I recently put up some rankings of the Led Zeppelin studio albums, so I thought I’d stick with that theme and do a few more! Here is my ranking of Metallica albums, with the three best, and one “worst” song on each album:

1. “…And Justice For All” – This is my favorite Metallica album. Apparently this one pretty much killed the band’s mojo; they haven’t been able to live up to it since. In my opinion, it’s got some of the best riffage, instrumental breaks and solos of any of their albums. Everything on this album is so meticulously done – it must have been a pretty stressful recording session, especially for certain unnamed band members.

Best Songs:

• “One” – this actually isn’t my favorite song on the album, but I think it’s a really good, definitive song for Metallica. It is a fine example of their “start slow and melodic and build up to a crushing end” style of song writing. I was tempted to put “Blackend” here…
• “Blackened” – this is a great song
• Tie: “And Justice For All”/”Dyers Eve” – “And Justice” is a great song – my only complaint is that it gets a little unnecessarily repetitive near the end. “Dyers Eve” is another good one – I guess they refused to play it live for a long time because it was so taxing on that pipsqueak Lars, which is kind of cool.

Worst Songs:

• I can’t seem to pick the “worst” song on this album. At first glance I might pick “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” or “The Shortest Straw,” but those two songs are awesome. I’ll just leave this blank for now…

2. “Ride the Lightning” – This is a controversial pick – this means that “Master of Puppets” falls to #3, which is no good. I guess the reason that I put “Ride the Lightning” at #2 is because I’ve just listened to it more. “Ride the Lighting” is a little rough around the edges, but it has some awesome songs on it.

Best Songs:

• “Ride the Lightning” – I think this song has some of the best overall riffage and section transitions of any of their earlier songs.
• “Creeping Death” – this one is a classic, it’s probably one of their signature songs
• Tie: “Fade to Black”/”Call of Ktulu” – “Fade to Black” was considered to be a sell-out for them at the time, I think it was their first attempt at more melodic, acoustic songwriting, but it’s a pretty influential song. “Call of Ktulu” is a complete classic as well, the triple-layer harmony part at the end rocks my face.

Worst Song:

• “Escape” – I like “Escape,” but it might be the least memorable song on the album. “Trapped Under Ice” barely made the cut for worst song – the lyrics are pretty cheesy, but it has some good instrumental work

3. “Master of Puppets” – A lot of people put this one at #1, and it would definitely deserve the #1 spot. I would probably deserve to be berated about this pick, and even about some of my song picks below…

Best Songs:

• Tie: “Master of Puppets”/”Battery” – “Master of Puppets” is the signature track on this album, and I think “Battery” has been pretty influential on the thrashy metal bands out today.
• “Orion” – This is one of my favorite Metallica songs on any album. It has some interesting riffs and solos and a melodic waltz section in the middle, which is awesome.
• Tie: “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”/”Disposable Heroes” – “Sanitarium” is comparable to “Fade to Black,” I would say. I think the galloping guitars on “Disposable Heroes” has influenced a lot of the metal bands today.

Worst Song:

• “The Thing That Should Not Be” – A good song, but it feels like it might be the weakest track. A tad bit of repetitiveness might be my only complaint.

4. “Metallica” aka “The Black Album” – this was a tough pick, I almost wanted to put “Kill Em All” here, just because the “Black Album” was the beginning of the end for Metallica. I felt obligated to put this here though – it has some of Metallica’s most memorable songs. On the downside, some of the lyrics on this album really make me cringe (“Holier than Thou…”)

Best Songs:

• “Enter Sandman” – this one is a little over-exposed, and doesn’t have the speed riffage that everyone wants, but it’s a very good song.
• Tie: “Sad But True”/”Wherever I May Roam”/”Don’t Tread On Me” – “Sad But True” might be one of their heaviest slow songs. The other two are good songs as well.
• “The Unforgiven” – This is another one like “Fade To Black” or “Sanitarium,” and it’s pretty good too
• (Honorable Mention) “Nothing Else Matters” – A lot of the noobs would list this #1, but not me. It is a good song, but it’s kind of disappointing at the same time – they just strayed too far from the crushing metal that everyone wants.

Worst Song:

• “The Struggle Within” – This song has such an awesome intro with the snare drum army, but once the lyrics come in, I can’t stand it.

5. “Kill Em All” – this one definitely doesn’t deserve to fall all the way to #5, but I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes.   Overall, it’s a classic album, but I don’t think I would put it above picks 1-3, and I gave the Black Album the edge for its overall popularity and seeming inflluence.

Best Songs:

• “The Four Horsemen” – this one is pretty epic, and I think give some foreshadowing of the epics to come on later albums
• Tie: “Hit the Lights”/”Jump in the Fire” – two good songs
• Tie: “Whiplash”/”No Remorse” – two more good songs

Worst Song:

• “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth” – this is a pretty notable song – it’s basically a bass solo with some crazy playing and some interesting sounds, but it’s just a little rough. He does say “Bass solo, take one” at the beginning of the track, so that explains the roughness. An impressive song, but I usually skip over it, to be honest…

6. “Load” – The disappointing album to follow the Black Album. It actually has some decent riffs, but they’re more in the vein of adult alternative rock rather than heavy metal.

Best Songs:

• “Bleeding Me” – this song actually rocks pretty well, it’s almost a throwback to the earlier days, but not quite.
• “2×4” – a noobish pick, but I think it’s one of the better songs on this album
• “Until It Sleeps” – a decent song – there might be a better one, but I don’t really care. A lot of the other songs have some good potential, but each one fails to rise above mediocrity
  

Worst Song:

• “Mama Said” – blech – get rid of it. I know they wanted to branch out, but this is no good.

7. “ReLoad” – they should have just released “Load” and “ReLoad” in a package deal so people wouldn’t have to be disappointed twice. I must admit I haven’t give ReLoad a ton of listening time, so this might be off…

Best Songs:

• “Devil’s Dance” – I had to pick something… not a bad song
• “Unforgiven II” – not a terribly original song, but I think it’s pretty well-done, it’s not one I would usually skip
• (I haven’t listened to ReLoad enough to pick a #3)

Worst Song:

• “Fuel” – please, don’t do anything like this again. Just kidding, this song isn’t that bad, it’s actually probably one of the best tracks on the album, but I just don’t like the main lyric: “Gimme Fuel, Gimme Fire, Gimme that which I desire.” Not so sure about that…

8. “St. Anger” – Listening to this the first time was probably one of the most disappointing experiences in my life. I really can’t rank the songs, I don’t think I’ve heard most of them more than twice, but they all sound the same, as far as I can tell – muddy, clonky guitars and terrible lyrics. How could they go from such awesome guitar playing and arranging in “Master of Puppets” and “And Justice for All” to this muddy mess? The drumming sounds like Lars is just banging on 55 gallon drums. Maybe it was Bob Rock’s doing – I’m glad they got rid of him. I really hope they make a U-turn for the next album – rumor has it that they’re going to try to return to their roots, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

Best Songs:

• “Invisible Kid” – this song actually has some decent riffage, but the lyrics suck really bad
• I don’t know, I can’t finish this

Worst Song:

• “St. Anger” – Awful! So many different completely disjoint sections, and some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard. The verses are terrible… The main riff is alright, but the rest of the song blows.