I voted ...And Justice mainly for nostalgic reasons, I was a sophomore in high school when that album came out and had been into Metallica big-time for a few years at that point. It's really hard to choose between AJFA, RTL, and MoP, Kill Em All I am just so burnt-out on that I haven't been able to listen to it for years now. I saw Metallica on the AJFA tour, the first time I saw them live was the year before at the Monsters of Rock, definitely the best concert I've ever seen though was them on the AJFA tour - during their final encore they played Whiplash and the Coliseum had failed to bolt the folding metal chairs in the floor-seating area, people piled the chairs up in several piles and one huge one in the middle of the floor and were moshing and dancing on top of them - it was just nuts and the only show that comes close was seeing Slayer with Motorhead and Overkill on the SoH tour a few months before.

Kill them all, some nice speedy thrash ****

Ride The Lightning! I like every track. Second would be And Justice For All.

I love the sound of Ride the Lightning and Kill 'Em All, but because of "One," I had to go with "Justice."

I'm a little surprised anyone would pick St. Anger over Death Magnetic, actually...

Or that some people have been duped into thinking either one is a good album.

Or that.

Ride the lightning is the best metallica album ever made on this planet.

A hard question.. Think i'll go with Master of Puppets on this one, the last creation with Cliff.

I would say Master of Puppets. But i think the most mature songwriting and audio production i would give to Load and Reload! Dont hate! Just an opinion! :laughing::laughing::hphones:

Reload, and I'm not trolling. 2nd would probably be And Justice For All and 3rd would be Garage Inc.
I think Hetfield was in better vocal form on Reload than he ever was before or has been since. I also think the album (mostly) consists of well-written alternative rock tunes with a lot of good guitar work. Fuel and the Memory Remains are completely skippable, but there's so much great stuff late on the album. Fixxxer just may be their best song!

Why the hell Reload? Had a few good tracks, but man other than that, not so great.

I'd put Ride The Lightning miles above Reload, but personally, my favorite is probably Master Of Puppets, maybe ...And Justice For All.

What can I say? I just really like several of the songs on the album. Prince Charming, Where the Wild Things Are, Attitude, Fixxxer, Slither, Carpe Diem Baby... All some of my favourite Metallica tunes. I like the 80's stuff too, but it doesn't grab me the way it did when I was a teenager. I don't do nostalgia, so those albums just don't mean as much to me as they did back then.

Dare I ask your opinion on the abomination that is St. Anger? I got a feeling you'll be one of those oddballs that really liked it.

Nice to see MOP well out in front. Justifiably so.

Well, I sorta like it. I sold it along with Death Magnetic a couple years ago, so I obviously don't like it all that much, but it has its moments. I like the style and the rough sound of the album. Much of the music has a kind of drunken, groovy, aggressive vibe to it that I find infectious but holy **** are the songs bloated beyond belief!
Every song could be divided by half and the album would be better. Also, Hetfields voice is kinda grating on this trainwreck of an album. A fascinating trainwreck. In my opinion, Crisis is a band that did the St. Anger thing way better, giving me no reason to slog through Metallica's flawed attempt at the same. Check out the Crisis album 'Like Sheep Led to Slaughter' to see what I mean.

I like them as pop rock albums, but the overwrought singing is a turnoff (James Hetfield is simply not a hard rock singer), and they're only alt rock albums in the shallowest sense. They're arena rock albums for 90s teenagers.

This. Half the songs on the album are surprisingly good, until they get past minute four, and you start reaching for the fork to stick in your eye.

I wouldn't have minded if Hetfield had dialed down the 'oooh's and 'yeeeahhh's and the way he ends every second word with an 'aahh'. I think the guitar playing was frequently a lot more textured than arena rock in the vein of, say, the Foo Fighters. I like the album, and Load too - but Megadeth's Cryptic Writings was in my opinion a more successful attempt at a similar style.

Whatever the case was or is with St. Anger. That album and me had a disconnect. I just don't get why they went that avenue in terms of production, sound, the whole works. Experimentation is important for a band, Metallica however got carried away here.

And for the first time in almost eleven years, I have a strong desire to go revisit all of their discography. Maybe me being burnt out on Metallica is finally over?

Any of the first four can be argued as their best. If I had to pick I'd go with Master of Puppets.

After the first four, it was all downhill. Black Album was mediocre, but after that it was all garbage until Death Magnetic.

It depends on the day for me. But I went Master of Puppets. I think Kill Em All is close. And in my personal opinion if you voted for Reload you should be banned from the forum (sorta joking but not really).

And Justice For All definitely. Hardest hitting tunes, the prog elements, not much to hate about this record. 2nd is Master of Puppets and 3rd is Black Album. I also don't hate St. Anger but Load, ReLoad, and Death Magnetic don't do it for me most times.

Lulu is also a really good record despite the constant criticizing. An experimental doom metal record fronted by Lou Reed? Count me in.

Just so you guys know ....Kill Em All ... is best. That is all.

Yes. Yes it is.

Nope, And Justice for All. Their definite Magnum Opus.

Too much filler, too long, and it's not as gloriously primitive.

Can't argue with that. You have valid points. Both have upsides and downsides, however.

Yeah, ...And Justice has three plodding tracks, and I've still never been able to get over the vocal performance from Hetfield on "One," and that brings the album down for me.

Kill Em All has four standout tracks for me and a bunch of riffs that are played far longer than they should be. I used to love that album, but I've since found much better "raw thrash" and now I just think it's lacking all-around.

Master Of Puppets beats both of them.

Black Album, hands down

You sure about that?

Hell to the yes, I am!

Never really got into their earlier stuff, and their later stuff was just...meh

I can agree with you about their later output to an extent, though I really dig St. Anger and Lulu. I think they certainly reached a peak around Master of Puppets/And Justice For All. You should definitely give those a full listen at least once.

Don't get me wrong, I like black album, it has some great songs and is pretty solid, but definitely not the level they reach on the two albums prior.

Just out of curiosity, what is it that you really dig about St. Anger? I'm not one of those who considers it the worst album ever made or anything, but I certainly see it as mediocre at best. I think the idea was solid, and if they had cut every song on the album by half then you would have a pretty darn good alt metal album, but the album is just too damn long, both in song and album length. Not to mention James' terrible vocal performance, and the production, which was, again a good idea, but if you're going to go for a lo-fi sound, then you shouldn't overproduce the hell out of the album to make it sound like you didn't.

I mean in comparison. I pretty much agree with everything you said about it there. I feel like someone should take and edit it to fix those length/production discrepencies, I'd love to see what it would sound like that. I mean, I guess I could if I ever found the time.

Do you actually have any training in mixing and production?

Lol no. I have and can use Audacity though. A rough mix is a rough mix anyways. All I really need to do is adjust the equalization, resample the audio to decrease quality, and chop up the song lengths. So not too difficult of a project I'd say.

I'm willing to bet there are a few producers who would be tempted to beat your head in with a cement block for saying that. Still I'd be interested in the results. Nothing much to lose, right?

I'd like to beat a few producers heads in as well. Why make everything so complicated? Lo-fi is the best fi (sometimes).

MOP made my top 10.. That's very hard to do.

For me it is really hard to choose between RtL, MoP, and Justice but I went with Master seeing as that was where I was introduced to the band. I never could get into the black album or much past it save for a few songs here and there which really sucked because that band was a huge part of my youth. Some of my best memories would have to be with the Garage Days ep, though. Listening to that album always takes me back to the end of summer before my first year of high school, skateboards, beer, and dirt weed lmao Good times.

I really like their self-titled album. Particularly, "Holier than Thou".