Metallica (Remastered Deluxe Box Set - Explicit)

Metallica

explicit

Released on 01/08/1991 by EMI
Main artists: Metallica
Genre: Metal

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A solid gold, even platinum, pinnacle that tipped Metallica into megastardom, allowing the band to go beyond the boundaries of thrash, and gain recognition in the wide world of rock in the broadest sense of the term, the Black Album celebrates its thirtieth birthday without age having remotely tarnished a sound that has romped successfully down the decades. This was a record that shook up the band, following on the heels of four albums which were as ferocious as they were rapid. But fans were often perplexed by this black pearl when it first came out. Three years earlier, Metallica had released ...And Justice for All, whose production often did a disservice to its content (notably because of a mix that completely overshadowed Jason Newsted's bass). That album was also engulfed by the long shadow of mourning for the original bassist, Cliff Burton, who passed away in 1986.

The Four Horsemen then decided to step out of their comfort zone by recruiting Bob Rock, the man behind the huge sound of Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood, which had made a big impression on them. The Canadian producer would shake things up and reshuffle the deck. He built a gigantic wall of guitars, put the bass back in front, had the band record live and managed to get them to adopt a lower tuning on some songs. After months of painful and sometimes incomprehensible work, the band finally put the finishing touches to a record soberly entitled... Metallica. Its dark visuals earned it the nickname Black Album, a term that more or less became its official name over time and by force of circumstance.

It came as a complete surprise when Enter Sandman, the first single (and first track on the record) was released two months before the album as an appetiser. Metallica served up a massive song, more or less mid-tempo, which owed more to heavy metal and rock than to the thrash that had made the band's reputation. The path to radio stardom opened up. The band even managed to come close to the tops of the radio charts in 1992 with the ballad Nothing Else Matters. This was another novelty from the Bay Area gang. Because everything, or nearly everything, was different now. Gone were the long epic songs that had defined their style for years. Metallica was now delivering shorter, less complex songs with formidable efficiency. Sad But True comes with an unparalleled heaviness that was more reminiscent of Black Sabbath than of the band's wild, borderline punk debut. The rest of the album favours this type of atmosphere, both crushing and always marked by a certain form of saturated groove (Wherever I May Roam, My Friend of Misery).

While early fans were scandalised, their protests were drowned out by the millions of new fans that the four musicians drew in thanks to this metal classic which laid the foundations of a genre that was becoming steadily more accessible. All over the world, stadiums were flinging open their doors to this new sound. Metallica were no longer simply a leader of the thrash metal scene alongside Slayer or Megadeth, they were now a heavyweight behemoth capable of filling arenas at the stroke of a power chord. Thirty years after its release, the Black Album has sold over thirty million copies. You can't argue with numbers like that, which prove that the masses fully grasped the album's intrinsic quality. This classic release, once reviled by some (at least in its early days), has not only proven to be a solid album, but has come to be accepted by everyone. Along the way, it has become a rock staple on a par with the greatest records by Led Zeppelin, AC/DC or Deep Purple.

Because Metallica have always been generous with their fans, this Black Album re-release in a Deluxe Box Set edition is a real treasure chest full of surprises, coming up on close to 200 tracks. It's a product that offers fans total immersion, thanks to studio recordings (isolated riffs, demo versions, rehearsals for pre-production), alternative mixes... and of course, a bunch of live performances made between 1991 and 1993 that prove, once again, that this band was first and foremost a war machine built for the stage, wherever they may roam. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

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Metallica (Remastered Deluxe Box Set - Explicit)

Metallica

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Enter Sandman (Remastered 2021)

00:05:31

Bob Rock, Producer - Randy Staub, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - James Hetfield, Producer, Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Kirk Hammett, Guitar, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Lars Ulrich, Producer, Drums, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Jason Newsted, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - MIKE TACCI, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Metallica, MainArtist