Black Album

Metallica (also referred to as The Black Album) is the fifth album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, released August 12, 1991 through Elektra Records. The album features songs that are considered today as Metallica's most known tracks, with songs such as "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters" , "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad but True". It spent four consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard 200. Metallica is the band's best-selling album to date, with over 15 million copies sold in the United States and over 22 million copies worldwide.[citation needed] It is the second best-selling album of the SoundScan era.
The album cover features only the band's logo, angled against the upper left corner, and a coiled snake (derived from the Gadsden flag) on the bottom right corner, both in a dark shade of gray in order to be made out against the black background. The motto of the Gadsden flag, "Don't Tread on Me", is also the title of a song featured on the album.

The cover is very reminiscent of Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove album, something the band jokingly acknowledged themselves in their A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica documentary (where members of Spinal Tap appeared and asked them about it).

Metallica DVD-Audio 5.1 mix was released in 2004 through Elektra Records.

While the album and the band were critically praised and commercially successful, some fans expressed disappointment in the new direction taken by Metallica. Gone for the most part were faster staccato riffs during verses and throaty vocals found on the band's first four albums; the overall speed and complexity of the music was somewhat lessened. The Black Album presented a more radio-friendly, commercially accessible Metallica, especially evidenced by the ballad "Nothing Else Matters". Moreover, following the success of "One," the breakaway single from their …And Justice for All album, five videos were released from The Black Album. ("Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters", "Sad but True", "Wherever I May Roam" and "The Unforgiven").
The lyrics of The Black Album, written by James Hetfield, were much more personal and introspective in nature than previous Metallica albums.[citation needed] For example, "The God That Failed" dealt with Hetfield's mother's death from cancer and her Christian Science beliefs which kept her from seeking medical treatment. "Nothing Else Matters" expresses the connection Hetfield felt with a girlfriend while out on the road. The album ended Metallica's tradition of including a lengthy instrumental track on each album until their 2008 album Death Magnetic.