Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.50) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (9/5/91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Several songs...seem destined to become hard-rock classics....[They] effectively bridg[e] the gap between commercial metal and the much harder thrash of Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth..." Spin (9/99, p.146) - Ranked #52 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Spin (9/91) - Highly Recommended - "...A burnished black gem..." Spin (p.89) - "This record's diamond-tipped tuneage stripped the band's melancholy guitar excess down to melodic, radio-ready bullets and ballads." Entertainment Weekly (8/16/91) - "...Rock's preeminent speed-metal cyclone...Metallica may have invented a new genre: progressive thrash..." - Rating: B+ Q (8/00, p.127) - Included in Q's "Best Metal Albums Of All Time" - "...Transformed them from cult metal heroes into global superstars....bringing a little refinement to their undoubted power..." Melody Maker (12/91) - Ranked #16 in Melody Maker's list of the top 30 albums of 1991 - "...In a committed move away from their thrash roots, METALLICA was slower, less complicated, and probably twice as heavy as anything they'd done before..." Kerrang (Magazine) (p.55) - "[The album] that propelled them out of the metal ghetto to true mainstream global rock superstardom."