金属制品 (1991)

Metallica (commonly known as The Black Album) is the fifth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on August 12, 1991, by Elektra Records. Recording sessions took place at One on One Recording Studios in Los Angeles over an eight-month span that frequently found Metallica at odds with their new producer Bob Rock. The album marked a change in the band's music from the thrash metal style of their previous four albums to a slower, heavier, and more refined sound.

Metallica promoted Metallica with a series of tours. They also released five singles to promote the album: "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam", and "Sad but True", all of which have been considered to be among the band's best-known songs. The song "Don't Tread on Me" was also issued to rock radio shortly after the album's release but did not receive a commercial single release.

Metallica received widespread critical acclaim and became the band's best-selling album. It debuted at number one in ten countries and spent four consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, making it Metallica's first album to top the album charts. With over 30 million copies sold worldwide, Metallica is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and also one of the best-selling albums in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began. The album was certified 2× Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2025, and has sold over twenty million copies in the United States, being the first album in the SoundScan era to do so.

The band played Metallica in reverse order during the 2012 European Black Album Tour. In 2020, the album was ranked number 235 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. In December 2019, Metallica became the fourth release in American history to enter the 550-week milestone on the Billboard 200. It also became the second-longest charting traditional title in history only behind The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) by Pink Floyd. The album was remastered and reissued as an expanded box set in 2021.

Background and recording

At the time of Metallica's recording, the band's songs were written mainly by frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, with Hetfield being the lyricist. The duo frequently composed together at Ulrich's house in Berkeley, California. Several song ideas and concepts were conceived by other members of the band, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Jason Newsted. For instance, Newsted wrote the main riff of "My Friend of Misery", which was originally intended to be an instrumental, one of which had been included on every previous Metallica album. The songs were written in two months in mid-1990; the ideas for some of them were originated during the Damaged Justice Tour. Metallica was impressed with Bob Rock's production work on Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood (1989) and decided to hire him to work on their album. Initially, the band members were not interested in having Rock producing the album as well, but changed their minds. Ulrich said, "We felt that we still had our best record in us and Bob Rock could help us make it".