Albums Ranked: Metallica!

Metallica the fathers of thrash metal and one of the biggest metal albums of all time has had some ups and downs. A lot of old school thrashers completely disown anything past their first 3 to 4 albums, but is everything new bad? Here’s my list of Metallica albums worst to best.

Live albums, demos, cover albums and EP’s are not included… neither is Lulu, Metallica is just a backing band for Lou Reed on that. Besides Lulu is awesome if you think of it as a comedy album.

How this works; Songs are rated on a 5 star rating with each star having a value that is averaged together for the album rating. Average album rating will equal the band’s rating

1 star=0, I hate it! The world would be better off with out this.

2 star=25, I don’t like it but it could be worse

3 star= 50, decent song, could easily be head banged to but might not be to memorable or might have goods parts with parts that aren’t so great or overall the song is to recitative.

4 star=75, good song but is missing something that might make it amazing or maybe just has some sub parts in it or parts that are to repetitive. Even a great riff gets boring if it’s the only thing played for six minutes strait.

5 star=100, Amazing! If there are any parts that are sub par they are out weighed by the pure awesomeness

Note: Popular doesn’t mean great and importance doesn’t mean it’s good either. A chart topping song only means it watered down enough for a mainstream audience

#11

St. Anger - 50%

Style: Alternative metal, Nu-metal

Cut out half the tracks and this album might be decent. Maybe cut the songs in half as well. For songs so long where are the leads? I guess Kirk took a vacation. I love long songs when they are good, but these leave me wising they would end most of the time. I wouldn’t call this nu-metal although a coupe tracks are. I would say this is an Alternative Metal album. As a drummer and also a person with ears… this snare drum sound is abrasive. James also experiments with his singing a lot… it’s not a good thing. The only positive about this album is the aggression they brought to it which was good to have after none really found on their two previous releases.

The Good: St, Anger is the only 5 star I gave

The Bad: Invisible Kid, this is one of the nu-metal tracks

#10

Load - 64.285%

Style: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Southern Rock

It’s not a bad album but it’s not great either. There are a few songs that really good but most of them are just mediocre. You certainly wont find any thrash here.

The Good: King Nothing, Hero of the Day, Bleeding Me

The Bad: Cure - this is the only track I gave 2 stars

#9

Reload - 78.84%

Style: Heavy Metal, Rock

Much improvement after Load. I heavy album over all but still not what I would call thrash. This albums has some really good ones with a few microcode songs that pull the rating down.

The Good: Fuel, Prince Charming, Low Man’s Lyric, there are more

The Bad: Carp Diem Baby- this is a good example of the mediocre tracks

#8

Hardwired… To Self-Destruct - 79%

Style: Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal

You read that right… this album actually has some thrash metal on it. It’s a really good album, unfortunately there are few songs that pull down the rating. This could have been a shorter and better album if they cut out some of the weaker tracks.

Note: I only included the first two cds for this rating, disc three has bonus tracks including some covers and some old songs live that sound great.

The Good: Halo of Fire, Spit Out the Bone, others

The Bad: there are a few tracks that have some good riffs but are drawn out or just lack energy

#7

72 Seasons - 85.146%

Style: Heavy Metal, Thrash

With 72 Seasons Metallica again proved they can still thrash with some faster songs including the title track, “Lux Æterna”, and “Room of Mirrors”. It’s an album with both very exciting and very boring stuff with some songs doing both. Overall though this is a good album worth checking out.

The Good: Out of the faster tracks “Lux Æterna” stands out both sounding fresh but also very old school. On The opposite end with a more mid tempo song is “Inamorta” which at first doesn’t sound that interesting, but continues to be one of my favorite songs on the album after it breaks in to the middle lighter section. It has a lot of heart and goes into some Thin Lizzy style harmonization and by the time it comes back into the chorus I was wanting the song to just keep doing. Given it is an 11 minute song They must have felt the same.

The Bad: The album has a lot of uninteresting parts even in the better tracks. “If Darkness Had a Son” and “Sleepwalk My Life Away” are both songs lacking much excitement at all; I give three stars to both. But overall there Even in many of the good songs there are likely parts that drag. “You Must Burn!” is a good example of this as the song is generally drags but half way finally does something cool. It’s songs like that i’s hard to justify listening to a relatively boring song to get to the cool part. Some songs are better balanced though with a better cool to suck ratio.

