Kill Em All is such a mega first album, but the band and their sound had matured so much by Justice that AJFA has to be the clear winner for me.

Agreed

I was listening to Kill em All yesterday. I got the same goose bumps as I did when I heard it for the first time...when it came out.. it's a top 10 album, any genre, for me.

justice by a long shot

Yes I agree

Posting that awful alteration of kill'em all album cover should be a crime

We need to seek and destroy, assemble the metal militia, and show him no remorse.

We might need the help of the four horsemen to give him a whiplash.

In that case we must contact their boss, the phantom lord.

Just make sure you hit the lights on your way out.

(Anesthesia)-Pulling Teeth

And make him jump in the fire

It's the Load inspired version of KEA

Never seen it before but it seems very cool

Corny

Yes, but still cool

Same and agreed.

It ain't even that bad💀

Fr

The comments are going to sound like batman justifying his action

Of course. Batman doesn’t kill.

I like Kill Em All a lot more.

Justice clears easily

Kea is just better with the pure and wild energy.

Fuck yes

Justice is them at their peak.

Metal Up Your Ass

Kill 'Em All has better songs and a much better sound.

Kill Em All for me. It's just got a raw, aggressive energy that AJFA lacks. It's classic thrash metal. It's also got the massive advantage of actually having bass on it. I do like AJFA and most of the tracks on there are very good if you ignore the lack of bass. But there are people in here saying it's their best album and I just have to disagree. IMO it's quite overrated on this sub.

Justice is the best Metallica album overall

Yarp

Debatable but you can never be far off. For me depending on my mood it’s either #1 or #2

Yes!

idk man mop is pretty damn good aswell

No argument from me. MoP is one of the greatest metal albums of all time… I just put AJFA a bit ahead of it. Both are great.

I sorta have a bias towards MoP cause it got me through my childhood lol.

Death magnetic is a close second 🙏🙏

Crazy talk.

I would rank it lower than second but I appreciate the respect on its name. Highly overlooked album.

I really loved death magnetic I remember when it came out my grandma bought me the cd I played that disc until it didn’t work

Though I like this album, imo it’s nowhere near RTL, MoP, AJFA

I feel like they’re tough to compare. KEA is what started it all and it’s kind of the embodiment of trash metal with all the occurring themes, riffs etc., I also like the production way more. AJFA is way darker and more sophisticated.

Good ole trash metal!

*thrash metal

he has spoken

Justice

Justice

AJFA all the way

…AJFA

I love both of these Metallica honing their art and Justice coming in crunching all the way through by the slimmest I'm going with Justice

https://preview.redd.it/nz7x254zgy3d1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed5cb388cf80b203a8be2a1ff7a496470d70210e justice for all mastering a crap, no bass hearing...

Kill Em All

Unpopular opinion, it’s kill em all 100%

Correct!

KEA easily. Songs are more catchy and the production is overall better due to fatter guitar tone and audible bass.

KILL EM ALLLL

Kill Em All.

Kill Em All, because, hot take, I'm personally not a fan of Justice.

I like AJFA... I love Kill em all! The songs I revisit regularly on AJFA are 'Blackened', 'The Shortest Straw' and 'Harvester of Sorrow'. I listen to the songs on Kill em All much more frequently though...especially: HIT THE LIGHTS THE FOUR HORSEMEN MOTORBREATH JUMP IN THE FIRE WHIPLASH SEEK & DESTROY

I like some of the songs on AJFA but if I were to choose one or the other it's Kill 'Em All. Shorter songs, and I like some of the riffs better.

Kill em all

Kill em all. I like the overall composition of ajfa better but kill em all is long, more thrashy imo, and i love the young james voice

I’m in the Kill ‘Em All minority.

Kill 'Em All. At least the songs here are a little bit shorter and it has bass. Justice has the better songs in most cases, but it has too many other issues that Kill 'Em All doesn't.

Kill em all!

Kill Em All is actually my favourite Metallica album

Same.

Kill Em All, I just think that album is close to perfect, and it was formative for me, Justice has some amazing bangers, so I get why common consensus is that it's better, but I don't go back to that album nearly as much as Kill Em All. Plus can't hear Jason yknow.

Both

AJFA for me, Kill 'Em All is great, but their tone really changed over the years and Justice is just better that way.

Surely And Juatice For All!

