Metallica's 1991 smash hit self-titled album, better known as the Black Album by most fans, has officially spent 750 total weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.
According to a report by Blabbermouth, the Black Album is currently sitting at No. 178 this week and is the fourth album ever to achieve 750 total weeks on the chart – The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd, Bob Marley And The Wailers' 1984 compilation Legend, and Journey's 1988 compilation Greatest Hits are the other three.
This shouldn't be to surprising to anyone considering the Black Album is the best-selling album since the Nielsen SoundScan era began on March 1, 1991. The Black Album has sold over 17 million copies and has been a point of great contention for Metallica fans ever since – though those sales numbers clearly portray a record that's doing just fine despite the "THEY'RE NOT THRASH ANYMORE!" haters.
Metallica released their reissue of the Black Album on September 10, 2021 which catapulted it right back onto the charts, aiding in the above record. The album has landed at the No. 9 spot on the Billboard 200 chart the week after its reissue, making it the first time the album has cracked the Top 10 since August 1992.
According to Billboard, The Black Album sold 29,000 copies at the time of its reissue, and had an additional 8,000 combined sales thanks to streaming numbers. Five singles also reached the Billboard Hot 100 – "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Where I May Roam", and "Sad But True". The first three songs are currently sitting pretty in the top 40.
Billboard states "Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid-slash-subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album."
