. . .
If you think about it, it’s amazing what heavy metal has become: a beast with thousands of tentacles, some decades long. That Black Sabbath can lead to both Burzum and deathcore is a testament to virality. Ideas spread and mutate, taking on unimagined forms – often to the chagrin of champions of earlier forms.
…And Justice for All is one such unimagined form. It’s a long, long way from “The Wizard” to “The Shortest Straw”, which is about as extreme as “AJFA-ness” gets. As with much of metal, a weaponry metaphor is illustrative. If “The Wizard” is a confident old-timer with a shotgun, “The Shortest Straw” is a neurotic assassin who’s deadly at long range with a snubnose. He practices incessantly, can’t shake a few bad habits (including poor rhythm), and has no friends. He’s the bad guy revealed 3/4 into a Friday night “thriller” rental.
So he has “nerd rage”, or, more accurately for our purposes, “mute rage”. For metal in 1988, this is novel. Metal has always been about power, including showing it sonically. Sure, “Black Sabbath” started with Ozzy scared out of his mind; but with a little help from his friends, he more than prevailed. A few mutations later, studs and leather entered the picture. Stage sets grew moving parts; arenas filled with hair. Metallica touched on mute rage with “Ride the Lightning” and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”, but those songs roared.
In contrast, “The Shortest Straw” gasps for air, with James Hetfield chopping out hard, angry syllables. Kirk Hammett dribbles out a mini-divebomb at 3:59 that’s basically premature ejaculation. Lars Ulrich putters in the background with small, busy d-beats. Jason Newsted, of course, is out of the picture. So we get what sounds like a rehearsal by three worried scientists.
But scientists have always had reason to worry (see Galileo). Perhaps the illogic bothering Metallica was Dalton Trumbo’s blacklisting in the McCarthy era. Trumbo wrote Johnny Got His Gun, the inspiration for “One”, so following that song with one about a witch hunt made complete sense, intentional or not.
I don’t think Metallica intended to sound like mute rage. I think they, like 99% of metal bands not playing black metal, tried to rock. But they ended up making an airless choke – the throat kind, not the sports kind – that lasted six and a half minutes. Metal’s old guard probably thought this was a choke of the sports kind. But in a perverse way, it was perfect. It sounded exactly like it read – “unending paper chase”, “behind you, hands are tied” – which made it even scarier. No triumph, no overcoming, just pure, weapons-grade neurosis. It’s a potent, if strange, achievement by the world’s biggest metal band.
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“The Shortest Straw”
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METALLICA: THE FIRST FOUR ALBUMS
“One”
“Eye of the Beholder”
“…And Justice for All”
“Blackened”
“Damage Inc.”
“Orion”
“Leper Messiah”
“Disposable Heroes”
“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”
“The Thing That Should Not Be”
“Master of Puppets”
“Battery”
“The Call of Ktulu”
“Creeping Death”
“Escape”
“Trapped Under Ice”
“Fade to Black”
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Ride the Lightning”
“Fight Fire With Fire”
“Metal Militia”
“Seek & Destroy”
“No Remorse”
“Phantom Lord”
“Whiplash”
“(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth”
“Jump in the Fire”
“Motorbreath”
“The Four Horsemen”
“Hit the Lights”
. . .
Good song. One of my least favourites from their first 4, but it beats the shit out of Anthrax.
My favorite track off that album.
In the “totally not my business department….”
What is Cosmo up to? Long ago he said he’s share his next steps and I’m still curious, in the wish-him-well sense.
This song rules. As does the whole album.
Funnily enough, I was (and am) listening to it when I found this article.
Side three of this record – this song, “Harvester of Sorrow” and “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” – is some of the best stuff Metallica ever did. Love Justice, especially this three-song stretch.
What about Blackened? To Live Is To Die? Dyers Eve? ALL WINNERS.
This is my least favorite Metallica song, bar none. It’s just obnoxious.
You have no idea how lucky you are. What I would give to have been sheltered from the last 20 years of Metallica’s career…
My fave solo off this album (just slightly better than “One” IMO). Especially the descending lick, right before the pre-solo medley reprise.
The solo in this song is my favorite of Kirk Hammett’s period. Such a great solo. I was listening to this song the other day and was thinking how the hell did I never notice how great this was?
d-beats? surely not
The demo version of this is gold – ripping performances and, of course, “WAH NA NA!”
Excellent write-up by Cosmo. He captured the spirit of the song perfectly. It’s the GASPING for air.
Regardless, it’s one of my least favorite Metallica songs off the first 5 albums.
There’s one very specific part in the song, which, to me reveals precisely how idealess the band was during the making of this album:
Note the lick @ 3:46. It is repeated a few more times throughout the song.
Now, listen to Dyer’s Eve. Note the lick @ 3:58. It is repeated once more later on.
The licks are not the same, but their phrasing is terribly similar. Basically, most of the songs on this album rotate around exactly this type of bland lick rehashing.
You act as if repetition of musical themes is not a common occurrence in music. I personally like when a solo ends and begins around the same theme, or if, for instance, a band has 2 solos that are similar but not exactly alike within the same song (for example, “Wherever I May Roam” has a great solo, and themes from that solo are played over the fading outro). That doesn’t mean a band has run out of ideas. That’s like saying that the middle section of “Master of Puppets”, where it goes back to the twin guitar harmony after Hetfield’s solo, is “bland lick rehashing.”
You didn’t get what I’m saying at all, man. Repeating the same theme in the same song is perfectly ok. But when you slightly alter that theme and use it repeatedly in OTHER songs, then that’s a sign that you’re lacking creativity.
Felt so good to read a Cosmo article after these dull last few weeks. There’s been a noticeable dip in quality. Bring back Cosmo!!!!
Damn, can’t believe I never noticed that before haha!
Yes those parts are very similar. But I think it shows more how Kirk repeats his lead guitar licks more then the bands overall lack of creativity. For some reason I always find myself going back to AJFA because of how unique and cold it feels.
As much as I like the first four albums, this song is AJFA´s Motorbreath for me. I always skip it and dive directly into Harvester of Sorrow´s ultra heavy ocean.
It took you buttholes long enough. Anyways, at first I hated this song cos I thought the chorus was too repetitive and annoying, but I came back around to loving it.
Used to be my least favorite song off the album after Eye Of The Beholder. That’s not saying much because I love this album to death, the only Metallica album I actually love. Anyway, Shortest Straw has gone up a bit in the rankings as well. Above Harvester Of Sorrow as well now. Not to mention well above almost anything off of any other Metallica album. Great stuff.
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