Legendary heavy metal band Metallica is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1991 self-titled album, commonly referred to as The Black Album, with a brand-new reissue and companion album The Metallica Blacklist. The new album will feature 53 different artists covering some of their favorite songs from the original record. Set to release on September 10th, 2021, this compilation will include reinterpretations by St. Vincent, Weezer, J Balvin, Rina Sawayama, Mac Demarco, and even Miley Cyrus, whose cover of “Nothing Else Matters” features Yo-Yo Ma, Chad Smith, Elton John, Robert Trujillo, and Watt.
The Black Album stands as Metallica’s highest selling release to date, going 16x Platinum in 2012. It also won them the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1991 and sits on Rolling Stone’s Greatest Albums of All Time list. The record is often cited as an integral moment in the worldwide success of both the band and the resurgence of heavy metal in the 1990s. Marking a departure from their previous thrash metal beginnings, the album contained such hits as “Enter Sandman,” “Nothing Else Matters,” and “The Unforgiven”, all of which will be given new vitality in 2021 by new artists.
The Metallica Blacklist includes a variety of artists from across the globe, most of whom do not hail from the heavy metal community, such as country music star Chris Stapleton or Brooklyn rap group Flatbush Zombies, even containing foreign language reinterpretations from Latin duo Ha*Ash. Much of the recording and arrangement of the album was put together over the COVID-19 pandemic, making this monumental achievement all the more impressive. The Metallica Blacklist is to be released through the band’s Blackened Label, is donating 100% of its profits to charitable organizations, splitting 50/50 between Metallica’s own non-profit foundation, All Within My Hands, and the charity of choice of the respective artist for the respective song.
Other notable artists to be found on the project include Phoebe Bridgers, Cage the Elephant, Portugal the Man, Moses Sumney, and Diet Cig, with a full tracklist and album cover below.
The band has released a variety of options for purchase of both the Metallica reissue and The Metallica Blacklist, ranging from expansive deluxe box sets to vinyl, cassettes, and CDs. The Blacklist also set to hit streaming platforms upon its release on September 10th.
