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These are demos in the classic sense: demonstrations of songs. They will not be legendary artifacts, better than the polished studio albums they presaged, pressed onto picture disc 20 years later by Nuclear War Now! in diehard editions. No, they’re just worse versions of their future selves.
But they’re more interesting for it. …And Justice for All is very much a construction – it practically pulsates with math; if it were a building, it would be a low-slung labyrinth – and these demos reveal its scaffolding. The songs exist in various states of completion. “Blackened” is mostly done. Kirk Hammett isn’t. It’s fun to hear him fumble around, searching for the right notes. (He eventually found them. I wouldn’t change a note on this record.) Lyrically, “Eye of the Beholder” has but a chorus. Lars Ulrich is, to put it politely, a very human drummer.
What fascinates me the most about these demos is Hetfield’s incomplete lyrics. We get a peek at his work process: he comes up with vocal patterns before lyrics. Sometimes he starts with a phrase. We hear that “The Shortest Straw” germinated from the phrase “shortest straw has been pulled for you”. “Harvester of Sorrow” has basically just its title words. But even though Hetfield hasn’t found “Harvester”’s words yet, he sings their placeholders with utter conviction. His language is literally infantile – “Wa-na-na-na-na-na” – which, in a way, sounds even more enraged.
The vocal pattern is an underappreciated art. So many metal bands have awkward enjambments and mushy syllabic structures. But Hetfield understands that vocals can form riffs. In these demos, you hear him molding his vocals around his guitar. Sometimes they buttress each other; sometimes they act in call-and-response. He’s one of metal’s best rhythm guitarists, but he’s also one of metal’s best vocalists rhythmically. That’s a big reason why we sing along to his songs decades later.
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DOWNLOAD: METALLICA – …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (DEMOS) [91.33MB .zip]
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“Harvester of Sorrow” (demo)
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Cant WAIT to get home and check this out. I’m not much of a fan of anyone’s demos, but when i eventually check them out, there’s always some songs (well, parts to songs) that I find interesting, and make me hear the finished product in a different way.
I got Justice in 1989, 4th grade i believe. I was obsessed with it. My brain didnt know how to hear this as a ‘mathematically complex’ album, and I’m able to appreciate it in a different way even today, then if i had heard it as an adult.
It will be interesting to hear how it all came together.
*than.
These demo tracks have a bit more human element than the final mix. Interesting to hear the vocal melody ideas even before there are words to fill.
Two things rubbed me wrong on the final mix one already mentioned Jason was dropped waaaaayyyy back in the mix. Also the guitar tone was early digital distortion/overdrive gave it a strange timber.
I had the chance to see them twice touring for this record. Missed my chance to see them with Cliff early on. Then that was it no more Metallica shows for me.
20/20 should do some kind of segment on the ‘curious case of the missing bass’ on Justice…not so much for the implications it had on the sound of the record (i’d go so far as to say i could give a shit about the bass), but for all the fucking fuss about it.
Countless albums have a bass sound that adds little or nothing to the mix. I dont know why this should get all the attention.
great point about the vocals! Hetfield’s singing was awesome.
This is cool…where did you find this?
Lars has always been more Keith Moon than Dave Lombardo, but at least back then he had the speed and passion. Current day, I think Lars fits in Metallica well but hate that I find it “special” when he plays a song with all of the original fills because you know he CAN do it, he just chooses to do his own thing. It comes off as lazy when you hear it, although when you see his performance, it looks anything but…
Meh. God Bless Metallica for still pulling 50-80k people to see metal shows.
This right here is precisely why I love Invisible Oranges so much. The treatment of the genre seriously, the true love in unearthing things like these demos or the individualised instrument tracks – all speak of an appreciation of the music that goes far, far beyond most music blogs’ “so here’s this new album” thing. Thank you for this.
As someone who loves to have vocals in my music, but who cares little to nothing about lyrics (and prefers the unintelligible), vocal phrasing is very important to me.
The worst example I’ve heard lately was from Turisas. “Hunting Pirates” is horrifying.
I bought these many years ago on a CD called Rough Justice. I had hoped the music would show more difference from the final versions in terms of form or riff content.
