why does make you download their full album Why Is It Taking METALLICA So Long To Write And Record New Music? Explains. METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo was recently interviewed by host Mitch Joel of the "Groove - The No Treble Podcast" . You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET ). On the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to METALLICA 's 2008 album, "" : "I'm having a great time, and we're having a really great time. And it's actually fun. "We've been jamming on lots of new ideas — frameworks, so to speak. And, you know, James [ Hetfield , vocals/guitar] is getting into working up melodies and experimenting on that level. But it's really, like, kind of, you work out parts, a process of elimination, and then you jam 'em out. We jam' em out and get 'em into your system, make 'em a part of you. "That was one of the cool things that [producer] Rick Rubin had conveyed back when we were putting together for the last album. It was, like, 'imagine yourself playing these new songs and you have to prove yourself to these fans in this small little bar or club who you've never seen in your life.' And so he was, like, 'Stand up. Everybody stand up.' We could be in the studio, right?! But it's, like, 'Stand up and perform these songs. Make 'em a part of you,' basically. And it was that kind of motivational speech that really made sense, you know?! At the end of the day, it made sense. 'Cause it's just too easy to sit there and go over your parts. So when I was tracking bass, I was actually standing up and rocking. [ Laughs ] "At the end of the day, whether it's riffs, or just arrangement, lyrics… the whole experience of writing a , especially with METALLICA , it's involved, it takes time, it's a process. When I played in the INFECTIOUS GROOVES , it was a bit different, because we would actually go in and we [would spend], say, four hours a day, five days a week [working on ideas], and we would come out with two to three jams, song formats — blueprints, I should say — and we'd put 'em on a cassette tape. And then the next time we'd get together, we'd be in a studio recording the album. And Mike Muir , the singer back then, would have taken those cassettes and worked up the lyrics and the melodies, and, 'See you in the studio.' Next thing you know, we're playing 'em. And the drums would usually happen in the second take. We always wanted to catch the magic of the first take, or the second take. Now that's very different than what happens with METALLICA . But every situation is different. There's different magic that you wanna capture." "For us right now, we're basically in a kind of scenario where we're nurturing the arrangements. And everything, really, is nurtured. It's like the transitions… trying everything you can try. That's just how it is. And I think that's what makes METALLICA 's music great and special. Because it's that kind of pride, and, really, you're working on art piece. And it's gotta be right. And what does that mean? That means exploring. James always has a handful of words for one possible word. Maybe this word doesn't work out. Let's try these. It's a lot of work, and it's time- consuming, but at the same time, it's important, and it needs to be done that way, because the end result is what we hear from METALLICA , what everybody loves. If it wasn't that way, it wouldn't be METALLICA . In the same way that if… I was using INFECTIOUS GROOVES as an example. You know, that's how INFECTIOUS GROOVES should make records. It should be this spontaneous energy and capturing that magic on the second take or whatever. But with METALLICA , it's a different style and way to achieve a very special goal." On the drive to make new music and be involved in other creative outlets: "I feel fortunate because one of the things that is relly special about playing in METALLICA is that, actually, the members of METALLICA enjoy being creative, enjoy challenge and all the things that most bands, as they get a little bit older and a little bit deeper in their career, they get a little bit lax in terms of wanting to write songs. I mean, you'd be surprised how many known bands actually start writing with outside writers and stuff like that, and aren't actually writing their songs anymore. With us, it's kind of the opposite. We've got so many song ideas and riffs and bass lines and whatever — just an abundance of ideas, musically, from years and years of jamming — that the hardest thing is trying to eliminate. It's like a process of elimination when we write. So it's just great to be with an inspired group of kind of old guys, you know. [ Laughs ]" On what he means when he says that the members of METALLICA still enjoy being creative: "As a band, when I say that, I think about the film 'Through The Never' , the 3D movie we made… I guess it would have came out [in 2013]. But that's… in a lot of ways, it's a creative adventure. I mean, we oversaw the narrative, for the most part, and the stage production and a lot of that. And it took a couple