the early 1990s for a young curious metal fan, so by '92 I'd forgotten all about 'em.

Anyway, like everyone else I'd put their entire 1980s output in the hall of fame and disregard pretty much everything else after, with the exception of Garage Inc. C'mon, the Mercyful Fate medly is killer, and thier Whiskey in the Jar is fricking definitive. Puppets wins for me, as I think its a smarter, more souped-up version of Lightning. Better cover, too, although the earlier record made for a much nicer t-shirt design, somehow. So there ya go.

Handsome Dan OTM about the t-shirt design thing.

I had a great ride the lightning shirt.

i did too. glow in the dark, naturally.

it had kill em 'all on the back.

that it did.

I had this one http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tshirts/crash_course_front.JPG

http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tshirts/crash_course_front.JPG

Mine was
http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tshirts/kill-ride_sweat_front.jpg
and the backprint was
http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tshirts/kill-ride_sweat_rear.jpg

That's too rich for my blood.

drink up/shoot in/let the beatings begin

that one takes it for me.

kill em all

this was the front on mine. dude glowed in the dark:

http://www.bellasrelics.com/Metallica-Metal_Up-BF.jpg

kill em all on the back.

I had this one http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/images/tshirts/crash_course_front.JPG

i had that one, too. it lasted about a year before our idiot great dane ripped it and made it unwearable. i had this thing about buying white t-shirts for some reason, so that year i got the crash course one and the slayer "world sacrifice tour" shirt.

The 80s albums will get more votes than the 90s won't they? I know it's ILM but come on...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

shit, i don't think i even voted. there is no way that justice should have overtaken kill em all. that shit ain't right.

Puppets won easily in the end then. I'm surprised ...No bass For All beat Kill 'Em All.

Load (1996) 2
St. Anger (2003) 2

Ban these jokers.

's&m (1999) 1'

tar and feather this joker

I don't mind some of Load but Reload is awful and S&M is even worse.

I didn't mention the S&M vote because I assumed whoever did that was just confused and voting for the sex practice. It happens.

WAHT

surprised kill em all didn't win, actually. ok maybe not THAT surprised but still.

Glad to see someone else voted for Load. I don't much care for metal, but Load has many nice poppy tunes on it, so that's the only Metallica album I've ever really liked. They were always good at writing catchy melodies, they should've done more pop.

I always thought you hated rock, Tuomas. Load does have some good tunes. It's just not a Metallica album to my ears. Should've been a side project really. I saw them on that tour at the barras and they only played a couple of tunes from it.

The black album has some catchy tunes too, but they're too heavy for my tastes. Except of course for "Nothing Else Matters", the ultimate nineties teen disco slow tune.

(x-post)

I have nothing against rock if it's poppy, though I don't really care enough about it to buy rock albums. But when I was teen everyone was supposed to like Metallica, so I did buy the black album and Load just to try it. I don't think I have them anymore.

Funnily enough the only songs I like on the black album are the (6?) singles!

I think many of their more epic tunes might work as club mixes / cover version, if someone would try such a thing. Richard Cheese already proved that their songs are strong enough to survive a total genre change.

"cover versions"

The only remix I've heard is the one by DJ Spooky, and that was a bit too arty for my tastes.

Kirk Hammett appeared on a film soundtrack version of "Satan" by Orbital didn't he?

I think so, that was the Spawn soundtrack, which had the DJ Spooky remix too. There's also a Swizz Beatz tune featuring Metallica and Ja Rule, which is, er, interesting.

Have you heard the venetian snares "black sabbath" tracks?

http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=39008

It will probably be Metallica's turn next. Remixed by DJ Ulrich.

St. Anger sucks.

Water is wet.

i see what you did there Pleasant Plains.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19856-st-anger

lol rite?

"Unnamed Feeling," "All Within My Hands," "Purify," and a few others are good to these ears.

The production, however, is terrible. Lars' drum sound is the worst drum sound ever.

heh 2 jokers voted St Anger

hows the remastered vinyl btw? Saw them for sale in Glasgow last week.

Had to post this somewhere

http://brennz.tumblr.com/post/58719702/the-entirety-of-metallicas-self-titled-black-album-as

The entirety of Metallica’s self-titled/black album as performed by kids at talent shows*

*And/or community fairs and/or preparing for talent shows.

a couple of them have been removed :(

Been on an And Justice For All kick lately. IDK if it’s really the best but it’s the first metal album I liked. Seeing the “One” video on MTV at age 11 was quite mind-expanding.

Also, I LOVE the no-bass sound, it makes the album so sharp.

you are a sick man

nah i agree, the lack of bass is not important

i'm kind of tuckered out by the time i get to the end of "one".. that first disc is solid, tho

or first half, whatever

There are quiet/loud songs and slow/fast songs, but Metallica on this album are the kings of the pretty/ugly song.

The lack of bass doesn't bother me on that record either.

Justice is my favorite Metallica album. And yeah, it sounds perfect.

It not only doesn’t bother me, it’s the secret sauce.

Couldn't agree more. Who needs bass, this isn't dance music.

i have metallica sickness. it's like cocteau fever, but for metallica.

last week i bought a roguelike (https://jupiterhell.com/) that is basically "Doom, but turn-based, and if you die you have to go all the way to the beginning, but whoever owns Doom threatened to sue us, so it's called Jupiter Hell". the game is fantastic. it has a pretty heavy soundtrack, but after listening to it for about 10 minutes, it suddenly became clear to me that i should start listening to metallica instead.

so i've been blasting the 80s output of Metallica at full volume while playing a turn-based Doom game for several days straight.

i bet i'm the millionth person to make this observation, but you know one of the reasons "Master of Puppets" is one of the greatest songs of all time? it's one of the few songs about addiction/drugs that communicates the thrilling part of the experience, the reason that you keep coming back to the substance, the thing that thrills people in the first place. i've heard so many sad slow songs about drugs, and so many medium-speed woozy songs about drugs. "master of puppets" sounds like the voice of the drug itself, racing forward. if i ever get to see metallica i can't wait to pump my fists to it. MASTER! MASTER!! *head bangs*

also, for a while, lars ulrich was really good

i'd like to meet lars, i bet he's a great guy

Huh weird that the best Metallica album is third here.

I would much rather have dinner with Lars than 99% of the metal drummers that people think should replace him or whatever.

https://i.imgur.com/SNCosOy.jpg

the older I get; the more I prefer Kill ‘Em All.