1. Enter Sandman
2. Sad but True
3. Holier Than Thou
4. Unforgiven
5. Wherever I May Roam
6. Don't Tread on Me
7. Through the Never
8. Nothing Else Matters
9. Of Wolf and Man
10. God That Failed
11. My Friend of Misery
12. Struggle Within

all music guide
After the muddled production and ultra-complicated song structures of ...And Justice For All, Metallica decided that they had taken the progressive elements of their music as far as they could and that a simplification and streamlining of their sound was in order. While the assessment made sense from a musical standpoint, it also presented an opportunity to commercialize their music, and Metallica accomplishes both goals. The best songs are more melodic and immediate, the crushing, stripped-down grooves of "Enter Sandman," "Sad But True," and "Wherever I May Roam" sticking to traditional structures and using the same main riffs throughout; the crisp, professional production by Bob Rock adds to their accessibility. "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters" avoid the slash-and-burn guitar riffs that had always punctuated the band's ballads; the latter is a full-fledged love song complete with string section, which works much better than might be imagined. The song- and riff-writing slips here and there, a rare occurrence for Metallica, which some longtime fans interpreted as filler next to a batch of singles calculated for commercial success. The objections were often more to the idea that Metallica was doing anything explicitly commercial, but millions more disagreed. In fact, the band's popularity exploded so much that most of their back catalog found mainstream acceptance in its own right, while other progressively inclined speed-metal bands copied the move toward simplification. In retrospect, Metallica is a good, but not quite great, album, one whose best moments deservedly captured the heavy metal crown, but whose approach also foreshadowed a creative decline. 4/5
Q
Clothed in a stark black sleeve, Metallica's fifth album deliberately simplifies the more elongated progressive pieces that dominated ...And Justice For All. Producer Bob Rock has wedded their undiminished sense of attack with their increasing flair for melody and some nifty arrangements that blend acoustic guitars and some sterling wah-wah guitar solos from Kirk Hammett. James Hetfield's lyrical landscape remains as bleak as ever with songs like the single Enter Sandman and The God That Failed exploring some of the darker aspects of childhood. Refreshingly free of the airbrushed production and ham-fisted imagery that dominates so much of the genre, Metallica manage to rekindle the kind of intensity that fired the likes of Black Sabbath before metal fell in love with its own cliches. 3/5
rolling stone
The first thing you notice about Metallica's new album is that it sounds great. The band's previous disc, . . . And Justice for All, seemed a model of hard-rock clarity and punch when it was released in 1988. Played back-to-back with Metallica, Justice sounds almost thin; the new record's sonic textures and audio depth of field are a revelation.

But Metallica isn't simply a superspiffy engineering job. Its detail and dynamics are essentially musical in concept, part and parcel of the arrangements, song structures and impact of individual tracks. The first few bars of the opening cut, "Enter Sandman," tell the tale. The song begins with the fade-in of a chugging guitar riff. As the riff rises to full volume, ushering in the rhythm section, an entirely different guitar texture, sounding like a phased, finger-picked, electric twelve-string, comes in under and behind the primary riff. All this subtlety draws the listener in, focusing attention. When drummer Lars Ulrich enters, the whack of his first snare-drum accent seems to jump right out of the record and into the middle of the room. By the time you're half a minute into Metallica, musicianship, arrangements and engineering are working hand in hand to define the parameters of a sonic space that the entire disc will claim as its field of interaction.

In stylistic terms, Metallica is about diversity. Justice, and to a lesser extent the 1986 breakthrough album Master of Puppets, connected one song to another with related themes and riff structures; these were unified works, almost thrash-metal concept albums. Each of the twelve songs on Metallica stands on its own. The multipart musical structures that paced the much longer compositions on Justice haven't been abandoned, but the forms have been telescoped into songs in the four- to six-minute range. Whenever a passing musical moment reaches out and grabs you, it's a pretty safe bet that you won't be hearing it again until the next time you play the album.

