North American syndicated Rock radio show and website InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands scores James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett on the 25th anniversary of Metallica’s Black Album. 

Over 22 million people have purchased Metallica’s 1991 Black Album.  To put that into perspective, that’s millions more than the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s... or Abbey Road or any Led Zeppelin album. 

A decade into an uncompromising career, Metallica stood as one of the most uncompromising foundaries of heavy music. Their reputation for blunt trauma heavy metal in an era of heavily produced hair-band pop metal set them apart. But as the ‘90s began, Metallica challenged themselves to creatively expand by adding producer Bob Rock to the mix, creating a tense work environment marred with conflict, but ultimately producing timeless classics “Enter Sandman”, “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters”.

James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett share with In The Studio host Redbeard how the addition of a real producer impacted the band in the studio.

“There was a little intimidation on both sides... He (Bob Rock) called me ‘Dr. No.’... As soon as he’d open his mouth, ‘NO’ would come out of mine.” (laughs) -  James Hetfield

“The farther along the album got, the more the tension kind of just like built up. At the end of the day, if that’s what we had to do, that’s what we had to do.” -  Kirk Hammett

As a bonus, In the Studio previews Hardwired To Self-Destruct from Metallica’s forthcoming double album due out this November.  

Stream the program at InTheStudio.net.