Live Sh*t: Binge & Purge (Live In Mexico City)

Originally released in 1993 as an elaborate box set with VHS tapes alongside CDs, Live S**t is now known as Metallica's first official live album and features performances from Mexico City during the late winter of 1993. It follows the group's most successful album to date—1991’s Metallica, a.k.a. The Black Album—and includes songs from all five of its previous studio albums. Covers of Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil,” The Misfits’ “Last Caress,” and Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy” are the only songs not written by the band (not including “The Ecstasy of Gold,” Ennio Morricone’s introductory score). In other words, shy an actual concert with original bassist Cliff Burton, this is prime-era Metallica with the best cross-section of songs imaginable. The rally through “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Fade to Black,” “Master of Puppets,” “Seek & Destroy,” and “Whiplash” might be the most inspired roll of Metallica's career, and it’s just past halftime. For anyone who wants proof of the band’s incredible proficiency and its ability to harness otherworldly powers into material both intricate and visceral, Live S**t will fulfill those needs.