Metallica Through the Never (Music from the Motion Picture)

After 1991's Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album), the one thrash-metal band that connected with the mainstream began a number of stylistic experiments that were met with as many opinions as there were people. Metallica's 2013 IMAX film, however, primarily returns the group to its early thrashing days. The setlist isn’t comprehensive (the band would have to play nearly everything off its first three albums, for starters), but it works as a classic "live" album. Metallica is both tight and elastic enough here to make each performance worth hearing. After the standard introductory music from Ennio Morricone (“The Ecstasy of Gold”), the foursome runs through “Creeping Death” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” with vintage firepower. Choices such as “Fuel” and “The Memory Remains” (from ReLoad) and “Cyanide” (from Death Magnetic) yield insight into the band’s latter-day preferences, while the streak that starts with “...And Justice for All” and runs through to the instrumental “Orion” is a checklist of classic Metallica tunes.