I've listened to every Metallica album so you don't have to although you probably already have in this video I'll explore Metallica's history and review all of their fulllength albums while sharing my thoughts along the way if you enjoy this deep dive make sure to give it a like subscribe to the channel and comment down below with your top five favorite Metallica albums let's dive in Metallica was formed around May 1981 in Los Angeles California by drummer Lars ol and lead singer James Hetfield before they met Lars had placed an ad in the recycler seeking metal musicians citing influences like diamond head and Venom after several unsuccessful meetups Lars was contacted by Hugh Tanner who brought along his friend James Hetfield leading to the start of the legendary band Lars recalled that James was extremely shy and introverted and their initial interaction in 1981 was a bit frustrating despite the lack of progress at the time Lars went to Europe during the summer and upon his return he ended up reconnecting with James and that led to the official formation of Mor mortala headfield then brought his roommate Ron mcgovney on base and Dave mustain found through another newspaper ad on guitar you might know Dave mustain he's from this little band called Meade death oh aren't you so cool the band's name Metallica was inspired by a name Ron Quintana had been considering for a metal fan scene at the time although metalblade records did lack the funds to cover the cost of Metallica's first album they did manage to cover the fand's first original song Hit the Lights which was featured in the label's first metal Massacre compilation album while this oversight could be seen as a significant misstep on metal blades Park they did end up making up for it by signing Cannibal Corpse a few years later after several great shows where they were supporting bands such as Saxon Metallica recorded one of their first demos called No Life to leather in 1982 which quickly gained traction through tape trading their success in the Bay Area led to them to relocate there after convincing basist Cliff Burton to leave his band trauma and join Metallica Cliff would then replace Ron mcgovney whom the band was having issues with at the time John zazula from Mega Force records would then sign Metallica and in May 1983 the band would travel to Rochester New York where they would record their debut album which was originally called metal up your ass however just before the recording sessions began on April 11th 1983 the band decided to eject Dave mustain due to his drug and alcohol abuse and violent behavior that same afternoon Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammet was brought in to replace mustain talk about a spicy situation on July 25th 1983 kilal would be released on Mega Force record after the label refused to press an album called metal up your ass this would cause widespread and decades long discussions revolving around who really wrote the guitar parts for kill them all mustain who later formed Mega Death criticized Hammond in interviews claiming that Hammond stole his job and became popular by playing leads that mustain had originally written in a 1985 interview with metal forces main expressed frustration over hammet's success noting that hamt leads on no life to leather were his own on Megadeth's 1985 album killing is my business and business is good mustain included the song mechanics which is a track that Metallica had reworked into the four horsemen he did this as a way to set things straight even though kill them all was not a commercial success by the end of 1983 the band had sold over 17,000 copies of that album which is still very good for quote a small band especially during the 80s where physical media was king kilal would feature beloved tracks such as the four horsemen Seek and Destroy jump in the fire and no remorse after listening to this album I do think it's a great debut it's raw and Punchy with its thrash crossover sound I enjoyed it and I walked away with a lot of several favorite tracks and I especially admire that Metallica included an instrumental track Anesthesia Pulling Teeth which showcased a base solo from Cliff Burton I rate this album a solid 8 out of 10 following this success of Kill Them All Metallica songwriting continued to evolve rapidly and in the summer of 1984 they recorded their second album Ride the Lightning in Copenhagen with producer Fleming rasmusen and Ride the Lightning represents a significant evolution in Metallica's previous Work featuring a more aggressive sound with Deeper lyrics with key tracks such as For Whom the Bell told which is inspired by the Ernest Hemingway book of the same name there's also Banger tracks such as creeping death as well as the closing song the call of culu which is a fully instrumental track that I personally think is a perfect closer to this album but my alltime favorite song off of this record and a song that is honestly in the running for being the best Metallica song in their entire discography is Fade to Black this track really spoke to me and is one I will continue to come back to I give Ride the Lightning a solid 8.5 out of 10 on August 17th 1985 Metallica performed their largest show to date at the Monsters of Rock Festival in dawnington Park England sharing the stage with Bon Joi and rat they played before an estimated audience of 70,000 people and it's actually crazy to think about that because Metallica had only been a band for like less than 5 years and that's the amount of success that they had already had Metallica would then go on to release their heavily acclaimed third album Master of Puppets on March 3rd 1986 the Master of Puppets would reach number 29 on the billboard 200 and spend 72 weeks on the charts would also include fan favorites such as the captivating acoustic intro battery as well as the melodic ballad Welcome Home Sanitarium however the 8 and 1/2 minute instrumental track Orion feel almost criminal with how long it really is I honestly felt like the track didn't really pick up until about the halfway point but once it did it was quite Pleasant and even though it took a couple of listens to really enjoy that song I did walk away with this instrumental track being one of my favorites off of this album I do personally feel like Master of Puppets is a little bit overrated but overall it was a good experience I personally liked their second album Ride the Lightning a bit more I give Master of Puppets a 7. 