Metallica's best albums

Pick 3!

  • Kill 'em All

    Votes: 14 17.1%

  • Ride The Lightning

    Votes: 45 54.9%

  • Master of Puppets

    Votes: 57 69.5%

  • ...And Justice For All

    Votes: 41 50.0%

  • Metallica

    Votes: 26 31.7%

  • Load

    Votes: 6 7.3%

  • Reload

    Votes: 3 3.7%

  • St. Anger

    Votes: 3 3.7%

  • Death Magnetic

    Votes: 5 6.1%

  • Hardwired To Self Destruct

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • 72 Seasons

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    82
Mr Reasonable

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
I was just looking at an article that rated Metallica's albums and could not get onboard with their top 3 at all.

So, am I crazy? Or are my preferred Metallica albums not the good ones?

Pick your top 3 of the studio albums I've listed. EPs, covers, live and (terrible) collabs don't count.
 
Kill Em All, And Justice For All, Black Album. Although Lux Eterna from the most recent one slaps hard AF.
 
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Reload, St Anger and Death Magnetic

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1: Master of Puppets
2: Black Album
3: Ride the Lightning

Puppets legitimately changed my life. It's in my top 3 favorite records of all time. Black Album gets hate because Bob Rock, not as thrashy, mainstream, etc., but to me, they wrote an album filled with hit singles. I don't listen to it very often these days, but I still find those songs popping up on the playlist in my head.

I would put Justice over Lightning if they hadn't deleted Jason out of the mix. I love the songs on it a little more, but as a hobbyist bass player that mix is a constant distraction & frustration. All of the fan made attempts to add bass back in are too heavy handed and the bass is too loud in the mix for my taste.

I've tried to like anything from Load forward and I just can't. I can't connect with any of it. I'm not a hater, I just focus on the albums from their catalogue that I like.
 
Hard to choose between the first 5, as aside from the mixing in Justice they're all pretty much perfect. On the other hand despite being more than 20(!) years old, St Anger remains the gold standard of terrible albums by great bands. It's such a miserable slog I never got through it in a single sitting,
 
I wasn't a huge audiophile growing up and as a kid only had a handful of CDs I'd listen to on my Walkman during car rides sitting in the back. The black album was one of them. Loved it.

As I got older, Puppets definitely became my favorite from the band's library but really anything up to and including Reload is good times.



Sidenote: Also had Pinkerton and The Blue Album by Weezer growing up - which, hindsight 20/20, is all I ever needed from that band
 
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As a kid I would have said Black, Load, Reload.

As an adult it's …And Justice For All, Master of Puppets, and Ride the Lightning. I had all three albums on cassette and didn't appreciate them until I was much older.

…And Justice For All is my favorite album now. What a masterpiece despite the crappy studio mix. I'm convinced Cliff Burton was the heart and soul of that band.
 
Well, the poll results are validation! It seems to confirm that Kill 'em All isn't an undisputed top 3 album in the way the article that inspired the question suggested.

I'm kinda surprised that Ride the Lightning is up there, but the rest is roughly as I thought it'd go.

Personally, I think I'd put in Death Magnetic in the top 3, just because it was the last album of theirs I really enjoyed listening to and I'd probably actually enjoy it a little more than some of the others that are deemed classics of the genre but feel much more well worn to me.

Elsewhere, I'd juggle Black, AJFA and MOP. I'm not sure which would come out on top on any given day - all of them have some classics - MOP has... ...MOP and Orion, Black has Kirk's best solo work (imo) in The Unforgiven, My Friend Of Misery, maybe The Struggle Within, and AJFA has One, Blackened, Dyers Eve.

Each also some 'could happily never listen to them again' tracks (I'm particularly looking at you, Of Wolf and Man - 😩), I don't think Metallica have an album with "no skips" for me but I reckon some parts of their catalogue easily hits differently with different people.

Who voted St Anger?!

I just ordered a couple of tickets for Metallica next summer, so I'll probably have to familiarise myself with the latest album before then.
 
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I've not listened to a full Metallica album. I know their radio hits. So I didn't vote.

