This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
This album pushed Metallica into the forefront of Metal Music with their first ever MTV video of "One". I happened to be watching the night it premiered and was blown away by the powerful message attached through use of clips from a movie based on a Truman Capote book, "Johnny Got His Gun", which was a required read from my high school days. The message of what can happen to our men and women in the armed forces is very strong and still has importance, especially when we still have troops fighting around the globe. I purchased the Album, back when you could choose vinyl, and listened closely since I had not been a heavy Metallica fan until that point in my life. I found this band to be one of the most musically talented not only in playing, but in writing. The lyrics are as important as the music. Plus I really got a kick out of hearing the marching theme from "The Wizard of Oz", when the goons of the bad witch are marching through the castle on their way to destroy Dorothy. I had always loved hard rock, but this foray into real Heavy Metal made me appreciate the genre more than I thought I ever could.
What's great about it: an awesome display of talent in the metal genre