Metallica have what is undoubtedly one of the most important discographies in rock music and particularly heavy metal. When they were robbed of a Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance in 1989 in favour of Jethro Tull, the Grammys were eviscerated.

The reason for this is because frankly, without Metallica, there wouldn’t be a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. That’s how important they are.

With Metallica’s new album, Harwired… To Self-Destruct, set to drop tomorrow, and with new tracks dropping every couple of hours in the lead-up – what better time to give their back-catalogue a spin and take on the impossible task of ranking this heaving mass of metal?

Here’s our ranking of Metallica’s albums from worst to best.

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St. Anger (2003)

Few albums have divided a fanbase quite like St. Anger did when it came out. Released during a period of incredible turmoil for the band, it’s an album that lives in infamy for many Metallica fans, if only for the fact that it sounded like Lars Ulrich was drumming on a kitchen sink during the recording sessions.

Just to put St Anger in context, it was recorded after James Hetfield had just left rehab for alcohol addiction and bassist Jason Newsted had finally had his fill of the band. The result was an album that was simply not Metallica. It was like some kind of bizarro Metallica. And it’s a shame because the album actually boasts some of Hetfield’s best lyricism.

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Load / Re-Load (1996 / 1997)

We’ll take these two albums as a set, because they were after all largely recorded as one album. At least that was the plan. Re-Load served as a sequel to Load after plans to record a double album proved to be more trouble than the band had bargained for and the decision was made to release half the tracks and then follow it up with the rest a year later.

Load is perhaps Metallica’s most controversial album, even more so than St Anger. Whilst fans complained that St Anger sounded like garbage and didn’t have any guitar solos on it, Load was a point of contention because it was Metallica effectively turning their backs on thrash metal and embracing a moodier, eyeliner-wearing hard rock sound and image.

The result was alienating to many fans and yielded two albums that had some formidable tracks, such as ‘Until It Sleeps’ and ‘The Memory Remains’, but that were otherwise populated by bloated hard rock numbers that had none of the ferocity and firepower of the band’s previous output.

Death Magnetic (2008)

It’s hard to say what Metallica copped it hardest for – St Anger, Load / Re-Load, or the Napster lawsuit? Either way, by the time the mid-2000s rolled around, Metallica had something of an image problem. They were no longer viewed as a band of the people, but as just another band comprised of spoilt rock stars who’d forgotten their roots.

Death Magnetic was the sound of a band trying to return to those roots, and whilst the result was patchy, it was also much-needed. At times it came off like a 40-year-old in the midst of a mid-life crisis buying a Porsche and getting an earring (and speaking of sound, the production on this album was seriously panned) but elsewhere you had songs like ‘The Day That Never Comes’.

No, it wasn’t the Metallica we knew, loved, and feared, but Death Magnetic at least made you feel like they could be hiding in there somewhere.

Metallica (1991)

You’d think the complaints about Metallica turning their backs on heavy metal would’ve started with Load, but in fact fans were already accusing the band of losing their balls once they heard the dulcet opening strums of ‘Nothing Else Matters’, which was basically Metallica’s take on the classic rock ballad.

But whilst many fans consider the record colloquially known as The Black Album as the beginning of the end for the real Metallica, the band’s self-titled album was simply a logical sequel to the diversity and songwriting nuance they first began displaying on And Justice For All. It was the band branching out and exploring what Metallica could mean outside of thrash metal and the results were often as heavy as anything else in the band’s catalog.

Kill’em All’ (1983)

As far as statements of intent go, an album entitled Kill’em All’ and a cover that depicts a sledge hammer sitting beside a pool of blood is pretty blunt, no pun intended. And that’s precisely what made Metallica’s 1983 debut such an arresting and unforgettable release. There was no pretence or pompous grandstanding, which had already begun to infiltrate heavy metal.

Originally titled Metal Up Your Ass, Kill’em All’ helped set the template for the rest of Metallica’s ’80s output and proved a landmark release in the genre of thrash metal. Songs like ‘Seek & Destroy’ are still staples at Metallica concerts and the album holds a special place in the band’s history as being the most primordial example of Metallica’s music before they went on to completely revolutionise heavy metal.

…And Justice For All (1988)

Whilst it will almost always follow behind Master of Puppets and Ride The Lightning, Metallica’s fourth album, which followed the death of beloved bass player Cliff Burton, is a masterpiece and displays all the sophistication and experimentation that we’d come to expect from Metallica by the time 1988 rolled around, and then some.

…And Justice For All showed that metal could be progressive and heavy at the same time and without losing itself up its own ass (that would come later). The songs were long, complex, and featured intricate structures. The lyrics went from esoteric to highly political and featured meditations on nuclear war, psychological collapse, and censorship.

Ride The Lightning (1984)

Much like there are Beatles fans and Stones fans, there are Metallica fans who reckon Ride The Lightning is the band’s best album and those who reckon Master of Puppets is their best. The rest of the band’s discography rarely enters the conversation and it inevitably boils down to a debate over whether or not Ride The Lightning was really better than Master of Puppets, or vice versa.

Whilst Kill’em All’ was a brutal gut-punch that left you on the ropes, Ride The Lightning was a slow and methodical creeping sort of death. ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ is one of the greatest songs ever written period. Not one of the greatest heavy metal songs. Songs in general. It was the album on which Metallica showed that they weren’t just hicks who could play a riff. It helped elevate heavy metal to an art form that demanded respect.

Master Of Puppets (1986)

If Kill’em All’ was a knock-out punch and Ride The Lightning was a sophisticated assassination plot, Master Of Puppets falls somewhere in the middle. It’s the album on which Metallica took the fire and the fury of their debut and paired it with the sophistication and lyrical nuance they displayed on their sophomore effort.

Nothing that had come before was this heavy, this visceral, or this psychological. It was the sound of Metallica coronating themselves as the Kings of Metal, flexing their muscle as they displayed their absolute mastery of the genre. It was almost as if everything that had happened in heavy metal was leading to this – an album that was dark, atmospheric, intense, and unapologetically heavy.

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