Metallica - Metallica (Black Album) (1991)
Mp3 - 58mb

Wikipedia.com:

Metallica (also known as The Black Album) is the self-titled 5th studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica released on August 13, 1991. It features some of Metallica's most popular songs, "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven" ,"Nothing Else Matters" , "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad But True".

Metallica was released on August 13, 1991 through Elektra Records, and is the band's best-selling album to date, with 15 million copies sold in the United States and 22 million copies worldwide.

The album cover features only the band's logo and a coiled snake (derived from the Gadsden flag). The motto of the Gadsden flag, "Don't Tread on Me", is also the title of a song featured on the album.

Metallica DVD-Audio 5.1 mix was released in 2004 through Elektra Records.

History

While the album and the band were critically praised and commercially successful, some fans expressed disappointment in the new direction taken by Metallica. Gone for the most part were faster staccato riffs during verses and throaty vocals found on the band's first four albums; the overall speed and complexity of the music was greatly reduced. The Black Album presented a more radio-friendly, commercially accessible Metallica, especially evidenced by the ballad "Nothing Else Matters". Moreover, following the success of "One," the breakaway single from their ...And Justice for All album, five videos were released from the Black Album. ("Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters", "Sad but True", "Wherever I May Roam" and "The Unforgiven").

The lyrics of The Black Album, written by James Hetfield, were much more personal and introspective in nature than previous Metallica albums.^{[citation needed]}. For example, "The God That Failed" dealt with Hetfield's mother's death from cancer and her Christian Science beliefs which kept her from seeking medical treatment. "Nothing Else Matters" expresses the connection Hetfield felt with a girlfriend while out on the road. The album ended Metallica's tradition of including a lengthy instrumental track on each album. It also marked their first use of tuning down a half-step with "The God That Failed".

Tracks:

1. Enter Sandman
2. Sad But True
3. Holier Than Thou
4. The Unforgiven
5. Wherever I May Roam
6. Don't Tread On Me
7. Through The Never
8. Nothing Else Matters
9. Of Wolf And Man
10. The God That Failed
11. My Friend Of Misery
12. The Struggle Within

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/132293117/1991_METALLICA.zip

Metallica - Load (1996)
mp3 - 63mb

Wikipedia:

Load is the sixth album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released in June 1996.

History

The album marked the band's return to the musical landscape, approximately five years after the release of their international smash success, Metallica. Load saw the band embrace a collective sound and identity far removed from their thrash metal roots. As on previous releases, the fourteen songs that would eventually make up the album began as rough demos created by principal songwriters James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in Ulrich's basement recording studio, "The Dungeon." The band took over 30 demos into The Plant Studios in the spring of 1995 where they would work for approximately the next year. Once again, Metallica teamed up with famed producer Bob Rock, who had been at the helm during the recording process for Metallica.

The songwriting dispenses almost entirely with the thrash metal style that characterized the band's sound in the 1980s. In place of staccato riffs, Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett experimented with more blues-based tones and styles. As the group had become friends with country star Waylon Jennings prior to the recording of Load, he is often credited as influential to the album's new sound, particularly songs like "Mama Said." Additionally, Ulrich adopted a minimalist approach to his drum recording, abandoning the speed and complex double bass patterns of previous albums. Hetfield displayed a lyrical evolution as well, writing what many feel to be his most personal and introspective lyrics. "Until it Sleeps," the album's lead single, addressed his father's losing battle with cancer, while "Mama Said" explored his relationship with his mother. All of this marked a departure from the political and social overtones of albums like ...And Justice for All and Master of Puppets.

The album also marked the first appearance of a new Metallica logo, rounding off the stabbing edges of the first and last letters of the band's earlier 1980s logo. The M from the original logo was used to make a shaken-like symbol known as the "ninja star" which was used as an alternate logo on this and future albums as well as other related artwork. The album featured an expansive booklet which contained many photos of the band. The booklet only contained select lyrics from each song in contrast to Metallica's previous studio albums which included complete song lyrics. Additionally, the interior artwork revolved around images of inkblots, a theme which would carry over to ReLoad and the covers for the singles released from the two albums.

The cover of the album is original artwork entitled "Semen and Blood III." It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas.^[2]

This was Metallica's longest studio album, clocking in at 78:59. Initial pressings of the album were affixed with stickers that boasted its long playtime, simply reading "78:59."

"The Outlaw Torn" had to be shortened by about one minute to fit on the album. The full version was released on a single for "The Memory Remains" as "The Outlaw Torn (Unencumbered by Manufacturing Restrictions Version)" with a running time of 10:48. An explanation was given on the single's back cover:

When we were doing the final sequencing of the 'LOAD' album, the record company told us that we couldn't go a second past 78.59, or your CD's wouldn't play without potentially skipping. With our 14 songs, we were running about 30 seconds over, and something had to give, so the cool-ass jam at the end of 'Outlaw' got chopped (ARRRGGGHHH!!). Here is the full version as it was written, recorded and meant to be.

