Metallica’s Ride the Lightning Sees Massive Sales Spike After 40th Anniversary

We all know that Metallica‘s one of the best selling bands of all time, right? Just the Black Album alone has insane staying power, landing on the Billboard charts decades after its release and constantly streaming online. But the band’s sophomore album Ride the Lightning is experiencing a bit of a moment right now, as sales of the seminal thrash album have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

According to a report over at Forbes, Ride the Lightning recently saw a 160% spike in sales in just one week at the end of July. Naturally, that surge was thanks to it recently hitting its 40th anniversary, which I guess prompted fans old and new to remember how fucking awesome that record was. As if you’d need any reminding since you constantly hear “For Whom The Bell Tolls” during sporting events or in commercials.

Now, to put that into perspective, the album landed on Billboard’s Top Album Sales after Luminate estimates that it sold a little more than 3,900 copies in the U.S. last week. When you compare those numbers to the sales it did the previous week (~1,500 copies), that’s pretty damn impressive. In fact, these days that sales figure would be pretty hefty for any artist, let alone one that’s been around as long as Metallica has.

All of this makes me wonder — will we be writing about this kind of thing every time a Metallica record hits a major milestone? Surely we’ll get one in two years when Master of Puppets hits its 40th anniversary, but what about Load or Reload? Will St. Anger get this kind of love?

Only time will tell…