These honored dead

METALLICA: ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (Elektra Records). This extraordinary LP—the band’s first after the death of bassist Cliff Burton—features one of their greatest songs, in my view their very best, the epic “To Live Is To Die,” a nine and a half minute instrumental composed in tribute to their fallen bandmate. Ranging from acoustic melancholia to thundering percussive blasts and blazing guitar leads, this is the sort of music that makes your hair stand on end, the heavy metal equivalent of a funeral oration, as rich and emotionally expressive as any poetry or prose. The rest is great, too, especially the bombastic title track and the magnificent “One,” a terrifying portrait of pain, torment, and impotent rage inspired by the horrifically maimed protagonist of Dalton Trumbo’s antiwar novel Johnny Got His Gun.