Artists cover Black Album songs for big anniversary
Thirty years later, Metallica reflects on album that launched the band into superstardom
With the 30th anniversary for the band's self-titled fifth LP arriving Sept. 10, Metallica knew they had to do something special. After all, 1991's Black Album, as it became known, launched the San Francisco-based hard rockers into superstardom three decades ago led by five chart-topping singles: Enter Sandman, The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, Sad but True and Wherever I May Roam.
“We knew we wanted to do something extra, as we always tend to do when it comes to anniversaries like this,” says guitarist Kirk Hammett.
So instead of a re-release filled with outtakes and rarities, Hammett, along with frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Robert Trujillo (who replaced Jason Newsted in 2003), decided to invite guest musicians to cover their favourite songs from the Black Album for the Metallica Blacklist, a compilation that features 53 artists covering songs from the mega-selling record. Along with renditions of Nothing Else Matters by Chris Stapleton, Phoebe Bridgers, and Miley Cyrus, Elton John and Yo-Yo Ma, the genre-busting LP features versions of Enter Sandman sung by Alessia Cara and Weezer, a haunting take on Sad But True by St. Vincent and wild reinvention of Wherever I May Roam by reggaeton star J Balvin.
When the group put the word out that they wanted to get other artists' musical responses to the Black Album, they didn't expect the submissions to cross so many musical lines.
“As the different tracks started coming in, it was like a faucet,” Hammett says. “It just kept on coming and it was hard to say no to any of it. So we threw up our hands and just said, `Let's release all of it.'”
The result, Hammett says, is “incredibly not redundant.” But he can't put his finger on who the biggest surprise is.
Q What did you learn by re-listening to the Black Album — the outtakes, the live stuff, the alternate versions?
A There was nothing other than what I already knew. It's been 30 years and you have to understand we've been living with this music a lot longer than 30 years. We've been living with this music longer than anyone. When we were making it, we had to listen to it for a couple of years straight. We were so complete in the making of this album. We left no stone unturned. We fleshed everything out. The biggest surprises came after the release of that record in terms of how it did in certain (countries) and how much of an inspiration it was to certain artists and how personal the songs were to a lot of people.
Q That record sold more than 16 million copies, won a Grammy and turned you guys into stadium headliners. Why was it such a success?
A A lot of it had to do with where we were culturally at that time. Hard rock and rock music was super popular and there was so much support for bands and live music and going out and buying records. So, the infrastructure was definitely there for anyone to have a huge album back then. It's a lot more different nowadays. That infrastructure isn't there anymore. People don't buy albums the way they used to. A lot of people just stream them or get them for free.
Q It was your fifth record. But it was musically so different from your previous releases. Was it a big risk for the band?
A We knew it was different and we knew it was unlike anything else that we had released previously. Up to that point, the only song in our catalogue that resembled anything from the Black Album was perhaps Escape from Ride the Lightning. So it was different in that it had a smoothness to it. When you sat down to listen to that record it just glided along. It was very easy to listen to. The material was easy to understand. It was heavy, but not offensive. A lot of metal is heavy and offensive and I love it — that's why I listen to heavy metal.
Q Just in the variety of people that appear on the Blacklist. I imagine you have been able to see the influence of the Black Album on artists that emerged after its release. When did the historical importance of the record dawn on you?
A It was around the 20th anniversary of that album. There was a lot of fanfare and a lot of people came out of the woods and were praising that album. But in the first couple of years after the release of that record we started hearing cover versions of some of the songs; Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters. Just randomly from random bands. I think it was interesting because a great song like Smoke on the Water — just to pick something out of the blue — it's a great radio song, but it means a completely different thing to musicians. When a musician can play a song that everyone knows, it's a f---ing special thing. It gives that song a little bit more merit and integrity. Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters are songs that when people cover them, audiences recognize the instant appeal of it. That manifested itself over the course of time. Thirty years later we had a whole choir of people who were ready to share how moved they were by this music. That was an incredible thing. It crossed over with so many other genres, too. I heard the Jason Isbell version of Sad But True on the radio a few weeks ago and I was blown away by the fact that it felt so natural. It sounded like a bona fide country song.
Q Along with the Blacklist you have a deluxe version of the album that features a ton of live stuff. How did you select the shows you wanted to highlight?
A We have a vault full of live material. We have been recording every single show since the '80s. We have people in our organization whose job it is to pick the significant performances or find those diamond-in-the-rough shows or shows that were played on an important date. They'll grab a handful of those performances and throw them back to us and then we make a decision.