25th anniversary of the release of the Black album

Just noticed on my "not endorsed by Metallica" Metallica calendar that today (12th August where I am) is the 25th anniversary of the release of the Black album, more correctly known as "Metallica".

I remember the hype behind this thing coming out. I picked up a flyer in the record store about 10 days before it came out. It actually had TV ads advertising it! Then, the "Enter Sandman" video debuted a week before. Yes, the video was cool, even though the song was somewhat unexpected. It was heavy as fuck, but it was a bit...slow.

Due to study commitments, lack of funds, and not being allowed out that night (at university, but still living at home- "no, you're not going out to a record store at midnight!" ) I picked up said album the next day (I also bought "The Massacre" by The Exploited). I stuck it in my Walkman (cassette obviously, high tech times, 1991!), and of course, the first song was "Enter Sandman", which I'd heard probably half a dozen times by then. The second song was "Sad But True", which just simply HAD to be faster! This was Metallica after all!

Well, "Sad But True" is heavier than fuck, but it's still slow. The entire 12 tracks of this album were just too fucking slow, too over-produced, too shiny, too commercial, too not-Metallica. For me that day, a part of my metal soul died. It seemed like a bigger chunk back then than it is now.

This album sold fucking millions of copies, but it alienated so many of Metallica's old fans. It popularized metal, but sold it down the river at the same time. To this day, I have a love/hate relationship with this album. Some days I love the odd track, but most days I hate it.

Anyone else remember the first time they heard this thing? What do you think of it now? For better or worse, what did it do to metal? Is there a possibility of any metal band ever producing another monster album like this again? And how the fuck can it be a quarter of a century old??

Interestingly, when it came out I liked it very much but was at the same time disappointed in it. I was diasappointed because, compared to the three previous albums, the songs were so simple and decidedly non-thrashy. At the same time, because they were so simple, I could actually finally play Metallica on my guitar. ;-)

Edited by Time Signature - 12 Aug 2016 at 8:04am

I wasn't born yet when it came out, so I don't have any experiences with it from then. I really like the album, as it does have some killer tracks on it, but I just can't listen to Enter Sandman anymore. To this day, it's overplayed to death, I've probably heard it 100 times while skimming through the car radio.

Totally different but for me it was an improvement on And Justice For All which sounded shit. That album frustrated me to death as it could have been so much better if they'd produced it properly. The Black album was slow but it did have some great riffs and the production was great.

I fucking hate Load and ReLoad.

Nightfly wrote: Totally different but for me it was an improvement on And Justice For All which sounded shit. That album frustrated me to death as it could have been so much better if they'd produced it properly. The Black album was slow but it did have some great riffs and the production was great. It was the beginning of the end though and those first 3 albums are what matters.

For some reason, the production of Justice never really bothered me although it clearly is terribly imbalanced.

Time Signature wrote: For some reason, the production of Justice never really bothered me although it clearly is terribly imbalanced.

I loved it, and wondered why more bands didn't have a sound like that! It used to make the speaker housing on my tinny old ghetto blaster stereo vibrate almost to pieces, especially the intro to Blackened and parts of the title track.

I've never understood why some hate AJFA, it's one of my favorites from Metallica.

I preferred post Justice Metallica, and Load is my favorite album. Sue me.