Metallica
"The Black Album" DVD

THE REVIEW

Or better known as "The Black Album DVD". The DVD in question is not a box set but a simple DVD containing the "making of" the creation of the Black Album by the 4horsemen, guided, for the first time, by Bob Rock who had the merit of consecrating them to the heights of rock, making them famous, selling them out to radio and TV, but most of all, making them disgustingly and wonderfully wealthy.

The DVD in question retraces, in stages, the creation of the album through backstage footage and interviews with the band members (especially James and Lars), their producer, and Kirk. Little space will be dedicated to the poor crucified Newsted, especially when he confesses to being very disappointed because the bass line heard in the intro of "My Friend Of Misery" was composed by him hoping it would become the instrumental of the album. But it was not to be (and we all know how it ended).

The anthology contains many interesting moments, including Kirk Hammett's inspiration for the riff of "Enter Sandman" in the dead of night (around 2 AM... what a man!), or the unusual loss of James's voice and the hate between Bob Rock and Lars (which then turned into a partnership or, rather, a marriage...).

Finally, but not least, Bob Rock confesses the reason (the true reason) why he chose to produce Metallica instead of another band (Bon Jovi), whose epiphany, instead of happening on the road to Damascus, happened, imagine, in the desert... crazy stuff! He was stopped to refuel, and there, at that service station, he met a Native American, a guy, with a Metallica T-shirt while listening to their song. The rest is history.

From a quality perspective, the documentary (because it is a documentary) is well made, excellently produced, and so on. The booklet does not exist, but in its place, you will find a completely black laminated sheet where the DVD menu is written.  Therefore, no song videos (you will get your fill of those in "Metallica - The Videos 1899 - 2004") but on the contrary, a selection among the chapters of the 6 chosen songs ("Enter Sandman", "Sad But True", "Holier Than Thou", "The Unforgiven", "Wherever I May Roam", and "Nothing Else Matters", plus a final credits section). Moreover, there is the second section of the anthology on DVD where a section called "Bonus Interviews" is collected, that is, all the interviews gathered for us by James and Lars who discuss their friendship, the recording of Lars's drums, Kirk's solo (in fact: Kirk's solos) and the inhuman ways Bob Rock had to encourage him to make them perfect, and so on, plus a section "The God That Failed" in which James talks about his approach to religion.

Summing up, the DVD is not bad at all, but it's a pity for the total absence of an internal booklet that might have enhanced the package. Instead, they chose to proceed with the classic: packaging and disc.

The color? Well, all black, of course......