Originally Posted by: suicidalmoose
And as for don't_tread_on_me, i'm sure people would be happy, but in terms of metallica, they'd already demonstrated that they could produce much more powerful and original material and it must have been dissapointing at the time for metallica fans to be waiting for the next amazing album and been given a pop rock metal anthem album.

Okay, The Black Album was more mainstream, but lyrically and musically, it had a much broader emotional and intellectual spectrum than most of its predecessors. I mean, Master of Puppets had excellent concepts, but the lyrics were a bit clumsy; Ride the Lightning had great music, but the concepts were cliche; and Kill 'em All was just cheese, IMHO. I think that the band "grew up" a lot after the death of Cliff, which probably explains why ...And Justice For All was such an intense album; their post-Burton songs are much more mature and reflective. I grant you that the Newsted lineup could never have written "Fade to Black", "Sanitarium" or "Leper Messiah"; but I don't think the Burton lineup could have written "One", "The Unforgiven" or "Low Man's Lyric". I think that 90s-era Metallica is certainly more mainstream than their early work, but it's not necessarily worse, IMHO - just different.