of years out of our lives, and those were a couple of years that we really needed to be writing, you know. I mean, a lot of the fans have been waiting for a new album. Now it's been, I think… it must be about five years or something. I can't even remember. Put it this way: in the time that we made 'Death Magnetic' , as far as creating and writing the songs to the time that we finished touring it, there were five children born amongst us. It's kind of crazy and wild and funny. But I think the thing that kind of throws us off is we get caught up, again, in our own creativity. So whether it's recording an album with or creating a 3D film… those are creative projects, those are challenges, those are things that, I guess, we're not necessarily supposed to be doing. In the world of rock and roll, it's like… Working with Lou Reed , for us, was a really special moment. He was an icon. And especially for, I think, Lars [ Ulrich , drums] and James , it was really going outside the box for them. Being in that creative bubble that METALLICA has, and as writers, stepping outside that to work with an alternative icon — really, a rock and roll icon, I wanna say — and being maybe, possibly humbled by the fact that, you know, we're not the bosses, they're not the bosses. There's another guy who's gonna be the boss, and we're gonna work with this man. So I'd say our derailment, or our sort of getting thrown off the path, was definitely based on creative challenges. Or tour… trying different things, like the 'request' show, or playing '' in its entirety, or the 'Black Album', celebrating that. The Fillmore… We did the 30-year anniversary, four shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco where we played songs that METALLICA had recorded centered around other artists, like DIAMOND HEAD , or DANZIG , or BLACK SABBATH , and we actually invited some of those members, or all of those members, to come up and play those same songs with us. Now, who does that? I mean, we're not making money; we're losing money. We're doing it because METALLICA loves to take on the challenge, and those are challenges that would usually scare people. So we take the hit. A lot of people don't know that. [They think], ' METALLICA . Oh, rich rock stars.' But those things cost money. We take a hit and we lose… Even our festival, Orion , we didn't make money off that — we lost money. Bu, hey, at the end of the day, it's fun, and we can only try." On Black Friday "," November 28, 2014, METALLICA released a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl of "Lords Of Summer" . Side A features the "First Pass" (studio) version of the new song "Lords Of Summer" as well as a previously unreleased live version recorded at the Rock In Rome Sonisphere festival on July 1, 2014. Side B features a laser etching of the METALLICA "M" logo. This collectable vinyl is only available through independent retail and Metallica.com . METALLICA last year completed a tour where the band played a nearly all-request set, with 17 songs chosen online by fans prior to each gig and the last slot filled by "Lords Of Summer" . Metallica's Black Album: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Metal's Biggest Breakout Record. Metallica were arguably the biggest underground band in the world when they set upon making the follow-up to 1988's . And Justice for All , but the creative and commercial leap they made with their 1991 self-titled LP — better known as the "Black Album" — is still mind-blowing, even in retrospect. Justice' s sprawling, intricate, multi-part political epics were focused into concise, personal heavy pop songs; frontman actually started legitimately singing, not just yelling; and the production was crisp and sharp, especially compared to its predecessor's virtually bass- less mix, making songs like "" and smash lead single "" simply explode through speakers and headphones. On the commercial side, the Black Album was a massive hit at the time, catapulting Metallica to full-fledged superstardom, but what's even more remarkable is its staying power. The record continues to outsell major new releases every week and stands as one of the best-selling albums of all time of any genre. "It was like your older brother went to college and became Bill Gates," Anthrax's Charlie Benante said to Revolver in 2011, looking back on his friends and fellow thrashers' unimaginable breakthrough. "It was like, 'Make sure you write sometimes please.' And that was it. No longer was there really the Big 4. Metallica was this thing unto itself. They were this huge entity. When they have a record like the 'Black Album,' when something is like Back in Black or Dark Side of the Moon , that's it. That's it, you know, goodbye. You don't need anything else." Here, in celebration of the record that turned Metallica into a "huge entity" are 10 things you likely didn't know about the Black Album. 