Latest news with #TheBlackAlbum
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Legendary Hard Rock Band Racks Up the Heavy Metal as Iconic Album Hits Sales of 20 Million
Metallica is one of the biggest hard-rock acts in history. They're currently slaying fans on tour and their classic records continue to shift units, as two of their classic titles just reached new certification heights by the Recording Industry Assn. of America. The band has announced through their press representatives that their self-titled 1991 album, known as The Black Album, has been certified 20 times platinum for sales in excess of 20 million copies. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 That's big enough news, but in typical Metallica style, there's more. Masters of Puppets, the band's third album, has been certified eight times platinum for over 8 million in sales. The Black Album is seen as Metallica's mainstream breakthrough as it went to No. 1 in 10 different countries, including the U.S., where it spent four weeks atop the Billboard 200 beginning the chart week of Aug. 31, 1991. 'We had come off the …And Justice for All album and tour. For me, it was pretty obvious that we had taken the progressive, complicated side of Metallica as far as we could take it,' drummer, who writes the bulk of the band's songs with singer/guitarist , said in an interview for The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. 'The songs kept getting longer and more and more sideways. When we took those songs out on the road, we realized that was it. We really needed to make a major change — not so much for commercial reasons, but creatively we had exhausted that route.'During that same period, Ulrich had begun to rediscover his hard-rock roots by listening to classic sides by the Rolling Stones and AC/DC. 'The one thing in Metallica that we had not done was to really sit down and try to write a bunch of short and more to-the-point songs,' he said. 'We decided to take what we do in Metallica and make it a little more straightforward and not be so concerned about trying to show our musicianship.' The plan worked. The first song that Ulrich and Hetfield wrote for the new album was 'Enter Sandman,' which Ulrich said, 'That was the most straightforward, simplest song we had ever written. We did that in two days. That kind of set the tone for the whole record.' With producer Bob Rock, known for such classics as Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood, on board, Metallica went on to write and record such classics as 'The Unforgiven,' 'Wherever I May Roam,' 'Nothing Else Matters' and more. 'Everyone has one album when everything comes together,' said Ulrich. 'This was ours.' Metallica is currently on the third year of its M72 World Tour, which has set attendance records at venues ranging from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. The band's next gig is Wednesday, May 28 at Northwest Stadium in Washington, D.C. Legendary Hard Rock Band Racks Up the Heavy Metal as Iconic Album Hits Sales of 20 Million first appeared on Parade on May 28, 2025
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iconic Metal Guitarist, 62, Makes Bold Statement About His Career
Iconic Metal Guitarist, 62, Makes Bold Statement About His Career originally appeared on Parade. For over forty years, Kirk Hammett has delivered one scorching solo after another as the lead guitarist for Metallica. Hammet joined the band in 1983, replacing original lead guitarist Dave Mustaine. Along with guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and then-bassist Cliff Burton, Hammet ushered in a new wave of heavy metal and helped make Metallica one of the biggest bands in the world. The band's first four albums are considered thrash metal classics. Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All helped Metallica cultivate a loyal following of headbangers. They would achieve massive mainstream success with their fifth album, the self-titled LP commonly known as The Black Album. And Hammett thinks The Black Album is his finest moment. "It's weird, because my opinion of that changes all the time," he told Metal Hammerin a new interview. "I don't sit around listening to Metallica…I don't look in the rear-view mirror too often. The whole band is like that – we just move on." "But I will say, there was a period where I thought my playing was [explicative] spot on, and that was The Black Album. Those solos wrote themselves! Almost all of them worked out instantly," he added. "There were only a few things I wasn't prepared for, and that was 'The Unforgiven' solo, which is pretty well documented," he says, referring to his well-documented clashes with producer Bob Rock. "And the solo for 'My Friend Of Misery.' But because the solo of 'The Unforgiven' ended up being so spontaneous, that made me want to do them all like that from that point on." Metallica will perform at Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne's final show on July 5. The lineup includes bands such as Mastodon and Gojira, as well as additional performances by legends like KK Downing of Judas Priest, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. Recently, Metallica vocalist James Hetfield closed out a packed show with a passionate message that touched the hearts of Metal Guitarist, 62, Makes Bold Statement About His Career first appeared on Parade on Jun 2, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
CairoScene
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Metallica to Headline Yasalam After-Race Concert on December 6th
The rock icons will perform at Etihad Park as part of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix alongside Benson Boone and Katy Perry. Metallica will perform live at Etihad Park on Saturday, December 6th, as part of the Yasalam After-Race Concert series during the 2024 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The announcement follows the recent confirmation of US pop singer Benson Boone and global pop icon Katy Perry, who will take the stage on December 4th and the 7th respectively. Formed in 1981, Metallica is widely regarded as one of the most influential bands in rock history. Known for their high-energy performances and landmark albums such as 'Master of Puppets' and 'The Black Album', the band—comprised of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo—continues to perform globally, drawing crowds across generations. Their set in Abu Dhabi is expected to feature fan favourites including 'Enter Sandman', 'One', and 'Nothing Else Matters'. This marks a rare Middle East appearance for the band, whose decades-spanning career has earned them multiple Grammy Awards and over 125 million albums sold worldwide. Admission to the concert is included with Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tickets, available through the official Yas Marina Circuit website.
