Latest news with #Load
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Metallica's Album Jumps Nearly 7,000% In Sales
Redferns Metallica recently re-released its album Load, offering a super deluxe edition to fans who just can't get enough of the band's music. The project was expanded to include previously unreleased demos and live recordings, and even a book for those who opted for the physical version. Sales of the decades-old collection skyrocketed following the exciting drop, turning it into a Billboard chart success yet again. Load Rises 6,900% in Sales In the past tracking period in the United States, Load sold 12,100 copies (according to Luminate), and that sum marks a dramatic increase from the period before. In the prior week, Load sold only a little less than 200 copies, just before Metallica re-released it. That growth represents a surge of a little more than 6,900% from one frame to the next. That's the kind of spike that can usually only be experienced when a group delivers something exciting – such as a new deluxe version of an album – or a major news event unfolds, like the passing of a musician. 100 Weeks as a Bestseller That uptick in pure purchases turns Load into a bestseller once again on multiple tallies. This week, the set reenters the Top Album Sales chart at No. 4. It's a special frame on that ranking, as Load has now spent 100 weeks as one of the top-selling titles in America. Load's New All-Time Peak At the same time, Metallica's project breaks back onto the Vinyl Albums roster at No. 12. Load has only ever appeared on that wax-focused ranking once before, and No. 12 now stands as its all-time peak. Load Debuts on Multiple Billboard Charts Metallica also debuts Load on four other rankings, ones that are not focused entirely on purchases. The 1996 project hits, for the first time, the Top Hard Rock Albums (No. 4), Top Alternative Albums (No. 6), Top Rock Albums (No. 13), and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts (No. 14). Metallica Returns its Classic to the Billboard 200 Load is also back on the Billboard 200, thanks almost exclusively to all those thousands of sales. Metallica's album moved 14,200 equivalent units, with only about 2,000 of those coming from any type of consumption that wasn't fans buying the full project.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Metallica's Self-Titled Blockbuster Returns As The Band's Album Debuts
Metallica's self-titled album becomes a bestseller again decades later as the band's Load debuts on ... More multiple lists thanks to a super deluxe edition. American heavy metal band Metallica - winners of the 'Rock and Roll Artist of the Year' award - attend the 8th Annual Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, 8th December 1997. L - R: James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, Jason Newsted. (Photo by) This week is all about Load for Metallica. The hard rock legends recently delivered a super deluxe edition of the decades-old full-length, and fans turned it into a bestseller once again. Load soars back onto charts all around the world, including in the United Kingdom, as it returns to a number of tallies and debuts on multiple rankings at the same time. As interest in Load skyrockets, another title in Metallica's discography also benefits from all the excitement. Metallica's Self-Titled Album Becomes a Bestseller Again The band's self-titled release — often referred to as The Black Album — is a bestseller again in the U.K. this week. The title breaks back onto the Official Album Downloads chart at No. 67. At the same time, it falls nine spaces to second-to-last place on the 40-spot Official Rock & Metal Albums list. While Metallica has only spent a few dozen frames on the downloads roster, it recently passed 1,000 weeks on the list of the bestselling rock and metal collections in the country. Load Debuts on Multiple Charts Load makes its debut on the Official Album Downloads chart this week, joining Metallica, as neither title was present on the ranking just days ago. Load opens at No. 45 and makes a much more impressive start on both the Official Vinyl Albums and Official Albums Sales rankings, where it kicks off at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. The same effort reenters another trio of tallies. Load jumps back to No. 1 on the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart – after not finding space on that tally just last frame – giving Metallica a pair of titles on that list as well. The same studio effort finds its way back to the top 10 on the Official Physical Albums list, coming in at No. 6, and it also manages to appear in the upper half of the Official Albums roster, where it reenters at No. 45. Metallica's Decades-Old Albums Remain the Band's Biggest While Metallica still releases music regularly and is currently touring the United States, both of its charting albums in the U.K. have been around for more than a quarter-century. Metallica, or The Black Album as it's sometimes known, was released in 1991. Half a decade later, Load arrived. Since then, the group has shared five additional full-lengths, but its earlier works remain standards in hard rock.
