Sunday Spin: Metallica

SANDMAN ENTERS, LEGEND SECURED

This week in 1991 Metallica‘s self-titled album, a matte black slab with a crudely drawn snake and band logo ghostly superimposed on the cover, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts. Three years on from …And Justice For All, which crowned them the reigning kings of metal, Metallica brought the California speed masters into living rooms worldwide, retooling their gristle-in-the-teeth, hell-on-greased-rails style into something capable of holding its own on MTV. Controversial amongst fans who wanted their “Metal Up Your Ass” band to remain a cult property, Metallica is a painstakingly crafted, nigh ridiculously focused affair, trimming the sludge-prog tendencies of earlier efforts and establishing an emotional intimacy and musical tautness rivaled by few of their peers.

Perhaps the biggest middle finger raised on Metallica is to their fans that insisted the band not change, evolve or become remotely more accessible. It’s hardly a happy-clappy record, but there’s a palpable increase in melodic character and the ballsy production from oft-maligned Bob Rock (Motley Crue, The Cult) is clean but crushing, ever present even as it snakes around your speakers. If one can stand the emotional maelstrom, it’s a super killer bong hit ‘n’ headphones album, one of those journeys that feels far longer than the hour you just spent, eyes closed and body eerily still, in your beanbag chair. Kicking off with a classic rock tune on par with “Dream On” or “Locomotive Breath,” the album winds through some downright gorgeous acoustic passages and shamelessly bombastic sections, too, Metallica might not be Master of Puppets but it may be the more influential album in the greater scheme. Like another major release the same year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Blood Sugar Sex Magik, it showed the courage of a well established band to follow their convictions, even if they led them away from certain parts of their past and existing fanbase. Hindsight has proven the decision a smart one for Metallica but at the time they made it, firmly entrenched as the heaviest major band on Earth, it took some courage, and the work itself holds up nicely, unlike most albums from the early ’90s. Credit due all around.

Track listing:

1. Enter Sandman
2. Sad But True
3. Holier Than Thou
4. The 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. The God That Failed
11. My Friend of Misery
12. The Struggle Within

We’re off to Never Never Land with this 1991 performance of “Enter Sandman” at the ginormous Monsters of Rock concert in Moscow.

Here’s “The Unforgiven” at this year’s Bonnaroo Festival.

James Hetfield discusses “The God That Failed,” including footage from the original recordings sessions .

We wrap this week’s remembrance of great albums of the past with “Through The Never” pummeled nicely in San Diego in 1992.

Metallica’s long awaited new album, Death Magnetic, releases worldwide on September 12th. To hear the first officially released cut, “The Day That Never Comes,” pop over here. The real meat is in the second half, which is some of the finest, heaviest instrumental work these dudes have done in more than a decade.