Metallica (1991)
Metallica is a 1991 hard rock album by Metallica.
By 1991 Metallica had spent a decade as thrash's fastest, most uncompromising band. Their fifth album, self-titled and known to everyone as the Black Album, slammed the brakes. Working with producer Bob Rock across eight tense months in a Los Angeles studio, the band traded blistering speed for sheer weight: slower tempos, cleaner arrangements, songs built to land like hammer blows instead of a blur. The friction in those sessions was real, and so was the result. This is the record that pushed heavy metal out of the underground and into stadiums, and the clear pivot point of the band's long career.
Quick answers
What is Metallica about?
By 1991 Metallica had spent a decade as thrash's fastest, most uncompromising band. Their fifth album, self-titled and known to everyone as the Black Album, slammed the brakes. Working with producer Bob Rock across eight tense months in a Los Angeles studio, the band traded blistering speed for sheer weight: slower tempos, cleaner arrangements, songs built to land like hammer blows instead of a blur. The friction in those sessions was real, and so was the result. This is the record that pushed heavy metal out of the underground and into stadiums, and the clear pivot point of the band's long career.
When was Metallica released?
Metallica was released in 1991.
Who made Metallica?
Metallica is by Metallica.
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A few thoughts on Metallica
To hear how this band handled its own success and near-collapse, the documentary Some Kind of Monster puts you in the room for their most fractious years. For the album's orchestral afterlife, the concert film S&M pairs these songs with the San Francisco Symphony. And Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City reads the whole metal era with sharp, funny affection.
The heavy metal that came before thrash
Metallica's Black Album traded thrash speed for sheer weight, reaching back toward metal's heavier roots. These records are where that weight was forged, from the doom of Black Sabbath and the muscle of Deep Purple in Rock to the early menace of Judas Priest's Sin After Sin and Scorpions' In Trance.
New Wave of British Heavy Metal records worth owning
Before Metallica there was the British metal wave that shaped their attack. These albums set the template, from the self-titled Iron Maiden debut to Saxon's Denim and Leather and Strong Arm of the Law, Motorhead's Iron Fist, and Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance.
Metal albums that broke into the mainstream
The Black Album is the record that pushed metal out of the underground and onto stadium stages. These albums made the same leap, from Ozzy's No More Tears and Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction to Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I, Avenged Sevenfold's Hail to the King, and Disturbed's Ten Thousand Fists.
Slower, heavier metal built on weight instead of speed
What made the Black Album land was songs built like hammer blows rather than a blur. These records chase the same slow, crushing power, from Candlemass's Death Magic Doom to Danzig and Danzig III: How the Gods Kill, Ozzy's Bark at the Moon, and W.A.S.P.'s The Crimson Idol.