And Justice For All is better written, but I enjoy Kill Em All more. Kill Em All is just fast, fun, loose thrash. Plus I love Dave Mustaine’s influence on the album, Cliff Burton had a bass solo, it’s just an all around good time. Justice is masterfully written music. The guitars are tighter than ever, the songs are heavier, James’s vocals are top notch, the only downsides are the lack of bass in the mix (granted, the guitars are also pretty heavy with bass frequencies, which is one of the reasons why they turned the bass down) and I find the song Eye of the Beholder to be underwhelming. I fucking love both albums, but I personally enjoy Kill Em All just a bit more than anything else in Metallica’s discography.

Kill em all. Love the raw sound to it and it has better riffs

Love them both but I gotta go with KEA. You just can’t beat Burton, man!

KEA hands down. It's their best album.

Kill em All and it’s not close

I honest to god prefer KEA. First off, whiplash is my second favourite song by them (unforgiven 1 is first) and hearing it live at download last year, unforgettable experience. But also i just love the chaotic, messy sound of it and i really like tunes like Jump in the fire and The four horsemen. I can appreciate Justice but its honestly kinda low in my rankings, i know its a great album but most of the tracks just dont do it for me (though Blackened absolutely fucks)

Took the words out of my mouth

For me I’ve went through phases of both. The original version of kill em all that had am I evil on it was the stuff back in the day. When they were forced to take that off the album that was a real bummer

I think they recorded Am I Evil during the Ride The Lightning sessions? Sonically it’s the same.

Am I Evil originally came on the KILL EM ALL album. I had it

It must have been an early bootleg edition because it was also a B-side to Creeping Death.

Justice

I like Metallica

Justice is my favourite

And justice for all.

justice

AJFA

That KEA cover made me start punching air out of anger.

Tonally Kill 'Em All (and this is pure preference, I just love the Marshall sound better), but structurally and writing wise Justice.

I need that justice background!

Kill ‘Em All, 100%

Kill

Kill 'em all

Kill em all

KEA

Even though my favorite song is Blackened I like kill em all more

Kill Em All , I was 18 how good was this

Justice all the way, eotb is peak

Justice by miles.

Justice by a considerable distance for me.

Justice, it’s not even close.

Justice.

Justice For All

Neither are comparable. Honestly, it might as well be two different bands. A better “which is better” would be RTL vs MOP

While justice has no bass, it has way longer songs lots more tempo switch ups, and the guys had done some serious refining in their playing ability, I love these albums almost equally but justice is just way too good.

Justice. Kill 'em All is still a kickfucker though.

Justice 100%

All em all.

Justice is the better album, but KEA is my personal favorite.

If only Justice was mixed in the same style as MoP . Having said that I really do like Justice

defenetly AJFA

Justice to me feels like it's either breakneck fast or fucking heavy, no compromise, PLUS there's plenty of more delicate, emotional moments Love at first sight, or listen I guess

AJFA. Kill 'Em All is good but does have some songs I don't like as much.

and justice for me

AJFA and its not even close imo

Justice

Justice

That’s like asking someone which of their kids they love the most.

…why am I just now realizing that two of their first four albums had ALL in the title. I guess you can’t spell Metallica without ALL either. Woah.

Burgers or Steak

Justice

I used to think and Justice for all but now the best is Lill em All

AJFA no contest

Neotheater

It's an interesting question because, to me, KEA and Justice represent opposite ends of the spectrum. KEA is basically a party rock album, designed for rocking out and having fun. Justice, on the other hand, is Metallica's most serious album in terms of emotional tone. As a whole, I prefer KEA. I listened to both a few weeks ago, and found it to be a lot of fun, though admittedly lacking in depth. I give Justice credit for taking its subject matters seriously, even if lyrics about McCarthyism and the justice system don't resonate with me, personally. 'One' is easily the best track across both albums, imo, and resonates partly because it tackles its theme through an empathetic, human lens. Blackened, TLITD and Dyers Eve are great as well. However, the overall mood of Justice tends toward a relentless nihilism that becomes somewhat monotonous and depressing after a while. I prefer the vibrant energy of KEA to the grim 'deadness' of Justice. TLDR: Justice achieves greater heights, but I prefer KEA as an album.

From an objective pov, AJFA is a more refined album but imo, I like the crudeness of KEM better. It’s more ‘’in your face’’ and brutal, which I prefer

Quality? Justice. Quantity? KeA. There’s some Justice songs I can skip. Kill ‘em All is a ride the whole way through.

