Metallica buy vinyl pressing plant.

Heavy metal quartet Metallica have acquired a majority interest in Virginia based Furnace Record Pressing.

Furnace is a leading provider of high-quality vinyl that has worked with the band for around 15 years.

The purchase comes ahead of their forthcoming eleventh studio album ‘72 Seasons’, set for release on 14 April, and aims to bypass some of the supply and manufacturing issues other bands have faced when it comes to selling vinyl.

For example, in January alt rockers You Me At Six announced they had to push back the release of their ‘Truth Decay’ due to vinyl production issues.

Furnace, which was founded in 1996 by Eric Astor, have produced more than five million Metallica records on vinyl since 2014, and have worked closely with Metallica to produce such projects as the definitive deluxe box-set editions for ‘Kill ‘Em All’, ‘Ride The Lightning’, ‘Master Of Puppets,’ and ‘…And Justice For All’.

Metallica are one of the best-selling acts in the world; and in the US alone, they ranked sixth in 2022 with 387,000 albums sold, and seventh in 2021 with 337,000 records sold in vinyl format.

James Hetfield, the lead vocalist and guitarist of Metallica praised Furnace Pressing and founder Eric Astor as being great to Metallica and more importantly the purchase would ensure that the fans that are vinyl buyers will have continued access to high quality records in the future.