Metallica has a pretty lofty goal with their eleventh studio album, which they began working on while in lockdown during the pandemic.
Kirk Hammett told Metal Hammer, “Metallica has always been about bringing people together through music. I think the sentiment now is that people need music more than ever to bring everyone together and collectively celebrate that we’ve got to this point. There’s a lot of division in the world, and hopefully this Metallica album will cut through the division and bring people together in ways that are more beneficial for everyone over all.”
The guitarist added, “We’ve tried to make the most of the Covid year-and-a-half, and we’ve been pretty successful. We’ve got together remotely and worked, and we’ve got together [in person] and worked. Things are moving really well. I would say that the music we’re coming up with is very appropriate for the times.”
Hammett concluded, “Music should bring everyone together, it should be a celebration. That’s what music is about. It’s not about selling albums or getting Grammys, it’s about putting out good music and helping the situation with that music.”
Of course, selling albums doesn’t exactly hurt a band’s bottom line either, especially when you’re the band with the biggest selling album of the Nielsen SoundScan era. Metallica (aka: “The Black Album”) will celebrate its 30th anniversary next month. Currently, the last tabulation via Billboard of the album’s sales has it at 16.83 million copies sold in the United States alone. This figure is from September 2018, so that already staggering number is likely significantly bigger.
As with any major album anniversary, Metallica is marking “The Black Album” turning 3-0 in a big way. In addition to a massive reissue of their self-titled album, the metal giants are also releasing The Metallica Blacklist, a collection of covers from over 50 artists and their interpretations of the album’s iconic tracks. Both titles are due out September 10 and are currently available for pre-order at Metallica.com.
