Beyond The Beat Ep. 13 | Metallica - The Black Album

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Nothing’s worse than when a band stops taking chances and puts out the same record 4 times in a row. But it’s scary to get out of your comfort zone, away from something tried and true. By 1990, Metallica was faced with that crossroad. They had built a solid following over the course of 4 albums, staying loyal to their mission of producing bone-crunching thrash metal. But it was very much the blueprint of Metallica up to that point. Apocalyptic lyrics layered over sophisticated music. For the 4 members of Metallica, just the fact people could put their music into a formula was upsetting.

In an era when it was felt that it had all been seen and heard before, there was one corner Metallica had never ventured into before. To make the one record, the one outrageous move – they had sworn as kids they would fight to the death never to make. Yet the one they were now swiftly coming to realize their musical lives might depend on. That is something so blatantly commercial no one could have seen it coming. Or as drummer Lars Ulrich put it “cram Metallica down everybody’s fucking throat all over the fucking world.”

With Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album, more popularly known as The Black Album, not only did it solidify them as thrash metal’s biggest band….but it catapulted them to become the world’s biggest rock band, period.
Their 5th album transgressed every boundary they’d set for themselves, and every one set by the media and public expectation. They had proven that heavy, powerful music could come through more than one medium. Theyʼd added a more commercial dynamic to their music and opened their appeal beyond genre. It wasnʼt until theyʼd fleshed out all the 12 Black Album songs that they realized how far from their thrash roots they had progressed.

The message within the Black Album speaks to the leaps and risks the band members took in making it. It speaks to individualism, liberty, personal development, and the importance of getting out of your comfort zone. It’s an appropriate theme given the enormous amount of work and dedication the album took to produce.
Nevertheless, they pushed through to create an album that would transform their lives. While making it, frontman James Hetfield summed up the band’s philosophy, saying, “I donʼt think we need to justify ourselves at all. Weʼre doing our shit our way. The integrity is there.”
The result speaks for itself, or to echo that statement more poetically, as James would write,

“So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters”