When asked to write this piece I tried to think about the actual first vinyl record that I bought when I was a kid. After pondering for a while, I honestly couldn’t remember the first vinyl record that I purchased. I do however remember the first record that I purchased that really meant something to me, Metallica’s last great record, And Justice For All. I was around twelve or thirteen years old when I purchased that record I think at the now defunct Pop Tunes on Summer Ave. My younger brother, who was listening to a lot of metal turned me onto them. I’m really glad he did because this record and band in particular became a driving force behind many of my big life decisions. To put it mildly, this band changed my life. Or let me rephrase this, everything this band put out until that point changed my life. Like many other people I know, I consider all Metallica albums post And Justice for All to be complete garbage. Starting to listen to Metallica in 1990 was somewhat late in the game because as soon as I started becoming enthralled with Metallica they released the Black Album. This record is undeniably well written but completely lacked the sophisticated raw emotional power that every single record they had made to date had.
As a child, the records Metallica made definitely gave me a new perspective on where you could take music. The arrangements, and I emphasize, arrangements, were extremely complicated. These songs were meticulously crafted and many of them were obviously inspired by classical music, much of which I believe can be attributed to Cliff Burton being classically trained. Metal really opened the doors to other genres of music for me that I didn’t really care about before that point including classical and, in general, experimental music. During the eighties, Metallica was really pushing musical boundaries with their records. I think after my exposure to their music I’ve been constantly searching out bands and attempting to write music that pushes musical boundaries in a sense.
The set of records from Garage Days to And Justice For All, for me personally are the kind of records that stick with you, very multi-dimensional music that never gets old. I still listen to most of these records to this day. I appreciate much of the music that I grew up with and listened to back in the day, but this set of albums are something I always go back to and I am pretty floored by how amazing the music still sounds.
-Jason Paxton
Jason Paxton plays in local, instrumental/ experimental band, Glorie. He slings x-rays in the trauma center at the Med and he and his wife, Katherine, are expecting their first child this summer. Paxton began playing out in Memphis at the age of 16 with the band, The Satyrs, and he also was a member of Delorean and The Bloodthirsty Lovers. Glorie’s debut release is already available locally but is set for a national release May 17th on Makeshift Music. You can download Glorie’s album for free at www.glorierock.com