@Full Metal Attorney: here here, sir. I certainly appreciate quality vocals (rare as they are), but overall, i prefer my vocals unintelligible. I find the human voice to be a dope instrument on its own, and appreciate both its sonic and rhythmic qualities.
Intelligle words sometimes take away from this, not necessarily b/c of their sound, but b/c my brain just shifts focus. It becomes a word with meaning, instead of a sound, and i think there’s a certain finality to that i’d rather not have.
Pretty sure the solo on this “Blackened” version is big Het himself and not Hammett. Certainly doesn’t sound like Kirkoid style, and has no whammy bar or wah-wah action either.
The distortion on AJFA is not digital, it is the same Mesa amp Hetfield used on MOP and Garage days. Apparently the cabinets were miced up in some peculiar fashion which would contribute to the somewhat odd sound. This according to Flemming Rasmussen in some book I leafed through a couple years back.
Wow. The first time I heard the ‘wa na’ I fuckin laughed out loud–fascinating peek into one of my all time favorite records and it’s creative process. It’s also funny to hear what a sloppy fuckin mess Ulrich is. One thing hadn’t changed though: that mid range ‘WAH WAH WAH’ from your speakers–crazy that they didn’t know how to deal with it even in the early stages.
Fascinating indeed.
Justice happens to be Metallica’s most lyrically accomplished album. It is obvious that James labored for a long time to come up with the perfect lyrics.
@ablaaa – It certainly has a very distinct lyrical approach, in terms of the way the grammar works. Whether that makes it “perfect” I don’t know. It’s also the most explicit he’d ever been in terms of political “statements” (even though he and Lars were always quick to tamp down such interpretations). I think the lyrics on Load and Reload have some really poetic moments in them (and some obvious clunkers, too) that rival the stuff on AJFA.
@Kevin: I remember an interview from back then (with Flemming Rasmussen, if I remember it right) stating they had to record each track in tiny bits because LU wasn’t able to play them in one go…
@sandman – The myth that Lars had, at some point in the 80s, to record his tracks in tiny bits is a misunderstanding of the process he used on the *Black Album*, where they pieced together the final version used on the album by taking the best parts of several complete takes. Further, it’s highly doubtful that Lars’s own drum tech would make such a disparaging remark about his boss on-the-record…
That’s pretty awesome. My friends and I have a band. I won’t drop our name here because I’m not trying to plug my shit, just mention that we write all our songs by jamming, and all I do is sing, but I come up with my vocal parts in the same way you described Hetfield doing it. Singing “Blah blah’s” over the riffs to figure out HOW to sing it, then writing actual words later.
sandman and Glenn – Actually, two different engineers, Toby Wright and Randy Staub, confirmed that Ulrich recorded his parts one phrase at a time:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec05/articles/tobywright.htm
http://mixonline.com/recording/tracking/metallica_enter_sandman/
Yes, looks like I was misremembering as well (though not about the purposeful construction aspect). And misremembering the name of Lars’s drum tech! haha
Still, the myth is that Lars *couldn’t* play them in one take, as in failed to, wink wink. But that isn’t really supported by either of those articles. In the first one, especially, the engineer is relating how Rasmussen wanted Lars to suddenly play in an unnatural (for him) and extremely exaggerated style. The piece-by-piece method was the best way for Lars to accommodate Rasmussen and accomplish the sonic goals he was after.
It’s funny how that myth has spread over the years. In high school I heard a different variation, that Lars was such a perfectionist that he’d record each phrase piecemeal, then stop to put on a new drum head before playing the next phrase. At the tender age of 13 I believed it, which only magnified his douchiness in my eyes.
The rhythm part behind the guitar solo in ‘blackened’ has always been one of my favorite riffs, and still crushes me.
I’ve always figured out the vocal patterns before writing the lyrics. The problems arise when someone else in the band writes and doesn’t understand why the vocalist is having trouble or insists on re-writing the words.
You used a post about Metallica demos to point out how much you hate underground metal.
dont think hammet plays on any metallica demos of any sort, they are all ulrich/hetfield as i understand it. hammett doesnt even play rhythm guitar on the first 5 albums. only the odd lead. nothing more. shame they dropped the bass out of the album
Wow, Nemtheanga! Thanks for dropping by. Much respect.
Thank You
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