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Maybe this has been done here idk. I was just reflecting on Metallicas career and I was just wondering how some of you rated their later material compared to the earlier stuff. For me everybthing after AJFA is a pile of shit with some bright moments here and there. Here is how I rate em:

1- RTL just has that classic metallica feel and classic riffs every song is memorable
2-Kill em All this was such a ground gbreaking approach to metal in 1983. Great songs and everything is so damn catchy and killer riffs.
3-AJFA It was mixed like shit but it has a charm that I cant explain. The missing bass the flat drum sound and the mid rich saturated guitars give it a unique feel. The songs are so amazing on this album. Blackened has great energy. Harvester and frayed ends of sanity are fantastic tracks.
4-MOP Maybe its sacrilege to put MOP not 1 or 2 to most fans but its not that I don't like this album, I love it its just that the other 3 have better moments. Master of puppets is probably the greatest metallica song but I think the album lacks more amazing moments than the others. Its really splitting hairs between KEA, AJFA and MOP. they are all really great albums and absolute classics.
5-Load Im not a fan of this era but this album has really solid songs it would have been better suited for somebody with a better singing voice. James ruins a lot of this album because he isn't a crooner and these songs needed a melodic voice with vibrato and emotion. He fucking yodels like an extra from the sound of music on 3/4 of the album. Solid songs regardless.
6-Death Magnetic NO metallica was NOT back after this album, however they put together some interesting amterial and some nice riffs. The overall package was shit, but it was a decent effort for the most part.
7-Black yeah im not a fan of this at all but the production is dope as hell and there are some decent moments here and there.
8-Reload shit effort but theres like 2 or three interesting riffs.
9-st anger this is the absolute worst album EVER made. It is pure unadulterated grade A five star garbage.

Balls.

Since their relevance equals 3 albums....

MOP

RTL

KEA

1) MoP. Tied with Reign in Blood for title of "greatest thrash album of all time." Like Mary Poppins, it is practically perfect in every way.
2) RtL. If MoP is a 10, RtL is a 9 1/2. Just slightly behind due to the reverby production, Marshall < Mesa toanz, and presence of "Escape."
3) AJfA. A few songs are too long, sound is famously poor, but amazing composition and still Hetfield's finest hour as a vocalist.
4) KeA. Raw, fast, catchy, fun. Dumb lyrics. Oddly, much better sounding production than Lightning.
5-9) Who cares? All the other albums have at least a good song or two, and the worst of them, St. Anger, is still a C+.

I'll play-

1a) RTL- It has a rawness to it and you can tell they are a band still finding themselves yet it certainly shows you the Metallica to come. Bonus points for Creeping Death and Fight Fire with Fire.

1b) MOP- Flawless masterpiece IMO. (Then why isn't it #1? Cause its just not my favorite) The technicality and songwriting has taken another step. However, the hookiness of the songwriting is crazy. I've been listening to a lot of MOP and holy crap if upon relistening to it a bunch, I can actually sort of see how they ended up at the Black album from here.

3) Kill 'Em All- Super raw but so much energy and young angst. Bonus points for Seek & Destroy and just the frenetic energy of young musicians who are really onto something, but haven't exactly figured out what so they just let loose.

4) Metallica- Album that introduced me to them and to my 13 year old self the "best" Metallica album. I don't really care to listen to it much anymore after being over exposed to it, but a masterful jump to mainstream fame without completely losing their edge.

5) AJFA- Not my thing. Probably their penultimate thrash record, and you can FEEL them grieving about Cliff, but its not just my thing. Too much pointless riffing and songs that feel to go on forever but don't really go anywhere.

6) Load- Decent hard rock/metal album. Sort of unfortunate it was released as a Metallica album.

7) Reload- A couple decent hard rock/metal tracks, again, unfortunate they couldn't have released this under a different name.

8) Death Magnetic- Decent return to their thrash roots but suffers from pointless riffing and songs that drag on forever. Not my thing. (Can you tell that I get bored with 6-8 minute opuses all the time?) Also production quality is annoying.

