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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Music > Rock > Albums > Classic Albums - Metallica (Black Album)

Classic Albums: Metallica – Metallica (aka The Black Album)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Main Program: B-

 

 

When the DVD-Audio format was first launched, one of the first albums Warner Bros. issued was Metallica – Metallica/The Black Album, which seemed to be a great candidate for a 5.1 remix.  It was not bad, but not all fans were pleased, despite the fact that more speakers allowed all the sound to come through better than traditional stereo.  Before their justified battle against illegal internet downloading made them somehow “uncool” with supposed fans, the 1991 release topped the Billboard album chart for a month, while sales went past 12 Million and up.  The DVD-Audio had few extras, but one was an anamorphically enhanced trailer for the Classic Albums series making of installment it was the subject of, which we look at now.

 

All the tracks from the album are examined, though the breakdown of the songs are not what we usually get from the series in that it is not as thorough as one might like.  The insight is interesting, however, but this was released in 2001, before the events of 9/11/01 and of the Napster battles.  In this respect, it is a sudden time capsule even non-fans can find a new interest in.  The main program chapters are:

 

1)     Enter Sandman

2)     Sad But True

3)     Holier Than Thou

4)     The Unforgiven

5)     Wherever I May Roam

6)     Nothing Else Matters

 

You either like them or you don’t, but they are classic Rock hits before Hip Hop totally took over the genre, so this is one of the last hurrahs for Rock and most did not know that at the time.  The late composer Michael Kamen is also interviewed in the main show, which runs about 50 minutes.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is just fine for what is here, including the usual mix of old and new footage, but 1991 was not that long ago and this looks fine.  Unlike the high fidelity of the DVD-Audio’s 5.1 MLP tracks (which we rate a B, with B+ for the better remixes), this is in simple Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds that are almost as good as the Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD-Audio, which says something about the limits of the Dolby on that disc.  Fans who did not like the DVD-A remix will be happy with the lack of tampering here as the band relives each track on the album.  Extras include a discography of the band that is one frame that simply lists all albums to 1999 and the years they came out.  That is lame.  Seven extras interview segments are included in the bonus interview section, so that makes up for it, but some of it is just music anyhow.  This is a decent, if not stellar installment of the series.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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