I remember when I first heard Metallica (Kill 'em All) way back in the early 80's. My younger brother had a bootleg cassette. I thought it sucked. I couldn't understand the words.
Then, after hearing it a few times, it was like a light went off and I was like, WOW! I was hooked! (Does anyone even compare to Cliff on Anesthesia to this day?) Couldn't get enough. Couldn't wait for new releases and all that.
Jump in the Fire, Ride the Lightning, Creeping Death, Master of Puppets! All great LP's/EP's (vinyl too, at the time). Master of Puppets, was mind blowing for me, although so much more processed than their previous works.
Then the bus crashed! Damn! That was a sad day for me. Very sad indeed!
When the Garage Days came out, I was confused. It didn't even sound like the Metallica I knew at the time. Of course I grew to love Garage Days.
...And Justice for All was very good, to my surprise. I wasn't expecting such a good album. I was wrong. ...And Justice for All is an excellent Metallica album too, IMO.
After that, I lost interest. Some of the new songs I heard on the radio over the years were good to OK (a couple from the Black Album, a couple from Load). But none of them since ...And Justice has struck anywhere near the chord that the early ones did.
Although I really enjoyed most of the Garage Inc. cover tunes. I thought it was classy to cover Bob Seger's Turn the Page and with some of their tour schedules over the years, they seemed to make that song their own. And they do an excellent version of Die, Die My Darling. I still prefer Thin Lizzy's Whiskey in the Jar, but Metallica's is very good.
All in all, unless something changes, Metallica is a has been.