Metallica’s ‘Black Album’ Back Inside Billboard Top 10 for First Time Since 1992

Metallica recently dropped a massive 30th anniversary reissue of their hit 1991 album, Metallica, better known as the 'Black Album,' and it put the record back inside the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 for the first time since Aug. 22, 1992, when the record hit No. 10.

The 29-year gap between Top 10 placement ended last week when the historic Metallica album ascended to No. 9, as Billboard reports, a significant increase from the No. 158 spot the 'Black Album' sat at the week before.

A total of 37,000 album equivalent units can be pinned on the reissue and its exhaustive lead-up campaign where previously unreleased recordings as well as wide-ranging cover versions of 'Black Album' tracks spilled out weekly all summer. Of that 37,000 units, 29,000 were comprised of physical sales, good enough for a whopping 1,365 percent week-to-week increase.

As one of the most successful albums of all time, the 'Black Album' has sold over 16 million copies in the United States as of a 2012 update, per RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Billboard's report noted the record has sold 17.3 million copies stateside.

These overwhelming sales figures have also yielded sustained Billboard 200 success as the 1991 record, which bears the mega-hits "Enter Sandman," "Nothing Else Matters" and more, has remained on the chart for a total of 625 weeks, the fourth-most time of any album since the list was regularly published in 1956.

Since MRC Data (an analytics provider in the music industry) began totaling the Billboard 200 in May of 1991, no other album has spent more time on the chart.

Since releasing the 'Black Album,' which peaked at No. 1, Metallica have topped the Billboard 200 with each successive new studio album. Although the band spent time working on new material last year, drummer Lars Ulrich said it's now "too early" to talk about a new record, so fans will have to wait to see what kind of chart dominance remains in Metallica's future.