With 53 artists tackling just 12 songs, the officially-endorsed, charity-benefitting Metallica tribute album The Metallica Blacklist was always likely to be a hit-and-miss affair.
Happily, we can report that Bristol punks Idles and British-Japanese alt.pop pacesetter Rina Sawayama have risen to the challenge of putting a fresh spin on two of the stand-out tracks on “The Black Album’, lead-off single Enter Sandman and James Hetfield’s scathing reflection on his Christian Scientist upbringing, The God That Failed.
Metallica have been drip-feeding us choice morsels from this smorgasbord of sound all summer, showcasing covers by the likes of Biffy Clyro (Holier Than Thou), St. Vincent (Sad But True), Phoebe Bridgers (Nothing Else Matters) and Weezer (Enter Sandman once again), some more imaginative than others.
The Metallica Blacklist will be unveiled in all its glory on September 10 via Metallica’s own Blackened Records label. On the same day, the label will reissue the band’s self-titled fifth album in a variety of shiny new formats, with all manner of live tracks, demo versions and alternate mixes bolted on to a sonically-buffed upgrade of the original 12 track album.
You can watch former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted get to grips with the monstrous Super Deluxe edition of the globe-conquering metallic masterpiece below. And then why not hear what Newsted thinks about the album 30 years on from it’s original 1991 release in the latest edition of the Metal Hammer podcast brought to you by KILLSTAR.
The new issue of Classic Rock magazine, which celebrates 30 years of the Black Album with new interviews and insights, is on sale now.
