As I said a couple weeks back, Metallica is my favorite band in the whole wide world. But, as a passionate lover of art, I've learned to be objective and recognize that even the things I love aren't flawless. Metallica has had an excellent career for the past 30+ years, but they have had their very low points, as well as extremely high ones. With their new album "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" being released last month and getting to the top spot of the Billboard 200 – again, as they've done since 1991 – the band finally have ten albums to comfortably rank in a top 10.

In this list, I shall not count neither live albums nor compilations, so marvels like "S&M" and "Garage Inc." will not be included. This list has been crafted with production quality, musicianship, lyricism, relevance and iconic status. That's why we start this list with...

10) St. Anger (2003)

What a piece of garbage.

Seriously, how bad can the best metal bad in the world get? There are a couple of good things in this album, and a couple of good things that came from the production of this album – being, the introduction of Rob Trujillo and the band realizing they suck at nu metal – but everything else pretty much sucks. The guitar tone is muddy and cheap-sounding, Hetfield's vocals went to some very strange places, and, holy sh*t, Lars' drums (!!!). How can a snare drum sound be so incredibly annoying?

This is the "best" song from the album, in my opinion, but you can still hear Lars' snare drum and die.

To the band's credit, they were going through a very difficult time in their lives. Hetfield left for rehab, Lars went through a very serious phase of douchebaggery, and Hammett was just... there, as usual. They had no bassist, their producer still sucked, and, well, they wanted to be trendy. Good thing they stopped.

9) Load (1996)

This is were everything started to fall. While their 1991 "Black Album" was amazing, it was undeniably a step forward into radio-friendly territory, but still not purely commercial hardrock. "Load" was, undoubtedly, were Metallica first started to embrace their radio personality, and composed non-metal pieces all over the album. Most of the songs in this album are pretty mediocre, although there are some notable exceptions, thankfully; I think "Ain't My B*tch" is pretty bad*ss and "Hero of the Day" is decent, but most of the album is plagued by atrocities like "Mama Said," which is basically country, or the infinitely overrated "King Nothing," which I think is just okay.

Also, quick comment: Metallica changed their logo starting with this album, and it's hideously disgusting. I'm glad they went back to their original logo after some time.

Controversy among fans arose when Metallica released what felt like the other half of this album a year and a half later, which contained better songs and far better artwork. Nevertheless, it still wasn't a worthy addition to their catalog, though a big step forward in quality. Unsurprisingly, that album's called...

8) Reload (1997)

If I ignore their extremely sh*tty logo, this album is a great improvement from the previous one. Sharper sound and better riffs all over, "Reload" counts with a million times more iconic songs than "Load," which shows in Metallica's set-list during the past decade. Songs like "Fuel" or "The Memory Remains" are pretty good, and are still stapled in Metallica's live set after all these years.

The video for this song is admittedly pretty cool.

I'm still glad that they decided to go back to metal after these records. Even if the result was the awful 2003 album I described above, it's still closer to what they used to do back in the day, and what they returned to after some terrible years. It was after this album that Metallica recorded their famous live performance with an orchestra "S&M."

Fortunately, no bad album ever made Metallica be a bad live band.

And also when they made their excellent cover album "Garage Inc."

My favorite from these covers. The video kinda sucks though.

7) Kill 'Em All (1983)

The one that started it all. The record that kickstarted Metallica's career and is still affecting their sound and fan-base to this day, more than thirty years later. Fresh with Mustaine-written riffs and solos, Cliff Burton's brilliant bass, and the band's contagious energy. Even though I do like this album, I feel some people give it too much credit just for being the first one; it's an important album, obviously, but I don't think it's that great. To me, every song feels slightly more repetitive as you progress through the album, and the production is obviously not the best, seeing that the band was starving poor.

Metallica didn't have any music videos until 1988.

Still, I think this is a good album, and that with the band's modern production and musicianship it sounds even better live.

6) Hardwired... To Self-Destruct (2016)

I thought about this a lot, but I have to conclude that this is definitely not Metallica's best work in years. There's not much that I can say about this album that I already said in my formal review, so you should go ahead and read that right here: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/metallicas-hardwi...

Still, this album is actually pretty good. Production is the best Metallica has ever had, and the good songs are beasts. Too much over-extending filler makes this album very disappointing, and it lands it in this spot; if they edited the album the way I described in my review, this would be #4, easily.

5) ...And Justice For All (1988)

I've always had very mixed feelings about this album, and they haven't changed too much over the years. Although this album isn't bad at all, there are several very questionable production choices, particularly the almost complete lack of bass; the guitar tone has proven divisive over the years, but I really like it. This was Jason Newsted's first album after Cliff Burton's death, and he sadly had the worst introduction imaginable, getting credit for only one song and no trace of his playing anywhere. Nevertheless, the reason why this album holds such a high spot on this list is because the good songs are amazing, and the unmemorable songs are just that: unmemorable.

