Metallica Take All Top 5 Spots on U.S. Best-Selling Vinyl Chart

Metallica albums comprised the entire top 5 of Billboard‘s vinyl sales chart for the week ending February 4, the first artist to do so since the chart’s inception in 2011.

How did metal’s biggest band achieve those honors despite releasing no new music since 2016?

One word: Walmart. The mega-retailer stocked six vinyl reissues of Metallica albums beginning on January 29, and shoppers were all too happy to indulge in a bit of nostalgia.

The only Metallica reissue not to land in the top five — Hardwired… To Self-Destruct (2016) — landed at #7.

The album’s ranked on Billboard’s vinyl chart as follows:

01. Ride The Lightning” (1984)
02. Metallica (1991)
03. …And Justice For All (1988)
04. Kill ‘Em All (1983)
05. Master Of Puppets” (1986)

Metallica are currently deep into “some pretty serious writing” for their next album. After first floating the idea of working on new music while under quarantine in April, by June Lars Ulrich had revealed that Metallica were, indeed, in writing mode. James and Rob have both said they’ve been busy working on new songs, too, and Kirk Hammett has trumpeted the fact that he has over 600 song ideas recorded (after infamously losing his cell phone with 300+ ideas prior to the sessions for Hardwired). The band were having some technical issues collaborating over the internet and were looking into doing so in-person in a bubble last they checked in, but that was months ago already, and Lars recently revealed that new material was coming along at a “glacial” pace.