Anniversary Justice Revisited

Thirty years on from its release, Metallica’s landmark …And Justice For All album is getting the reissue treatment, and we spoke to James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett about the recording of arguably the band’s greatest release.

Their last album with Danish producer Flemming Rasmussen, it finds Metallica between their period as an ambitious thrash-based band and the arena-conquering force they would become on the Black Album three years later. Tonally, compositionally and thematically it’s a hugely-influential album for musicians and it sees Hammett at a creative peak as a lead player. Hetfield would never again be as political in his lyricism with the record’s bleak tone echoing the themes. The band were still coming to terms with the tragic loss of bassist CliffBurton on tour in Sweden in 1986, but rather than dwell on the well-worn controversy of the album concerning Cliff’s successor Jason Newsted and his lack of bass presence in the mix, we wanted Hetfield and Hammett to share their own guitar memories of …And Justice For All – and with unflinching honesty they told us about a creative victory born from pressure…