‘The Earth Becomes My Throne’: Individualism in Metallica’s Black Album

by Thomas Walker-Werth

Today, Metallica is a household name, which, especially considering the relatively low penetration of heavy metal music into the mainstream, is no small achievement. As the best-selling metal band on Earth, their music is commonly heard in TV shows, movie soundtracks, and video games.

This wasn’t the case for the first ten years of the band’s existence. …