This month brings a new column to My City Buzz. “The Essentials” is a critique of every album a certain band put out in their career. This will be a once a month article and should be especially satisfying for the readers, because we’ll be asking for your input on future editions of “The Essentials”. We’re breaking up the albums into three categories: “Steal It”, “Burn It (from a Friend)”, and “Make a Coaster Out of It”, which will lump the albums from best to worst.

For the first edition of “The Essentials”, I took a band that rocked my world back when I was in my teens and early 20’s (hat is until they decided to make a symphony album, and go into group therapy with a guy who liked to wear Bill Cosby’s sweaters.) August’s edition of “The Essentials” features none other than the band that took heavy metal mainstream in the 90s and still carries on today - Metallica.

STEAL IT:

“Master Of Puppets” (1986): This eight song record beats your head from the start, with “Battery”, and then slides into the classic title track from the album. This would be original bassist Cliff Burton’s last album with the band, due to his tragic bus accident in 1986. But Burton’s sound can still be heard on the thunderous “Damage Inc.”, and “Disposable Heroes”. Before Pantera took the metal underground in the 90’s, Metallica owned that market ten years before. GRADE: A

“And Justice For All” (1989): Before new bassist Jason Newsted sold his soul on “Rock Star: Supernova”, the band’s sound reached it’s creative peak with fans and metal critics alike on this record. “One” was their first step towards the big time, and with the blazing guitar solo finale, it has become a hard rock classic. But the real fans will point out cuts like the opening “Blackened”, and “The Shortest Straw” as the songs that took the album. GRADE: A

“Metallica” (1991): Producer Bob Rock took the raw edge of the band, and gave it more of a polish to it. But that polish created the tunes that made Metallica into what they are today. “Enter Sandman”, “The Unforgiven”, and the love-it-or-hate-it “Nothing Else Matters” became rock radio classics. This would be the band’s last crowning studio achievement of their career. GRADE: A-

BURN IT (From a Friend):

“Garage Inc” (1998): An expanded version of the EP’s that the band had put out in the past. “Garage Inc” included some new and strong covers of “Die, Die My Darling” from the Misfits, and “It’s Electric” from Diamond Head. Their cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page” was a little stomach churning, but the old tracks, such as “Breadfan”, and “The Prince” proved that they should have released these sounds to a wider audience years before. GRADE: B+

“Ride the Lightning” (1984): The band’s first foray into power ballads “Fade To Black” was probably the weakest song on the album. But with songs like “Fight Fire with Fire” and the ripping “Creeping Death” shows massive improvement over their debut. It is only a taste of what would come on “Master of Puppets”. Instead of “Fade to Black”, just listen to “From Whom the Bell Tolls” to get an idea of what Metallica wanted to sound like on this album. GRADE: B

St. Anger (2003): Compared with the “Load/Reload” albums, “St. Anger” is a step in the right direction. Yeah, it may sound like it was recorded in a tin can, but with songs like “Frantic” and “My World”, the band throws an unpredictable curve into their career trajectory. Third bassist Rob Trujillo shows a lot of promise in his debut with the band. This is sure to be a sticking point to have this album in this category. GRADE: B

MAKE A COASTER OUT OF IT:

Kill Em All (1983): Listen, the only reason it’s in this section is because the low quality of the sound of the album. It’s the band’s debut album, and the shaky production of the album hinders the potential of the songs. When played live to this day, songs like “Jump in the Fire” and “The Four Horsemen” sound tight and concise. Only if they would have sounded like this 23 years ago, “Kill Em All” would have been much higher. GRADE: C+

Load (1996): After the five year wait between “the Black Album” and this record, I expected a lot more. It was great to see Metallica back, but the album has little repeat listen ability. “Until It Sleeps” is a good song, and “2X4” has a great groove to it, but there are plenty of misfires on it. After three or four listens, you can tell “Bleeding Me” is the most boring song the band every put out. GRADE: C

Reload (1997): Call it “Load: Rehashed”. This was known as the leftovers from “Load” that didn’t make the cut. I don’t think that many people were blown away with “Load”, so why rehash it into a new record. “Devil’s Dance” and “Fuel” were well done, but that was about it. GRADE: C

S&M (1999): What the hell was Metallica thinking? You never, ever, ever turn “Master of Puppets”, and “Creeping Death” into something where a symphony can back you on. The missteps of all missteps…. GRADE: D

Art plans to do a new Essentials article each month. If you have any suggestions you'd like to make, submit them here.