5 out of 10 it was right around this point where I began to realize that Metallica really loves long albums and long songs after spending many many hours with Metallica's discography I feel like I've cracked their formula on how they do their albums part of the reason this video took me so long to do was because every single record after their debut is about an hour and 15 minutes or longer with every song averaging about 6 minutes at least in length with like two tracks towards the end that are anywhere from 8 to 9 minutes and literally 59 seconds they never fully commit to the 10 minute Mark they only did so on Lulu and we haven't reached that album yet but oh oh we will now I don't really mind if records are that long but I do feel like if you're going to do an album that's long that you need to make sure that those tracks are absolute bangers and not a loaded mess like their next album and justice for all but before we really dive into Metallica's fourth record we of course have to pay our respects to Cliff Burton and talk about his tragic death and the impact that it had on Metallica in the years to come Cliff Burton's final performance took place on September 26th 1986 in Stockholm Sweden just one day before his tragic death during the damage Inc tour promoting Master of Puppets the band members were having issues with their bunk beds on the tour bus that night the story of how Cliff secured his bunk varies Kirk hamt recalls drawing cards and then Cliff choosing hammet's bunk while Lars recalls them pulling straws and then Cliff choosing either way he chose Kirk hammet's bunk on the early morning of September 27th the Tor bus skitted off the road near lby Sweden and flipped over into an embankment with with the impact launching Cliff through a window and crushing him under the bus killing him instantly he was just 24 years old the driver claimed that there was black ice on the road but others including James Hetfield and the local authorities found no evidence of black ice suggesting that human error was the cause of the accident despite the investigation the driver was not held responsible Cliff Burton was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Maxwell ranch with the song Orion playing at his funeral Jason newad of flatsome and Jetsam soon joined Metallica as their basist and thus brings us to Metallica's fourth album and justice for all this record is a very controversial album amongst the community because of the Final Mix of the album with the lack of bass guitar and the clicking sound of the drums and justice for all suffers in sounding too sterile and thin The Story Goes that under the the direction of James Hetfield and Lars ol the base was intentionally reduced in the mix leading to dissatisfaction from basist Jason newad producer Fleming R musen is quoted saying the bass is in audible I was one of the only people who knew what the Basse Parts actually sounded like on that album and that's down to Lars and James after Lars and James heard their initial mixes the first thing they said was take the bass down so you can just hear it and once you've done that take it down a further 3 DB I have no idea why they wanted that but it was totally out of my hands whether you believe that the base was turned down intentionally or not it's obvious to me that the remaining Metallica guys were still very much hurting and mourning their friend and fellow musician was it too soon for Metallica to return to the studio and record after such a tragedy were they angry about losing Cliff so much that they decided to intentionally sabotage their own record as a way to almost punish Jason for not being or playing like Cliff either way this didn't stop Injustice For All from being a smash hit on the charts peing at number six on the billboard 200 and giving them their first number one single with the song One the song one is a haunting track about a soldier who after being injured during World War I is bedridden without arms legs eyes or ears he is also unable to speak and therefore can only sit with his own thoughts the song is based on a 1971 film adaptation of the 1939 book of the same name Johnny got his gun and after years of Metallica denying ever doing a music video the ban released the One music video for MTV January 20th 1989 much to the Chagrin of many of their fans the music video featured footage from the original film and after having to pick pay royalties every time the music video was shown Metallica ended up buying the rights to the film now I can't deny how important this album is for both the fans and the band other than one my favorite track off of this album is actually the cliff bur and tribute to live is to die like I said earlier in my opinion this album is a bloated mess that is way too long and boring and sounds too thin and completely devoid of any lowend personally this album is is very overrated and I don't see myself coming back to it I give Injustice for all a 6 out of 10 now if you're surprised by my opinion on Injustice for all you may be surprised to find out that I absolutely loved their next record and that's Metallica's self-titled album from 1991 also known as The Black Album and I've heard more people hating on this album than even and justice for all but I can't help it I absolutely love love the black album the release of The Black Album sparked many discussions about Metallica's Direction going into the 9s for many listeners this was considered to be Metallica's quote sellout record whether you agree that Metallica sold out during this portion of their career or not I'm just simply talking about