411 Metallica Roundtable: The Black Album

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 09.10.2008

The 411 staff continues the build towards Death Magnetic with a look at Metallica’s controversial and ultra-successful self-titled album…

On September 12th, Metallica releases Death Magnetic, their first studio album in over five years. Anticipation for this album among the Metallica faithful, haters and just plain curious has reached a fever pitch over the last couple of months thanks to comments from the band, new live leaks, cover art, track listings and, finally, a pair of official downloads - all leading up to the big Friday drop date.

But why all the hype for a band who, in most folks' opinion, completely dropped the ball on their last release? Well, 411 has decided to find out and tell you all about it. How? By taking a look back at Metallica's other eight studio sets, from the thrash juggernaut of 1983's Kill ‘Em All to the questionable ProTools mess of 2003's St. Anger. Because to understand the future, you need look no further than the past. Or some shit like that. Here's some metal up your ass!

(If you missed it, be sure to check out Parts 1 (Kill 'Em All), 2 (Ride The Lightning), 3 (Master Of Puppets) and 4 (…And Justice For All)!)

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PART FIVE: METALLICA
…And Justice For All made Metallica household names. It was still heavy enough to please thrash purists, but the big MTV ballad "One" showed that the band had plenty of crossover appeal. The resulting tour was a huge success and, by its end, Jason Newsted was firmly planted behind the band's bass position.

In early 1990, Metallica entered a North Hollywood studio to record their fifth album. Bob Rock, more notable for his work with bands like Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, was brought in as the producer. The recording of the album was long and arduous. Metallica has since stated that the set was remixed three times and cost a million dollars to make.

Metallica didn't see release until August of 1991. Dubbed "The Black Album" thanks to its nearly all-black cover, the set destroyed expectations created by Justice. Metallica reached the top of the Billboard chart and sold 650,000 copies in its first week alone. It also marked the first time Metallica was heard on Top 40 radio, thanks to the songs "The Unforgiven" and the Grammy-winning "Enter Sandman", which reached #16. For a band who lacked radio support for their entire career, that was huge. A massive 15-month tour followed.

The album has since become known as a historical turning point in the band's career, as Metallica's sound was much more hard rock than metal, and much more radio friendly, from here on out.

The 411 Music staff has decided to look back on their feelings of the controversial "Black Album".



Do You Have This Album?

Mitch Michaels: This was actually the third Metallica album I owned, bought used sometime in 1998 I think at Morgantown, WV's once glorious record store The Den. I still have the same copy, though it's pretty scratched up. I've often wondered what it would be like to have a fresh, shiny version of this with its slick, black packaging. I wish I had been cool back in 1991.

Jesse Coy: Yes, I have it, and I probably picked it up sometime close to when it came out, around the fall of '91, or maybe even early '92. There was nothing hugely memorable about when and where I got it, because back then, as well as now, I consider and considered Metallica a good to pretty damn good thrash band, in the same league with about a half dozen other thrash bands. Megadeth's Rust in Peace one year earlier was FAR more memorable, with their "Holy Wars/Punishment Due" track. Or Slayer's "War Ensemble," which appeared the same year as that Megadeth video/track/album. Those tunes made me want to rush out and pick up Megadeth and Slayer's new albums, seeing the videos premiere on Headbangers Ball. Seeing "Enter Sandman" premiere on Headbangers Ball? Interesting song... but nothing to do backflips over.

Dan Marsicano: I do have the album and I purchased it around the same time I purchased …And Justice For All. I got it from a Best Buy, if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was a Circuit City. They all seem the same to me.

Michael Melchor: Nope, don't own this one. Probably never will. Not because this is a terrible album or anything; Metallica (sorry – there's only one Black Album in my eyes, and this ain't it. Don't even bring up Jay-Z) is actually rather well-done as far as commercial metal metal goes. It's just the fact that I even had to use the term "commercial metal" in reference to Metallica bothers me. Yes, I'm one of those diehards that lament the fact that they ever gave up their old sound, and one of the reasons is because they said they'd never "sell-out". Metallica just happens to be the point in their careers where they went back on their word.

Dan Haggerty: Oh yes, I remember when it came out. And with big hope I was down to get the tape the day it came out, all eager on the back of riff monster "Enter Sandman". I was like a proud father, and eager blathered on to any who would listen how I was with the band from the early days - Before they were popular. One long line and a purchase later, I was merrily driving home with my rum spiked coke Slurpee and listening with various degrees of pleasure and pain as my world was twisted anew.