1. The Black Album's shorter, more streamlined songs were a reaction against . And Justice for All' s proggy excess "​To me, the …And Justice For All album sounds horrible, awful, can't fucking stand it," James Hetfield told Uncut bluntly in 2007. "That was our fancy stage, showing off too much. We knew we had to move on and the Black Album was the opposite. So when me and Lars got back together after a short break, I said, 'We gotta really try and write some shorter, to-the-point songs.'" Hetfield wasn't alone in feeling like Metallica had gone too far off the proggy deep end with Justice . "We realized that the general consensus was that songs were too fucking long," revealed to Rolling Stone in 1991. "Everyone [ in the crowd ] would have these long faces, and I'd think, 'Goddamn, they're not enjoying it as much as we are . I remember getting offstage one night after playing 'Justice' and one of us saying, 'Fuck, that's the last time we ever play that fucking song!'" 2. "Enter Sandman" was originally about crib death The Black Album's opening cut and lead single, "Enter Sandman" is worthy of it's own "Things You Didn't Know" piece (and guess what? here it is), but one of the most surprising facts about the song is its extremely off-putting original theme: crib death. "Y'know, baby suddenly dies, the sandman killed it," the Hetfield described it in 2007. The lyrics were so grim — including the line "Disrupt the perfect family" instead of "Off to never never land" — that and stepped in. "I can remember when I wrote the lyrics to 'Enter Sandman,' Bob Rock and Lars came to me and said, 'These aren't as good as they could be.'" the singer recalled to Guitar World in 2008. "And that pissed me off so much. I was like, 'Fuck you! I'm the writer here!' That was the first challenge from someone else, and it made me work harder." 3. The guitar solo on "Enter Sandman" was inspired, in part, by a sample on an Ice-T album "I think the time has come to reveal where I actually got the guitar lick before the breakdown in 'Enter Sandman,' Hammett told Guitar World . "It's from 'Magic Man,' by Heart, but I didn't get it from Heart's version. I got it from a cut off Ice-T's Power album, where he sampled it. I heard that and thought, I have to snake this!" 4. "Sad but True" was originally written in a higher key and, as a result, wasn't nearly as crushingly heavy When Rock heard the demo for "Sad but True," he thought it was "the 'Kashmir' of the Nineties," referencing the classic Led Zeppelin song. "The riff was astounding," he said to Guitar World . "Rhythmically, I could tell it had the potential to be absolutely crushing!" Then, while in pre-production, he noticed that all the songs that band has brought in, including "Sad but True," were in the key of E. "I brought this to the band's attention, and they said, 'Well, isn't E the lowest note?'" Rock recalled. "So I told them that on Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood , which I produced and Metallica loved, the band had tuned down to D. Metallica then tuned down to D, and that's when the riff really became huge. It was this force that you just couldn't stop, no matter what." 5. "" was not intended to be a Metallica song or to be played for "other people" "It was a song written in hotel rooms on [ Justice ] tour about missing friends at home, being out for such a long time," Hetfield told Jeff Woods in 2016. "That was a song that was not meant to be played for other people, it was for me. I think that's important — to write music that makes you feel good, I've got quite a few songs that are like that. 'Nothing Else Matters' was heard by the band, they thought it was amazing. I though, 'You're crazy. That's just this sappy ballady thing that makes me feel OK.' 'No, that's good!'" That said, at least one other Metallica member was initially uncomfortable with the song, as well. "All I could think of at the time was, James wrote a fucking love song to his girlfriend?" Hammett said to Playboy in 2001. "That's just weird." For his part, Hetfield was so unsure about releasing "Nothing Else Matters" as a Metallica song that when the band debuted the Black Album with a free listening party at Madison Square Garden on August 3rd, 1991, he was afraid diehard fans might become physically ill upon hearing it. "I was just waiting for 'Nothing Else Matters' to come on," the singer recalls in the book Metallica Unbound . "You know, to see if these people just look at each other and throw up!" To his surprise and relief, "people were pretty into it, which," he adds, "was pretty amazing." 6. James Hetfield's vocals on "The Unforgiven" and "Nothing Else Matters" were inspired by Chris Isaak Hetfield's singing took a huge step forward on the Black Album, evolving from a primal thrash-metal yell to a much more nuanced and wide-ranging rock vocal. When making that leap, the Metallica frontman looked to Chris Isaak, particularly his song "Wicked Game," which was a massive early-Nineties hit, and with which Hetfield "was very enamored," according to Rock. "[ Hetfield ] played me a Chris Isaak record, and he said, 'On 'Nothing Else Matters' and 'The Unforgiven,' I want to sing. How do you sing like this?'" the producer recalled on Chris Jericho's Talk Is Jericho podcast in 2015. "I said, 'I'll get you a great vocal sound, so you don't have to double your vocals. What you hear in Chris Isaak's voice is the nuances when he sings — he isn't doubled. He's actually performing. You perform.' We set it up so he was comfortable and had a great vocal sound, and then he sang. Every day he got better, and he got comfortable with it. He became a great singer." 