Is St. Anger as bad as people say? I remember there being a bunch of kerfuffle about how they stole System of a Down's style with it and that Metallica were being phonies.
 
Grildon Tundy said:
I've not listened to a full Metallica album. I know their radio hits. So I didn't vote.

Is St. Anger as bad as people say? I remember there being a bunch of kerfuffle about how they stole System of a Down's style with it and that Metallica were being phonies.
Click to expand...
It's the sound of a band who came from a different era and aren't sure of what to do, so are following trends. I don't think they were following a particular band, it was just the general aesthetic that was popular at the time. It didn't fit with their other material and the band don't play songs from the album now.

There was even a night ON THE ST ANGER TOUR where they didn't play any songs from the album. I've seen a clip of them playing Frantic from that album where James Hetfield intros it with something like "you may not like the album, but you have to admit this song is good" or similar.

Suffice to say, it seems only the least critical fans will stand up for it.
 
Master of Puppets
Ride the Lightning
And Justice for All (assuming you've set an eq to maximum bass boost otherwise it's time to play Kill 'Em All)
 
I love Metallica but it still kills me that all of their classic albums are so horribly compressed with the dynamic range or whatever it is called. That shit needs to be fixed.
 
The only good Metallica albums are Kill, Justice, Master, and Lightning. Kill's my favorite, followed by Lightning, then Justice. Master is overrated, but still one of their good albums.
 
I love And Justice for All. It has my favorite Metallica track ("Blackened").

I know people shit on the mix but I think they were at their peak artistically.
 
TransTrender said:
I love Metallica but it still kills me that all of their classic albums are so horribly compressed with the dynamic range or whatever it is called. That shit needs to be fixed.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what element of the sound you're referencing, but those classic albums aren't as compressed as albums are today - generally speaking dynamic range in music got narrower as recording techniques progressed, until (generally speaking) the 2000s when things were at their loudest and least dynamic. Death Magnetic is, I believe, the least dynamic of all of Metallica's albums - you might remember it's the album that fans ripped from Guitar Hero and remixed to create a version that wasn't as compressed as the original release.

Unless you're talking about ...And Justice For All, which must be one of the most discussed album mixes of all time - for all the wrong reasons!
 
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Mr Reasonable said:
I'm not sure what element of the sound you're referencing, but those classic albums aren't as compressed as albums are today - generally speaking dynamic range in music got narrower and as recording techniques progressed, until (generally speaking) the 2000s when things were at their loudest and least dynamic. Death Magnetic is, I believe, the least dynamic of all of Metallica's albums - you might remember it's the album that fans ripped from Guitar Hero and remixed to create a version that wasn't as compressed as the original release.

Unless you're talking about ...And Justice For All, which must be one of the most discussed album mix of all time - for all the wrong reasons!
Click to expand...
memories

mastering-media.blogspot.com

Metallica "Death Magnetic" - Stop The Loudness Wars

This post is partly my attempt to publicise the damage that the so-called " Loudness Wars " are doing to music. In a nutshell, the continuin...
mastering-media.blogspot.com mastering-media.blogspot.com
 
Grildon Tundy said:
I've not listened to a full Metallica album. I know their radio hits. So I didn't vote.

Is St. Anger as bad as people say? I remember there being a bunch of kerfuffle about how they stole System of a Down's style with it and that Metallica were being phonies.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's mid-life crisis Metallic trying a failing to reinvent themselves with nu-metal inspiration. The lyrics are basic and repetitive.

But it's the drums man. Holy shit Lars wtf was u doing? You need a bottle of advil to listen to it. I'm not joking.

Edit: to add to the above — awesome riff here ruined completely by shitty lyrics and Lars banging pots and pans.

 
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My favorite is Master of Puppets but I find something to enjoy in every Metallica album except the last two. The last 2 albums are creatively bankrupt.
 
I'd be hard pressed to tease out the best from the first 5, other than MoP being the undisputed champ. KtA has some great songs but it doesn't sound that great. Black album has some amazing songs but none of them are quite top shelf.
 
Kacho said:
Yes, it's mid-life crisis Metallic trying a failing to reinvent themselves with nu-metal inspiration. The lyrics are basic and repetitive.