What Tracks Do You Love?

Mitch Michaels: I don't care how overplayed it is, "Enter Sandman" is the motherfucking beast nightmare from hell riff. I will always and forever love that song - it was my first favorite Metallica track. Elsewhere you have the ass-kicking "Of Wolf And Man", which reads like a lost Danzig track. "Through The Never" is equally brooding. Of course there are the ballads, "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters". People may moan about them now, but I guarantee every guy with an acoustic guitar has tried to get some ass by picking out the beginning of "Nothing Else Matters" at least once.

Jesse Coy: Since I got such great feedback over it, and I love to piss off diehards, let's resurrect the all-important word, to explain that, yes... with this album, Metallica deviated from their three-album BLUEPRINT. Still, they included their ballad (without thrash build-up - just a straight ballad), and I guess I do like "The Unforgiven." For a second track, I'd go with "Enter Sandman," rather different as Metallica's first hard rock song. Bye-bye thrash. But here we have the new face of the band. "Sad But True" is pretty good, but even better with Joey Belladonna singing it on the Metallica tribute album.

Dan Marsicano: Unlike a good portion of the Metallica fans, I love single "Enter Sandman." Yeah, its not exactly "Master Of Puppets," but it is catchy and has a strangely-enjoyable sound to it. The two ballads, "Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters," are the most tender and heart-wrenching songs on the Black Album. The western theme on the former was well done and the melodic vocals of Hetfield exposed fans to a different side of the singer on the latter.

"The God That Failed" is Newsted's first real attempt at driving the main melody of a song, as is "My Friend Of Misery." While fans have been less than receptive to both of those tracks as the years have gone on, I actually play them more than the singles. "Through The Never" and "Holier Than Thou" are the "thrash" metal tracks, if somebody cleaned the shit out of the production and slowed it down a few notches.

Michael Melchor: The faster, groovier radio hits – "Enter Sandman", "Sad But True", "Wherever I May Roam" – I dug when I heard them and still do. Some of the mid-to-faster tracks like "Of Wolf And Man" and "Holier Than Thou" still stand out to me as good rockers as well. Songs somehow still worthy of the "Metallica" stamp despite them throwing their more progressive elements – the elements that, while unsung, helped define them as THE metal band of the last 25 years – out the window.

Dan Haggerty: "Enter Sandman", despite lifting and slowing down the workable meat of "Creeping Death" still is a fine riff monster, almost doom-y in its approach to hitting harder with less strokes. "Holier Than Though" is still a nifty little ripper, and "Sad But True" has a pleasing crunch about it. All are the slower little brothers of previous fare, but still not unpleasant. "Through The Never" is pretty cool, even if working on a friendly formula level, acting like a blue print for this album: Mainstream metal that walks the line of tough and accessible. "Of Wolf And Man" is damn cool, and a fun concept - probably the most forward thinking song on here as Metallica borrows less and develops more within the sound they are shooting at on this album. Finally, dark horse "The Struggle Within" is a great tune and the real beast that hunts lesser game.


What Tracks Do You Skip?

Mitch Michaels: Metallica plays through pretty well, but it's kind of frontloaded. Starting with "The God That Failed", I start to fade. "My Friend Of Misery" is just ho-hum, but "The Struggle Within" is by far the worst song Metallica had ended an album with to that point. I can't really say WHY I don't like these songs - perhaps it's because they don't shine on a whole album of radio-ready heavyweights.

Jesse Coy: I doubt I've ever listened to this album enough to consciously pick tracks to skip, but in general I'd say my attention wanders periodically throughout the second half of the release. Maybe "Of Wolf and Man" is a bit cheesy for me, and "Nothing Else Matters"... one ballad was enough. We have some foreshadowing of therapy sessions here.

Dan Marsicano: "Sad But True" is a decent track, but gets too repetitive and drawn-out for my liking. Also, what is up with "Don't Tread On Me?" A strange track to say the least, I never understood what the band saw in it. It sounds like it should have been on a B-side or outtakes reel, instead of on the final product.

Michael Melchor: Why the fuck did Metallica ever decide to do proper ballads? "Nothing Else Matters" and "The Unforgiven" (although a well-constructed tune) both drive me nuts. For some of the same reasons listed above in so far as commercialization and lack of progression. I guess they stick out like sore thumbs as announcements that the band many had grown to love for their speed and heaviness were about to take an extended leave.

