“Dyer’s Eve” capped a roughly 5-year stretch when Metallica was absolutely untouchable, both as writers and players. For better or worse, the band would ascend to astronomical commercial heights soon after, but they would never sound quite like this- this hungry, this purposeful, this committed- until “Spit Out the Bone” closed Hardwired… To Self-Destruct almost 30 years later (sorry, ‘tallica apologists: Death Magnetic was a nice try, but was overly self-conscious and didn’t come close to recapturing what made Metallica a singular force in music). To be fair, James and Lars first showed their strange penchant for self-sabotage by ruining …And Justice for All’s mix, and “Dyer’s Eve” did initially suffer as a result. However, once Jason Newsted’s bass was re-introduced (as on the highly circulated bootleg version presented here), the song straight up destroys, showing Metallica in full flight and recovering nicely from the shattering loss of Cliff Burton. James’ yarling was prime Hetfield, Lars’ drums sound less tinny, and the dynamics register more profoundly. And unlike the rest of Justice, “Dyer’s Eve” was able to cover a lot of ground without stretching into the 7-minute zone. If Metallica had to change their approach after taking their groundbreaking sound- and thrash metal as a whole- as far as it could go, this was an incredible way to end an era.