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Metallica Vinyl Buyers Guide

A Metallica Vinyl Buyers Guide – Bootlegs N' All

Buying Metallica vinyl can be a tricky job. They are very popular band and have been around for a while, and as such many vinyl products have been released, both officially, and bootleg. In this guide I will provide you with some of the basic concepts to help you distinguish what vinyls are worth buying, and what is rubbish.

Original Vinyl Pressings

Many purest vinyl collectors will look only to purchase official vinyl, no bootlegs, and also they will look to purchase only the original pressings. Many commercial vinyl, as they become popular will get re-issues. These re-issues are produced using different equipment, sometimes from different generations of the recording, different mastering may be applied etc. As such the purest, in this sense aims to stay away from any bootlegs and re-issues. Here are some tips to identify original vinyl pressings.

How to identify Original Metallica Vinyl pressings

1) Know what year the vinyl was first pressed

2) Know what the catalog number is

3) Know what the original artwork looks like

4) If buying online, particularly on Ebay, ask questions.

With release date information you have the starting point in identifying an original release of any vinyl. The dates quoted exclude any test pressings which may pre-date official releases. I have also included the catalog number of all of the original presses for Metallica Vinyl.

Below I have included the more common original pressings for Metallica vinyl. These are vinyl typically released in the US or England. There are countless variations of official vinyl when you start getting into the different official vinyl pressings from different countries.

"KILL `EM ALL"

  • Megaforce: 25/07/83 (MRI 069)
  • Music for nations:  XX/08/83 (MFN 7)
  • Sterling sound studio acetate: 23/06/83 (MFN 7P)

"RIDE THE LIGHTNING"

  • Music for nations: 27/07/84 (MFN 27)
  • Megaforce: ??/08/84 (MRI 769)
  • Elektra: 16/11/84 (9 60396-1)

"MASTER OF PUPPETS"

  • Elektra: 21/02/86 (9 60439-1)
  • Music for nations: 07/03/86 (MFN 60)
  • Sony: 01/06/86 (28AP 3169)

"THE GARAGE DAYS RE-REVISITED"

  • Vertigo: 10/08/87 (METAL 112)
  • Elektra: 21/08/87 (96 07571)
  • Sony: 21/10/87 (20AP 3391)

"...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL"

  • Elektra: 25/08/88 (60812)
  • Vertigo: 25/08/88 (VERH 61)
  • Sony: 14/09/88 (25AP 5178/9)

"METALLICA" (The black album)

  • Elektra: 12/08/91 (EK 61113)
  • Vertigo: 12/08/91 (510 022-1)

"LOAD"

  • Vertigo: 03/06/96 (532 618-1)
  • Elektra: 04/06/96 (61923-1)

"RE LOAD"

  • Vertigo: 17/11/97 (536 409-1)
  • Elektra: 18/11/97 (62126-1)

"GARAGE, INC."

  • Vertigo: 23/11/98 (538 351-1)
  • Elektra: 24/11/98 (62299-1)

"S&M"

  • Elektra: 23/11/99 (62463-1)

"St. Anger”

  • Vertigo:  05/06/03 (0602498653364)
  • Elektra:  05/06/03 (62853-1)

"Death Magnetic"

  • Warner Brothers: 12/09/08 (0093624983552)

Bootleg Guide

A bootleg is an unofficial release. Bootlegs come in many formats, but the term, in general is used to describe content not licensed by the band or music label. As the band won’t get any money from a bootleg purchase, they are frowned upon in some circles, and they are of course illegal in most cases. In some trading circles the term bootleg is loosely used to describe live music recordings. There are plenty of places to purchase vinyl online, with Ebay being the largest marketplace.

What sort of Metallica Bootlegs will you find?

There are two main kinds of bootleg of Metallica recordings.

1) Live recordings pressed to vinyl

Recording of live music gigs has been around for a long time. Today the scene is dominated by recordings that are shared around the internet, typically using technology like bit torrent. These online communities are made up of tapers who record gigs using Digital recorders, minidiscs, SD recorders etc. They then share these recordings online for others to have. Some tapers aren’t so open with their recordings and choose only to trade with other tapers in exchange for original recordings. The taping and trading scene is pretty big. The other side to this community is the people who tape, trade, download recordings, and then make bootleg discs from them and try and sell. These types are called bootleggers. This behaviour has been around for much longer than the internet, but the same principles apply. In earlier years bootleggers recorded gigs then pressed the gigs to vinyl to sell. These early bootlegs are the first type of Metallica vinyl which you will find. In some cases they have been produced by bootleggers for pure commercial enterprise. A pressing of a live Metallica concert is pretty cool, so plenty of people want t such a products. In other cases the bootleg vinyls have been recorded and pressed by fans for fans. These items are very rare, unique and valuable. Most of these live vinyl bootlegs are for older Metallica gigs. With modern technology, CD’s, digital files etc, newer gigs are rarely pressed to vinyl . As a result these older rarer vinyl are very sought after and quite expensive, even though they are unlicensed, unofficial products.  Depending on the recording equipment used to capture the show, the sound quality of these vinyl vary greatly.

2) Counterfeit pressings

Counterfeit pressings are vinyl created of official Metallica albums that are not official. It is quite common for these to be picture discs, as not many of Metallica’s albums have been officially on vinyl as a picture disc. Other versions of these include "Label copies" of albums. A general rule of thumb is if the official version of the album is available on 2 vinyl discs, then there won't be a picture disc or "Label Copy" available, as Metallica does not release any albums in any form that are incomplete. These counterfeit pressing range in rarity and value, but are still fairly well sort after, even though they are unofficial.