In December 2006, Metallica released a DVD containing all the music videos from 1989 to 2004. The DVD, titled The Videos 1989–2004, sold 28,000 copies in its first week, and entered the Billboard Top Videos chart at number three. Metallica recorded a cover of Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" for a tribute album titled We All Love Ennio Morricone, released in February 2007. The cover received a Grammy nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards for the category "Best Rock Instrumental Performance". A recording of "The Ecstasy of Gold" has been played as the introduction for Metallica performances since the 1980s. However, this new version features the band itself performing the piece, giving a new guitar-based interpretation to the music. In 2006, Metallica announced on its official website that after 15 years, long-time producer Bob Rock was stepping down and would not be producing Metallica's next studio album. Metallica chose to work with producer Rick Rubin, who has produced albums for the bands Danzig, Slayer, Slipknot and System of a Down. Metallica set the release date for the album Death Magnetic as September 12, 2008, and they filmed a music video for the first single "The Day That Never Comes".
On September 2, 2008, a French record store began selling copies of Death Magnetic nearly two weeks ahead of its scheduled worldwide release date, which resulted in the album being made available on peer-to-peer clients. This prompted the band's United Kingdom distributor, Vertigo Records, to officially release the album two days ahead of schedule, on September 10, 2008. It is currently unconfirmed whether Metallica or Warner Bros. will be taking any action against the retailer, though drummer Lars Ulrich has made such responses to the leak as, "…We're ten days from release. I mean, from here, we're golden. If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. Happy days. Trust me," and, "By 2008 standards, that's a victory. If you'd told me six months ago that our record wouldn't leak until 10 days out, I would have signed up for that." Death Magnetic debuted at number one in several countries to make it top the Australian, Canadian, Mexican[citation needed] and European album chart. Selling 490,000 units in the United States to debut at number one, Metallica became the first band to have five consecutive studio albums debut at number one in the history of the Billboard 200. After a week of its release, Death Magnetic remained at number one on the Billboard 200, the European album chart, and became the fastest selling album in Australia for 2008.
Death Magnetic stayed at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart for three consecutive weeks. Metallica became the only artist, aside from Jack Johnson with the release of the album Sleep Through the Static, to remain on the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks at number one in 2008. Death Magnetic had also remained at number one on Billboard's Hard Rock, Modern Rock/Alternative and Rock album charts for five consecutive weeks. Internationally, the album peaked at number one in 32 countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.Death Magnetic is a return by Metallica to their mid-eighties heavy/thrash metal roots. It is more similar to Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All rather than their more recent albums.
Since this album's success, MTV Europe nominated Metallica in two categories (Rock Out and Headliner) of their Music Awards edition and also MTV Latin America invited them to perform in their Music Awards edition.[77] Metallica performed "The Day That Never Comes." On October 21, 2008, Metallica started their World Magnetic Tour.
In November 2008, Metallica came to the end of their record deal with Warner Bros., and the band is now considering their options for the future and, according to Ulrich, one of their options is to release their next album through the internet. Recently, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett were added to "Chop Shop's" list of "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" at number fourteen and twenty-six, respectively.
On January 14, 2009, it was announced that Metallica would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4, 2009, and that former bassist Jason Newsted (who left the band in 2001), would perform with the band at the ceremony. Initially, it was announced that the matter had been discussed, and that current bassist Robert Trujillo had agreed not to play, as he "wanted to see the Black Album band". However, during the band's set of "Master of Puppets" and "Enter Sandman", both Trujillo and Newsted were on stage. Ray Burton, the father of late bassist Cliff Burton accepted the honor on his behalf. Metallica also invited Dave Mustaine to take part in the induction ceremony, but he declined, citing his touring commitments in Europe. On May 27, 2009, it was announced on Metallica's website that a new live DVD will be filmed at the Mexico City, Mexico and Nîmes, France shows. The Nîmes concert will be released as Francais Pour Une Nuit on October 19, 2009.
In a June 2009 interview with Italy's Rock TV, Ulrich stated that Metallica plans to continue touring through August 2010. He also stated that there are currently no plans for a tenth album, but is sure that they are going to do one with Rick Rubin again. According to Blabbermouth.net, the band may start thinking about recording their next album in the second half of 2011.
According to Billboard magazine's year-end issue of 2009, Metallica's "World Magnetic Tour" ranks at #11 on the Top 25 Tours of 2009 chart, earning a total gross of $76,613,910. In that same issue, they have earned a total gross of $227,568,718 and rank at #20 on the Top 25 Decade-End Tours chart, from 2000 to 2009.
