Hail Metallica : Metal Group’s Daring Album Is Also a Big Seller

It may no longer seem news when a rock band’s new album enters the national pop charts at No. 1--as Metallica’s latest collection did this week.

Since May when Billboard magazine began relying on the high-tech SoundScan system to monitor retail sales, albums by two other rock groups--Van Halen and Skid Row--have also entered the charts at the top spot.

But it is news--and good news--when an album as daring as Metallica’s new “Metallica” enters so convincingly at No. 1, selling, according to industry estimates, as many as 600,000 units in its first week in stores.

That’s the biggest single-week sales of any album since Billboard began using the SoundScan system and, according to the magazine’s Geoff Mayfield, more than twice as many copies as the previous single-week high-seller--the Van Halen album.

Kenny Hamlin, senior vice president of sales for Elektra Records, says orders for the Metallica album now total 2.2 million.

This dramatic sales surge of Metallica is an important development in rock--far more so than the No. 1 entries of Van Halen and Skid Row.

Where those two band’s albums were conventional works that should have little impact on the direction of rock, Metallica’s success may represent an important breakthrough.

Mainstream rock has been mired in recent years in a commercial and creative slump--partially created by radio programmers who favor passive pop sounds over the challenging or independent rock spirit that was celebrated in earlier decades.

Though some ‘80s bands--most notably U2--found ways to make challenging records that also appealed to a mass audience, many of rock’s most creative outfits have become so frustrated in recent years by the slow erosion of mainstream pop-rock vitality that they seemed content to operate outside of that mainstream.

Metallica was a prime example--exhibiting a force on stage and on record that was so powerful the San Francisco-based group virtually became viewed by hard-core metal fans as the Beatles of the genre.

Unlike the numbing repetitiousness and mindless ramblings of most heavy-metal acts, Metallica was a group that combined stimulating sonic assault with thoughtful themes and career integrity.

Its 1988 album, “. . . And Justice for All,” stands as a masterpiece of metal--a swirling collection of long, intricate musical soundscapes that was a triumph in almost every way--except for its virtual inaccessibility to mainstream listeners.

Though the Metallica qualities of integrity and imagination are so badly needed to help jump start mainstream rock, the band, even after “Justice,” meant almost nothing in the larger rock community. That began changing after a video for the song “One”--from the “Justice” album--started getting lots of MTV airplay.

Perhaps stimulated by the response to “One” and the challenge of reaching a wider audience, Metallica had the courage to step out of its metal shell with its new album. Not only did the quartet come up with songs that are more compact and accessible, it brought in producer Bob Rock, whose past credits--much to the horror of many metal purists--included such pop-leaning rock outfits as Motley Crue and Bon Jovi.

Some fans--and some critics--see the new album as a step back, a work that sacrifices too much individuality and impact. Yet, there is much to admire in “Metallica”--and critics, generally, are hailing the album.

The most immediate thing about the album, as Robert Palmer notes in his Rolling Stone review, is that it may be the best sounding rock album in years. Bob Rock has done a remarkable job of giving Metallica clarity and definition without sacrificing force.

The album’s songs, examining issues ranging from obligations to deceits, also stand as convincing expressions, and even James Hetfield’s singing--which often seems too close to the stiff, regimental style favored in metal--shows signs of greater emotional range. This is especially true in the tender “Nothing Else Matters.”

But perhaps the most exciting thing about “Metallica” is the relationship it builds between the band and mainstream rock audiences. With albums also due shortly from Guns N’ Roses and U2, this may become the most stimulating period for mainstream rock in years.

The band, now touring Europe, begins a U.S. tour in November, though it probably won’t be in Southern California until early next year, report Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, who manage the group.

Burnstein said he thinks the group saw the more compact song structure of the new album as a creative challenge after the complex creations of “Justice.”

“If you go back and listen to the early (Metallica) albums, you’ll find that many of the songs were fairly compact, but they kept expanding on the albums until you got to a point (in ‘Justice’) where you have to ask how far can you go. . . . I think they felt challenged to write something that was different.”

Producer Bob Rock said he was aware of the anxiety among many hard-core Metallica fans when they learned he would be working with the group on the new album. But he scoffs at the notion he was brought in to “sanitize” the group.

“I think what makes these guys what they are is the fact they weren’t content with just making another ‘Justice’ or whatever,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Vancouver. “They said, ‘OK, that’s fine, but now let’s go on. Let’s make something new.’ That, to me, is the sign of a really great artist. It would have been so simple for them to have just done what they had done.”