Metallica's metal is platinum

NEW YORK (RIAA/Columbus radio) - Metallica's eighth studio album, "St. Anger", has been certified multiplatinum in the U.S., based on the Recording Industry Association of America's sales figures at the end of July. This means that over 2 million copies of the disc had been shipped to stores in just over a month since the album's release. Despite the sales success, not everyone loves the disc.

In an interview with a Columbus, Ohio radio station last week, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted - now of Voivod - said the album was "pretty hard to listen to" and "not pleasing to the human ear". Newsted told 99.7 FM in Columbus, "There's other albums that sound better, production-wise. Songwriting-wise, it's not bad. But I think it could have been a lot more pleasant to listen to."