Heavy metal has steadily increased in popularity. Initially it was dismissed and ignored by music critics and the music industry. Radio airplay was rare. But while other offshoots of rock came and went, heavy metal just kept on going.

Metallica established themselves in the eighties playing heavy metal. They also played ballads influenced by Ennio Morricone's movie scores for Spaghetti Westerns. They were determined to do things their way in defiance of the music trends. Metallica explored extended song formats with varied time signatures when such things were shunned as being an indulgent excess of the seventies.

The Black Album released in the early nineties brought the band wide commercial success. It includes the classic tracks 'Enter Sandman', 'The Unforgiven' and 'Nothing Else Matters.' It also includes a sabre rattling song for the Gulf War era in 'Don't Tread on Me.' The song intro includes a few bars of 'America' from West Side Story to let us know that we shouldn't take the jingoistic lyrics too literally.

The lyrics to 'The God that Failed' are probably the most personal that James Hetfield has written. His mother was a devout Christian Scientist but her faith didn't save her from dying of cancer. Traditional medicine may have.

'My Friend of Misery' features a rare co-writing credit for the bass player, Jason Newsted. The bass is given more space in this song than elsewhere on the album.

After attaining success under their own terms Metallica then started playing the media game and became more mainstream. I don't have any problem with the band mellowing with age but some of their fans accused them of selling out.

A good example of how mainstream Metallica became is the concert they did with the San Francisco Symphony at the end of nineties. Michael Kamen provided the orchestral arrangement. He previously provided the orchestration for 'Nothing Else Matters' from the Black Album. The mix of Symphony and band worked out surprisingly well. The concert includes most of the band's best songs and is a good summary of their career. It is available as a video.

Assimilation into mainstream rock was confirmed by Metallica's inclusion in the soundtrack of the mainstream movie Mission Impossible 2. Getting into movie soundtracks is not surprising considering their associations with the prolific movie soundtrack composers Morricone and Kamen.

Metallica's legal battle against MP3 music sites on the Internet has been well publicised. It is ironic to see former rebels siding with mainstream recording companies battling to retain their profits.

Metallica are among the best exponents of heavy metal in recent years. One of the criticisms often made of heavy metal is that it all sounds the same. Metallica has more variety in their music than most other metal bands. Every fan of heavy rock should have at least one Metallica album in their collection and the Black Album is their masterpiece.




This is the best album Metallica have done since 1986's Master of Puppets. Its by far and away the best of the recent metallica material, and has classic songs like 'Enter Sandman' ,'The Unforgiven' and 'Nothing Else Matters'. This album is the one that broke metallica into the mainstream thanks to its superb softer moments.

However, it still has plenty of great heavy metal, but this album really does mark the band moving out of the Thrash Metal era and into the mainstream.




I think this album is good, like every thing from Metallica, but not as good as their early material... If you're new to Metallica then this is the album you gotta buy but if you know and like their early work you will find this album a bit disappointing... Since Cliff died in 1986 the band lost some power... This album can never be compared to "Master of Puppets" or "Ride The Lightning". Of course some fascinanting tracks like "Enter Sandman", "Sad But True" and "Nothing Else Matters" mark this album but this songs pale in comparison to "Master of Puppets", "Fade To Black" or "One". However it stills has those cool heavy riffs that are loyal to Metallica's trash metal style. The drums performed by Lars Ulrich are very good. The bass is much better than the one from their previous album "...And Justice For All". The lyrics are awesome and the guitars too but not as good as in those early albums. But HEY this is Metallica! Of course it rocks!!!




What can be said about Metallica's fabled "black album" that hasn't already been said. Not much. But for those who are just getting into Metallica this is the perfect album with which to do so. Gone are the longer eight minute tracks of previous albums and their sound is much more mainstream. A number of the songs from this album were released into the charts.

This album is widely regarded as being one of Metallica's best, even by hardcore fans who claim that Metallica died when their bassist, the legendary Cliff Burton was tragically killed. Nonetheless Jason Newstead does a remarkable job of filling in for Cliff and the new sound is amazing. While the rest of the band remains unchanged, the sound they produce is radically different. Gone are the likes of heavier songs such as "Master of Puppets", and there are no truly epic songs such as "One".

But don't go thinking that this album is any worse because of this. The opening track "Enter Sandman" is astounding and was the song that originally introduced me to Metallica. One of the best opening songs on any metal album, ever. An absolute classic. "Sad But True" follows up and while cannot quite match the opening track, does very well to compete among the better tracks of Metallica's career. The tracks that follow these follow the same standard with very few slips. In particular "Holier then thou", "Wherever I may roam" and "The unforgiven" are other notable tracks.

In short, if you want to get into Metallica but are not sure whether you will like the heavier stuff, buy this album. If you like ANY other Metallica album, buy this one. It won't do you wrong.




Called "the Black Album" by many (due to its monochrome cover), Metallica marks the group's entrance into the mainstream, with shorter songs, simpler song structures and slower tempos overall. That said, this is an excellent album, featuring some of the best songwriting Metallica has ever done. "Enter Sandman", "Wherever I May Roam" and "God That Failed", despite being slower and more groove-oriented than the band's earlier work, feature the same heavy riffs and heavier rhythms that have always been a feature of Metallica's music. The band goes introspective with "Unforgiven" and proves that they can write a ballad with "Nothing Else Matters", which succeeds better than one might expect. Overall, this is a high-energy album despite its laid-back approach and is in many ways superior to the previous ... And Justice for All, which was weakened by overly complicated song structures and mediocre production.