the pivotal switch in Metallica's sound going into the 9s it's clear to me that the band was influenced by bu their commercial success with their single one I don't think it was necessarily a bad thing for Metallica to go mainstream because they were already on that path anyway their record label likely recognized that reaching a wider audience would not only boost their revenue but also solidify Metallica's status as a major musical Force while some might see the shift as merely a cash grab I believe it was more about the band and adapting to musical Trends and aiming to connect with a broader audience and clearly this strategy worked because the Black Album would end up charting at number one on the billboard 200 in 10 countries and stay there for over four weeks but the coolest and most impressive event is Metallica's live concert that was in Moscow Russia during yet another Monsters of Rock concert on September 28th 1991 this live show included performances from Legends such as ACDC panta and mly crew but Metallica performed in front of an estimated 1.6 million people that is actually incredible I don't think I could even speak in front of that many people on a stage girl anyway despite what some people might say the Black album has some of my absolute favorite tracks on it if there's one word that I could describe for this album it would be r my favorite tracks on this album have to be Enter Sandman sad but true and basically every song on this album with the exception of of wolf and man I think that was the weakest one for me uh The Unforgiven is honestly my favorite track on this album and I love it because the song comes back with various parts throughout their entire discography um and I just think that's so creative honestly I give the Black Album a 9 out of 10 next up we have the sister albums load and reload now both of these albums by Metalica received mixed reviews from both critics and fans due to the major shift from thrash heavy metal to their experimentation with hard rock southern rock and blues while I believe that load is honestly the stronger album of the two the best way to appreciate these Metallica records is to view them not as Metallica albums to begin let's talk about load this album starts off with Ain't My [ __ ] which it feels completely out of the ordinary for Metallica with that classic rock you know southern rock sound and bluesy twang tracks like 2x4 and the house that Jack built continue that southern rock flare with the house that Jack built featuring odd solos and even a vocoder which was quite confusing honestly to listen to but until it sleeps sounds more like Nickelback than Metallica um while Hero of the Day sounds more like tulle or Pearl Jam so you kind of see what I'm getting with um the songs are not terrible by any means but it just sounds like your average bar band I love southern rock and I love the fact that Metallica played around with these elements um you know they did have a track with lap steel which I thought was cool but I do feel like this album could have used a little bit of steel guitar or banjo again I appreciate the experimentation I don't think it was bad it's just not Metallica And it honestly left me quite confused as a listener I give load a 6 out of 10 reload on the other hand is kind of a hot mess in comparison it's the repeat of load but weaker in almost every way I think I was struggling the most with the lyrics because they're very cringe in a lot of areas um it's not their best work by any means it's quite unfortunate because this is the first album that features The Unforgiven 2 which is of course an Unforgiven spin-off track basically the theme with these spin-off tracks is they feature variation of the same riff that was in the original song it's obviously different but it's there and you can hear it and I might totally be biased because I love The Unforgiven so I give reload a 5.5 out of 10 so I'll briefly talk about Metallica's cover album garage Inc this is a compilation album that showcases Metallica covering songs from various artists that Inspire them throughout the years and initially I wasn't aware that garage Inc was a cover album but the album delivers a solid sound especially after their previous Hard Rock releases they picked some great tracks to cover from some notable bands like Merciful Fate Leonard skinnard who I love and the Misfits you also get some motor head in there so what I also really liked about this album is that Metallica brought their heaviness back it was was so refreshing to hear that sound after the rocker flop albums of the sister records and it's better than you know the graveyard classic albums from 6 feet under I don't even want to think about it no discussion of Metallica's history is complete without mentioning the Napster controversy which began in the year 2000 This legal battle with popular filesharing service Napster marked a significant moment in the music industry Story Goes that talica discovered their music was being shared illegally on Napster and the band was particularly concerned about the unauthorized distribution of their songs before their official release in April of 2000 Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster accusing the company of copyright infringement and demanding that it prevent users from sharing their music lawsuit sparked significant controversy and backlash from the public and fans partly because Metallica had identified up to 300,000 names of individuals who had shared their songs on Napster the controversy did leave a lasting impact on their Public Image and definitely underscored the shifting landscape of music distribution at the time few months before the settlement with Napster Jason newad would end up leaving Metallica in January 2001 for personal and private reasons in need of a bass player while recording their next album Metallica temporarily hired their longtime producer Bob Rock and during the recording of Saint anger the band faced some of the rockiest moments in their career this included James