LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-AUGUST 12, 2019-DAMN THIS IS A GREAT RECORD ! 28 YEARS AGO METALLICA RELEASED ‘THE BLACK ALBUM’. THIS IS THE ALBUM THAT CATAPULTED METALLICA INTO THE STRATOSPHERE OF SUPERSTARDOM. HERE ARE SOME FACTOIDS AND TIDBITS ABOUT ‘THE BLACK ALBUM’:
-‘ENTER SANDMAN’ WAS ORIGINALLY ABOUT CRIB DEATH
– THE LYRICS WERE SO OFF PUTTING THAT BOB ROCK AND LARS ASKED JAMES HETFIELD TO CHANGE SOME LINES, TO WHICH HE INITIALLY RESPONDED “F— YOU!”
-‘NOTHING ELSE MATTERS’ WASN’T INTENDED TO BE A METALLICA SONG OR TO BE PLAYED FOR OTHER PEOPLE. JAMES WROTE IT FOR HIMSELF BOUT MISSING PEOPLE WHILE HE WAS TOURING.
-‘THE BLACK ALBUM’ WAS AN ATTEMPT TO WRITE SHORTER MORE STREAMLINED SONGS BECAUSE THE BAND FELT THAT THE SONGS ON ‘…AND JUSTICE FOR ALL’ WERE , TO QUOTE JAMES HETFIELD “ …And Justice For All album sounds horrible, awful, can’t f***ing stand it”
-‘SAD BUT TRUE’ WAS WRITTEN IN A HIGHER KEY AND WASN’T AS NEARLY AS HEAVY SOUNDING. BOB ROCK HEARD THE RIFF AND FELT THE SONG WAS SUCH A GREAT RIFF HE CALLED IT “THE KASHMIR OF THE 90’S” BUT CONVINCED THE BAND TO TUNE IT DOWN TO A D WHICH MADE THE SONG INTENSE AND GAVE IT MORE BALLS.
-KIRK HAMMETT GOT THE GUITAR LICK FOR ‘ENTER SANDMAN’ AFTER LISTENING TO AN ICE-T ALBUM
-JAMES HETFIELD’S VOCALS ON ‘NOTHING ELSE MATTERS’ AND ‘THE UNFORGIVEN’ WERE INSPIRED BY CHRIS ISAAK
-LARS ULRICH, KIRK HAMMETT AND JASON NEWSTED WERE ALL GOING THROUGH MESSY DIVORCES THROUGH THE MAKING OF ‘THE BLACK ALBUM’
-TO DATE THE RECORD HAS SOLD OVER 45,000,000 COPIES WORLDWIDE.
HERE’S METALLICA FROM ‘THE BLACK ALBUM’