St. Anger
St. Anger is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica. Released on June 5, 2003, the album marks the longest timespan between studio albums from Metallica, with nearly six years between the release of ReLoad and St. Anger. It is the first Metallica studio album to receive a Parental Advisory label. The album was originally intended for release on June 10, 2003, but was released five days earlier due to concerns over unlicensed distribution via filesharing networks. St. Anger marks the final collaboration between Metallica and producer Bob Rock, whose relationship began with the band's fifth studio release, 1991's eponymous Black Album.St. Anger is the first Metallica album since their third studio release, Master of Puppets, that does not feature long-time bassist Jason Newsted. Newsted left the band prior to the initial sessions for the album. As the band did not want to start recording with a new bassist, Bob Rock laid down all bass tracks on St. Anger. After the recording sessions were completed, Metallica auditioned several musicians for the permanent position and eventually extended the invitation to Ozzy Osbourne bassist Robert Trujillo. Trujillo joined the band for a nearly two-year tour in support of St. Anger.
Recording of the album initially started on April 24, 2001, but was postponed indefinitely when rhythm guitarist and singer James Hetfield entered rehab for "alcoholism and other addictions."
St. Anger debuted at the top of sales charts in 30 countries, including the United States Billboard 200. Upon the release of the album, St. Anger met mixed critical reviews. In 2004, the lead single from the album, "St. Anger", won a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance". The album has also sold over 2 million copies in the US alone and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA.
Background, writing and recording
Metallica rented an old army barracks in the Presidio of San Francisco, California and converted it into a makeshift studio in January 2001. As plans were being made to enter the studio to write and record its first album in nearly five years, Metallica postponed the recording due to the departure of Jason Newsted. Newsted left Metallica on January 17, 2001, stating his departure was due to "private and personal reasons and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love". Uncomfortable with immediately writing and recording with a new bassist, Metallica opted to include its long-time producer Bob Rock as bassist. Metallica stated they would find another bass player upon the album's completion.
In July 2001, recording came to a halt when vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield entered rehab for alcoholism and other undisclosed addictions. Hetfield returned to the band in December of that year, but was only allowed to work on the album from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Due to Hetfield's personal dilemmas, as well as Metallica's internal struggles, the band hired a personal enhancement coach, Phil Towle, to help them. This and the recording of the album was documented by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Throughout two years of filming, over 1,000 hours of video were recorded, documenting the band's recording process. Subsequent to the album's release, Berlinger and Sinofsky released the edited material as the film Some Kind of Monster.
Hetfield stated that the album was written with "lot of passion in this". He said, "There's two years of condensed emotion in this. We've gone through a lot of personal changes, struggles, epiphanies, it's deep. It's so deep lyrically and musically. St. Anger is just the best that it can be from us right now." The band purposely wanted a raw sound on the album; therefore Rock did not polish the sound while mixing. The band desired the raw sound because of the depth of the emotion they felt and did not want to "mess with it". Rock commented "I wanted to do something to shake up radio and the way everything else sounds. To me, this album sounds like four guys in a garage getting together and writing rock songs. There was really no time to get amazing performances out of James. We liked the raw performances. And we didn't do what everyone does and what I've been guilty of for a long time, which is tuning vocals. We just did it, boom, and that was it."
Guitarist Kirk Hammett commented on the lack of guitar solos on St. Anger, a departure from what Metallica has done in the past: "We wanted to preserve the sound of all four of us in a room just jamming. We tried to put guitar solos on, but we kept on running into this problem. It really sounded like an afterthought." Hammett said that he was happy with the final product.[14] Rock stated "We made a promise to ourselves that we'd only keep stuff that had integrity. We didn't want to make a theatrical statement by adding overdubs."
Drummer Lars Ulrich achieved a unique sound on St. Anger by turning off the snares on his snare drum resulting in a drum tone with far more "ring" than is usual in rock and metal. This sound received a lot of backlash from fans and critics alike. Ulrich said, "One day I forgot to turn the snare on because I wasn't thinking about this stuff. At the playbacks, I decided I was really liking what I was hearing — it had a different ambience. It sang back to me a in a beautiful way." Regarding the backlash about the sound, he stated "It's crazy, that kind of closed-mindedness." Rock said "I would say I've only [done something] this brutal sounding when I've done demos. It probably sounds heavier because it's Metallica, but really this was a 15-minutes-on-the-drum-sound type of thing."
When St. Anger was completed, Metallica kept true to its earlier statement and hired a new permanent bassist. In February 2003, Robert Trujillo joined Metallica. Trujillo appeared on the footage of studio rehearsals of St. Anger in its entirety, which was included on DVD in the album package.
Album artwork
Brian "Pushead" Schroeder designed the album cover and artwork for St. Anger. Pushead has designed numerous items for Metallica in the past, including liner artwork of ...And Justice For All, several single covers, and many t-shirts. Originally, according to Metallica's official website, four different limited color variations of the cover were planned, but were eventually scrapped.
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