Overview
- Released on March 3, 1986, Metallica’s third album reaches its 40th anniversary as coverage revisits how it defined thrash metal.
- Louder reports the band will add six more nights to their forthcoming Sphere residency in Las Vegas due to “unbelievable demand,” under the Life Burns Faster banner, with ticket registration open.
- The album was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen and co-produced by Metallica with Flemming Rasmussen.
- Archival notes and interviews recount alternate paths: Geddy Lee’s talks about producing, a nearly used Bobcat Goldthwait intro, a “Disposable Heroes” riff later placed in “Damage, Inc.,” and a 1985 demo where “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” and “Orion” appeared together as “Only Thing.”
- The era’s scrapped B-side covers—Diamond Head’s The Prince and Fang’s The Money Will Roll Right In—surfaced in the 2017 box set, the album became the first thrash LP certified for one million U.S. sales, it was added to the National Recording Registry in 2015, and it stands as Cliff Burton’s final recorded work with the band.