Six years elapsed between the release of the band's last album, Reload, and their recording of the album, which began in 2002. Many factors contributed to this delay, the two most important being the departure of bassist Jason Newsted, and because of the amount of time spent by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield in rehab.

Jason Newsted cited several reasons for his leaving the band, the most important being Hetfield questioning his loyalty to the band, due to his participation in other bands. Producer Bob Rock played bass for the recording of the album, and a permanent replacement has since been found—Rob Trujillo, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne's band. Jason Newsted has now become Ozzy Osbourne's new bass player.

A limited edition of the album also contained a DVD of the band performing the album live.

Table of contents

1 Track listing 2 Personnel 3 Singles 4 Link

Track listing

• Anton Corbijn - Photography
• Scott Cunningham - Production Coordination
• Mike Gillies - Digital Engineer, Assistant
• Kirk Hammett - Guitar
• James Hetfield - Guitar, Vocals
• Wayne Isham - Director
• Dana Marshall - Producer
• Vlado Meller - Mastering
• Colin Mitchell - Camera Operator
• Paul Owen - Monitors
• Jean Pellerin - Editing, Camera Operator
• Pushead - Cover Illustration
• Bob Rock - Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Bass
• Ryan Smith - Camera Operator
• Robert Trujillo - Live Bass
• Lars Ulrich - Drums

"St. Anger" and "Frantic" have both been released as singles. In Australia, "The Unnamed Feeling" has been released as a third single featuring three tracks recorded at the Big Day Out concert in the Gold Coast in Queensland in January 2004.

Link