Metallica's Black Album and 'Master Of Puppets' Hit New Platinum Heights

05-28-2025

(NLM) Metallica is as surprised as anyone to learn that two of their landmark albums have attained new RIAA certifications: Metallica's self-titled fifth album a/k/a The Black Album has been certified 20x platinum for sales in excess of 20 million copies, while the band's third full length, Master of Puppets, has been certified 8x platinum having crossed the eight million mark.

The Black Album's 1991 release not only gave Metallica its first #1 album in no fewer than 10 countries, including a 4-week run at #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 Black Album's impact and relevance continue to grow with successive generations-it remains unchallenged as the best-selling album of the Luminate era, outselling every release in every genre over the past 30+ years.

Metallica's 1986 breakthrough third LP Master of Puppets has attained 8x platinum status, having sold more than eight million albums. The heaviest rock album ever to be selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," Master of Puppets has long been regarded as a watershed moment in the history of rock music. The album's peerless balance of sheer power and complex song craft would earn Metallica its first gold record, elevating the band to new heights of critical acclaim on the strength of enduring favorites including "Battery," "Orion" and of course the title track, speaking of which...

... "Master of Puppets" recently followed "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters" as the third Metallica song to join the billion streams club, becoming the second longest song to do so. Clocking in at 8:36, "Master..." now sits between former second longest billion streamer "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin (8:02) and reigning champion Taylor Swift's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)."

Metallica is currently in the midst of the third year of its M72 World Tour, which has seen the band play to more than three million fans across the globe. The M72 shows have been breaking attendance records from Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium to the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse NY, while generating some of the most positive critical notes of the band's career - and in one case, actual seismic activity, thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm of 70,000+ fans attending the first-ever concert at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg VA.