The Classic Metal Album Reviews:
Title: Metallica (The Black Album)
Artist: Metallica
Label: Elektra
Release Date: August 1991

Rating: 2 Skulls
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    • Reviewed by garthg:
    Metallica's Black album was the beginning of "The Great Sell-out" of metal. After creating such masterpieces as Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, Metallica tasted their first bout of commercial success with the single "One" off the almost-great ...And Justice for All (which has phenomenal songs but suffers from poor production). For their follow-up to "One", Metallica crafted a series of easily-digestible rock singles released as their self-titled album (commonly referred to as The Black Album, marking a black day for metal). For years, Metallica had been metal's favorite sons, but abandoned their progressive thrash roots for these standard tunes with standard time signatures and song structure. Coming as a Metallica album, this set of radio-friendly singles was a huge disappointment. Were they not from Metallica, some of the tunes would be average to good rock-radio tunes: "Enter Sandman", "Sad but True". But you expected more from the metal gods, and it truly became the story of "The God That Failed". Some would say the band's next album was the true sell-out, but Metallica was the first calculated move to the mainstream, before they dropped "The Thing that Should Not Be", Load.
    2 out of 5

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