TODAY IS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RELEASE OF …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

On August 25, 1988, Metallica released what many consider to be their last great album, …And Justice for All. To my ears, this would probably be my favorite Metallica album of all time if not for the lack of bass (Which, to this day, I think was an idiotic way to haze then-new-now-former bassist Jason Newstead – I mean, why would the band punish themselves by damaging their own album? How does that pay tribute to the memory of Cliff Burton? It doesn’t). Justice features Metallica at their heaviest, and, often, their proggiest. I’ve been trying all week-end to think of words that could do Justice, um, justice – but I just can’t. And I probably don’t need to to: I’m sure you all have your own feelings on this classic recording.

So here’s Metallica performing the title track on the Justice tour in ’89. After the jump, keep the celebration going with more live clips, the now classic video for “One,” and some other cool shit.

Here’s Metallica performing “Blackened” on the same tour…

…and here’s that legendary video for “One”…

…and finally, here’s a cool t-shirt that the Dillinger Escape Plan have had made up to celebrate the anniversary:

DEP’s song “82588” is named in Justice’s honor. Here’s what DEP front dude Greg Puciato told us about the song when we interviewed him last year:

“82588″ is obviously the release date for Metallica’s …And Justice for All. Do the lyrics song in any way to …And Justice for All?

Not at all.

Thematically? No way at all?

Well what I try to do with song titles – and this probably won’t make sense to a lot of people – I try to name songs like not what they have to do with lyrically, but more what they feel like, you know what I mean? Like if you look at the song, and it makes me feel a certain way, I’ll try to find [a title] that goes along with that, just vibe-wise. When you’re listening to the song and you look at the title, I want the title to feel like the song, not necessarily having anything to do with the lyrics. And, to me, “82588″ was very anti-septic sounding, it was the song that was the most like Calculating [Infinity] as far as it’s really atonal, there’s not much melody, even the riffs aren’t melodic riffs, they’re more like stabs, like (makes stabbing riff noises). They’re real cold, and to me, one of the things about …And Justice for All is that is was very cold and anti-septic and brutal.

It also happens to be my favorite record of all time (laughs), so it was like an easy way to put in a little homage to something that I feel like, if I’d never heard it, I would never even be playing music. That was the record that bridged me from Guns N’ Roses and stuff like that to, like, death and crazy stuff like that.

THE SHIRT IS ONLY ON-SALE TODAY, so go to DEP’s MySpace page RIGHT NOW if you wanna buy one.

-AR