Telegraph
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Metallica's Kirk Hammett: ‘Matriarchal societies are very, very successful'
In 2004, Kirk Hammett said he's always been the 'nice guy' in Metallica, and the way he came across in that year's rockumentary Some Kind of Monster backed that up. Where Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's film portrayed singer/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich as the band's feuding alpha males, Hammett was seen playing peacemaker, just trying his best to get the two co-founders on the same page. When the lead guitarist calls me from San Francisco, he lends further credence to that 'nice guy' quote. 'I don't know if you know about this or not, but the state of newspapers in America is screwed right now!' the 62-year-old says once we're introduced. 'So, I'm actually really glad to be talking to The Telegraph.' We're talking ahead of the release of his new coffee table book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett. Published by guitar manufacturer Gibson, it explores Hammett's famously extensive array of instruments, featuring interviews from the man himself plus new pictures by long-time Metallica photographer Ross Halfin. It's when I ask about Hammett's favourite guitar – a 1959 Les Paul nicknamed 'Greeny', formerly owned by Fleetwood Mac player Peter Green and Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy – that the side of him the documentary didn't capture starts coming out. Despite his depiction as a mild-mannered moderator, he's instantly loud, passionate and verbose. 'Greeny is a cut above the rest!' he declares. 'My friend said to me, after we'd jammed for two or three hours, 'That guitar is your Excalibur!' It's been offered to other major players, and they passed on it for whatever reason, but when I saw Greeny, I knew in less than a minute that I was never gonna give it back! I had such an instant connection to that guitar, it's such an amazing source of inspiration and it's my best-sounding guitar.' Being able to own such a storied guitar is just one of the perks of playing in metal's biggest-ever band. Hammett is calling from his home in Hawaii – 'I hate being indoors for any extended amount of time and love to surf' – and has sold more than 125 million albums worldwide. At least 30 million of those are Metallica's self-titled 1991 chart-topper, AKA The Black Album. The Four Horsemen rode towards heavy music's peak in a fireball of male rage. Their songs are d--k-kicking, testosterone-packed blasts. The Black Album features the snake from the Gadsden flag on its cover and has a track called Don't Tread on Me: a slogan that's become synonymous with libertarianism's chest-beating bluster. And, in Some Kind of Monster, Ulrich and a fresh-out-of-rehab Hetfield slam doors and scream 'F--k!' at each other. Hammett confessed to The New Yorker in 2022, 'Toxic masculinity has fuelled this band.' When I mention the guitarist's peacekeeper reputation, he says it should instead go to bassist Robert Trujillo, who joined in 2003, and does nothing to distance himself from the Metallica machismo. 'I have to say, I do have a temper,' he admits. 'And I can butt heads with people. I butt heads with James and Lars occasionally.' Over what? 'Oh, everything. It's just part of being in a band and being with someone for 40-plus years.' Hammett got the offer to join Metallica in 1983 – on April Fool's Day, of all days. Hetfield and Ulrich formed the band in Los Angeles two years prior. Their classic-era bassist was Cliff Burton, who died in a 1986 bus crash aged only 24 and was replaced for 15 years by Jason Newsted. Burton urged his cohorts to relocate to San Francisco and link up with the nascent 'thrash metal' scene, where Hammett, who started the now-veteran Bay Area band Exodus in high school, was already well known. He jumped ship to Metallica after they fired original lead guitar player Dave Mustaine, a result of Mustaine's angry, violent behaviour when drunk. I say that Mustaine has been portrayed as 'prickly' over the years, and I ask whether Hammett's seemingly more measured personality appealed to his bandmates. 'I was equally as ornery as Lars and James,' he answers. 'When I joined the band, I was right in there talking sh-t and doing crazy stuff, just as much as James and Lars and Cliff were. Sometimes prickly people turn on other people around them.' Reflecting further on the toxic masculinity that 'fueled' Metallica, Hammett says: 'We were like a gang of youths and just looking for somewhere to belong. I came from a broken home, James came from a broken home, Lars came from a broken home. The most well-adjusted person was Cliff Burton. We were all basket cases! But we created this thing called Metallica that's been our refuge. It's been the one constant in our lives.' Hetfield's father abandoned the family when the frontman was 13 years old and his mother died when he was 16. Meanwhile, Ulrich was a displaced Dane: the son and grandson of tennis legends Torben and Einer Ulrich, he rebelled against family tradition to make music. As for Hammett, he told Playboy in 2001 that his father 'beat the sh-t out of me and my mum quite a bit'. He elaborates today, 'My dad was a full-blooded Irishman who liked to drink and liked to scrap. He was always fighting people, even fighting his friends. He would get together with my uncles and it was just one big f---ing toxic soup of masculinity, and that's what I came out of.' In 2025, toxic masculinity is a hot-button topic. Donald Trump has reclaimed the White House following a series of appearances on such 'manosphere' podcasts as The Joe Rogan Experience and Logan Paul's Impaulsive. At the same time, Andrew Tate remains a figurehead for alienated young men, despite facing sexual misconduct charges (he denies all allegations) and shows such as Netflix's Adolescence dig into the pervasive 'incel' culture. 'In the last two or three years, I've gotten way into ancient history, and the interesting thing is that, back then, almost all the major civilisations were led by women,' Hammett responds. 'Matriarchal societies, they are very, very successful. This patriarchal society, with all this f---ing masculinity stuff, it's ingrained in all us males that, if males are leading at the top, that means all males in our culture need to be a leader.' That's a lot of pressure, I reply. 'That's such pressure, bro! We can't all be leaders and that's where the masculinity comes in: 'Who's the best to lead, the strongest, the fastest, the meanest?'' You must have felt those things in Metallica, too? 'Oh, yeah! We're just products of our culture.' With our allotted time nearing its end, our conversation turns to the future. Hammett hopes for his Collection book to inspire a new generation of guitarists. As for what's next, he will embark on a North American tour with Metallica in April, and he says that they aren't yet ready to think about a follow-up to 2023's 72 Seasons album. Even though the band may not enjoy an argument-free union after all they've endured, he's committed until the bitter end. 'Leaving Metallica is not an option,' Hammett says. 'If I ever left Metallica, everyone in the world would remind me that I used to be in Metallica!'