Dan Haggerty: While most of the album teeters between good to average songs, and a fine listen, the two ballads are just skip button disappointments. How could the band think that they should copy "Fade To Black", or "One", but turn them into toothless radio friendly dribble as an upgrade? Sure, "The Unforgiven" has a decent degree of contrast and harmony to make the reworked ideas of Metallica's past shine, but "Nothing Else Matters" is just a snooze to me. Oh - And if that wasn't enough, I have a great idea: Let's skip the awesome patented Metallica solo blitz at the end. That way it's like every other song!


Final Thoughts

Mitch Michaels: I can understand how the slick Bob Rock production and shorter (and some slower) songs would turn people off, but you have to realize two things: #1) A lot of people my age and younger learned Metallica in retrospect. With this album crammed with big singles, it's a no-brainer that this would be our first exposure. So while we would go on to learn how great a thrash band Metallica was in the 80's, we already loved them for the rocking metal band that they became. #2) Metallica had taken their prog-thrash sound as far as it would go. How many thrash bands from the 80's are still making albums that even thrash fans are still consistently interested in? You have to keep going, keep moving, and that's what Metallica began here.

Jesse Coy: Reprise... Metallica's deviates from their three-album blueprint (blueprint, blueprint, blueprint) (sorry, I really didn't retype that three times over, it was just well-timed reverb). But they weren't the only thrash band who changed. For most of them, the writing was on the wall. What writing, though? What the hell happened? Wasn't thrash in its Golden Age by the end of the 80's? What the hell was happening?

Nirvana AND Pearl Jam's breakthrough albums both hit within a month or the same month as this Metallica release. Someone gave Metallica a slight jump on the news. Thrash was about to be dead. The labels had a new genre to push.

So between '91 and '93, many thrash bands put out releases that went from thrash to heavy metal or hard rock... or just plain confused identity. There's Voivod's Angel Rat (far better than Metallica's '91 release), Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction, Testament's The Ritual (though expertly followed by a big "fuck you" last album for their label, Low), Exodus' Force of Habit, Nuclear Assault's Something Wicked, and Anthrax's Sound of White Noise. There're probably a few more, too. The only one who didn't slow down was Slayer. Oh, and Overkill kept the thrash ball rolling, too.

It's interesting to look back at now, and it was interesting to see happen at the time. Of all the albums I listed, this Metallica release ranks lower than many of them. And if the majority of these thrashers slowed down in part due to pressure from record labels, a new breed of intensity was being formed with bands like Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, and Fear Factory. Rob Halford even went from JP's "Painkiller" to Fight. So all was well in the thrash world... just morphing into new forms.

Metallica? They were about to spend the next 12 years building up material for their "Spinal Tap II" mockumentary.

Dan Marsicano: While not up to par of the first four albums, Metallica is the last essential Metallica album (at least until Death Magnetic comes out…you heard it here first). The Black Album was Metallica's "sell-out" album, but that doesn't automatically make it terrible. On the contrary, the songwriting was still great and Bob Rock provided a source of inspiration for the band. Say what you will about the album; there are some great tunes on it. Not as consistent as previous albums, but still having quite an impact, their self-titled fifth album would be the calling card for Metallica for years to come.

Michael Melchor: This is the first of many albums that, for me, could be described the same way – it's a good album, but not a good Metallica album. They had been so much better than this before while sticking to what they (supposedly?) loved. It's with this record that they were emptying all of that in the trash to focus on being superstars. I always hear the old argument of "what, they're not allowed to grow as musicians?" from Metallica apologists when it comes to Metallica; my answer is always, "Of course they're allowed to grow – but that doesn't explain the slow turn to hypocrisy that started here in 1991."

Dan Haggerty: Certainly overrated as the highest selling Metallica album of all time, and not everything it became historically for the band. Truth is, after Master Of Puppets and ... And Justice For All, this band was so hot with cutting edge metal evolution that anything they did would have been gold. Retreating into their own past catalog and turning those ideas into slower facsimiles didn't have to happen. That being said, I've come to terms with this album and have learned to love it for what it is, and enjoy it on that level: A good album that happens to be the 5th best album in the bands catalog, and a fun rocker to pull out once in a while to enjoy. And really, is being a good album in a catalog with the gravitas of Metallica a bad thing? Of course not.

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Join us tomorrow as Metallica cuts their hair and produces Load!