When a band slaps an eponymous title on its fifth album, some sort of redefinition is implied. And in fact, Metallica is a long, long way from the charged momentum and skullfuck imagery of the early material created with original lead guitarist Dave Mustaine (now the general of Megadeth) and the late bassist and band spark plug Cliff Burton. Several of the songs on Metallica are downright gentle. "Enter Sandman," possibly the first metal lullaby, does advise the child it addresses: "Hush little baby, don't say a word/And never mind that noise you heard/It's just the beasts under your bed/In your closet, in your head." But the song's delicately layered guitar textures and the unmistakable empathy in James Hetfield's vocals signify an abiding affection. "Nothing Else Matters" doesn't even pretend to tough it out. It is hardly an MTV lite-metal ballad, but the soaring vocal harmonies on the chorus, the delicate acoustic-and electric-guitar interplay between Hetfield and Kirk Hammett and the way Ulrich deftly blends his orchestra chimes and cymbals into the guitar harmonies make it a ballad all the same. Hetfield's lyrics offer a key to the more personal, directly emotional drift of the album when he sings: "Never opened myself this way/Life is ours, we live it our way/All these words I don't just say/And nothing else matters."

Several songs on Metallica seem destined to become hard-rock classics. "Wherever I May Roam" blossoms from a sitarlike opening into a stomping but lyrical power-chord rocker, with Jason Newsted's chordal bass voiced with the guitars to provide that unmistakable Metallica crunch. When Hetfield sings, "My body lie, but still I roam," he echoes, perhaps unconsciously, one of bluesman Robert Johnson's most indelible images. Structurally diverse but containing a transcendently melancholy and melodic chorus, the song sounds like an anthem in the making, but an anthem kept to a human scale. "The Unforgiven," "My Friend of Misery" and "Sad but True" seem likely to have a comparable staying power. And Metallica doesn't neglect the head bangers, the group's original constituency. "Through the Never," "Of Wolf and Man" and "The Struggle Within" are hard-edge and hard driving, and even the prettiest songs forgo any hint of radio-ready sweetening.

Metallica is no longer the cutting edge of metal, as it was in the beginning, but the band is expanding its musical and expressive range on its own terms. This can only be a positive step for a group that is effectively bridging the gap between commercial metal and the much harder thrash of Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth.

Metallica's only sour note is "Don't Tread on Me," which seems unequivocally jingoistic. After the impassioned protest against war and social injustice on . . . And Justice for All, "Tread" comes as a shock. Message to the members of Metallica: Check out the lavishly funded Hill and Knowlton public-relations campaign that sold the gulf war to America's couch potatoes. Do a little research on the game of musical chairs that finds Republican bigwigs shuffling back and forth between top-level cabinet posts and key boardroom positions with certain oil-rich multinationals. Go fight in a war yourselves. Then wave the flag and jump on the yellow-ribbon bandwagon, if you still want to. "Don't Tread on Me" rings hollow in its music as well as its lyrics, the only outright bummer on an otherwise exemplary album of mature but still kickass rock & roll. 5/5
mouthshut
After the muddled production and ultra-complicated song structures of ...And Justice For All, Metallica decided that they had taken the progressive elements of their music as far as they could, and that a simplification and streamlining of their sound was in order. While the assessment made sense from a musical standpoint, it also presented an opportunity to commercialize their music, and Metallica accomplishes both goals.

The best songs are more melodic and immediate, the crushing, stripped-down grooves of ’’Enter Sandman,’’ ’’Sad But True,’’ and ’’Wherever I May Roam’’ sticking to traditional structures and using the same main riffs throughout the crisp, professional production by Bob Rock adds to their accessibility. ’’The Unforgiven’’ and ’’Nothing Else Matters’’ avoid the slash-and-burn guitar riffs that had always punctuated the band’s ballads the latter is a full-fledged love song complete with string section, which works much better than might be imagined.