But it's the drums man. Holy shit Lars wtf was u doing? You need a bottle of advil to listen to it. I'm not joking.

Edit: to add to the above — awesome riff here ruined completely by shitty lyrics and Lars banging pots and pans.

Click to expand...

That really does sound dire, I remember giving the album a go at the time but that's worse than I remember.

It's testament to how absolutely screwed the band must have been, the amount of resources of effort that went into making that album happen and it was still absolute dogshit.
 
Master of Puppets
And Justice for All
Ride the Lightning

Outside of St Anger, all of the albums are at least pretty solid. Granted, after AJFA, they are all a noticeable drop in quality, but they are still solid. St Anger is just pure trash, though.
 
I went with Black album purely because it had me and my wife's wedding song on it.

Overall though it's pretty much a tie between puppets and black album. They were so good at the time.
 
Nocty said:
I went with Black album purely because it had me and my wife's wedding song on it.

Overall though it's pretty much a tie between puppets and black album. They were so good at the time.
Click to expand...
Getting married to "Unforgiven" is a pretty ballar move. Or was it "The struggle within" or "My friend of misery"??? :p
 
Ride, master, Justice are the top 3 imo. Kill em all is awesome but not up to the level of those three. Black album is great also but for a thrash fan it took a dive even though it was major success. The rest range from meh to MEH!!!
 
Kacho said:
Yes, it's mid-life crisis Metallic trying a failing to reinvent themselves with nu-metal inspiration. The lyrics are basic and repetitive.

But it's the drums man. Holy shit Lars wtf was u doing? You need a bottle of advil to listen to it. I'm not joking.

Edit: to add to the above — awesome riff here ruined completely by shitty lyrics and Lars banging pots and pans.

Click to expand...


It's so bad. OMFG how did Bob let them put this thing out the door with that snare? I just...can't.
 
Cyberpunkd said:
You shit on Kirk Hammet and not Lars? Brave choice.
Click to expand...
Both the lead and drums sound great to me in Ride and Master.

The only thing that bothers me is the lack of bass in Justice but that's easily fixable nowadays with all the Rock Band/Guitar Hero stem rips.
 
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It'll always be Load and Reload for me since that's when I really started paying attention to and liking them as a kid.

Also my mom was a huge fan of "Hero of the Day" when it came out and also was pretty strict on what I listened to, so her liking that song unlocked the door for me to listen to all of their stuff. But Load and Reload were the ones that paved the way.

Bleeding Me, Aint My Bitch, Outlaw Torn, Better Than You, Attitude, Wasting My Hate... such fucking bangers
 
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I voted Master, Justice, and Lightning. In that order. Too bad you didn't include the Garage Revisited double album. That would have replaced Lightning for me. Metallica does a great job with every song they cover.
 
Chuck Berry said:
It'll always be Load and Reload for me since that's when I really started paying attention to and liking them as a kid.

Also my mom was a huge fan of "Hero of the Day" when it came out and also was pretty strict on what I listened to, so her liking that song unlocked the door for me to listen to all of their stuff. But Load and Reload were the ones that paved the way.

Bleeding Me, Aint My Bitch, Outlaw Torn, Better Than You, Attitude, Wasting My Hate... such fucking bangers
Click to expand...

What's so funny? Connificent Connificent :messenger_pensive:
 
rm082e said:
1: Master of Puppets
2: Black Album
3: Ride the Lightning

Puppets legitimately changed my life. It's in my top 3 favorite records of all time. Black Album gets hate because Bob Rock, not as thrashy, mainstream, etc., but to me, they wrote an album filled with hit singles. I don't listen to it very often these days, but I still find those songs popping up on the playlist in my head.

I would put Justice over Lightning if they hadn't deleted Jason out of the mix. I love the songs on it a little more, but as a hobbyist bass player that mix is a constant distraction & frustration. All of the fan made attempts to add bass back in are too heavy handed and the bass is too loud in the mix for my taste.

I've tried to like anything from Load forward and I just can't. I can't connect with any of it. I'm not a hater, I just focus on the albums from their catalogue that I like.
Click to expand...
This is the correct ranking.

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