Riff Police! Pull Over! #61: The Faceless Vs Metallica!

As a whole, probably of the most underrated albums in the Metallica discography, “And Justice For All” was the first to feature bassist James Newstead after the tragic death of the legendary Cliff Burton two years earlier. Featuring the classic singles “One” and “Harvester of Sorrow”, it’s a musically progressive album with few traditional verse-chorus structures, longer and more complex songs with regular tempo shifts. It’s been an album that has received mixed reviews by critics as being both “ambicious” but also as being “drawn out and flat”. That being said “And Justice For All” has also inspired with opening cut “Blackened” being covered by Between The Buried And Me as the opening song of their “Anatomy Of” covers album.

The third album from Technical Death Metallers The Faceless appeared in 2012, the only album to feature vocalist Geoff Ficco and also features the harmonising vocals of Mastermind and Multi Instrumentalist Michael Keane’s Mother Tara Keane on “Emancipate”. The track itself is the second part of the three part moment known as “Autothiest”. Listening to the rhythmic gymnastics of guitarist Wes Hauch around the 20 second mark, can you hear the sounds of James Hetfield on “Blackened” at 39 seconds?