According to Billboard, METALLICA’s self-titled album, also known as the “Black Album,” is back on the Billboard chart after 29 years due to the release of the 30th-anniversary reissue of the effort on September 10.
The album sold 37,000 album units in the U.S. in the week ending September 16 hitting position No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart. Album sales comprise 29,000 (up 1,365%), SEA units comprise nearly 7,000 (up 34%, equaling 9.17 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 101%). All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.
METALLICA’s “Black Album” was last in the top 10 in August 1992 after spending four weeks at No. 1.
The Black Album is one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed records of all time. Its 1991 release not only gave METALLICA its first No. 1 album in no fewer than 10 countries, including a four-week run at No. 1 in the U.S., its unrelenting series of singles — “Enter Sandman”, “The Unforgiven”, “Nothing Else Matters”, “Wherever I May Roam” and “Sad But True” — fueled the band’s rise to stadium headlining, radio and MTV dominating household name status. The album’s reception from the press was similarly charged, building over the years from the top 10 of the 1991 Village Voice Pazz & Jop national critics poll to becoming a constant presence in the likes of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. The album’s impact and relevance continue to grow — as proven by one indisputable fact: The Black Album remains unchallenged as the best-selling album in the history of Nielsen SoundScan, outselling every release in every genre over the past 30 years.
Remastered for ultimate sound quality, The Black Album remaster is available in multiple configurations including 180-gram double vinyl LP, standard CD and 3 CD expanded edition, digital, and limited edition deluxe box set (containing the album remastered on 180-gram 2LP, a picture disc, three live LPs, 14 CDs (containing rough mixes, demos, interviews, live shows), 6 DVDs (containing outtakes, behind the scenes, official videos, live shows), a 120-page hardcover book, four tour laminates, three lithos, three guitar picks, a METALLICA lanyard, a folder with lyric sheets, and a download card).
METALLICA’s self-titled LP, or ” in 2014 became the first album to sell 16 million copies since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991.