After a thorough reacquaintance in the form of MANY listens I've come to the conclusion that AJFA is simply peerless, and I can't think of another metal record that's dearer to me. Not because it's the the most technical or virtuosic or whatever else.This is the one album that really takes me back: to hanging out with my high-school buds after graduation many of whom, I've lost contact with (one of them was responsible for getting me into metal).
I remember upon first purchasing And Justice for All(it was the last Metallica album that I bought ) listening to it for months on end almost on a daily basis and never getting tired of it. Already then it stood out for me as their most engaging work.
After a long while my addiction to Metallica subsided, giving way to interest in more extreme metal.
Starting out with Death, Hypocrisy, Dimmu Borgir and Emperor, I said "fuck off" to Metallica and started listening to DM and BM religiously. And through this forum I've become acquainted with so many awesome underground classics in those genres.
With time however I starting getting burnt out on a lot of it, so I returned to Metallica(among those other gateway bands I've neglected), and surprisingly or not, still find many of them to be great, with Metallica's AJFA being the king of the hill so to speak. Definitely a pillar in my life for all the reasons stated and many more that I can't even express.
