Most metal fans remember the 1988 Metallica record "...And Justice For All" as their most progressive and complex release, but those with a hardcore punk leaning might remember how suspiciously close the title was to a prior release by Agnostic Front.
Agnostic Front had released their album "Liberty And Justice For..." in 1987, but the following Metallica album prompted cries from fans that they had stolen the concept.
Now Agnostic Front frontman Roger Miret has revealed his side of the story, explaining how guitarist Kirk Hammet came across their record which potentially inspired "...And Justice For All" (via Blabbermouth):
"You wanna know the truth about that? We were in L.A. playing Fenders Ballroom and Kirk Hammett came to the show... we're just hanging out backstage. And I'm like, 'Yeah, we're just out here promoting our new record.' He goes, 'What's your new record?' And Stig [Agnostic Front guitarist Vinnie Stigma] gave him the record. It was called 'Liberty And Justice For...'.
"Six months later, [Metallica's] record comes out and it's called '...And Justice For All'. We had it before them... But it's no big deal."
But Roger has no thorn in is side over the issue, and has nothing but praise for Metallica.
"Metallica is one of those bands I really always liked lyrically. They talked about a lot of sociopolitical stuff - a lot of good stuff. And they were just stating what we were stating to larger masses. And it's cool with me - absolutely cool with me."
Watch Roger tell the story in this clip:
Do you think Metallica stole from Agnostic Front, or is it just a regular case of being inspired by those you admire? Let us know in the comments.
Indeed. If nothing else, you can see it as a homage to Agnostic Front. I mean, Kirk was obviously a fan of the band, so I think it's more a nod to them than stealing the concept.
Because a news reporter asked them about the issue and the guy answered his question, that means they want free publicity? Agnostic Front has been around for over three decades. If they really wanted publicity over this, why didn't they do it when "...And Justice for All" was released and they were in their prime?
if they got it from someplace else was Al Pacino's movie, its like 10 years older than the album and some parts of the movie actually relate a lot to the songs lyrics
I believe UG assumes that people on here care because of all the reads, rants, and reviews other articles on Metallica receive. Plus, nothing gets the Metallica (and other "metal-ish" band) fans blood churning like calling them thieves or saying anything else that isn't positive.
They have *openly admitted* to stealing musical ideas from other bands, but God Almighty forbid anyone stealing music from them, lest they want to get sued for everything their family would get to own over the next 20 generations.
Having said that, I *do* enjoy some of their stuff, but definitely not one of my favorite bands.
Not that the guy cares or the band cares, but names and titles are not subject to copyrightable laws, and cannot actually be obtained for copyright, via Circular 34.0112.
It's the ****ing Pledge of Allegiance! That's like saying one guy quotes the Star Spangled Banner in a song, and him saying that no one else can do it!
its the pledge of allegiance dammit...this is like slayer complaining that metallica copied them because they use the e note with tremolo picking for 4 bars in the beginning of all nightmare long
If the presence of suspension points in the album title makes it a plagiarism, then Megadeth better get ready to spend some damn good money with lawsuits.
Did you read the article????? The frontman just said it was a possibility based on the event he described and then went on to explain that he was totally cool with it. He was clearing up the issue for butthurt fans like yourself.
Dude, pretty much everyone that listens to thrash metal and got past knowing Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica knows Agnostic Front. That's a pretty big head in the ass, huh?
UG, there's no beef. Roger says they're totally cool with it. By giving the article this title and that signoff question, you're poking sticks into a fire that isn't burning.
We all know Metallica was huge fans of hardcore punk. It's called inspiration. Are you gonna run an article next called "Ride the Lighning to the Nations - Did Metallica steal from Diamond Head?"
What would give you that impression? Just because they sued Napster 9 years ago, when they first heard about it, (which they've later rescinded), doesn't mean they have ever denied someone the ability to make their own stuff, even if it bears a similarity to their stuff.
If you name your son Justin that doesn't mean someone else can't name their son Justin few months after you. Those 2 individuals may have the same name but they are totally different human beings.
Metallica fan since puppets, you clown. I just know the history of the band and the songwriting...which you probably don't. This is actually my fav album of theirs.
Yes, they stole their album title from a 1979 Al Pacino movie.
So what, people must get their ideas from somewhere. We're all copycats. That's how humanity advances. If patent laws had existed at the time of the invention of the wheel, we'd still live in caves.
With a few people with wheels laughing at the wheel-less mongrels in the caves as they try to make a wheel that doesn't go by the patents. Ultimately they would fail at that, as you can't make a wheel that isn't round. Then the wheel less ones would have to submit themselves in order to get access to wheels from their wheely counterparts. Thus giving humanity one more reason to enslave others.
