Metallica should have ended their career after "Justice for all", or, at least, renamed their band because it doesn't fit right with the music they released afterwards. Neither did their attitude.
You can actually see this evolution (rather: devolution) even on their first 4 LPs. KillEm All was still rough, not well produced when a young band that sometimes even didn't have a proper sleeping place still were searching for professionality. Ride the Lightning set the gold standard for the production of a thrash metal album and the sound of a (then) modern aggressive e-guitar. Master of Puppets increased their skills in writing interesting songs with more complexity, but with Justice for All they already tuned down the aggressiveness in production down, esp. e-guitar, drums, and speed altogether.
Then they became a complete commercial rockband that could be played even in radio...