Every Metallica Album, Ranked
Metallica keep turning into a different band, and your rank settles which turns were worth it. Studio albums only, in full, with nothing left out for being bad. A record billed to another act alongside Metallica is a collaboration and misses, as Lulu does, though 2 rankings below rank it. Concerts do not qualify, so S&M and S&M2 are out. Covers records go too, which takes Garage Inc. and the Garage Days EP. St. Anger is a studio album whether or not you can stand it. Louder, Kerrang!, Revolver, alt77 and Consequence are the 5 rankings tallied, the upper tier holds what took a top 5 across every one of those that covers it, since a survey printed before a record arrived cannot count against it, and the second tier is what is left. The link goes to the oldest edition Spotify carries of that record, chosen by edition and never by the date the page prints. All 5 pick the same five, so one alone draws that line, and the order they split on is yours.
Metallica — Ride the Lightning (1984) is #1 on “Every Metallica Album, Ranked”.
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Metallica — Ride the Lightning (1984)
Most of what the band would spend the next four decades doing starts on the second record: acoustic openings, long instrumentals, a chorus a drunk room can shout back. For Whom the Bell Tolls opens on chiming bells and a bass line you recognise inside two seconds. It never drops past third over the 5 surveys taken, a clean 5 for 5.
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Metallica — Metallica (1991)
Bob Rock cut the tempos, shortened the songs and built something that sounds enormous through a car stereo, which is precisely what a chunk of the audience never forgave. Sad but True is the proof it worked: one riff, tuned down, played slower than the band had ever allowed itself. No survey counted drops it lower than fifth, so it takes the upper tier with 5 qualifying finishes.
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Metallica — Master of Puppets (1986)
Perfectly executed, and executed is the right word, because every idea on the record arrives finished, tightened and then hit very hard. Battery opens on nylon strings and then takes your head off. Every survey counted gives it a qualifying finish, 5 out of 5, and the gate asks for nothing more. The title track runs eight and a half minutes and has been in the live set ever since.
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Metallica — ...And Justice for All (1988)
Nine tracks, sixty five minutes, and a new bass player mixed down to almost nothing, which is either a famous accident or a famous insult depending who you ask. Blackened sets the pattern for the rest of the record: long, angular, and hostile to anything resembling a chorus. Kerrang! goes second with it, Revolver and Consequence stop at fifth, and 5 qualifying placements carry it into the tier. The drums sound like a biscuit tin.
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Metallica — Kill 'Em All (1983)
A debut with no money behind it and no notion of how far it would carry, made by four musicians who had just sacked their lead guitarist. The Four Horsemen is their rewrite of a Mustaine song called The Mechanix, which he took to Megadeth and cut as Mechanix two years later. No survey among the 5 leaves it out of the upper tier, and Consequence has it third.
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Metallica — Load (1996)
Short hair, blues phrasing, seventy eight minutes of it, and a fanbase that read a haircut as treason. Bleeding Me is the finest thing on the record by a distance, eight minutes climbing and climbing without once lifting the tempo. Its best showing anywhere is sixth, on Louder and on Kerrang!, so the upper tier turns it down 5 times out of 5.
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Metallica — 72 Seasons (2023)
Seventy seven minutes of a band past forty years together, playing as though the clock matters, and the songs run longer than they need to for reasons hard to argue with. Inamorata closes the thing at eleven minutes and earns every one of them. Only 3 of the 5 surveys rank it at all, and those 3 place it seventh, eighth and sixth, each one outside the tier.
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Metallica — Hardwired... to Self-Destruct (2016)
Two discs of deliberate throwback from people who had read the complaints about the previous two records and set out to answer them at once. Moth Into Flame is the answer that lands, fast and mean, carrying a chorus with no apology in it. Revolver puts it sixth and alt77 ninth, and it clears the gate on none of the 5.
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Metallica — Reload (1997)
Reload gathers what the 1995 and 1996 sessions left over, which is the standard complaint and an odd one, since the sequencing is looser and the players sound like they are enjoying themselves. Low Man's Lyric brings in a hurdy gurdy and carries it off. alt77 alone gets it as high as sixth, while the rest drop it to ninth or worse, so the tier count is 0 of 5.
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Metallica — Death Magnetic (2008)
Rick Rubin in the chair, thrash architecture back on the table, and a master so squashed that the Guitar Hero stems became the preferred way to hear it. All Nightmare Long buries a fast, mean riff under that mix. From seventh on Consequence to eleventh on Kerrang! across the 5 surveys, and not one of those placements is a qualifier.
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Metallica — St. Anger (2003)
Hardly anyone defends the sound of it: no guitar solos at all, and a snare that rings like a dropped saucepan for seventy five minutes. Frantic has a real idea inside it about running out of time. Louder and Revolver both put it last of all, the other 3 surveys second from last, and 0 of the 5 qualify it.
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How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
