They also released five singles to promote the album: "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam", and "Sad but True", all of which have been considered to be among the band's best-known songs.

Several song ideas and concepts were conceived by other members of the band, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Jason Newsted.

[10] For instance, Newsted wrote the main riff of "My Friend of Misery", which was originally intended to be an instrumental, one of which had been included on every previous Metallica album.

[23] Ulrich said he tried to avoid the "progressive Peartian paradiddles which became boring to play live" in his drumming and used a basic sound similar to those of the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts and AC/DC's Phil Rudd.

[24] "The God That Failed" dealt with the death of Hetfield's mother from cancer and her Christian Science beliefs, which kept her from seeking medical treatment.

[9] The cover is reminiscent of Spinal Tap's album Smell the Glove, which the band jokingly acknowledged in its documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica.

Members of Spinal Tap appeared on the film and asked Metallica about it, with Lars Ulrich commenting that British rock group Status Quo was the original inspiration as that band's Hello!

Logging over 488 weeks on the US Billboard 200, Metallica proved the third-longest charting album in the Nielsen SoundScan era, behind Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Carole King's Tapestry.

[57] All five of Metallica's singles, "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad but True" charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

[61] The January 13 and 14, 1992, shows in San Diego were later released in the box set Live Shit: Binge & Purge,[62] while the tour and the album were documented in the documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica.

Hetfield suffered second and third degree burns to his arms, face, hands, and legs on August 8, 1992, during a Montreal show in the co-headlining Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour.

The box set also featured a recreated copy of an access pass to the "Snakepit" part of the tour stage, as well as a cardboard drawing/airbrush stencil for the "Scary Guy" logo.

[67][68] Some songs, such as "Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters", and "Sad but True", became permanent staples of Metallica's concert setlists during these and subsequent tours.

The band based its claim on a section of the California Labor Code that allows employees to be released from a personal services contract after seven years.

Metallica had been signed to the label for over a decade but was still operating under the terms of its original 1984 contract, which provided a relatively low 14% royalty rate.

[70] The band members said they were taking the action because they were ambivalent about Robert Morgado's refusal to give them another record deal along with Bob Krasnow, who retired from his job at the label shortly afterwards.

[73] Metallica was met with widespread acclaim from both heavy metal journalists and mainstream publications, including NME, The New York Times, and The Village Voice.

[83] In Entertainment Weekly, David Browne called it "rock's preeminent speed-metal cyclone", and said, "Metallica may have invented a new genre: progressive thrash".

[82] In his review for Spin, Alec Foege found the music's harmonies vividly performed and said that Metallica showcase their "newfound versatility" on songs such as "The Unforgiven" and "Holier than Thou".

[78] More critical was Robert Christgau, who wrote in his "Consumer Guide" for The Village Voice that he "put James Hetfield out of his misery in under five plays" of the album and that he "found life getting shorter with every song".

[87] Melody Maker said that as a deliberate departure from the band's thrash style on ...And Justice for All, "Metallica was slower, less complicated, and probably twice as heavy as anything they'd done before".

[87] In his review for BBC Music, Sid Smith said that although staunch listeners of the band accused them of selling out, Metallica confidently departed from the style of their previous albums and transitioned "from cult metal gods to bona fide rock stars".

[89] Author and philosopher Thomas Walker wrote in 2020, "Its success at encapsulating...[individualist] ideas in musical form and bringing them to a global audience is truly unique.

"[90] AllMusic's Steve Huey believed the massive popularity of Metallica inspired other speed metal bands to also embrace a simpler, less progressive sound.

He deemed it "a good, but not quite great, album, one whose best moments deservedly captured the heavy metal crown, but whose approach also foreshadowed a creative decline [for Metallica.

"[91] Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson said that Metallica should be given huge credit for "grabbing the opportunity when it came up, taking the risk and deservedly reaping the enormous rewards", and that their achievement with the album cannot be underestimated.

[93][94] Metallica was voted the eighth best album of 1991 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice.

[99] Spin ranked it number 52 on the "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s" (1999), with its entry reading: "this record's diamond-tipped tuneage stripped the band's melancholy guitar excess down to melodic, radio-ready bullets and ballads".

The album was remastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, with all content overseen by executive producer Greg Fidelman.

A limited edition box set was released, which includes the remastered album on a 180-gram double LP and a CD, as well as three live LPs, 14 CDs and six DVDs featuring unreleased content, and various other physical merchandise.