Metallica Album Covers Ranked (From Worst To Best)

Metallica is arguably the most influential thrash metal band of all time, even if they stopped being thrash by about album four/five.

If there is one thing that metal bands love, it’s having memorable album covers, and while ‘Tallica are renowned as being one of the biggest and best heavy metal bands ever, the Metallica album covers have certainly been hit or miss.

Looking all the way from Kill ‘Em All to 72 Seasons, we’ll be giving our ranking for the Metallica album artwork through their discography.

Metallica Album Covers – The Dirt Worst

72 Seasons: The latest addition to Metallica’s discography, “72 Seasons,” features a cover that has sparked much debate among fans (to say the least). Its bright yellow background and the image of a burnt crib surrounded by debris make it a polarizing choice (again, to say the least). It grabs your attention if you see it on a shelf, but so does screaming in someone’s face for 10 minutes. Bad album artwork, decent album.
Reload: Following the controversial “Load,” “Reload” presents an abstract mix of bovine blood and urine by artist Andres Serrano, because why the hell not? Though it aims for depth, the cover’s abstract nature leaves many fans wanting more, lacking the immediate impact of Metallica’s more iconic artwork. That, and it is really weird. Bad album artwork, also not a very good album.
Death Magnetic: The cover for “Death Magnetic” plays on the theme of attraction and repulsion with its depiction of a coffin in a magnetic field. While the concept is pretty cool, its execution feels too on-the-nose for some fans (including me), lacking the subtlety of earlier works. Bad album artwork, decent album (CAUSE WE HUNT YOU DOWN WITHOUT MERCCYYYYYY).
The Black Album: My only guess here is that Lars watched This Is Spinal Tap and said “Yep that’s what we’ll go with.” Add to that the Don’t Tread sign and yeah, urgh. Depending on whether or not you’re a thrash fan till you die, this is either a great album or the worst thing ever from sellouts.

Metallica Album Covers – The Meh

Load: Another Serrano creation, “Load” features blood and semen pressed between sheets of plexiglass. It’s a cover that divides opinion, being both reviled for its content and revered for its bold artistic statement. Ok artwork, bad album.
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct: This cover merges the faces of all four band members into a single, distorted entity (think Steve Austin on the Unforgiven 2001 poster). It’s ok, it’s a decent album overall and the visual is ok.
St. Anger: The only album cover created by Pushead for Metallica, “St. Anger,” features a clenched fist wrapped in barbed wire. This is the greatest album cover to the greatest album ever released, obviously.

The GOATS

Ride the Lightning: Ride The Lightning is an awesome album cover to an awesome thrash album. The artwork makes sense and represents the aural assault you’re about to get when you put that record on the player. Perfection.
Kill ‘Em All: It’s the original, and to me still one of the absolute best. It’s a hammer, it’s blood and it’s again a visual representation of what you’re about to listen to. This is what Load wanted to be before looking like someone dumped a load on paper.
Master of Puppets: We are so lucky that Stranger Things featured the title track from this album, otherwise no one would know about it. Everything about this album cover screams epic, the puppet strings, the gravestones, the Metallica logo itself at the top of the
…And Justice for All: Topping our list is the cover of “…And Justice for All.” Designed by Roger Gorman, with illustration by Stephen Gorman and based on a concept by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, it depicts Lady Justice bound in ropes, with dollar bills piled upon and falling off her scales. It’s amazing because it depicts the concept of balance, and considering how well-rounded the bass sound is on this album it’s a perfect visual analogy.

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