METALLICA: And Justice For All Vinyl LP

Metallica's fourth album -- denser, longer, and more technically ambitious than anything that came before it, and the last record with Cliff Burton's writing fingerprints all over it (though Jason Newsted handled the bass on the actual recording).

...And Justice for All (1988) is famously dry and bass-light in its original mix, but the songwriting underneath is some of the band's most complex -- multi-part, progressive arrangements built for maximum technical density. "One" became the band's breakthrough single and remains a genre landmark, pairing a delicate, mournful intro with one of thrash metal's most devastating final stretches. "Blackened" and the title track are equally unrelenting. This is the record where Metallica pushed prog ambition and thrash aggression to their absolute limit before pivoting toward the more streamlined sound of the Black Album.