Not on list- St. Anger. I prefer to pretend the album doesn't exist as its awful. Ok, tbh, I've never listened to the whole thing. I've tried on a number of occasions, but its so terrible I can't. Everything is bad from James voice, to the songs, to the lyrics, to the snare. Horrible, awful, terrible, embarrassing.

Did OP really say the AJFA guitars are mid rich?

My list:
1. Master of Puppets. I love every song on the album and could probably sit and play the whole thing rhythm wise beginning to end without stopping.
2. And Justice For All . . .. BECAUSE FUCK YOU. The guitars are stark and sterile. The bass is nonexistent. The drums sound like they have some sort of weird gated verb on the whole kit. There's no reason to like the sound of it at all, but yet, I do. The songs are killer. Some of my favorite riffing of all time. And somehow the shit production actually lends an almost clinical precision to the music.
3. Black album. Killer production. Some really great tunes. It was an interesting departure from where they had been headed, but I didn't see it as a bad direction to take at the time. Not until the next album came out did I think they had turned meh.
4. Kill 'em All. Killer album, has a tiny bit of the early thrash era production issues, but the songs are catchy and pull you in.
5. Ride the Lightening. I adore about half of this album. The other half is like . . . well, it's good, but it's not good on the same level as the rest of the first four albums.

Everything else can eat a dick except for Death Magnetic. That one has a lot of, "I remember this riff from this song on $first_four_albums" with a couple, "oh, is that Overkill?" and "Wait, they're copping Slayer now?" moments tossed in. It's really hard for me to listen to because production wise it reminds me a lot of my first few attempts to record my own stuff and how clipping and shitty compression sort of ruined what little goodness was there.

Load/Reload/St. Anger just do nothing for me. I can't listen to any of them without wondering how you go from the first four albums to this and then wanting to smash my head into the nearest hard object.

pabloramon wrote:Since their relevance equals 4 albums....

MOP

RTL

AJFA

KEA

Fixed for my own viewpoint. MOP is flawless. RTL is right behind it. The songs on AJFA are amazing; just bloated. KEA is great in a sentimental way. I hated the Black album with the fire of a thousand suns. So dumbed down and boring in comparison(at the time). Now that I am old, I can see how doing an album like AJFA would lead to doing Black. At the time, I absolutely despised it.

Cliff does not approve of anything after MOP.

AJFA - don't care what anybody says about production. Most of you probably weren't there or had lived through music in the 80s when this came out - this ripped the shit out of every bullshit hair metal band and new wave / dance crap that was out there at the time

MOP - '86 was a BIG friggin deal in my world - All the big 4 put out their classic albums that year - MOP, Peace Sells, Among the Living, and Reign in Blood.

RTL - This was the album that pulled me away from Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, Ozzy, etc. and got me seriously into what Metallica was bringing to the fight. By the time MOP came out, I'd already burned holes through my copy of the LP and had to get another.

KEA - Got into this after I discovered RTL. Loved the rawness and newness (for that time) that was coming off this.

...and then the aliens (or maybe it was just Bob Rock) came and took my band away in 1989. The Black (crap) Album that came out was an abortion that (along with Guns & Roses and most of the garbage coming out) pretty much make me want to forget that the 90s ever happened. Of course, the Load albums really finished me off.

Interestingly, I actually liked St Anger, but I think it may have been me desperate for just a little bit of the old band that I loved.

pabloramon wrote:Since their relevance equals 3 albums....

MOP

RTL

KEA

This.

F

1. RTL
2.MOP
3.KEA & AJFA
4. disc 2 on garage inc
5. black
6. everything else

I listen to a handful of tracks off about every Metallica album except St. Anger, Load, Master of Puppets and And Justice for All.

1. MOP
2.Black album
3.AJFA
4.Garage days
5.RTL
6. DM
7 KEA
The rest is forgettable-if you're lucky!

nightflameauto wrote:Did OP really say the AJFA guitars are mid rich?