The song- and riff-writing slips here and there, a rare occurrence for Metallica, which some longtime fans interpreted as filler next to a batch of singles calculated for commercial success. The objections were often more to the idea that Metallica was doing anything explicitly commercial, but millions more disagreed. In fact, the band’s popularity exploded so much that most of their back catalog found mainstream acceptance in its own right, while other progressively inclined speed-metal bands copied the move toward simplification.

In retrospect, Metallica is a good, but not quite great, album, one whose best moments deservedly captured the heavy metal crown, but whose approach also foreshadowed a creative decline.
metal1
The called Longplayer? because of its Cover?Artwork? affectionately and simply also the black album is called? marks the turning point in Metallicas career. The predecessor?... and Justice For universe? was the last thrashige work, the successor?Load? then did the hard fans frighten and also many different because of its slow-acting and commercial kind off?Metallica? is thus between good and badly...

The Opener?Enter Sandman? is probably one of the most well-known Metallica songs at all, but it is not particularly exciting. Rather weak reefs, but altogether a good Song, which loses its effect however with the time. But True? then probably offers the simplest reef of volume history (no miracle, if even Moechtegerns copy that such as Kid skirt then 1:1... sic!). Quite straight and heavy, nevertheless only in the Midtempo however very strongly! With a marvelously thrashigen reef?Holier Than Thou waits? up, as one may see it here only more rarely. Unforgiven? is a classical Metal Ballade? darkly, melancholisch and simply only condemns well, in addition very pressureful. With unusual eastern sounds?Wherever I May Roam begins?, and is a Banger of the easily faster sort, which over the entire 6 ½ minutes can convince. The Bringer is less?Don?t Tread on ME?, that simply does not want to please me? one the weakest Songs on?Metallica?.

The half dozen is fully, better, fast and hard wird?s then again with the straighten Thrasher?Trough The Never?, is with 4 the minutes unfortunately somewhat briefly guessed/advised. Which follows now, is the song, which actually knows everyone. The numerous Grammys ran up for the volume, was the commercial break-through in the career on the music transmitters and down, brought one? the speech is natural from the killer Ballade?Nothing Else Matters?. Hard or fast, but does not condemn well, and which counts. Correctly metallically wird?s then only again with?Of wolf and one?. Here a true reef carpet is submitted, just like with?The God That Failed?, as I find one the best Songs of volume history at all and an absolute highlight, although rather settled in the Midtempo, am nevertheless correctly arduous it for each splenius of the neck with a Fuenkchen understanding. With two further classical authors? Friend OF Misery? and the ingenious?The Struggle Within? the chapter?Schwarzes album closes?.

At the same time however unfortunately God also the chapter?alte Metallica closes?. We all know around what came to it? slowly-acting, sluggish and boring albums as?Load? and?ReLoad? or the terrible disorder?S&M?. Unfortunately commerce and did Mainstream make large volume broken?Metallica? Metallicas is already last good album, for some the beginning of the end.
entertainment inuk
With the surprise choice of producer of Bob Rock on board the revitalised Metallica delivered the most successful and possibly the best album of their career. For myself personally, it was my introduction to Metallica that compelled me to purchased their back catalogue and every album since. Once of the 90s best rock anthems Enter Sandman still stands the test of time with it's simplistic (by Metallica standards) song structure and lyrics dealing with nightmares and the bogeyman. No longer the super aggressive young guns of the past, the album's pace was slower and contained far more groove than before, most noticeable on the riff heavy Sad But True and pro-American Don't Tread On Me. The most talked about moment is the orchestra heavy Nothing Else Matters with soothing vocals from Hetfield and a rare glimpse into lyrics of love, which is a first for a band intent on serious issues. This milestone record ends with the mid-tempo The Struggle Within with makes a change from previous releases, ending the most accessible Metallica album (at that time before Load) on a high. It has been noted that every father who weans his son onto Metal gives a copy of The Black Album as a coming of age present which explains why this album as been a steady seller for over a decade now. 10/10
apex
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.