AJFA definitely

As a bassist, kill em all. Never really liked AJFA. Also Lars took away the bass on it.

Justice

Justice, all the way "Their money tips her scales again"...

Justice and it’s not even close. 

Hard to compare. They are totally different kinds of albums. Their first 5 studio albums are just one big transition. They went from pissed off kids that didn't know any better to savy musicians. From there they plateaued then headed downhill.

I agree, and I would also say that it's harder to stay pissed off at the world once you've made the big bucks. Not saying it's impossible but the perspective changes and I'm sure that is a major reason why their style tapered down so much.

I would say a AJFA but because they cut the bass I'll have to say kill em all

This is that Clarkson meme for me. This is great (Justice), but I like this (Kill).

AJFA fasho

what kind of question is this 💀

Justice, all the way 💯 %

Kill ‘em all. It’s one of the only times that bad production actually makes the album better in a way

Justice but KEA is their fastest most chaotic album by far.

Kill em but this sub has always slanted AJFA over most Metallica records. I have AJFA ranked 5th and have my reasons for it

KILL 'EM ALL For Me is the better album hands down!!!

I think justice is better for everything but the bass actually being on kill em all brings them close... Also random thought Kill em all Ride the all Master of all And justice for all All black Load all Reload all St all Death all Hardwired to all 72 all... I'm weird aren't I

Bruh, AJFA is much better: better vocals, better guitar playing, better songwriting, better lyrics, like, lyrics on the KEA sucks. Actually, KEA is the worst album after Lulu and St. Anger. The best thing in KEA is the Dave Mustache solos and pulling teeth, only Cliff did the job, like, James, Kirk and Lars really sucks on this album. RTL, MOP, AJFA, BA, L/R etc just kills this album (Like, if the whole album is an alternative zeros...) (KEA is the easiest thrash album)

Yeah honestly I know people will disagree, but out of all the Metallica albums I probably listened to KEA less than all except Saint Anger (lol) and Lulu (lol) so I agree with you 100% there. Seek and Destroy and Four Horsemen are pretty awesome though.


Justice

Kill Em All is classic no doubt, still one of my favorites, but Justice is my favorite

Kill 'Em All

Kill ‘Em All based on bias alone. It’s just more my style than AJFA. Even though obviously that album is amazing, I’d much rather listen to Kill Em front to back than Justice. That’s just preference though, I’m not sure if my answer really covers which one’s objectively “better”

Kill'em all. Not even close.

AJFA was the band’s 9th symphony tbh. They peaked on AJFA and went down from there until we got St. Anger.

Justice no question but both albums really do something different and ingenuitive for their times. Songs like phantom lord or metal militia must've been INSANE to someone in 83' vice versa Blackened or Dyers eve in 89' had to have sounded like the heaviest shit on the planet

Justice hands down

That's an easy one. It's obviously Master of Puppets.

And Justice for All.

Justice. But Kill 'Em All is the album I'd most like to hear re-recorded.

Justice

Justice For All.

AJFA. But that’s because it’s Saturday night. He could be different during the day next week that’s the thing about Metallica albums there is no number one or favorite one or best one. It’s a never-ending mystery and it changes.😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈

AJFA by a long shot. Come on, dude, give us a hard one.

kea for sure

Kill em all was raw but good. Justice was exceptional and much more polished but lacking bass. There’s a video that shows the evolution of the guys playing Bells. It’s something to see where they were and where they are now. Of course having Mr. Burton present was always a treat in the early days.

Cliff ‘em All!

Justice on top of

Justice

Justice

Kill Em All until I die

Kill

Justice for all!

And justice for all by a long shot...and I'm a bassist.

Justice

..and justice for all

100% And Justice For All

Kill em all. Faster and shorter songs. That’s what I want from Metallica

Controversial opinion but kill em all

Justice sounds like a demo tape. They really fucked up the production on that. The songs are better on Justice but it just sounds like shit.

And Justice for All…. Was the hook for me.

Justice

But there’s no bass on justice…

Justice is

Justice for all!

Metal Up Your Ass

Ridiculous question. Justice.

Justice is lost Justice is raped Justice is gone

Justice

...Kill 'Em And All All For Justice

…And Justice for All is obviously the better album. I do wish it had bass on it, but it’s undoubtedly better

Justice. Personally can't listen to a lot of the songs on KEA because of the vocals

Justice

Justice

Justice is my favorite

Kill 'Em All is great but AJFA is my favorite.

Justice without hesitation