How many metallica albums

We then apply this process to all compilations present on below table. While Metallica are famous for never releasing a compilation album in nearly 40 years, they did drop multiple side projects, live albums, box sets, and music videos. Among them is the duet album with Lou Reed , Lulu , which completely bombed.

Then, there is also heavily successful products. Both sets combine for 8. The band always issued plenty of EPs, some of which sold very well.

These songs were later included into the Garage Inc. We can also highlight the 7. Due to the dependency of sales of the original studio albums on these releases, they are a key piece of the jigsaw. These numbers are obtained by applying the method from the section The distribution process to all packages listed under Compilation sales figures listing category.

Logically, Metallica is the main helper of their catalog having powered 8. Their first 4 albums follow, with also a nice contribution from ReLoad thanks to the popularity of Fuel. Please note country-specific numbers may miss sales of a few minor releases, although totals are complete.

So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each album by Metallica achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!

In the following results table, all categories display figures in equivalent album sales. If different, pure sales are listed between parentheses. See where the artist ranks among remaining singers. The difference is that this wave went much higher and also lasted much longer. Indeed, the American Metal icons have yet to release an album that sells less than 3 million units. Hardwired… to Self-Destruct is their weakest so far, and it still moved a very nice 3. Considering the lasting appeal of their catalog, this record is actually in line with many of its predecessors, now time will tell if it will be able to amass larger numbers in the future.

Both St. Anger and Death Magnetic stand at 5. There is still zillions of successful groups which would like to have these albums as part of their discography.

You can already open your records book to see who else managed to score 8 million sellers in a row. Some albums are also comfortably over that mark. Load is now on 13 million, while Ride The Lightning impresses at nearly 15 million. Master Of Puppets keeps climbing fast, now showing well over 17 million sales to date across all formats. On its side, …And Just For All is up to 19 million. There was no suspense about the leader, but we are still amazed at numbers achieved by Metallica.

The absolute classic from stands on This is how big Metallica is. With new releases still selling extremely well and a back catalog that is as buoyant as ever, the total of the band will keep on climbing. As for now, it is already up to This makes Metallica the second best selling American band of all-time, only topped by the Eagles. The list is compiled in album equivalent sales generated by each song.

Therefore, these figures are not merged units of singles formats. Coupled with their total sales, it translates into an ASR score of The ranking of all artists studied so far is available too at this link.

To improve your navigation we created several amazing cross-artists lists posted inside the CSPC: Data Collector article.

Click on it to see the full listing of all CSPC results compiled so far! To put figures from this article into perspective, click on the images below to reach career breakdowns of similar artists:.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Digital Songs As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single. Streaming Streaming is made up of audio and video streams. The distribution process How to understand this table?

Compilations sales figures listing While Metallica are famous for never releasing a compilation album in nearly 40 years, they did drop multiple side projects, live albums, box sets, and music videos.

As a bonus, below is the breakdown of their top selling live set. Total Album all types Sales per Country Please note country-specific numbers may miss sales of a few minor releases, although totals are complete. Albums CSPC results In the following results table, all categories display figures in equivalent album sales. Metallica is one of only 4 acts with 6 consecutive 10 million sellers EAS. At 45,, EAS, Metallica is the 3rd most successful album from At 16,, US Soundscan sales, Metallica is the highest selling album over this panel in this country since At 27 years and 6 months, Metallica has the longest span ever of consecutive US 1 studio albums.

Master Of Puppets was the 2nd fastest album from the 80s to hit 10 million stream with all its tracks. Metallica is one of the only 3 albums from the 90s with 2 tracks over million streams in Spotify. You may be interested in… … best-selling artists, albums, and singles To improve your navigation we created several amazing cross-artists lists posted inside the CSPC: Data Collector article.

The Memory Remains is one hell of a tune though. Okay, so chances are any live album — bar maybe Live At Leeds or No Sleep Til Hammersmith — will struggle to break the upper echelons in a list like this. Live albums as a concept are flawed: they're full of annoying people shouting, none of the songs sound quite as good as they should and the sound quality's often shite.