7. Bob Rock thought the lyrics to "Of Wolf and Man" were "silly" "I'll be honest: at first I thought it was silly to write about a wolf," Rock said to Guitar World in 2011. "I was like, 'Oh, great, a song about a wolf. What are you fucking getting at? May as well write about pyramids or something.' When metal goes in these kinds of areas, I lose the plot." He eventually came around. "Then, as we got more into James's lyrics, I realized that the song wasn't silly, that there was an earthiness to it," he recalled. "We talked about making the song go through a transformation, kind of reflecting the lyrics. It took a while. I'm not sure if we got there fully, but we got there most of the way." 8. Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Jason were all going through divorces during the making of the Black Album The personal lives of three of the four Metallica members were in deep disarray as they set upon writing and recording what would prove to be the group's breakthrough album, and that darkness and chaos may have crept into the resulting music. "Lars, Jason and I were going through divorces," Hammett revealed to Playboy . "I was an emotional wreck. I was trying to take those feeling of guilt and failure and channel them into the music, to get something positive out of it. Jason and Lars were, too, and I think that has a lot to do with why the Black Album sounds the way it does." 9. Ulrich came up with the idea of going very stark and simple with the cover art as a reaction against standard, cartoonish metal imagery According to the book Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica , Ulrich was struck with the initial guiding vision for the Black Album's cover art early in the recording process. Author Mick Wall writes that the drummer was "browsing through a typically colorful heavy-metal mag, noticing how the ads for various albums all looked the same," when he realized Metallica had to do something different, Ultimate Classic Rock pointed out. "All these cartoon characters and all this steel and blood and guts," Ulrich said to Wall. "It was like, 'Let's get as far away as possible from this.'" The resulting all-black cover certainly made a statement, which Hetfield expressed succinctly as, "Here it is, black sleeve, black logo, fuck you." 10. Metallica and Bob Rock found working with each other so difficult that they planned to never do it again If you've ever watched the incredible documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica , you know that the making of the Black Album was a tense, contentious affair. "I used to call James Dr. No," Rock told Rolling Stone . "Whenever I was about to make a suggestion that seemed even a little off the wall, he'd say no before I'd even finished the first sentence." Indeed, things were so tense during the recording sessions, that the producer "told the guys when we were done that I'd never work with them again. They felt the same way about me." Of course, things worked out a little differently. After the album's smash success, Rock and Metallica would go on to collaborate over three more albums, Load , Reload and St. Anger. Metallica Makes History With Their Self-Titled Album. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 06: James Hetfield (L) and Lars Ulrich of Metallica perform . [+] during the "S&M2" concerts at the opening night at Chase Center on September 06, 2019 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images) The lower half of the Billboard 200, the chart that ranks the most-consumed albums in the U.S. every week, is often populated by titles that have lived on the ranking for a long time, as they continue to move enough units to find space, but not enough to rise close to the top (which is usually filled with newer releases that perform very well upon their arrival). On the current list, one studio effort makes history by holding on once more, showing that some albums will seemingly never stop moving units. Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album falls to No. 183 this time around, but the fact that it’s present at all is truly impressive. The set has now charted on the Billboard 200 for 550 nonconsecutive weeks, or just over 10 and a half years. That total is one of the most impressive in U.S. history, and the band’s biggest success is one of only a handful of titles that have spent that much time on the list. Metallica is now just the fourth release in American history to hit the 550-week milestone, and it is in some incredible company. Leading the way (and several hundred weeks ahead) is Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon , which is approaching 1,000 frames on the list. In second place among the albums with the most time spent on the ranking is Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Legend , a compilation of their most beloved tunes. In third comes Journey’s Journey's Greatest Hits . The hard rock outfit’s eponymous album may be in fourth place when including all releases, but when focusing solely on traditional albums (and not greatest hits compilations), Metallica stands as the second-longest-charting title in history, and it’s just the second to spend 550 frames on the Billboard 200. Metallica was the band’s first release to rise to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and it started a winning streak that has continued unabated for decades. Since their first chart-topper, the band has collected five additional leaders on the all-genre list, and they’ve maintained their status as perhaps the most popular hard rock collective in the world. Metallica and AC/DC: Why haven't they released a 'Hits' album yet? actually, pink floyd does have a gh package called "echos, the best of pink floyd" but it doesn't have all of the big tracks that radio staitions play. regarding metallica, they would need to do a 2 disc set with pre black and post black albums. Plus, unlike some of these gh artists, most of the albums by the 3 bands mentioned in your post are really good. Correct as usual, King Cory. Released thirty-nine years ago. One thing that really bothers me about "best of" and "greatest hits" is that they always have new or unreleased tracks so people who already have all the albums still have to buy the "Greatest Hits" collection. Also, ever notice that whenever there is a "best of" there is always one or two essential tracks that are convieniently left off. (assuming so you will buy the back catalogue) Not much I can add regarding why the two bands don't have GH albums, so I'll just state what grinds my gears: when a live version is put on a collection in place of its studio version (assuming that the live version is not the popular/definitive recording of the song). It's not so much a problem for those artists that I buy just about anything they put out. For artists that I am just a casual fan of, it is annoying. Obligatory Kids in the Hall quote: "Greatest Hits albums are for housewives and little girls." I like Greatest Hits albums. For me, I'm not such a HUGE fan of AC/DC that I want to buy every album of theirs just to have the songs I want. I would much prefer a 2 CD set containing (for me) the best stuff. I've read the argument that if AC/DC puts out a hits album it will hurt sales of their catalog. I can see that, sure but there is a flipside. Hits albums can introduce people to the band's work and may very well entice them to go back and buy the albums. It can work both ways. Hardcore fans would not likely buy a hits album in the first place seeing as they own all the stuff already, casual fans don't want to buy 10 CDs for a handful of songs htye like. So why not a hits album? Say you're a member of AC/DC (or Metallica) and some exec says they would like a hits album for the holiday season. You damn well KNOW any hits album will be huge for you (either band would debut in the top 10, without a doubt) so even if (and that's a big "if") your catalog saw a slight drop in sales but saw 5 million copies of your hits album fly off the shelves, possibly creating new fans by giving folks a nice overview of your career, wouldn't you go for it? the problem would be that both bands catalogues are HUGE. To do a proper Greatest hits box set for both bands you'd almost have a triple disc set, and stack all three discs to the 80 minute mark. And even than, not everybody will be pleased because everybody's opinions of greatest hits are different. If you are those bands, that's a good problem to have. Myself, I own every Metallica(even the herendous St. Anger, I can't help it I must complete my collection once I start) & ACDC album out(major releases) You'd have to seperate the ACDC's w/bon & without Bon Metallica would have to be Before Black album & after Black. But we aren't talking a dip in sales a few months within release we are talking a permenant dip in sales. Once a GH is out there there is no going back. As for a GH introducing the artist to a new fan, I don't buy it(with these artists). These 2(3 w/Floyd) bands have full CDs full of hits. , Black, Who Made Who, Back in Black, the Wall, DSotM, etc. Anyone who hasn't heard anything from these bands(obviously living under a rock) can pick up any of those albums and have a good taste for the artist and not get stuck with an album of filler. Like I said, these artists are discovered every year by a new high schooler. Kind of like a rite of passage. That has been done all this time w/o a GH. Why fix what ain't broke? Not to mention, at least in the case of Metallica, they've already been accused for selling out once. A greatest hits is just another way of selling out for the quick buck and