Yeah WTF mate?

I can listen to just about everything they have done except St. Pieceofcrap and Death Magnetic.

Kill 'Em All-

Ride The Lightning- 1/2

Master Of Puppets-

...And Justice For All-(First Metallica I ever bought)
Though my theory on it now is...The lack of bass throughout the album is possibly to symbolize the loss of Cliff.

Black album-

Load-

Re-Load-

Garage Inc.-First half Second half:
Edit: Whichever part had contained Garage Days on it. That was fucking cool.

S&M-

St. Anger-(I really wanted to like this album when it first was released, but couldn't)

Death Magnetic-(Maybe we're getting somewhere, but my speakers fart every time I hear it) 1/2

Lulu-(Not really a Metallica album, I know) I am the table or whatever that's called Everything else

[video]http://youtu.be/adyC404_gEk[/video]

1. MOP
2. AFA
3. RTL
4. KEL
5. Black
6. Everything else...please retire.

all suck.

1 KeA
2 RtL
3 MoP
4 The first Garage Days, if that even counts.
I have no interest in any of their other music.

I'm so happy I got to see them live in '86 and '88

MOP
RTL (this or MOP can be interchangable IMO)
KeA
AJFA
Black LP

Everything after does not matter!!!

1 - MoP - Just awesome riffing with the right amount of heavy and really good melodies.

2 - RtL / KeA - Both are awesome and raw. Bonus for Fight Fire With Fire, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Seek and Destroy, Hit the Lights...well, fuck it. All songs are freaking awesome!

3 - AJFA - The scooped guitars and dry drums got me into it at first, the overall composition of the songs, James' voice and the extensive riffage make it really stand.

4 - Black Album / Load / Reload - Cool songs, mixing stands out. Black Album drums sound amazing and Kirk did some goo soloing there. You can still feel the band alive. Load and Reload have cool 4 minutes, mainstream radio rock songs. 1/2

5 - Death Magnetic - It's...nice, although the riffs doesn't very much cut it, actually they seem pointless as they get repeated so much.

St. Piece of Shit - Come on...really? Does anyone like this album? Not even Metallica likes it.

It's tough.. I could rank RTL,MoP, and AJFA number 1.. so they are #1a, 1b 1c.

2. Garage Days Revisited/the $5.98 ep.. For those who somehow don't own this and wonder what AjFA would sound like with bass, them get this cause Jason's bass is loud as fuck..

3. Kill em all.. i remember my mom not allowing me to buy this album when l was like 9 yo. I already had metallica albums, but not this one. The cover offended her.. lol . Luckily, the next time we were at Venture, i grabbed it again and didn't show it to her and that worked out fine.. lol

Then i guess #4 is the Black album cause i actually bought this album and there is a handful of cool songs. But this was the last metallica album I've ever bought and prolly the last one I've heard in its entirety. I know enough of all the rest to know i don't like it, but i don't think I've heard a complete album since the Black album

Also i agree with Benjamin about Hetfield's finest vocal hour is on ajfa.. by far, imo.. Prett much the perfect vocal delivery for the thrash that was early metallica.. And I'll even throw Lars a bone, by saying that's his best drumming as well.. You could tell they just got done with the massive tour that was for MoP.. Their skills were in top form.. I know Lars gets shit on pretty religiously nowadays, but i think his drumming was great on justice..

EndTime wrote:Also i agree with Benjamin about Hetfield's finest vocal hour is on ajfa.. by far, imo.. Prett much the perfect vocal delivery for the thrash that was early metallica.. And I'll even throw Lars a bone, by saying that's his best drumming as well.. You could tell they just got done with the massive tour that was for MoP.. Their skills were in top form.. I know Lars gets shit on pretty religiously nowadays, but i think his drumming was great on justice..

Agreed!

Lars' drumming went nowhere but downhill since then and although James' voice changed, i still like it.