Metallica Now Own A Vinyl Pressing Plant

Even Metallica can’t keep up with the vinyl demand anymore. If you can’t keep up, why not increase the available resource? That might be where the band members’ heads may have been when they decided to own a vinyl pressing plant.

Metallica have purchased Furnace Recording Pressing in Alexandria, Virginia. 

As Consequence Of Sound reports, this news arrives as the heavy metal pioneers pressed over 900,000 pieces of vinyl in 2022, mostly at Furnace. If that’s a raw number in the US, how many Metallica albums are being pressed worldwide each year?

Metal Injection is wary, with writer Greg Kennelty worried that Metallica’s purchase of a vinyl pressing plant could affect other, smaller bands trying to press vinyl; effectively pushing them to the back of the line. 

“We couldn't be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace… to the next level," drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement. "Their indie spirit, the passion they have for their craft… culturally we're kindred souls."

Vocalist James Hetfield added, “Furnace has been great to Metallica and more importantly to our fans. This deepened relationship between Metallica and Furnace ensures that fans of vinyl everywhere, particularly our Fifth Members [Metallica’s fan club], will have continued access to high quality records in the future.”

Metallica will need even more vinyl pressed ASAP, as their new album, 72 Seasons, comes out in less than a month’s time.

72 Seasons will be 12 songs and 77 minutes long and produced by Greg Fidelman alongside James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. The album is Metallica's first since 2016's Hardwired … To Self-Destruct. 

Hetfield said about the album: "72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves.

"The concept that we were told 'who we are' by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is a reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry."

Pre-order 72 Seasons here, or if you want to hear it a day early, attend the global cinema screening event on Thursday, 13 April. More details are here.

Check out Metallica's most recent single, If Darkness Had A Son, below.