9/10
Metallica! With "... And Justice For All," Metallica had proven that the untimely death of Burton didn't mean the end of the band. Justice was known as one of the most sophisticated works metal had seen up to that point; a truly accomplished album, and had shown that they boys hadn't lost their chomps when it comes to musicianship. However, during, and especially after the Justice tour, people began to notice that they were having problems playing full sets of their more complex songs. They began to fuck around and not take shit seriously. Three years went by before they created a new album. The departure from their classic sound was evident. Simpler song structure, less anger, and subject matter that wasn't nearly as heavy (compare the opening numbers for Blackened to Enter Sandman) were some of the obvious changes. Hetfield's voice had apparently aged as well. Unlike the others I have posted so far, this "trying something new" was more out of necessity than it was out of desire to challenge themselves (I believe.) They simply lost their cutting edge. However, does that make "The Black Album" as it is unofficially called a bad album? Do we criticize it so much, not for it being bad, but for not being up to par with their earlier work? Or, is it just bad music? You be the judge.
In the midst of all that, here was a stand-out song on that album that itself was considered even odd in comparison to adjacent songs:
