Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Arguably Metallica will go down in history as the kings of American Metal, if not contenders for the band that Empires quake and fall for, yet for all the blazing guns, the screams of red hot pokers as they clash against the sabre, the sword and the caressed steel, there was undoubtedly a period in which some of the fan base felt lost in the group’s company. Following on from the Black Album and right through to the debacle that was St. Anger, there was a general feeling of unease in the air, it cut through the swathes of vinyl, through the past honours and threatened to disable the moorings of one of the finest music ships ever created.