Published: May 28, 2025
To commemorate its 30th anniversary in 2021, the Grammy-winning Black Album received its definitive re-release via the band's own Blackened Recordings.
Two of METALLICA's landmark albums have attained new RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) certifications. METALLICA's self-titled fifth album, also known as The Black Album, has been certified 20 times platinum for sales in excess of 20 million copies, while the band's third full-length, "Master Of Puppets", has been certified eight times platinum having crossed the eight million mark.
The Black Album's 1991 release not only gave METALLICA its first No. 1 album in no fewer than 10 countries, including a four-week run at No. 1 in the U.S., its unrelenting series of singles — "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad But True" — fueled the band's rise to stadium headlining, radio and MTV dominating household name status. The album's reception from the press was similarly charged, building over the years from the top 10 of the 1991 Village Voice Pazz & Jop national critics poll to becoming a constant presence in the likes of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time". The Black Album's impact and relevance continue to grow with successive generations — it remains unchallenged as the best-selling album of the Luminate era, outselling every release in every genre over the past 30-plus years.
Back in September 2021, "Metallica" re-entered the Billboard 200 chart at position No. 9. It marked the first time in 29 years that the LP had cracked the Top 10 following the set's 30th-anniversary reissue on September 10, 2021.
Prior to September 2021, "Metallica" was last in the top 10 in August 1992 after spending four weeks at No. 1.
To commemorate its 30th anniversary in 2021, the Grammy-winning Black Album received its definitive re-release via the band's own Blackened Recordings.
"Metallica" was the first of four collaborations with producer Bob Rock, with whom the band clashed throughout the recording of the disc.
METALLICA performed The Black Album in its entirety at a number of European festivals in 2012.
METALLICA's 1986 breakthrough third LP "Master Of Puppets" has attained eight-times-platinum status, having sold more than eight million albums. The heaviest rock album ever to be selected by the Library Of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," "Master Of Puppets" has long been regarded as a watershed moment in the history of rock music. The album's peerless balance of sheer power and complex song craft would earn METALLICA its first gold record, elevating the band to new heights of critical acclaim on the strength of enduring favorites including "Battery", "Orion" and, of course, the title track, speaking of which…
… "Master Of Puppets" recently followed "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters" as the third METALLICA song to join the billion streams club, becoming the second longest song to do so. Clocking in at 8:36, "Master…" now sits between former second longest billion streamer "Stairway To Heaven" by LED ZEPPELIN (8:02) and reigning champion Taylor Swift's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)".
Three years ago, the "Master Of Puppets" title track saw new life in the U.S. after its inclusion in season four of Netflix's hit series "Stranger Things". The popularity of the 1986 song brought it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever in the band's lengthy career.
