Okay, stay with me for this one. Is this Metallica's best album? No. Is this a great thrash metal album? No. Is this one of the best metal albums? No. Is this one of the most important albums ever? Yes. The Black Album is forever the gateway album to other things. This was the album everyone got into (thank you Enter Sandman and The Unforgiven). It was the album everyone owned and everyone had to own. For some, maybe it was the heaviest thing they'd ever own. For many, many others though from The Black Album we learned about Master of Puppets. And from Master of Puppets we learned about the Big 3 (though truth be told, it was probably just Slayer because Megadeth was just as big with Symphony of Destruction) . And from the Big 3, we learned about Flotsam and Jetsam, Anthrax, Testament, Sepultura, Overkill. This isn't Abbey Road, or The Wall, or Kind of Blue. It's musicality will surely be in question by many. But it's importance in the culture of 1991 and the metal world in general can not be understated in the ability to bond wayward youth together into something larger. And for that it earns every one of its five stars.

This is the definition of a 3 star album. Not great, not bad. Just okay. Listenable, but not overly enjoyable.

By the time I got to 1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) I was not ready for another 13 minute track. It hurts to give Jimi three stars, but the albums drags as a whole.

This may be the first album that has come up that I was honestly surprised that I enjoyed as much as I did. Sure, there have been some, like Jeru The Damaja's "The Sun Rises In The East", that I had never heard. But anyone around in the late '90s has probably heard Praise You and Rockafeller Skank. So to put this on and enjoy it start to finish, color me surprised for the first time in 139 albums. Not earth shattering. Not groundbreaking. But solid. Will listen to again.

I get it. I just don't GET it. Two stars because it deserves that at least. Two stars also because I just don't get it.

Somebody to Love and White Rabbit are classics. Go to Her is an unexpected jam. The rest are pretty forgettable.

I debated on ranking this a 1 or a 2. I looked at my one rankings. It's not that bad. I looked at my 2 rankings. It's not that good. It's a solid 1.5. It slides towards being a 1 because it's completely and utterly forgettable. I wish I could understand the cultural significance as to why this ended up on the list, because I don't see it. But Tracey's voice is really nice. It would be great background music if you were at some stuffy cocktail party where you didn't really like anybody there but had to go for work. Is it a bland, inoffensive 1 or a just not my style 2? By the time I hit Lonesome for a Place I Know I was looking for how much time I had left. But really, the sax solo at the end of Tears All Over Town was probably the nail in the coffin. It's a 1.

Why am I wavering so much on this one? It's not a good album. It's not groundbreaking in any way. The lyrics are dumbfoundingly bad. But I have a hard time giving it a one, mainly because "Take A Look Around" is actually decent and I made it through the whole album (okay, I quit 2 minutes into Outro, but really, was there something amazing in the last 7 minutes?). On a 1-10 scale this would be a solid two. There are worse. There are much, much - much - better. I guess I'll go with 1 here. But really it's like a 1.5. Only saved by "Take a Look Around".

The production is great. The basslines are really good. But it's disco. And no matter how good it is, you lose at least one star for disco.

Okay, stay with me for this one. Is this Metallica's best album? No. Is this a great thrash metal album? No. Is this one of the best metal albums? No. Is this one of the most important albums ever? Yes. The Black Album is forever the gateway album to other things. This was the album everyone got into (thank you Enter Sandman and The Unforgiven). It was the album everyone owned and everyone had to own. For some, maybe it was the heaviest thing they'd ever own. For many, many others though from The Black Album we learned about Master of Puppets. And from Master of Puppets we learned about the Big 3 (though truth be told, it was probably just Slayer because Megadeth was just as big with Symphony of Destruction) . And from the Big 3, we learned about Flotsam and Jetsam, Anthrax, Testament, Sepultura, Overkill. This isn't Abbey Road, or The Wall, or Kind of Blue. It's musicality will surely be in question by many. But it's importance in the culture of 1991 and the metal world in general can not be understated in the ability to bond wayward youth together into something larger. And for that it earns every one of its five stars.