What was Metallica’s The Black Album the band’s first studio album to do on the Billboard 200?

Metallica’s The Black Album was the band’s first studio album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

The album entered the American chart in the top position after its August 1991 release, selling 598,000 copies in its first week. It also spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1, making the achievement more than a brief opening-week result.

Before The Black Album, Metallica had already released four studio albums: Kill ’Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice for All. Those records were highly influential and commercially successful, but none debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

The milestone reflected the group’s widening audience and the album’s more accessible production and songwriting. The Black Album eventually became Metallica’s best-selling record and one of the most commercially successful heavy-metal albums ever released. Later Metallica studio albums also debuted at No. 1, but this was the first.