Album Review: The Metallica Blacklist by Various Artists

But, then again, you probably didn't need a four-and-a-half-dozen song collection to tell you how far-reaching Metallica 's eponymous 1991 album is. Just look at a few of its astonishing stats: it holds the record as the biggest-selling album in Nielsen Music history, with 17 million copies sold (domestically) and an estimated 30 million worldwide; it debuted at number one with 598,000 copies sold, and it stayed atop the Billboard 200 for four weeks; for the current week (September 4) of the Billboard 200, it's at 135, up 23 spots from last week, and brings its 30-year total to 622 weeks on the chart. All of this from a thrash metal record.

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The heavy metal tribute album was once a mainstay of used CD bargain bins. These releases often operated more like promotional tools than true albums, as labels asked their developing bands to bang out a Slayer or Iron Maiden cover in the hopes of perking up the ears of prospective fans. With precious few exceptions--the 1994 Black Sabbath tribute Nativity in Black went gold--these releases were essentially disposable, and they rarely featured artists with their own massive audiences.

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For younger headbangers, metal overlords Metallica have always been just that, all-powerful riff masters whose tours sell out stadiums in every country they touch. They're comfortably part of metal's elder statesman, performing acclaimed two-hour shows, releasing mad merch that would rival Kiss's output, and are now happy to look back at their genre-shaping early releases - but how did they get their throne? Their first decade was one of rapid musical growth and fury for the four horsemen, debut 'Kill 'Em All' immediately bettered by 'Ride The Lightning's complex arrangements and darker hues. Onto a good thing the band followed suit with arguably their greatest statement, 86's 'Master of Puppets,' before pushing the proggy envelope of thrash with 88's '.

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