viewed negatively by the core fans. Maybe a compromise: Not that I'm putting him on par with these two bands, but Garth Brooks's greatest hits disc was only in print for a year and sold over 8 million copies (according to AMG). It'd be interesting to know what kind of impact that put on his catalog, other marketing stunts by him aside. I've read before that AC/DC won't release a GH album because they think it'll hurt/cheapen their existing catalog. If you're looking for a "Greatest Hits," pick up the Big Balls DVD- it's a 2 parter- 1 Bon disc (videos are mostly live performances or TV Appearances) and 1 Brian disc. Maybe a compromise: Not that I'm putting him on par with these two bands, but Garth Brooks's greatest hits disc was only in print for a year and sold over 8 million copies (according to AMG). It'd be interesting to know what kind of impact that put on his catalog, other marketing stunts by him aside. you hit the nail on the head. both bands should put out a double make a limited edition & take it out of print after 3-6 months. Only problem. kids will be downloading this once it hits the market. the internet wasn't as big with downloads during the Garth fiasco. Don't listen to Mettalica, but as for AC/DC I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want the complete albums up through Back in Black. It's album rock. There was a time when I thought it would be cool to make personal compilation discs of bands like Zeppelin, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, etc. and finally gave up in frustration because I couldn't make up my mind what to put in what to leave out. I continue to listen to them they way they were meant to be heard as complete albums. The latest Rolling Stone has an article about artists that haven't allowed there songs to be available for download. One of the reasons Led Zeppelin won't do is because they don't want the albums broken up into songs. Part of their original deal with Atlantic Records back in '68 is that there would be NO singles released. Atlantic snuck a couple out without the band's permission. If Zep ever goes online it'll probably be complete album only and you wont be albe to rearrange the order of the songs. You could probably rearrange using another burning program though if the songs are sperate files. It would be a pretty good deal still since several have only 8 songs. $7.92 for an album. The Song Remains the Same for $8.91. Unless they put a higher total album price above .99/per song. Don't listen to Mettalica, but as for AC/DC I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want the complete albums up through Back in Black. It's album rock. There was a time when I thought it would be cool to make personal compilation discs of bands like Zeppelin, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, etc. and finally gave up in frustration because I couldn't make up my mind what to put in what to leave out. I continue to listen to them they way they were meant to be heard as complete albums. The latest Rolling Stone has an article about artists that haven't allowed there songs to be available for download. One of the reasons Led Zeppelin won't do is because they don't want the albums broken up into songs. Part of their original deal with Atlantic Records back in '68 is that there would be NO singles released. Atlantic snuck a couple out without the band's permission. If Zep ever goes online it'll probably be complete album only and you wont be albe to rearrange the order of the songs. You could probably rearrange using another burning program though if the songs are sperate files. It would be a pretty good deal still since several have only 8 songs. $7.92 for an album. The Song Remains the Same for $8.91. Unless they put a higher total album price above .99/per song. hate to burst your bubble man, but Zep already put out a greatest hits package unless this is one of the albums atlantic snuck in: 1. Good Times, Bad Times 2. Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You 3. Dazed And Confused 4. Communication Breakdown 5. Whole Lotta Love 6. What Is And What Should Never Be 7. Immigrant Song 8. Since I've Been Loving You 9. Black Dog 10. Rock And Roll 11. The Battle Of Evermore 12. When The Levee Breaks 13. Stairway To Heaven. 1. The Song Remains The Same 2. No Quarter 3. Houses Of The Holy 4. Trampled Underfoot 5. Kashmir 6. Ten Years Gone 7. Achilles Last Stand 8. Nobody's Fault But Mine 9. All My Love 10. In The Evening. Metallica’s Black Album: 10 Things You Didn’t Know. Colloquially known as the Black Album, Metallica‘s self-titled fifth album still towers over the modern hard-rock and metal landscape like a giant obsidian monolith. Released 25 years ago today, Metallica – which sold more than 650,000 copies in its first week of release, and spent four consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 in the late summer of 1991 – has gone on to sell over 16 million copies in the U.S. alone, making it the best-selling album of the last quarter-century. And while it’s hard to believe that there is a headbanger alive who doesn’t already own it, the album continues to outpace most new metal releases in terms of sales, moving an average of 5,000 copies a week. Related. Metallica Talk 30 Years of 'Master of Puppets': 'We Were Just Kids' Carcass Wrote the Blueprint for Death-Metal Extremity. Now They Just Want to Write a Great Song. Related. 