Metallica has released some albums in their career that can only be described as divisive amongst their rabid fanbase. Mention St. Anger or Lulu (the latter a collaboration with Lou Reed), and chances are you’re going to find some passionate supporters of those discs, even among the masses who despise them.

And then there is ...And Justice For All. Recorded at a time when emotions were raw following the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton, and trying to follow up the success of Master Of Puppets, James Hetfield and crew were in a precarious position. Even the stop-gap recording of The $5.98 EP - Garage Days Re-Revisited didn’t do much to help their internal anguish (though it gave fans their first taste of new bassist Jason Newsted).

This disc is infamous because of the bass—or, rather, lack of it. Newsted is mixed almost completely out of these songs, making the listener wonder if he even took part in the sessions. Some hate this disc because of this; others say it’s a garage-band masterpiece.

As part of their massive re-release campaign, Metallica brought out the deluxe box set edition of ...And Justice For All in 2018, complete with early riff efforts, work-in-progress recordings, B-sides, and an absolute crap-load of live performances. Is the set worth the hefty price tag? Only one way to find out...

The centerpiece, naturally, is the 1987 original album, presented in LP and CD format, remastered. As usual, I hear precious little difference between these and the original release (and there are those who posit this would have been the best time for the band to boost Newsted’s bass in the mix).

Look, there’s no denying the sheer power and anger contained in these songs. Whether it’s the intense one-two punch of “Blackened” and the title track that opens this set, Hetfield’s soul-baring tome “Dyer’s Eve” to close it, or the subtle, mourning tribute to Burton on “To Live Is To Die,” musically, Metallica was stepping up to the plate and hitting dinger after dinger. Even “One,” which has come dangerously close to reaching “overplayed” grounds, remains a powerhouse.

To those in favor of turning up the bass, I’ll say this: had Metallica included another version of the album with the bass turned up, I’d have supported this. No, I do not like the fact that Newsted got, aah, “The Shortest Straw” on this album, but to suddenly add it back in and pretend the original version never existed would have been sacrilege, too.

It’s on the first collection of bonus material—Riffs, Jams & Demos—that the first sign that Hetfield had told the truth about the bass lines mirroring the main riffs is revealed. One can only assume that Newsted is playing bass on the second snippet of early riffs from “Blackened”... but damned if that isn’t the exact guitar riff that Hetfield and Kirk Hammett play. Maybe—just maybe—there was method to how the final album actually sounded.

The problem with these two discs is that there really isn’t much insight one gains into the development of the songs that became the final album. The second disc borders on annoying with Hetfield “na-na-na”-ing his way through songs that apparently didn’t have many (if any) lyrics written by that time. (Hetfield even seems to acknowledge this on the January 1988 demo of “Eye Of The Beholder” when he sings, “Need to write some lyrics.”) This particular portion of the boxset is strictly for the diehard fans who must own every note Metallica ever committed to tape.

The same can’t be said for the single disc Rough Mixes From The Vaults. These tracks, devoid of lead guitar work (and, in some cases, vocals) showcase the songs coming together solidly—and, more often than, not with a discernable bass line from Newsted. The raw power in the versions of the songs presented here showcases just how good the final product really was at its core. This, by the way, is not meant to be a slam against Hammett; his contributions to the songs in the end were just as important to the album’s success. If anything, it’s just an interesting alternate picture that these versions showcase.

Unfortunately, Metallica’s penchant for choosing live performances for these box sets where their performances are, at best, sloppy, continues with this collection. The first such show, from the Troubadour in West Hollywood from May 24, 1988, has guitars going in and out of the mix, often not perfectly in tune, and Hetfield singing off-key. Knowing what a well-oiled machine they would eventually become, this show is a disappointment, the disc only saved by the collection of b-sides from various singles.

Following the formal release of ...And Justice For All, Metallica’s performance at Hammersmith Odeon on October 10, 1988 does see them tightening up their act quite a bit. There are still flubs here and there, but it’s here where you begin to notice a transformation from a band just looking to have some fun and rock out to a band that actually had made a mark on the charts, and needed to start taking things more seriously. It’s not a complete show, as it’s missing the opening songs, and “...And Justice For All” suffers from a tape cut, but it’s a marked improvement.

The three-LP set Seattle ’89 shouldn’t be much of a surprise to Metallica fans, as the show was initially featured as a video on the Live Shit: Binge & Purge set. Hetfield and crew continue their “tight but loose” approach, but Hetfield is in far better vocal shape by this stage, and the band as a whole sounds more en pointe (though there are still the occasional flubs). If anything, by this stage of their career, Metallica was beginning to truly show how powerful of a live unit they could be when they had everything dialed in properly.

If you needed further proof of this, you simply need to listen to the final live CD set, recorded at Long Beach Arena on December 7, 1988, or watch the second DVD recorded in Mountain View, California on September 15, 1989. While each show still has its sloppy moments (such as Hammett launching into the solo on “Breadfan” too early in the 1989 show), these are solid performances that would have been decent live releases had they come out in between ...And Justice For All and Metallica.

The interview CD is as dreadful as one could expect; over the course of 80 minutes, there is precious little new ground that is broken, and no real secrets that any Metallica fan would have necessarily discovered. It’s no secret that, any time I’ve reviewed these box sets, the interview discs are the least favorite portion I encounter, and this set, unfortunately, is no exception.

The first DVD is an interesting mixture. ...And Camcorders For All has a bit of the rough feel that Cliff ‘Em All! had, though this seems to be recorded using Lars Ulrich’s camcorder, and features some funny moments from backstage and during travels. The inclusion of what had been the home video 2 Of One is welcome, as my copy has been missing from my collection for some time—though the additional B-roll footage doesn’t really add anything to its legacy. (Fun fact: I either forgot or never noticed that Hetfield got away with an expletive during Metallica’s performance of "One" at the Grammy Awards.)

The third DVD, featuring a club show from Newark, Delaware around the time that ...And Justice For All was released, is an interesting mixture of loose and tight in terms of the performance. Going into the show with no true setlist, Hetfield and crew successfully keep their playing fairly tight, similar to the shows later on the tour—but they also do things you’d never see today, like inviting members of the crowd onto the stage to sing with them. Actually, it’s a lot of fun to see.

The final disc is an interesting collection, starting with a documentary of the Justice tour from MuchMusic in Canada, where you get to see sides of the show that would otherwise be kept under a blanket. The interviews with Masa Ito, unlike the interview disc, actually are interesting to watch, even if Ito asks each band member the same questions. Finally, you’re presented with what feels like a continuation of the Camcorders DVD, albeit with some better-shot footage at times from three different stops (including the “Monsters Of Rock” tour in Philadelphia). One does, however, have to question many of the cuts done mid-song; it gets incredibly frustrating for the viewer who is getting into the song to suddenly have it jump ahead with no warning.

There also is one picture disc, for the One single, included in the collection, featuring a live version of “Seek And Destroy” as the b-side. I remember this one fondly as a single from my teenage years that somehow got lost over time. Personally, I’d have also liked for them to include a picture disc of “Eye Of The Beholder”... but, c’est la vie.

In the end, the super deluxe box set edition of ...And Justice For All feels like what happens to a fat kid at an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet. There’s times the experience is amazing, but in the end, it sometimes has the air of being too much of a good thing. The die-hard fans will obviously salivate over every note, but the stark reality is that much of this is aimed for that collector who must have every single thing the band ever produced, played or touched. Had this been pared down a bit, it could have been the perfect complement to the original album (even if they still didn’t turn the bass up). It’s a good, but tiring set to get through.

Rating: B-

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