They're the studio album's poor relation; uninspiring space fillers. Remember that thirst for boundary pushing we mentioned earlier? Those privileged to see this recorded, or to witness the subsequent performances in Berlin, New York or Las Vegas, will ever forget it. The arguments about this ferociously self-regarding project began the moment news of it escaped like bad gas from the manholes of New York City. Those arguments only grew more heated once everyone actually heard it.

It's not even really accurate to describe this album as 'divisive' — it alienated many more listeners than it impressed and was roundly trounced by music critics, while its supporters were few and far between. Provocative and challenging, this is Metallica at their most bloody-minded, and what they brought to the collaboration was pure, blissfully un-ironic fire.

No other metal band would have the courage to even attempt such a project. As stubborn, uncompromising and pig-headed as Metallica have always been — and those are compliments by the way — the brutal fan reaction to the unloved St. Anger album was difficult for Hetfield and Ulrich to ignore. Gone was the lukewarm tone of St. Anger — where Hetfield had sounded messy and unfocused — replaced instead by impassioned, driven vocals.

Kirk Hammett was allowed back out to solo again — and though he may not have quite won his detractors round, his wailing gave the album an intense, improvisational feel. The judicial bursts of harmony between Hetfield and Hammett were also a joy to behold.

Well, the people needn't have worried. Hardwired… turned out to be one of Metallica's strongest releases in decades. The standard was set by its biting title track — a vicious burst of prime thrash with an irresistible chorus and enough spirit and venom to silence anyone who thought Metallica were too old to nail this stuff anymore. Maybe Lars had been practising more, or maybe some computer trickery was involved, but with Hardwired The downside to Hardwired… came on its second disc, where furious closer Spit Out The Bone aside, the songs suffered from the same problem that has plagued every Metallica record since Load: the inability to self-edit.

While a few superb riffs were scattered here and there, Here Comes Revenge was the best of a patchy bunch — the less said about plodding, forgettable Lemmy tribute Murder One the better. But the negatives on this album don't really matter, as Hardwired More so than even than the infamous Lulu — because at least with that, the hardcore fans had a ready made hate-figure in collaborator Lou Reed to blame it on.

As the Some Kind Of Monster documentary starkly illustrates, Metallica were at their lowest ebb both in regards to their personal relationships and their art when it came time to make their eighth studio album. Jason Newsted had exited after delivering some harsh home truths, James Hetfield was forced to enter rehab, and for the longest time, no-one — least of all the bewildered Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett — was entirely sure that Metallica actually still existed. You'll find brief descriptions of each below, as well as links to more in-depth features on each of these records.

Metallica's first album altered the future of the entire metal genre, as they combined punk energy with the technical precision of pioneering New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Iron Maiden to create the perfect thrash metal template. To be clear, there were other bands exploring similar styles, but none that paired it with the songwriting craft displayed on tracks like "Hit the Lights" and "Seek and Destroy. Working together as a songwriting team for the first time, Metallica radically upgraded and expanded their sound on their sophomore album.

The dynamic power ballad "Fade to Black," which featured clean vocals and acoustic guitars, turned out to be just the first example of the group willfully defying expectations in order to conquer new territory over a long and successful career. On their brilliant third album, Metallica pushed the growth demonstrated on Ride the Lightning to even more ridiculous heights. Structurally, the album follows the same basic sequence as its predecessor, from the opening acoustic segments to the instrumentals on each record's back end.

But everything on Master of Puppets is faster, harder, more subtle, more complex, more accessible -- just.. The album deservedly made them metal superstars, and set the stage for even bigger things in the future. Still reeling from the death of bassist Cliff Burton , Metallica didn't alter their winning methods much in terms of songwriting on their first album with new member Jason Newsted.

Justice gave the band its own warped "Stairway to Heaven" with the anti-war epic "One," but has continually come under fire for its unusually dry and thin mix, which features Newsted's contributions dialed down to near-inaudible levels.

In hindsight,. And Justice for All revealed Metallica straining at the limits of the songwriting and album sequencing templates they'd established for themselves. So the band reached for mainstream acceptance by dialing back the thrash, simplifying its songwriting and beefing up the sound with help from producer Bob Rock. Although some original fans cried "sellout," thanks to radio smashes such as "Enter Sandman" and the no-tricks ballad "Nothing Else Matters," Metallica became arguably the biggest band in the history of metal.