#6

Metallica (black album) - 87.5

Style: Heavy Metal

The most popular album for a reason… not because it’s the best, but because it brought heavy metal to an entire new audience. It wasn’t as unapproachable to the mainstream listener as thrash metal was but wasn’t weak and covered in glitter like all the hair bands that were finally starting to die off thanks to grunge. This album was strait up heavy metal for a new generation of listeners.

The Good: Holier Than Thou, My Friend of Misery, and a bunch of songs you already know

The Bad: There really isn’t any but there are a few tracks I only gave 3 stars and no they are not the light ones.

#5

Death Magnetic - 90%

Style: Heavy Metal

I think this is an underrated album. It only has one thrash track but is by far the most aggressive of their heavy metal albums. If you haven’t listened to this because of bad reviews, you should. Just because it doesn’t sound like their old stuff doesn’t man it’s bad. Believe it or not, There are a ton of great albums out there that don’t sound like old school Metallica. With that in mind, this is not a thrash album.

The Good: The Day That Never Comes, All Nightmare Long, also everything else

The Bad: Some lyrics are bad grammar. The album sounds to loud but not in a good way. It sounds like it’s sometimes red lining.

#4

…And Justice For All - 91.6%

Style: Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Progressive

This is the album where their sound moves away from thrash. I’d say only half the album is thrash and half is heavy metal. There is also a progressive feel with this by far being their most technical album. Time signatures aren’t always 4/4 and change from time to time. Song Structures are also more complex than ever before although some complexity had been shown before especially in their previous release. People like to give Lars crap about his playing, but this album is not an easy one for a drummer and he deserves credit for his playing on this. I wouldn’t call this album thrash. Some people consider this their best and for good reason. Some thrash heads will say only the first three albums are good. I’d say get some verity in your lives. Even though this album isn’t at #1, I sometimes consider it my favorite depending on my mood. I’m a sucker for harmonized melodies and this has plenty of that and certainly more than any previous albums. This is a must own master piece!

The Good: …And Justice For All, One, Dyers Eve, everything else

The Bad: The obvious biggest problem with this is the lack of bass guitar. Jason Newsted is a great player and it sucks they his parts are inaudible. There are some version other people have recorded with bass tracks and they sound much fuller and heavier.

#3

Kill ‘em All - 92.5%

Style: Thrash Metal

The first full length thrash album and probably the most important album in thrash metal and hugely important overall in metal. When credit is given to Metallica for this album it needs to be shared with Dave Mustaine. Reguardless of how you feel about Megadeth or Dave, this album would not be the same if not for his riffs which are all over this album. That said, it takes nothing away from the credit that needs to be shared with James. If you want to know what thrash metal is just listen to this album.

The Good: Phantom Lord, Four Horsemen, Whiplash, and everything else

The Bad: There isn’t any, but a few tracks only got 4 stars, great songs along side incredible songs

#2

Ride The Lightning - 93.75%

Style: Thrash Metal

The Darkest and most aggressive and evil sounding Metallica album. This is and incredible album and on the days And Justice isn’t my favorite, it’s this one. I’ve seen a lot of others in the thrash community also listing this one as their favorite. This album is heavy beyond what many thrash bands of the era or after have sounded like. With all that they also give us Fade to Black, a beautiful metal master piece.

The Good: Fade to Black, Creeping Death, Fight Fire With Fire, nearly everything

The Bad: None! Trapped Under Ice and Escape only get 4 stars from me.

#1

Master of Puppets - 96.875%

Style: Thrash Metal

A Thrash Metal Master Piece! This album is heavy, complex, beautiful, aggressive, and full of masterful riffing. Along side the music, James puts probably his best lyrics on this album and he’s a great lyricist… most of the time anyways. I can’t give this album enough praise. It is a must own if you don’t!

The Good: Everything! Disposable Heroes is and underrated song that deserves as much attention as the others.

The Bad: The Thing That Should Not Be is an incredibly heavy song, but is a bit on the boring side especially compared to the other tracks and only gets 4 stars.

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