Elektra 61113
Producers: Bob Rock with James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich
Track listing: Enter Sandman / Sad But True / Holier Than Thou / The Unforgiven / Wherever I May Roam / Don’t Tread on Me / Through the Never / Nothing Else Matters / Of Wolf and Man / The God That Failed / My Friend of Misery / The Struggle Within
August 31, 1991
4 weeks
By the late ’80s, the Bay Area-based quartet known as Metallica had proven itself as one of the best and most influential new heavy metal bands. Metallica was much more than a fashion statement — it was a musical force to be reckoned with, as each of the band’s members showed uncanny musical chops that allowed the group to twist and turn its way through its complex song structures at breakneck speed. The group’s innovations and instrumental virtuosity didn’t go unnoticed. By 1988, Metallica’s loyal cult following had grown large enough to push the band’s fourth album, …And Justice for All, to number six on the album chart.
Yet despite their success, Metallica felt a need to change. “We had come off the …And Justice for All album and tour. For me, it was pretty obvious that we had taken the progressive, complicated side of Metallica as far as we could take it,” says drummer Lars Ulrich, who writes the bulk of the band’s songs with singer/guitarist James Hetfield. “The songs kept getting longer and more and more sideways. When we took those songs out on the road, we realized that was it. We really needed to make a major change — not so much for commercial reasons, but creatively we had exhausted that route.”
At the same time, Ulrich had begun to rediscover his hard-rock roots by listening to classic sides by the Rolling Stones and AC/DC. “The one thing in Metallica that we had not done was to really sit down and try to write a bunch of short and more to-the-point songs,” he says. “We decided to take what we do in Metallica and make it a little more straightforward and not be so concerned about trying to show our musicianship.”
In June 1990, Ulrich and Hetfield sat down to write songs for Metallica’s fifth album. The first song the duo churned out was “Enter Sandman.” Says Ulrich, “That was the most straightforward, simplest song we had ever written. We did that in two days. That kind of set the tone for the whole record.”
Over the course of the next three months, the band composed the other songs that would round out the album. After initially planning to record the album with longtime producer Flemming Rasmussen, the group opted for a change in the control room as well. Metallica had been impressed with the sound on Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood and decided to ask producer Bob Rock to mix their new album. But Rock wasn’t interested in merely mixing the record — he was familiar with Metallica and wanted to produce the band.
At first, Metallica balked at Rock’s proposition. “But then it became increasingly apparent that we should let someone else in,” says Ulrich. “All those other bands he worked with don’t have much in common with us, but with Bob, they all made their best records. We felt that we still had our best record in us and Bob could help us make it.”
At first, Rock’s professionalism caught the band off-guard. “But once we realized that this guy wasn’t here to fuck up our music, he was here to enhance it, it was full speed ahead,” says Ulrich. Rock brought hundreds of ideas into the studio. He even suggested the use of strings on “Nothing Else Matters.” Quips Ulrich, “When Bob suggested that, after we threw him across the room, we actually discussed it with an open mind.”
With its back-to-basics approach and Rock’s ace production, Metallica (often referred to as The Black Album by fans) proved to be a winner. “Everyone has one album when everything comes together,” says Ulrich. “This was ours.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of August 31, 1991
1. Metallica, Metallica
2. Unforgettable with Love, Natalie Cole
3. C.M.B., Color Me Badd
4. Luck of the Draw, Bonnie Raitt
5. Cooleyhighharmony, Boyz II Men