Forbes
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Metallica Earns Multiple New Top 10s With A Decades-Old Album
Thanks to a deluxe reissue, Metallica's Load appears on six U.K. charts, and even manages top 10 ... More debuts on both the vinyl and physical albums lists. UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 01: Photo of Cliff BURTON and METALLICA and Lars ULRICH and Kirk HAMMETT and James HETFIELD; L-R: Cliff Burton, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett - posed, studio, group shot (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns) Earlier this month, Metallica re-released its album Load in a super deluxe edition. The decades-old project clearly connected with the hard rock band's massive fanbase, as the full-length appears on half a dozen charts in the United Kingdom this week — and remarkably, on several of them for the very first time. Load Debuts Inside the Top 10 on Multiple Charts Decades after it was initially a commercial success, Load opens inside the top 10 on multiple tallies. The collection debuts highest on the Official Vinyl Albums chart, where it starts at No. 5. With this latest arrival, Metallica has now collected nine top 10s on the format-specific ranking. The last time the group reached the uppermost tier was in December 2023, when Ride the Lightning opened at No. 10, also many years after its initial heyday. The band previously climbed even higher than this current No. 5 spot with 72 Seasons, a brand new release that quickly soared to No. 1 in spring 2023. Metallica's Fifth Top 10 on the Sales List Load also debuts one spot lower on the Official Albums Sales chart. On that list, Metallica earns its fifth top 10 as the 1996 collection kicks off its return at No. 6. The group most recently scored a new top 10 on this ranking in April 2023, when 72 Seasons hit the summit. Since then, four other efforts have launched in lower positions. A New Downloads Win The full-length also reaches the Official Album Downloads chart for the very first time. Though it doesn't approach the top 10 on the list, the hard rock classic is new at No. 45, just missing out on becoming a top 40 bestseller. Load Returns to No. 1 Load reenters a trio of additional tallies, and even manages to conquer one of them, thanks to its recently-shared deluxe reissue. Metallica is back in charge on the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart, as Load returns to the roster at No. 1 after not appearing very recently. The set also breaks back onto the Official Physical Albums chart at No. 6 and reappears on the main ranking of the most consumed full-lengths and EPs in the U.K. at No. 46 — coincidentally the same position it lands on the downloads tally.
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Metallica's Decades-Old Album Hits No. 1 For The Second Time Ever
Metallica's Load returns to No. 1 on the U.K.'s Official Rock & Metal Albums chart nearly 30 years ... More after its original debut thanks to a super deluxe reissue. (MANDATORY CREDIT Midori Tsukagoshi/) Metallica in a dressing room during live in Europe, unknown, September 1996. (Photo by Midori Tsukagoshi/) It's not uncommon for Metallica to appear on the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart, the United Kingdom's ranking of the bestselling full-lengths and EPs in those styles. The group usually claims at least one of the 40 available spaces, if not several at a time. What is less commonly seen these days is Metallica's name in the top spot. While the band's back catalog remains hugely popular and certain titles continue to sell well enough each and every frame to hold on, it takes a special set of circumstances for the hard rock legends to own the ranking, as the band does once again this week. Metallica Returns to No. 1 Metallica returns to the throne on the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart as Load reappears on the tally. The decades-old project reenters the list at No. 1, pushing Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance out of first place and down to third, as Roar Like Thunder by Buckcherry opens in the runner-up spot. Load Hits No. 1 for Only the Second Time Load leads the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart for only the second time. The project debuted atop the tally in June 1996. It's been almost 30 years since then, and somehow Metallica's sixth full-length has never managed to rule the ranking again, until now. The project has managed 79 total stays on the roster, 33 of which have been inside the top 10. Metallica's New Super Deluxe Box Set On June 13, Metallica reissued Load as a super deluxe box set. The lengthy collection includes demos, additional mixes, videos, live tracks, and more. Those who opted for the physical version received 15 CDs, four DVDs, and a book that features more than 100 pages all about the group. Load Rises Into the Top 10 As Load takes control of the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart, it also reaches the top 10 on three other lists. Metallica's project debuts at No. 5 on the Official Vinyl Albums ranking and No. 6 on the Official Albums Sales roster. The set also breaks back onto the Official Physical Albums chart at No. 6, while coming in at No. 40 on both the Official Albums and Official Album Downloads tallies.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
James Hetfield says that Mama Said was never meant to be a Metallica song
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Mama Said, one of the defining singles from Metallica's 1996 album Load, wasn't originally intended to be released by the band. This has been revealed by a 1996 interview with singer/guitarist James Hetfield, which was this week unearthed and uploaded to YouTube by the channel 'TMF – The Music Factory'. During the conversation, Hetfield, who wrote the song and exclusively plays acoustic guitar throughout its run-time, compares Mama Said's creation with that of 1991 megahit Nothing Else Matters, which started as an intimate track no one else was ever intended to hear. '[Mama Said] was myself writing something for me: just out on the road, being bored, being in your hotel room,' the frontman says. 'It wasn't really for others to hear. It was some real personal stuff.' Hetfield adds that, somehow, his bandmates overheard him playing the song and saw potential in it. 'They saw something there, something real from deep inside,' he continues. 'It was pretty heavy, meaning-wise. So, we worked on it and turned it into a Metallica song. It wasn't originally supposed to be one.' One of Hetfield's most lyrically vulnerable songs, Mama Said is about the musician's complicated relationship with his mother, who was a Christian Scientist that died of cancer in February 1980, when her son was 16 years old. The track hints at discord between the two ('Let my heart go, let your son grow'), but Hetfield also laments his lack of gratitude for his mother while she was alive ('I took your love for granted, all the things you said to me'). Load came out on June 4, 1996, and Mama Said received a single release on November 25. The song charted well in Europe, reaching number one on the UK Rock & Metal chart and 19 on the UK Singles chart. Despite that success, Metallica have never played Mama Said live as a unit, with its only known performances being two solo acoustic renditions by Hetfield in November 1996, one for UK TV show Later With Jools Holland and the other for Swedish programme Sverige-Sovjet. On Friday (June 13), Metallica reissued Load across a series of titanic boxsets, offering almost 300 tracks from around that era, including many previously unheard demos, edits and live versions. The album was remastered by Reuben Cohen. Earlier this year, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett expressed an openness to revisit Load's bluesier sound on future Metallica albums.
