Metallica (album)

Untitled

Metallica (also known as The Black Album) is the eponymous fifth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on August 13, 1991 through Elektra Records. The album features songs that are considered today among Metallica's most well-known songs, with songs such as "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad but True".

It spent four consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard 200. Metallica is the band's best-selling album to date, with over 15 million copies sold in the United States. It is the best-selling album of the SoundScan era. The album was certified 15x Platinum (Diamond) by the RIAA on November 13, 2009.

Album information

The album cover features the band's logo, angled against the upper left corner, and a coiled snake (derived from the Gadsden flag) on the bottom right corner, both in a dark shade of gray in order to be made out against the black background. The motto of the Gadsden flag, "Don't Tread on Me", is also the title of a song on the album.

The cover is reminiscent of Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove album, something the band jokingly acknowledged themselves in their A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica documentary (where members of Spinal Tap appeared and asked them about it).

The album and the band were critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The band changed their sound from previous albums. Metallica presented a more commercially accessible Metallica. Following the success of "One", the breakaway single from their album ...And Justice for All, five videos were released from Metallica ("Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters", "Sad but True", "Wherever I May Roam" and "The Unforgiven").

The lyrics of Metallica, written by James Hetfield, were more personal and introspective in nature than previous Metallica albums. "The God That Failed" dealt with Hetfield's mother's death from cancer and her Christian Science beliefs which kept her from seeking medical treatment. Another example is "Nothing Else Matters", which was a love song Hetfield wrote about missing his girlfriend while on tours. The album ended Metallica's tradition of including a lengthy instrumental track on each album until their 2008 album Death Magnetic.

Metallica was produced by Bob Rock, who was asked to mix the album as the band was impressed with his work as producer on the Mötley Crüe album, Dr. Feelgood. Initially, the band was not interested in having Rock produce their album, but changed their minds as Ulrich stated "We felt that we still had our best record in us and Bob Rock could help us make it."

Rock altered the band's working schedule and routine so much that they swore never to work with him again . The animosity and tension between band and producer was documented in the documentaries A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica and Classic Albums: Metallica – Metallica. Both explore and document the intense recording process that resulted in Metallica. Despite the controversies between the band and Rock, he continued to work with the band through the 2003 album St. Anger.

Metallica DVD-Audio 5.1 mix was released in 2001 through Elektra Records.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Q
Rolling Stone

• Rolling Stone (9/5/91) - 5 Stars — Excellent — Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's" - "Several songs...seem destined to become hard-rock classics....[They] effectively bridg[e] the gap between commercial metal and the much harder thrash of Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth." In 2003, the album was ranked number 252 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

• Spin (9/99, p. 146) - Ranked #52 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s" - Spin (p. 89) - "This record's diamond-tipped tuneage stripped the band's melancholy guitar excess down to melodic, radio-ready bullets and ballads."

• Entertainment Weekly (8/16/91) - "Rock's preeminent speed-metal cyclone...Metallica may have invented a new genre: progressive thrash." - Rating: B+

• Q magazine (8/00, p. 127) - Included in Q's "Best Metal Albums of All Time" - "Transformed them from cult metal heroes into global superstars....bringing a little refinement to their undoubted power."

• Melody Maker (12/91) - Ranked #16 in Melody Maker's list of the top 30 albums of 1991 - "In a committed move away from their thrash roots, Metallica was slower, less complicated, and probably twice as heavy as anything they'd done before."

Tour

The world tour following the album (initially dubbed the "Wherever We May Roam Tour" and then later the "Nowhere Else to Roam Tour"), saw Metallica on the road for the next three years. The tour was in part documented in the A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica documentary, as well as the 3-CD, 2-DVD (or 3-VHS) boxset Live Shit: Binge & Purge.

Some songs, such as "Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters" and "Sad but True" would become permanent staples of the band's concert setlists during these and subsequent tours. Other songs though, such as "Holier Than Thou", "The God That Failed" and "Through The Never," by 1995, were no longer a part of any performances and would not be played again until more recent years when the band, with Robert Trujillo on bass, began performing a more extensive back catalog of songs.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Enter Sandman"	James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett	5:29
2.	"Sad but True"	Hetfield, Ulrich	5:24
3.	"Holier Than Thou"	Hetfield, Ulrich	3:47
4.	"The Unforgiven"	Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett	6:26
5.	"Wherever I May Roam"	Hetfield, Ulrich	6:42
6.	"Don't Tread on Me"	Hetfield, Ulrich	3:59
7.	"Through the Never"	Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett	4:01
8.	"Nothing Else Matters"	Hetfield, Ulrich	6:29
9.	"Of Wolf and Man"	Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett	4:16
10.	"The Metallica Album That Failed"	Hetfield, Ulrich	5:05
11.	"My Friend of Misery"	Hetfield, Ulrich, Jason Newsted	6:47
12.	"The Struggle Within"	Hetfield, Ulrich	3:51

Japanese bonus

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"So What?"	Nick "Animal" Kulmer, Chris "Magoo" Exall, Clive "Winston" Blake	3:09

Personnel

• James Hetfield – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar on "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters", lead guitar on "Nothing Else Matters", electric sitar on "Wherever I May Roam"
• Lars Ulrich – drums, percussion
• Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
• Jason Newsted – bass guitar, acoustic bass on "Nothing Else Matters", backing vocals

• Michael Kamen – orchestral arrangement on "Nothing Else Matters"

Charting

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1991	Billboard 200	1
	The UK Album Chart
	Australian ARIA Albums Chart

End of decade charts

Chart (1990-1999)	Position
U.S. Billboard 200	8

Singles

Year	Song	Chart	Position
1991	"Enter Sandman"	The Billboard Hot 100	16
		Mainstream Rock Tracks	10
		Modern Rock Tracks	28
		The UK Top 40	5
	"Don't Tread on Me"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	21
	"The Unforgiven"	The UK Top 40	15
1992		The Billboard Hot 100	35
		Mainstream Rock Tracks	10
	"Nothing Else Matters"	The Billboard Hot 100	34
		Mainstream Rock Tracks	11
		The UK Top 40	6
	"Wherever I May Roam"	The Billboard Hot 100	82
		The UK Top 40	25
		Mainstream Rock Tracks	25
	"Sad but True"	The Billboard Hot 100	98
		Mainstream Rock Tracks	15
1993		The UK Top 40	20

Certification

Country	Sales	Certification
United States	15,525,000	Diamond (15x Platinum)
Canada	1,000,000+	Diamond
Austria	100,000+	2x Platinum
France	438,200+	Platinum
Finland	112,856	2x Platinum
Germany	1,000,000+	2x Platinum
Netherlands	200,000+	2x Platinum
Norway	100,000+	2x Platinum
Argentina	280,000	5x Platinum
Australia	560,000	8x Platinum
New Zealand	150,000	10x Platinum

See also

• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in the United States