Written after the death of bassist Cliff Burton, Metallica’s infamously abrasive masterpiece gets its 30th-anniversary treatment at a time when its sociopolitical rumblings are painfully relevant.
In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Justice has been remastered and re-released in a variety of formats. Three decades later, Justice arguably stands as the only Metallica album that’s as beloved as it is controversial. (The rest tend to skew one way or the other.) After the death of original bassist Cliff Burton in a 1986 bus accident, the band hired Jason Newsted as his replacement. They toured with him, recorded a covers EP with him, gave him moments in the spotlight on stage, and... absolutely buried him in the mix of Justice, his first-full length with Metallica. The result is the most abrasive-sounding album to sell over eight million copies ever. It’s as if, instead of adding canned crowd noises or fake room tone, Metallica preloaded it with tinnitus.
