Metallica have announced they will be releasing a reissue of their 1991 self-titled album, most often referred to as the Black Album.
The remastered album will be available on Sept. 10 in a variety of formats including a Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set containing over 24 hours of live material, demos, rough mixes and interviews on 14 CDs, 5 DVDs and 5 LPs.
The group also announced that The Metallica Blacklist, a tribute album featuring 53 different artists covering their favorite Black Album songs, will arrive on Sept. 10. There will also be a separate photo book, Metallica: The Black Album in Black & White, arriving on Oct. 19.
The reissue arrives as the latest installment of Metallica’s series of retrospective releases — the band put forth expanded editions of both Kill ‘Em All and Ride the Lightning, in 2016, Master of Puppets in 2017, and, most recently, … And Justice for All in November 2018.
The Black Album, however, marks a particularly important turning point in the band’s career. Pivoting from their usual thrash metal style to a slower, smoother sound proved to be a worthwhile decision — the Black Album became Metallica’s first album to top the album charts, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In 2020, it re-entered the Billboard 200 chart, making it not only the fourth longest charting album, but also the No. 1 best selling album in Nielsen history.
“I never pictured in my mind what having a No. 1 album meant,” then bassist Jason Newsted said to Rolling Stone, “because I never thought it was possible to have a No. 1 record with the kind of music we played.”
“I know we’re No. 1 completely on our own terms,” drummer Lars Ulrich added. “This whole thing was done our way. There is an inner satisfaction about that, to give a major ‘Fuck you’ to the business itself and the way you’re supposed to play the game and the way we dealt with all that shit up through the mid ’80s.”
This is a developing story.
