Every Metallica Album, Ranked by Fans
Rank all 11 Metallica studio albums head-to-head: Master of Puppets vs Ride the Lightning, the Black Album vs ...And Justice for All, Load vs 72 Seasons. Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
72 Seasons2023
Hardwired... to Self-Destruct2016
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Rank all 11: the song sorter, about 26 picks for your full order, 1 to 11. All 11: a bracket, 10 picks, with tied places.
How the community ranks them
Results appear here as people finish brackets. Each pick feeds the head-to-head numbers, so the first players decide where all 11 start.
How the Metallica Albums bracket works
This Metallica album ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Master of Puppets or Metallica (The Black Album)? Ride the Lightning or ...And Justice for All? — and after 10 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. By the end you have ranked all 11 without ever having to look at more than two at a time.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 11-slot size (Opening round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), with every one of the 11 albums in the field. 11 is not a power of two, so 5 of them draw a first-round bye — spread evenly across the draw rather than handed to whoever happens to land at the top of it. Entrants are drawn by a seed that changes daily, and New draw picks a fresh one, so an early upset in one run may never happen in the next. You can also play it at 8 slots for a shorter or longer run.
10 picks, 4 rounds
- Opening round3 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 11 entrants
All 11 entrants are listed below, including Master of Puppets, Metallica (The Black Album), Ride the Lightning and ...And Justice for All. Updated
- Master of Puppets1986Listen on Apple Music
- Metallica (The Black Album)1991Listen on Apple Music
- Ride the Lightning1984Listen on Apple Music
- ...And Justice for All1988Listen on Apple Music
- Kill 'Em All1983Listen on Apple Music
- Load1996Listen on Apple Music
- Reload1997Listen on Apple Music
- St. Anger2003Listen on Apple Music
- Death Magnetic2008Listen on Apple Music
- Hardwired... to Self-Destruct2016Listen on Apple Music
- 72 Seasons2023Listen on Apple Music
Tier list instead?
Load all 11 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own Metallica album bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Go with the one you would rather hear right now — instant reaction beats a considered take.
- The default run puts all 11 albums in the draw. Short on time? Drop to 8 slots — a quicker run over a random 8 of them.
- Watch for the album you keep beating reluctantly. That is usually the sign you should undo and reconsider the pick before it.
Questions people ask
How many albums are in the Metallica Albums bracket?
The pool holds 11 albums. A default run puts all of them in the draw and takes 10 picks across 4 rounds: Opening round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. 5 entrants start with a first-round bye, spread evenly through the draw. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 11 slots.
Which albums are included?
Master of Puppets, Metallica (The Black Album), Ride the Lightning, ...And Justice for All, Kill 'Em All, Load, Reload, St. Anger, Death Magnetic, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct and 72 Seasons. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Metallica Albums bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 10 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. No account is needed, and a run saves after every pick, so you can stop and jump back in later.
Can I turn the result into S/A/B tiers?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other album grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 10 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two albums that never met. If you would rather place the albums into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 11 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Can I compare my order with other people's?
Every completed bracket feeds the Metallica Albums community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 11 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
What if a album I wanted is missing?
Use the bracket maker: add your own albums, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 11 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.