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time. 20 Overlooked Bob Dylan Classics. Despite (or perhaps because of) its phenomenal success, Metallica continues to be a well-gnawed bone of contention among the band’s hardcore fans, with many believing that radio-friendly hard-rock anthems like “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” utterly betrayed the promise of Metallica’s first four albums. But the band members themselves (along with producer Bob Rock) remain convinced that the album’s more streamlined direction was a necessary step in Metallica’s musical evolution. And hey, 16 million fans can’t be wrong, right? To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album’s release, here are some lesser-known facts about Metallica . 1. The band began writing shorter, simpler songs partly because of how bored their fans looked during their concerts. While the members of Metallica largely felt that they’d taken their progressive-thrash concept as far as they could with 1988’s …And Justice for All , they’d also realized that they’d been testing the patience of their live audiences with epic, convoluted songs like the album’s nearly 10-minute title cut. “We realized that the general consensus was that songs were too fucking long,” lead guitarist Kirk Hammett told Rolling Stone in 1991. “Everyone [in the crowd] would have these long faces, and I’d think, ‘Goddamn, they’re not enjoying it as much as we are.'” Hammett acknowledged that the band was becoming bored with the songs’ intricate arrangements, as well. “I remember getting offstage one night after playing ‘Justice’ and one of us saying, ‘Fuck, that’s the last time we ever play that fucking song!'” 2. “Enter Sandman” was the very first thing the band wrote for the album. Hooky, sinister and hard-grooving, “Enter Sandman” perfectly encapsulated Metallica’s new direction. But rather than slowly transitioning towards a fresh approach, the band dove right in during the initial writing sessions for Metallica, taking a simple bluesy guitar lick from Hammett and quickly hammering it into what would become their biggest hit. ” ‘Enter Sandman’ was the first thing we came up with when we sat down for the songwriting process in July 1990,” drummer Lars Ulrich recalled in 2014. “The 10-minute, fucking progressive, 12-tempo-changes side of Metallica had run its course after …And Justice For All . We wanted to streamline and simplify things. We wrote the song in a day or two. All the bits of ‘Enter Sandman’ are derived from the main riff.” 3. James Hetfield’s lyrics for “Enter Sandman” were originally about crib death. Though the music for “Enter Sandman” was the first thing the band wrote for Metallica , frontman and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield wouldn’t finish the song’s lyrics until much later. Originally envisioning the song as being about an infant mysteriously dying in its crib, Hetfield was asked by the band and their management – via producer Bob Rock – to tone down the lyrics. “At first, based on the music and the riff, the band and their management thought it could be the first single,” Rock recalled in 2011 . “Then they heard James’ lyrics and realized the song was about crib death. That didn’t go over so well. … “I sat down with James and talked to him about his words,” Rock continued. “I told him, ‘What you have is great, but it can be better. Does it have to be so literal?’ Not that I was thinking about the single; I just wanted him to make the song great. It was a process, him learning to say what he wanted but in a more poetic and open sort of way. He rewrote some lyrics and it was all there … the first single.” 4. Metallica picked Bob Rock to produce the record, despite not being big fans of the bands he’d previously worked with. The band’s decision to hire producer Bob Rock to helm Metallica was a controversial one, since the Canadian producer and engineer was best known at the time for his studio work with Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Kingdom Come, the Cult and Loverboy, five bands with just about zero thrash cachet. But the members of Metallica were more interested in the way he’d made those bands sound, rather than the music those bands had made with him. “With Bob, we wanted a good mix,” Ulrich told journalist Garry Sharpe-Young in an interview for 2007’s Metal: The Definitive Guide . “We wanted that big sound at the bottom end, and I don’t care if that song is on a Bon Jovi record, a Cult record or a Metallica record. The sound is the sound and we needed that.” 5. The Black Album marked the first time that Metallica used three different guitar tunings on the same album. While many