Hetfield actually admitting himself into rehab for several months due to alcoholism and then returning to record for no more than 4 hours a day just before the release of St Anger the band hired Robert truo the former bass player of suicidal tendance as their new basist and on June 5th 2003 Saint anger would be released as Metallica's 8th studio album so let's talk about this album because Sint anger is one of the more polarizing and objectively painful albums in Metallica's discography and if you love this album then I am genuinely happy for you this is another one of Metallica's albums you need to approach in a certain way in order to enjoy it at least in my opinion from what I understand Metallica aims to explore a raar sound with s anger keeping things stripped down with no elaborate solos or catchy radio singles the intense passion behind this record is likely stemmed from their shock over the backlash from the Napster situation combined with Jason newstead's departure which may have also stirred up lingering emotional trauma related to The Cliff Burton tragedy we discussed earlier that's simply just a theory of mine but it's clear the band was far from their usual flow during this time period Fain anger was also Metallica's take on new metal which was obviously a popular music genre at the time however I don't hear personally any new metal influences at all on this album The Snare is a bit distracting for me it's so clanky and abrasive and way too loud and prominent in the mix and these last three albums have reminded me so much of the Red Hot Chili Peppers but honestly Saint anger especially rips from their sound in multiple songs such as frantic the title track San anchor and their final track all within my hands that last one is identical to rhcp without funky fleas base I just don't think Metallica had really any idea what to do with this album and I think they just kind of threw a bunch of genres at the wall to see what's stuck I think they were surprised by the hate that they received from the Napster controversy and I also think that their label and PR team were struggling to put together a record that would get them back into the good graces of the public and their fans uh but saying anger sounds like a band that is trying way too hard to do way too much to be edgy and it doesn't work for me at all but I know exactly who this album is for um like I said you can't approach this album like a regular Metallica album saying anger is a perfect album for that kind of edgy teenage angst music listener um and that it's got that quintessential early 2000s angry teenager grunge style to it I don't really know how else to put it or describe it um but I definitely hear that style so I could totally see why some people really connected with this album because of that so I give Sint anger a four out of 10 several years would go by until Metallica released their ninth studio album Death Magnetic on September 12th 2009 this album would be produced by legendary producer Rick Ruben instead of Bob Rock who was of course Metallica's record producer since and justice for all a lot of fans were not super stoked about Rick Rubin producing this record I will say Death Magnetic was quite the surprise for me and I'm gonna be honest I didn't realize that Death Magnetic came before Lulu so I actually listened to Lulu first and then realized that Death Magnetic came after um I guess I was just excited to jump into Lulu but uh Death Magnetic is a winner plain and simple this album was such a surprise coming out of Stan anger uh and I was just like finally Metallica brought their heaviness back and redeemed themselves this album was so fun to listen to there were some really great solo by Kirk hamt and some very solid riffs just throughout this album uh this is what I was missing with Metallica was the fun Factor some of my favorite tracks off of this record are the end of the line broken beat and sacred and of course The Unforgiven part three this album is like The Black Album 2.0 the success of Death Magnetic would eventually reward Metallica a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and ironically enough flee from the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be the person to induct them into the Hall of Fame all right are we going to talk about it are we going to talk about it all right let's talk about it Lulu if you were one of the brave ones to listen to Lulu all the way through I applaud you you honestly deserve a gold star many listeners say that Lulu isn't a Metallica album but busty I hate to inform you but Lulu is technically a Metallica album because they are featured on his of course this is a collaborative album with legendary singer songwriter Lou Reed from The Velvet Underground another legendary band which is even older than Metallica right off the bat I'm going to tell you that years and years ago I tried to get into The Velvet Underground and I just couldn't so this album Lulu I don't want to call it an Abomination because that's too harsh but it's so um confusing historically Metallica fans say this album is an achievement bringing two legendary acts together and I can agree to that okay but I'm going to be real I think some of you Metallica fans are gaslighting yourself into liking this basically this album is like if Lou Reed was like your mildly Racist uncle who lived somewhere in the woods in like Oregon and imagine you like took him to a bar right and then like he did karaoke but his backup band was Metallica but instead of singing your drunk uncle Lou Reed just did like spoken words slam poetry and he like rambled on and like talked about nothing and everything at the same time that would be this record that that would be this record I mean literally Metallica is just the backing band to Lou Reed's confy on this album and the lyrics are questionable at best now I knew I was going to be in for a time when the first song on this album opens up with Lou Reed saying I would cut my legs and off when I think of Boris carof and kinsky mhm mhm