Metallica released The Black Album as its fifth studio album.
The record followed Kill ’Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice for All. Those four albums established Metallica as one of the leading bands in thrash metal before the 1991 release expanded its sound and audience.
The album’s official title is Metallica, but the black packaging led listeners to call it The Black Album. Its songs retained the band’s heavy guitar identity while using more spacious arrangements, stronger emphasis on groove, and a polished production style. This shift helped the group reach listeners beyond the established thrash-metal audience.
The numbering is easy to mix up because Metallica had also released the 1987 Garage Days EP and other recordings between its full-length albums. Those releases do not change the studio-album sequence. The 1991 record therefore remains the fifth full-length studio album, positioned between ...And Justice for All and Load in the band’s album chronology.