How big of a band would Metallica be if it was for the black album?

[Phylactery]

Indeed. It's just a mediocre/boring metal album.

 

[MrTagoMago]

the black album is not a 'hard rock album' lol

It sounds more generic 90s hard rock than metal to me.

 

[EspaDa]

I would not hate the Black Album were it not for all these people that claim they are Metallica fans because they love the Nothing Else Matters solo.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Metallica had already been on the Grammys and released a video before The Black Album came out so there's no question that they would have been huge no matter what, but if they'd released anything anywhere near as dark and heavy as AJFA instead of TBA then they wouldn't have made so much money but they would have kept their integrity and I would have retained my faith in humanity.

 

[no country for old wainds]

@no country for old wainds

Did the RIAA sales figures help you reconcile their popularity before and after their major breakthrough?

i'd like to see a comparison with sabbath or maiden or w/e, but yeah it was interesting thx

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

i'd like to see a comparison with sabbath or maiden or w/e, but yeah it was interesting thx

http://www.riaa.com

Use the top bar to search for the album that you want to find.

 

[CiG]

The grammar of the thread title hurts my brain.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I'll use this moment to say that I'm very skeptical of the claims frequently made that Iron Maiden has sold 80 million albums or however many. If you add up all the documented sales in America and the biggest European countries it doesn't even reach half of that, and somehow I'm supposed to believe that South America makes up the rest?

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

I don't think that Iron Maiden has sold 80 million albums. The number was 59 million about five years ago and I doubt that it went up by over 20 million since then.

Metallica is the highest selling band that's typically considered to be a metal band and they've sold somewhere between 60 and 70 million albums.

Def Leppard has sold over 100 million albums, but most of their albums aren't really what I consider metal music.

 

[Phylactery]

According to Wikipedia (I know not always an accurate source), but Candlemass is apparently the 7th biggest selling artist from Sweden and have sold 15 million albums. I found that quite surprising, I didn't think it would be that high.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Wikipedia is a terrible source for album sales. In fact, it's worse than terrible, it actively pollutes the world's collective knowledge on that subject as autistic fanboys make bullshit edits to massively inflate sales, which metal """"journalism"""" then proceeds to quote and repeat, thereby providing a primary source for Wikipedia to cite down the road when people start questioning it. If Candlemass has sold even 2 million albums I'd be very surprised.

 

[The Butt]

Honestly Metallica should have just skipped the Black Album, released Load, then called it quits.

 

[CiG]

Black is better than Load.

Load is a load...

 

[The Butt]

Black is better than Load.

Load is a load...

No.

Black Album is bad, caveman Metallica.
Load is decent Sabbath worship with admittedly bad vocals but still solid music.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Wikipedia is a terrible source for album sales. In fact, it's worse than terrible, it actively pollutes the world's collective knowledge on that subject as autistic fanboys make bullshit edits to massively inflate sales, which metal """"journalism"""" then proceeds to quote and repeat, thereby providing a primary source for Wikipedia to cite down the road when people start questioning it. If Candlemass has sold even 2 million albums I'd be very surprised.

Nightfall has sold over 1 million copies, due partially to the popularity of the "Bewitched" video. I don't know what their other albums have sold, but I do know that they would probably have failed as a band if it sold as poorly as Epicus Doomicus Metallicus initially did, because the band talked about it in an interview that used to be on their official site.

 

[CiG]

No.

Black Album is bad, caveman Metallica.
Load is decent Sabbath worship with admittedly bad vocals but still solid music.

I'm still somewhat familiar with Load, but could you link a specific example of Black Sabbath worship going on?

 

[The Butt]

Second half of Bleeding Me:


The Outlaw Torn:


The House Jack Built:


These are the most prominent, but musically most of the songs sound like they could have came straight from Dio-era Sabbath, and any argument to the contrary likely wouldn't even compute for me. The riffing has Iommi all over it.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

I think the guitar parts in those songs sound a lot like some of the more riff-heavy 1990s rock music than they do like Black Sabbath songs.

 

[CiG]

Okay I definitely hear it, good call.
The second half of "Bleeding Me" actually sounded a bit Paranoid-esque.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Nightfall has sold over 1 million copies, due partially to the popularity of the "Bewitched" video.

[citation needed]