yeah yeah now both of those actors are actually renowned for their roles in older horror films like Frankenstein for example so um you know I don't know if they're worth like cutting off my legs and boobies for but I guess to each their own I was doing some very mild research to see if people considered Lou Reed a racist now I'm not saying he is I mean the dude passed away in 2013 um and tabloids were [ __ ] all over him years after he died which is just scummy but but the reason I was curious is because he has some very interesting lyrics about black people on this album I'm just keeping it real I mean the dude was born in the early 1940s so it's not you know it's totally a different generation of people than now some of the lyrics for example are in the song pumping blood in one verse he has a lyrics if I'm pumping blood like a common state worker if I waggle my ass like a dark prostitute would you think less of me H and later in the same song he has this verse the kitchen with her knives Spade I will swallow your sharpest cutter like a colored man's blood spurting from me and the whole time Metallica is just slow jamming under him obviously can't forget about the absolute Banger The View which has the extremely deep lyrics that James screams um I am the table I am the table what I think is funny too is someone on YouTube described this song as reading off Q cards while constipated honestly the YouTube comments for the these songs like you should just read them because they're pretty hilarious but I think the most aggravating fact about this is that Metallica wasted such amazing riffs on this album Girl the song frustration might have one of the best opening riffs I have ever heard from Metallica and it's just wasted on this album Metallica delivered in the riffage department I mean they should have used some of these guitar leads and riffs for their next album but no we'll play it under Lou re talking about putting jam on a piece of charred boiled lamb that'll do it in conclusion if you approach Lulu like a Lou Reed album it makes perfect sense for Lou Reed if you approach it as a Metallica album it makes zero sense whatsoever and now many fans said you need to approach it like a Lou Reed album and so I definitely agree with that nobody asked for this album nobody asked for this record Solid 2 out of 10 all right let's finally talk about Metallica's 2016 album hardwired for self-destruction this album regardless of what metal archive says is a solid Edition to Metallica's discography in my opinion and so obviously at this point Metallica is not as young as they once were they're not in their early 20s anymore girl okay and after years and years of recording mentoring and probably won't ever fully return back to their thrash roots or to the heaviness and fearlessness that they achieved with their first four albums and that's okay they're not exactly supposed to you know as artists you're supposed to grow you're supposed to have the willingness to grow and the willingness to experiment along the way and and so that being said hardwired is a fine modern album in my opinion for Metallica I don't think think it's offensive uh it's not worse than say anger so I'll take it I give hardwired a 7.5 out of 10 this leads us into Metallica's final album they just recently released in 2023 called 72 Seasons I think my biggest complaint for this album right off the bat would be the use of these really weird AI music videos which are used for like half the songs on this record and I know many fans and the comments of these music videos were wondering like what the heck was going on a lot of the music videos were super weird especially the weird like cartoon Serial Killer music video I don't really know what was up with that but you know weird music videos aside the music on this album wasn't entirely offensive I did really enjoy their final song in aor do I think this album is awful no but it does feel tired and uninspired uh some of the fans were saying in the comments like Kirk doesn't look like he even wants to be here and I agree it just has no soul and no passion to it and now I mentioned this in a reaction I did a while ago on my channel um of Metallica's single if Darkness had a son here I am you know and I mentioned that that this album just doesn't feel like it has any inspiration or passion or emotion in it at all and you can really feel that in the instrumentals I don't know if you can if you really enjoy this album please let me know but for me that's kind of what I got um it just feels tired and uninspired and uh you kind of also get the vibe with that because they use these like weird AI music videos it just doesn't really make much sense and it doesn't really feel genuine and there we have it my review and deep dive of Metallica's entire discography now I don't think there will really ever be a metal band that is as successful and as big as Metallica I mean the amount of success that this band gained over the last like four decades is honestly insane and I never realized it until I really sat down and did my research and and listened to all of these albums I mean they have such a massive catalog and just so many achievements from winning gramys uh to you know obviously being in the Hall of Fame and but it's just like the amount of fans they have the amount of concert goers that you know go to go and see them it's just very very cool to see the success of Metallica so um I really hope that you enjoyed today's video thank you so much for being here and thank you so much for watching like I said at the beginning of the video uh let me know Down Below in the comments what your top five favorite Metallica albums are if you like this deep dive please consider subscribing to the channel liking this video and um yeah let me know if there's other bands that you want to see this type of video too I'm always always looking to learn and do my research for these bands youall know how it is so thank you so much for being here and I'll see you later okay bye guys [Music] [Music]