It crashed into the UK album chart at No 1, and also topped the charts in America, Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Despite the cries of “sell-out” from the thrash faithful, the album went on to sell in excess of 20 million copies to date. Metallica or “The Black Album”, named after the plain black cover that bears the band’s logo and a snake modelled on the image on the Gadsden flag (often accompanied by the call-to-arms and song title Don’t Tread On Me) was unveiled in August 1991. Songs were pared back to their core, the flab and repetition consigned to the bin – it’s no accident that the longest songs on the album are roughly equal in length to the shortest cuts on …Justice – and although the process was far from painless the means more than justified the end. The resulting album showcased a band that had completely reinvented itself and which, in doing so, was discovered by a whole new audience.
They elected to take the latter path, and for their next release joined forces with producer Bob Rock, whose more recent credits had included Mötley Crüe’s Dr Feelgood, The Cult’s Sonic Temple and Kingdom Come’s self-titled debut: commercial successes one and all. They could either continue in the same vein, writing ever-lengthening songs with endlessly repetitive riffs, or opt for a radical change in direction.
After four ground-breaking albums, culminating in 1988’s acclaimed but ponderous …And Justice For All, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newstead and Lars Ulrich had painted themselves into a corner.
At the end of the 80s, Metallica found themselves with a decision to make.