Back in the late 1980s, fans of New York hardcore legends AGNOSTIC FRONT were a bit peeved at METALLICA for releasing an album whose title was very close to that of AF's 1987 LP, "Liberty And Justice For..."

AGNOSTIC FRONT vocalist Roger Miret recently spoke to Artisan News about his feelings on the controversy nearly a quarter century after the two albums were issued.

Said Miret: "You wanna know the truth about that? We were in L.A. playing Fenders Ballroom and Kirk Hammett [METALLICA guitarist] came to the show with, I forgot who else… And we were talking about stuff. He goes, 'Hey, man, what's going on?!' I'm like, 'What's going on?' We're just hanging out backstage. And I'm, like, 'Yeah, we're just out here promoting our new record.' He goes, 'What's your new record?' And Stig [AGNOSTIC FRONT guitarist Vinnie Stigma] gave him the record. It was called 'Liberty And Justice For…' Six months later, [METALLICA's] record comes out and it's called '…And Justice For All'. We had it before them and I gave the sticker and everything to Kirk so he could check it out. But it's no big deal."

He continued, "METALLICA is one of those bands I really always liked lyrically. They talked about a lot of sociopolitical stuff — a lot of good stuff. And they were just stating what we were stating to larger masses. And it's cool with me — absolutely cool with me."