This was also the only Metallica studio album not to have the bassist have a writing credit. It was also their first album for all tracks to be drop-tuned a half-step; they did however, start tuning down on Master of Puppets on "The Thing That Should Not Be" and on The Black Album on "The God That Failed", and some cover songs, after that album, including the Motorhead songs that they covered before recording Load.

Tracks:

1. Ain't My Bitch
2. 2 x 4
3. The House Jack Built
4. Until It Sleeps
5. King Nothing
6. Hero Of The Day
7. Bleeding Me
8. Cure
9. Poor Twisted Me
10. Wasting My Hate
11. Mama Said
12. Thorn Within
13. Ronnie
14. The Outlaw Torn

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/132293683/1996_LOAD.zip

Metallica - Master Of Puppets (1986)
Mp3 - 52mb

Wikipedia.com:

Master of Puppets is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Metallica. The album was recorded in 1985^[2] and released by Elektra Records on March 3, 1986^[1] in North America.

The album proved to be a modest commercial success upon its release, reaching number twenty-nine on the U.S. Billboard 200, making it the very first thrash metal album to crack the top 40. With the band's rising popularity from the release of ...And Justice for All, awareness of the album has increased, and according to the RIAA, it has sold over six million copies in the U.S. alone. It was the last album the band recorded with bass player Cliff Burton, who was killed in a tour bus crash six months after it was released.

Historical significance

The band's line-up during the album's recording was James Hetfield on vocals and rhythm guitar, Lars Ulrich on drums, Kirk Hammett on lead guitar, and Cliff Burton on bass. The album is remembered in part due to the death of Burton shortly after the release of the album in a bus accident while supporting the album on tour.

When it was released, Master of Puppets provided many metal fans with an alternate image to the commercially popular glam metal bands, such as Poison and Ratt. The album has frequently been tagged by critics as "one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time."^[3]

As an early parody of the PMRC's "explicit lyrics" warning labels, many prints of Metallica's 1986 release of Master of Puppets sported a sticker on the front in the shape of a stop-sign saying:

"The only track you probably won't want to play is "Damage, Inc." due to the multiple use of the infamous "F" word. otherwise, there aren't any "Shits," "Fucks," "Pisses," "Cunts," "Motherfuckers," or "Cocksuckers" anywhere on this record"

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release, Metallica played the album in its entirety on their Escape from the Studio '06 tour, for the first time ever at the Rock am Ring festival on June 3, 2006. These concerts included the first-ever complete performances of the instrumental "Orion" (though portions of the song's lengthy middle section had been performed at various times as part of instrumental medleys and bass solos since the early 1990s).

The title track was ranked Number 51 in the "The Greatest Guitar Solos" from Guitar World. In 2006, the album was voted the fourth "greatest guitar album of all time" in Guitar World. And the April 5, edition of Kerrang! was dedicated to it, providing readers with the cover album "Master of Puppets: Remastered". In March 2007, the guitar magazine Total Guitar ranked the 100 greatest riffs of all time, and the main riff in the album's title track was ranked number one.

Tracks:

1. Battery
2. Master Of Puppets
3. The Thing That Should Not Be
4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
5. Disposable Heroes
6. Leper Messiah
7. Orion
8. Damage, Inc.

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/132071166/1986_MASTER_OF_PUPPETS.zip

Metallica - Ride The Lightning (1984)
mp3 - 44mb

Ride the Lightning is the second album by American thrash metal band Metallica, released on July 27, 1984 by Megaforce Records and re-released by Elektra Records on November 19, 1984.[2] It has sold over 5 million copies in the U.S. alone.

Reception and influence

Ride the Lightning is often hailed by fans as a classic of the thrash metal genre, and a vital bridge between the band's albums Kill 'Em All and Master of Puppets, pushing the thrash metal of the debut into progressive territory more fully-realized on Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All.

Ride the Lightning retains the speed of Kill 'Em All on songs like "Trapped Under Ice" and "Fight Fire with Fire", but also contains the first of Metallica's longer, more symphonically arranged tracks, such as "Fade to Black" and the nearly 9-minute closing instrumental "The Call of Ktulu".

Ride the Lightning was listed at #3 on a list compiled by metal-rules.com of the Top 100 Metal Albums of All Time and #5 by IGN Music on the Top 25 Metal Albums.

Q (Summer/01, p.127) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Reaffirms their status as the pre-eminent metal band of the modern era....They broke with the conventions of thrash metal to record the genre's first power ballad in 'Fade to Black'".

Kerrang! (p.50) - "[The album included] melody, maturity and musical intelligence. It was these traits which helped them broaden metal's scope."

"Creeping Death" was covered by Welsh glam metal band Tigertailz for a B-side in 1990, Welsh metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine on Kerrang!'s 25th Anniversary Higher Voltage complication disk, and by alternative metal band Drowning Pool at Ozzfest 2002.

"Escape" was covered by death metal band Gojira on their 2005 album From Mars to Sirius.

Tracks:

1. Fight Fire With Fire
2. Ride The Lightning
3. For Whom The Bell Tolls
4. Fade To Black
5. Trapped Under Ice
6. Escape
7. Creeping Death
8. The Call Of Ktulu

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/132070730/1984_RIDE_THE_LIGHTNING.zip