#23: "...and Justice for All" by Metallica

#23—"Guys, keep it down!"
(Joe Dog, Hawes House RA)

Favorite Song: One
Notable Tracks: Blackened, ...and Justice for All, Eye of the Beholder, The Shortest Straw
Released: August 1988
Top U.S. Chart position: #6 (8x Platinum)

I didn't know much about Metallica before I went to college other than they were a darker-than-midnight heavy metal band followed by a cult of devoted fans identifiable by their "Ride the Lightning" or "Master of Puppets" t-shirts. I did not hang out with these people in high school (unless it was around a beer keg; beer was the great social equalizer at Poplar Bluff Senior High School), and I certainly did not listen to that kind of music—too noisy, too angry.

Two years into college and deprogrammed from the hyper-patriotic, conservative, capitalism-is-wonderful propaganda that is like air and water in southeast Missouri, I saw Metallica's very first produced-for-MTV video for the single "One." In the twilight of Ronald Reagan's expiring term and in the dark reflection of Iran-Contra and the various governmental atrocities that critical thinking (and a journalism school still devoted to actual journalism and not kissing the feet of the wealthy and powerful) exposed, this song was a bullet of adrenaline and ephedrine right to the moral center of my brain.

The song "One" turns the whole idea of patriotic heroism through military service into a nightmare of irreparable physical loss and a futile cry for the deliverance that only death can bring. I think it was probably around the same time I read Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" for the first time as well, and I began to question the real purpose of warfare in our world.

I have the highest respect for all who volunteer to serve in the military; my dad and most of my uncles, not to mention several friends who served in one of the Iraq wars, are all military veterans. They all have my unequivocal support. What I detest is the men in high towers and seats of power who send them to war under less-than-honest circumstances. Turns out Metallica detests them as well, and that's what this whole album is about.

I bought the album at a record store in Columbia and listened to the whole thing. It's still not exactly what I would pick to listen to today while walking around the lake or taking the kids to visit their grandparents. But for a 20-year-old discovering that the world outside his home town was not really everything good and right and moral, it was loud, angry, and best of all, righteous. The songs are about the reality of the corruption in our nation, about how liberty, equality, justice were all nothing more than distractions and lies. It was a call for real freedom with a raised and clenched fist.

I still like the "Black Album" better than this one, but alas, that also exists only on compact disc for me. Of course, that album contains my theme song, the reason why this blog is named as it is. But ...and Justice for All is the record that introduced me to a band that still manages to challenge (and infuriate) with their music as well as their attitude. (Yeah, yeah, Lars is a pretentious jerk, that's just a given.) I've included the video for "One" below. In case you're wondering, the movie footage is from the 1971 film Johnny Got His Gun.