Blackened RecordingsMetallica‘s 1991 self-titled record, commonly known as The Black Album, turns 25 today. With over 16 million copies sold, the album is the legendary metal band’s best-selling release.
Arriving three years after 1988’s progressive …And Justice for All, The Black Album saw Metallica return with big riffs and even bigger choruses. The album boasted the mega-single “Enter Sandman,” plus the songs “The Unforgiven,” “Wherever I May Roam,” “Sad But True” and the acoustic-based “Nothing Else Matters.”
The Black Album was an immediate commercial success, giving Metallica their first number-one album on the Billboard 200. However, some fans, who favored the rawer, thrashier sound of Metallica’s earlier work, saw The Black Album as the band’s attempt at major mainstream success and a betrayal of their roots. Indeed, The Black Album is often seen as a dividing line in Metallica’s catalogue, with some fans insisting that everything the band released after 1991 isn’t as good as their pre-The Black Album work.
Nevertheless, The Black Album endures as a Metallica classic, and a seminal record in heavy metal and hard rock history.
Metallica is currently working on their 10th studio album.
Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
