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...And Justice for All —en español: ...Y justicia para todos— es el cuarto álbum de estudio de la banda estadounidense de thrash metal Metallica. Fue publicado el 25 de agosto de 1988 a través de Elektra Records en Norteamérica y por Vertigo Records en Europa. Este es el primer álbum de estudio con el bajista Jason Newsted, quien sustituyó a Cliff Burton tras su muerte en 1986. Newsted apareció con anterioridad en el EP The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited, su primer trabajo con Metallica. El álbum logró su octava certificación de platino de la RIAA el 9 de junio de 2003 tras alcanzar las ocho millones de copias vendidas.
La portada muestra una imagen de la estatua de la Dama de la Justicia agrietada, atada con cuerdas, con los pechos al descubierto y con su balanza llena de dólares. Las palabras «...And Justice for All» están escritas al estilo grafiti en el lado derecho. El artista que la diseñó fue Stephen Gorman, inspirado en un concepto desarrollado por Lars Ulrich y James Hetfield. ...And Justice for All es la última colaboración entre Metallica y el productor Flemming Rasmussen. En 1989 consiguió la primera nominación de Metallica a los premios Grammy, aunque perdió ante Crest of a Knave de Jethro Tull.
User Album Review
And Justice For All was released in 1988, after what was an extremely difficult time in the personal lives of the members of Metallica. While touring their previous release, Master Of Puppets, their tour bus was involved in an accident that killed their bass player Cliff Burton.
This album sounds different to every other Metallica record, vocally gruffer but with thinner orchestration. Drums tick and pop, rather than bang, the guitars sound dryer and thinner, and there’s little in the way of bass. The guitars even occasionally resemble electric violins or cellos - particularly on the closing track "Dyers Eve".
The songs are longer too. And as the sound has become thinner and tauter the songs have grown grander and more epic. These are musicians becoming more ambitious craftsmen and experimenting as a result.Part of this experimentation sees the group explore their progressive streak, but thankfully the speed with which they dispense time changes, new ideas and new phrases that prevent this going on for too long.
As a record it's complicated, aggressive and hugely technically ambitious (so much so that the majority of these songs have only rarely been reproduced in their entirety live), and contains snatches of some of Metallica's finest work – “Blackened” and “Frayed Ends Of Sanity” stand out in particular, both full of ideas, crackling with aggression and neck-snapping hooks.
However, it’s a shame that the rigor applied to recording ideas wasn’t applied to making the album sound better, the thin production gives the whole record a monochrome, slightly one-dimensional feel.
It's as if such was their confidence as a group that they were determined to pursue and express every idea as it occurred in every song, and there are lots of them so they get bigger and grander, but sometimes needlessly so, this lack of economy can leave you feeling like a spectator.
As a result this is a less inclusive, more introverted and frankly quite gloomy record. Although it’s mightily impressive, perhaps in hindsight this is one effort best left to the completists.
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