The flaw in his logic is there is no way Hetfield and Ulrich would have left it to Hammett to come up with an album name. Anyone familiar with the band history could have told this guy that isn't how they work, especially in those years.
Haha funny. Similar to the situation with "Enter Sandman" and a song by the band Excel (although that was more musical plaigarism), funnily enough Kirk was responsible for that too
Metallica stole everything. You know the riff at the end of One that's so famous? Stolen from Dark Angel's "Darkness Descends." You know the riff from Creeping Death where they shout "DIE" ? Stolen from an Exodus song that was never put on an album. The riff of Enter Sandman? Stolen from a band that I forgot the name of.
Metallica steals. Led Zeppelin steals. The fact is, Metallica sounded great on ...And Justice for All, so it doesn't matter. But anything after that is cruel, they're already famous and their music sucks. Why steal from better musicians?
you can't say that Dave stole the chord progression from call of ktulu because he wrote that song and the four horsemen originally was mechanix again written by Dave Mustaine
That's almost like Jon Stainbrook copyrighting the word "Stain," and suing Living Colour for their album "The Stain." And winning. Except this dude didn't care, he was totally cool with it. Props to him!
It's not like album titles are so hard to come up with that you have to steal them. You could use a randomly generated word and it won't affect the album's success much.
If you were to buy an album from a band you didn't know, which of these 4 would you choose: Suck, And the Sky Went Black, Elephant Shoe, or Plastic Lunch pail. I myself am least likely to buy Plastic Lunch Pail, and am probably going to go with And the Sky Went Black, even though it is not a really original name. It hints at interesting subject material, especially when compared to Plastic Lunch Pail. And Elephant Shoe doesn't indicate a good album, unless it is a psychedelic album, or of a similar genre.
Point being that names matter.
That kind of scenario is completely unrealistic. I wouldn't buy an album without having an idea of the music it contains, and it's safe to assume I'm far from being the only one.
Point fails.
... Yeah, they got it from the movie, "...and justice for all", with Al Pacino; a film about corruption and implicit injustice in the American legal system...
It's not a riddle...
- And why should anyone care... Iron Maiden's last four albums have had titles directly from films... Brave New World; Dance of Death; A matter of life and death; and the final fronteer
Never heard of Agnostic Frontin' but seriously this is like 15 years later they're bringing this up. If they had an issue with this, it should've been handled back in 88 and we should've seen it on UG's site like back in 88 or 89.
I am Beavis and you are Butthurt. haha... But, seriously, even if they brought it up at that time ('88), do you think that anyone would still care? And besides, Miret has nothing against the band or the album.
Sounds like the news reporter brought it up, not the band. Not to mention, the singer of Agnostic Front is not even making an issue of it and not dissing Metallica. Are you even paying attention?
After reading all the replies, I just wanna say one thing..
"BELATED HAPPY 24TH ANNIVERSARY, ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!!"
Let's see if Metallica would either play the whole album in it's entirety next year or just play the Justice Medley in their tour... Mind that they do secret gigs in the process of making albums (Escape From The Studio tour!).
The ringing bell in the beginning of Bellz.
The "lifted" turned around horn in the intro of Unforgiven.
The prayer from Go To Hell also in Enter Sandman.
"Things like this happen a lot in music." You are so right dude. If I'm not mistaken, I believe even our national anthem used to be an English drinking tune by the name of God Bless Our Merry Land by Zeigfried Melman. and Francis Scott Key just changed the words
its taken from the american bills of rights aint it? ..and justice for all is Also the title of a movie starring Al Pacino.
So tell me how they have stolen it from Agnostic Frost?
I think it's a bit of both.. but more inspiration than 'theft'. They definitely got inspired listening to the album and thought it was a good name... They decided to do something like that as their next album so they made up "...And Justice For All"! If they stole the concept for their album art or some sort of thing like that, that would be something worse.. I myself like Enter Shikari.. they have a song called "Mothership" and made a dubstep remix called "Motherstep" .. I didn't know what to call my song and wanted to call it after my friend's nickname so I called it "Gazzastep" Does that mean I stole the name or inspired it from Enter Shikari?
There was a movie "And justice for all" with Pacino as I recall. And that means what? There were four dudes that wrote same story about one guy hanged on cross also. I wonder if they had any issues. You'll see one day someone will sue you for naming your child "Roger", because he named his kid the same earlier.
yeah im going to go with the fact that theres a movie called ...And Justice For All. and if you really want to know why dont you ask metallica yourselves?
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