I remember I recently listened to AJFA in it's entirety in one go.
Then I stuck on Sad But True from Metallica immediately afterwards.
After listening to AJFA for an hour or so - the difference was just colossal.
( production wise only I mean - Metallica has infinitely superior production values )
My ranking :
1.Master Of Puppets. Best Metallica album and my favourite metal album ever.
2.Metallica. Awesome production and great songs
3.Ride. Would be as good as Master if not for Escape.
4.Load. Hugely under rated.
5.And Justice For All. Long winded and stale but decent songs.
6.Kill Em All. Full of classics. Shame about the recording.
7.Reload. Has some filler but I love it. Has Carpe DIem, Fixxxer and Where The Wild Things Are.
8.Death Magnetic. Again - shame about the recording but has decent songs.
9.St Anger. This is becoming a trend these days with Metallica. Decent songs let down by the recording.
10.Lulu. I don't consider this a Metallica album because it's a collab with Lou Reed. Has some genuinely good moments and nowhere near as awful as people make it out to be. Complaining about the vocals on a Lou Reed album is like complaining about the drumming on a White Stripes record.