The metal giant's ninth album was released on September 12, 2008. An album that opened a new chapter of "Metallica" in the modern era, an album that came after the divisive album "St. Anger".
So here are 12 interesting facts:
1. After 4 consecutive albums, this is the first album not produced by Rob Rock, which has garnered a lot of criticism and accusations about "Metallica's" "new direction" on the Black album.
2. The album was produced by the famous producer Rick Rubin who according to the band gave them complete freedom in the creation and writing of the songs, which sounds a bit strange when it comes to the four metal veterans and especially James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich
3. Indeed, Rubin did not give the band the opportunity to enter the recording studio until each song was 100% ready. Only after all the songs were fully prepared did he allow them to enter the studio. So they would move from concentrating on the creative side to concentrating on the technical side of the recording.
4. This is the debut album of bassist Robert Trujillo who joined Metallica in 2003, two years after the departure of Jason Newsted from the band.
5. This is only the second album where all the band members got credit for writing and creating as opposed to the other albums where Lars and James got credit for most of the songs.
6. After the infamous "St. Anger" album in which the band made scandalous decisions to many, regarding the musical nature of certain instruments, this album is a return to the style before the black album, with long, complex songs, long solos, and for the first time since the album "And Justice For All" has an instrumental track "Suicide & Redemption".
7. The album went straight to number one on the Billboard 200 and became the band's fifth consecutive album to take first place. In addition, it won 10 different charts in first place and starred at the top of the charts of 33 different countries.
8. Thanks to this album, the band received six Grammy nominees and won three of them.
9. One of the studios where the album was recorded was the famous Sound City Studios.
10. Four songs that were recorded during the work on the album, did not enter the album and were released three years later under the name - "Beyond Magnetic".
11. The album's name is inspired by Layne Staley. James said that a picture of Layne is hanging on their HQ for many years and when they thought of an album name something in the picture spoke to them strongly. James said the name of the album is a tribute to the talented people in the music industry who have passed away, people who have been “magnetized” to death and have not been able to escape it at such a young age.
12. In October 2008, the band members went on a worldwide tour that lasted more than two years and included the band's last performance in Israel in May 2010 in front of 25,000 devoted fans.
Feel free to watch a documentary documenting the work on the album:
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music
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