hard-rock and metal bands through the years have used alternate tunings to achieve a heavier sound, Metallica had largely kept their guitars in regular E standard tuning before 1991, the only exception being “The Thing That Should Not Be” on 1986’s Master of Puppets (on which the guitars were dropped a full step and a half), and two cover songs on 1987’s The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited , where the band tuned down a full step. On Metallica, 10 of the album’s 12 songs once again utilized E standard tuning, but the band mixed it up a little more at Bob Rock’s behest, dropping the guitars to D standard for “Sad but True” and Eb for “The God That Failed.” “I realized that every song, including this one, was in the key of E,” said Bob Rock of “Sad But True.” “I brought this to the band’s attention, and they said, ‘Well, isn’t E the lowest note?’ So I told them that on Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood , which I produced and Metallica loved, the band had tuned down to D. Metallica then tuned down to D, and that’s when the riff really became huge. It was this force that you just couldn’t stop, no matter what.” 6. The album also marked the first time that Metallica had ever recorded their basic tracks “live” together in the studio. “We wanted a live feel [to the album],” James Hetfield told Guitar World in 1991. “In the past, Lars and I constructed the rhythm parts without Kirk and Jason, or Lars played to a click by himself. This time I wanted to try playing as a band unit in the studio. It lightens things up and you get more of a vibe. Everyone was in the same room and we were able to watch each other. That helped a lot, especially with some of the bass and lead stuff. It also helped that we’d played most of the songs for two months, even before we entered the studio.” 7. James Hetfield’s vocal performances on “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” were directly inspired by Chris Isaak. A huge international hit in late 1990 and early 1991, Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” also caught the ear of James Hetfield, who asked Bob Rock to help him emulate the singer’s moody vocals on two of Metallica’s slower tracks. “He [Hetfield] said, ‘Bob, I’ve never really sang before – I’ve just kind yelled,'” Rock recalled in a 2015 interview with Chris Jericho. “He played me a Chris Isaak record, and he said, ‘On ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘The Unforgiven,’ I want to sing. How do you sing like this?’ I said, ‘I’ll get you a great vocal sound, so you don’t have to double your vocals. What you hear in Chris Isaak’s voice is the nuances when he sings – he isn’t doubled. He’s actually performing. You perform.’ We set it up so he was comfortable and had a great vocal sound, and then he sang. Every day he got better, and he got comfortable with it. He became a great singer.” 8. Three out of four members of the band were going through divorces during the making of the album. The dark and bluesy feel of Metallica wasn’t just the result of the band’s new musical choices. Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and bassist were all singing the blues in their personal lives, as well. “Lars, Jason and I were going through divorces,” Hammett told Playboy in 2001. “I was an emotional wreck. I was trying to take those feeling of guilt and failure and channel them into the music, to get something positive out of it. Jason and Lars were too, and I think that has a lot to do with why the Black Album sounds the way it does.” 9. Kirk Hammett appears in the video for “Nothing Else Matters” – but he doesn’t actually play on the track. Originally written by James Hetfield as a love song to his then-girlfriend – and based around a musical figure that he discovered while absent- mindedly plucking his guitar strings during one of their phone conversations – “Nothing Else Matters” was a huge departure for Metallica. After hearing a rough version that Hetfield recorded for himself on a cassette tape, Ulrich convinced him that the band needed to record the song for Metallica ; Hetfield then recorded the song’s acoustic intro and bluesy guitar solo himself, making it one of the few Metallica tracks that Kirk Hammett doesn’t play on. “I had to relearn that whole intro part to play by myself onstage,” Hammett recalled in 2012, “which was a little bit intimidating for me at that point, [because] we never had a song that started that way.” 10. James Hetfield worried that “Nothing Else Matters” would make make Metallica fans “throw up.” On August 3rd, 1991, Metallica took the unprecedented step of debuting their new album with a free listening party at Madison Square Garden. (“Our album played the Garden before we did,” Lars Ulrich would later joke.) With the exception of “Enter Sandman,” which had been released four days earlier, the 10,000 fans in attendance were hearing the music on Metallica for the first time – and James Hetfield was particularly worried about how they would react to “Nothing Else Matters.”