28-05-2025
Metallica Become The First Metal Band To Hit Double Diamond
(MANDATORY CREDIT Midori Tsukagoshi/) Metallica photo session in a dressing ... More room during live in Berlin, Berlin, November 5, 1992. (Photo by Midori Tsukagoshi/)
Standing as the most popular metal band in the world, it doesn't come as much of a surprise to see that Metallica's Black Album is now RIAA certified double diamond, i.e. 20 times platinum. This news comes straight from the RIAA awards social media page, which also notes that Metallica's magnum opus Master of Puppets has now gone eight times platinum as well.
Metallica saw their biggest mainstream breakthrough with their 1991 self-titled LP (aka The Black Album) earning the band their first No.1 charting album. To date it's their highest selling album, and the first metal album to reach double diamond, which of course makes The Black Album the most popular metal record of all time. It's safe to say that much of the band's mainstream appeal is a direct result of The Black Album. Sure, just about every metal fan will say that any of the band's previous four albums are superior, and while they might be true, none of those album would have seen the multi-decade success they've had if it wasn't for The Black Album breaking Metallica through to millions of new fans.
Metallica now holds the accolade for becoming the first metal band to have a record go double diamond, but there are handful of other hard-rock albums that have managed to reach the same feat. AC/DC's 1980 opus Back In Black is certified 27 times platinum, and Guns N' Roses' 1987 debut Appetite For Destruction, is triple diamond (30 times platinum). The only other metal record to come close to Metallica's double diamond certification is Black Sabbath's 1970 sophomore LP, Paranoid, which currently sits at 12 million sales worldwide.
It's hard to say whether or not there will ever be another metal band that's as successful or as popular as Metallica. Of course, the sky is the limit as to what's possible, but the ceiling that Metallica continue to raise make it seem less than likely another metal act will surpass or even match their feats in the next few decades. Hopefully these proves to be wrong and some other band soon reinvents the wheel just as Metallica did in 1991.