Two of my all-time favorite songs are in this album; the title track, and the famous "One," which has always been my favorite from their entire repertoire. This is also the album that cemented Lars Ulrich as one of the greatest drummers of all time, even if he never lived up to his chops again.

First video the band ever made, which landed them a permanent spot in MTV for years.

"To Live is to Die," "Eye of the Beholder" and "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" are held up as the mediocre part of this album, which is the main reason why it doesn't sit higher on this list. Nevertheless, any other song in this album is great, and it really shows in the band's sets over the years.

4) Death Magnetic (2008)

I think this album gets a lot of hate it doesn't deserve. It didn't only bring back Metallica from the ashes of "St. Anger" and finally introduced Trujillo's talent to the studio, but it also brought Metallica back to its roots of thrash metal. This album is heavy and fast, and I love it. I only have two problems with it; first, its infamous production, which awarded the band with the Guinness World Record for loudest album in history – I'm serious, look it up.

Second, two of the most promising songs end up being plain terrible in an otherwise excellent album; "The Unforgiven III" is one of the worst ballads the band has ever written, and "Suicide and Redemption" may be their most boring instrumental, even worse than "To Live is to Die." And yeah, half of Hammett's solos suck; for more information on this, consult my previous article on Metallica.

I was never a fan of their Grammy-winning tune "My Apocalypse," but it's gotten closer to my heart over the years, and now I enjoy it alright. The rest of the album, like "That Was Just Your Life" or my personal favorite "All Nightmare Long" are incredible pieces of music. I really hope the band realizes they're feeding the hate for this album by not playing any of its songs live, and fix this setlist issue in their upcoming tour.

3) Metallica (1991)

This was the most difficult placing I had to think about, only surpassed by that time I had to rank the Harry Potter books – you can read about that here: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/ranking-the-harry...

So, you're the biggest metal band in the world, even bigger than your greatest inspiration, Black Sabbath, and you have to step up your game from your Grammy-winning 1988 album. What do you do? These guys decided to hire a producer for commercial bands like Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe, and see how it went in the studio. This guy, Bob Rock, rejected Hetfield's lyrics and challenged the band to evolve their sound; it should have been horrible, but the results were amazing.

Metallica's self-titled album – also referred to as "The Black Album" for obvious reasons – is almost perfect in every single way. The production is top notch, the musicality and lyrics are some of the best, and, even though it's not as fast or complicated as their previous albums, this album is an amazing listen from beginning to end. There's only one song I don't enjoy, "My Friend of Misery," but even there I have to admit that it's not a bad song.

This album is incredible.

2) Ride the Lightning (1984)

Because I'm trying to be objective, I have to place this in #2, because this is my favorite Metallica album, but I know it's not the best one. Nevertheless, this album kicks some serious *ss; the tone and mix, the lyrics, and energy and originality they had left in them after their repetitive first album. "Lightning" is my favorite Metallica album because it does everything right, and Metallica doing something right means them doing something awesome.

The opening track, "Fight Fire with Fire," is the only one I dislike, but it's only because it follows the tropes of thrash metal to perfection, and I just find that a little boring; yeah, the fact that a band represents their genre so perfectly is kinda boring to me, I suck. "Creeping Death," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "The Call of Cthulu," everything is amazing in this album. Cliff Burton was at the top of his game and brought life to the band that we hadn't seen before, and would only be surpassed in the following record.

One of my all-time favorite songs from the band.

Even the most forgotten track in this album, "Escape" – which was first ever played in 2012 – is pretty decent. But what makes this album my favorite is its great and memorable songs, which are staples in the band's setlist and are synonymous with their legendary status.

1) Master of Puppets (1986)

Well, duh.

This is considered by most to be Metallica's best album, and the reason why I have to agree is because it's the only one of all of these to not have one bad song. Each one of the ten songs in this album is iconic, representing the masterpiece that "Master of Puppets" is usually seen as.

From the first acoustic chords in "Battery" to the blasting riffs of "Damage Inc," this album never rests, has no dull moment, and features Cliff Burton's best work ever. As the last album he recorded before dying in that bus crash, this is more than a proper sendoff to the greatest bassist the band ever had.

In an album with no filler, this has always been my favorite song. Pumps me up every time I hear it.

This album took everything "Ride the Lightning" did right and improved upon it, and anything it did wrong and made it good. If there's one Metallica album that you should keep in your car, "Master of Puppets is the best option, because any song in it can easily brighten your day. Also, hands down, best cover art of any other Metallica album.

So, what do you think? Are you one of those hipsters who think "St. Anger" is the best work Metallica has ever done? If you are, feel free not to tell me so. If anything else, go ahead.

Peace out and rock on.