Maps of Music

Hardwired... to Self-Destruct (2016)

Where the lyrics of Hardwired... to Self-Destruct take you, and where it was really made.

Metallica made this double album at its own headquarters in San Rafael, and it became the band's sixth straight studio album to debut at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Key places

Recorded at Metallica's HQ (2016)

Recording site Metallica HQ — The album's recording studio is listed as Metallica's HQ in San Rafael, California. The point marks the building, and the album was engineered and mixed by Greg Fidelman. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Hardwired... to Self-Destruct: tenth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica
• Released as a double album on November 18, 2016, by the band's label Blackened Recordings
• First studio album in eight years after Death Magnetic (2008), the longest gap between studio albums in the band's career
• First studio album released through Blackened
• Produced by Greg Fidelman, who had engineered and mixed Death Magnetic
• Metallica's sixth consecutive studio album to debut at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200

Background

• October 2011: Robert Trujillo said the band had returned to the studio to begin writing new material
• January 2013: Lars Ulrich told Classic Rock that the new work sounded like a continuation of Death Magnetic
• March 2014: a new song, Lords of Summer, was written for the Metallica By Request tour and released as a first take demo
• March 2015: Ulrich said twenty songs had been written for the album
• February 2016: at The Night Before show before Super Bowl 50, James Hetfield said the band was nearing the end of recording
• March 2016: Kirk Hammett said Greg Fidelman worked as producer, describing his role as moving the project forward alongside the engineer
• Recording was completed in June 2016 once the recording for the song Hardwired was finished

Recording

• Greg Fidelman engineered, recorded and mixed the album
• The studio listed for the album is Metallica's HQ in San Rafael, California
• The title came from a remark Hetfield heard and later repeated: Hardwired... Hardwired to Self-Destruct

Cover

• Album artwork created by Herring & Herring, released on the same day as the first single Hardwired

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, later based in San Francisco for most of its career.
• Founded as one of the "big four" of thrash metal alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.

Members

• Current lineup: Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.
• Former members include Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted and Dave Mustaine.

Career

• Commercial breakthrough with Master of Puppets (1986), often cited as one of the best metal albums of all time.
• The self-titled 1991 album moved the band toward a more mainstream audience and became its best-selling record.
• Returned to thrash roots with Death Magnetic (2008) and released 72 Seasons in 2023.
• Led the lawsuit against Napster in 2000.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
• Sold more than 163 million albums worldwide as of 2023.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: average score of 73/100 from 29 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews
• AnyDecentMusic?: 6.8 points out of 10, based on 27 reviews from more than 50 media sources
• AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album featured all of Metallica's core music elements but did not sound as ferocious as in its 80s heyday
• The A.V. Club: David Anthony wrote that 77 minutes of endless thrashing gets tiring, though he praised the first three singles as some of the best songs the band has written since the 1980s
• Rolling Stone: David Fricke said the album reminded him of ...And Justice for All and Metallica, with the jagged apocalypse of the first and the focused brawn of the second
• Pitchfork: Zoe Camp called the album an attempt to revisit the band's early days, similar to Death Magnetic, but said this time they sound like they are actually trying
• The Chicago Tribune: Greg Kot said the album was not comparable to Metallica's finest work and predicted it would be quickly forgotten
• The Guardian: Dom Lawson declared it Metallica's finest record in 25 years, but criticized the second disc for not matching the first
• Sputnikmusic: Trey Spencer said Hetfield's voice sounded reinvigorated but complained about Ulrich's drumming
• Classic Rock: Stephen Dalton said Metallica were still competitive with the biggest pop stars, liked the cover art, and found his opinion on the music more mixed
• PopMatters: Adrien Begrand praised the concise songwriting and the absence of ballads and long instrumentals
• The Daily Telegraph: Neil McCormick wrote that if the album was half as long, it would have been twice as effective

Reappraisal

• Reviews were generally positive overall, with critics divided on the second disc and on the drumming

Records

• Debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 291,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, 282,000 of them pure album sales
• Number one in 57 countries, top three in 75 nations, top five in 105 countries
• Best-selling heavy metal album of 2016 in the US, with 516,000 copies sold by the end of December
• Highest-selling debut of 2016 in Germany, with more than 200,000 copies shipped in its first week, earning platinum certification
• Number one on the ARIA chart in Australia with 26,000 copies in its opening week
• 585,000 copies sold in the US during 2017, ninth highest-selling album of that year
• Platinum certification on April 12, 2017; more than 1,004,000 copies sold in the US by July 7, 2017
• Gold certification in the Netherlands on September 6, 2017

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• In 2015 Kirk Hammett lost his phone at Copenhagen Airport; it held almost 250 riff ideas, and because he had not backed the data up, his creative input on the new album was affected.
• Robert Trujillo's only writing credit on the album is the introduction to ManUNkind, which he later said was written as a tribute to former Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.
• Murder One is a tribute to Lemmy, who died in December 2015; the song was named after the bassist's favorite amplifier.
• The Italian city of Matera appears in the music video for "Spit Out the Bone".
• On November 12, 2016, a local Walmart started selling the album ahead of the official release date of November 18.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact