METALLICA [AKA: THE BLACK ALBUM]

After their magnum opus, Metallica drops completely the thrash metal agenda and aims for other horizons such as album sales and experimentalism and The Black Album is the first step towards those horizons. Although Metallica's music is still (mostly) heavy and aggressive, the harder edge is gone (meaning that this ain't thrash), making the music a lot more accessible to the mainstream public. The bigger proof of that accessibility is that The Black Album is Metallica's best selling album and it was the best selling album when grunge was at the peak of popularity (The Black Album was released only a moth before Nirvana's Nevermind).

The instrumental work, because of the accessibility, is much, MUCH simpler than in ... And Justice for All and master of Puppets. The vocals here are more melodic and smooth than in any other Metallica album before The Black Album, something that goes very well with the instrumental part.

This album has one problem concerning the song distribution. The first half of the album has its best songs and past that part the album slowly becomes quite boring. However, it is not a hard task to sit through the album, i just think that it should be better balanced.

Grade and Final Thoughts

The Black Album can be easily described as a Metallica's B-side and their first step towards a more experimental (and crappy) experience that would be consolidate in the band's later albums Load, Reload and Saint Anger. However, in The Black Album there are still many good songs, like Enter Sandman, Holier Than Thou, The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters and My Friend of Misery. The last song of the album, The Struggle Within, will be pretty much a preview of the rubbish that Metallica would eventually put out, at least for the next three albums.

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