A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica Part 1

In the time that Metallica recorded and manufactured its self-titled 1991 album, aka “The Black Album,” the Gulf War began and ended, East and West Germany were united for the first time since World War II, and the World Wide Web became publicly available. In the recording-studio lounge in Hollywood where the band was recording, the war’s progress plays out on a television set as the days turn into weeks and then months. World events come and go as the band chips away in isolation at what would become its most commercially consequential album.