The fifth episode of "The Metallica Podcast: Volume 1 - The Black Album" has just been released in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the band's self-titled fifth LP, better known as The Black Album. The podcast's weekly episodes explore the stories behind and the legacy of the best-selling album in the history of Nielsen Soundscan. Official description of episode five: "There are tours. And then there are METALLICA tours. In this episode, Lars [Ulrich], James [Hetfield] and Kirk [Hammett] share what it was like playing communist Russia in front of millions — and that doesn’t include the government, who was watching them too. The stories move on to playing Day On The Green in Oakland, and at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in London. Other road warriors include: Tony Smith, Big Mick Hughes, Jake Perry, Ross Halfin, Geoff Tate, and Jason Newsted." 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. To commemorate its 30th anniversary, the Grammy-winning, 16-times-platinum-certified Black Album received its definitive re-release on September 10 via the band's own Blackened Recordings. METALLICA's self-titled LP in 2014 became the first album to sell 16 million copies since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. "Metallica" was the first of four collaborations with producer Bob Rock, with whom the band clashed throughout the recording of the disc. METALLICA performed The Black Album in its entirety at a number of European festivals in 2012.
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