ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The band Metallica has been filling stadiums for decades on tours across the globe. But they recently got a tour themselves, right here in the DMV. The legendary performers recently toured the vinyl record pressing plant they own in Alexandria, near Edsall Road.
James Hetfield and his bandmates visited Furnace Record Pressing, and got a lesson in how to make a splatter record, for their album "Ride The Lightning." The album is celebrating its 40th anniversary, released on July 27, 1984.
Drummer Lars Ulrich described the process as "like baking Christmas cookies." The band shared a video of the tour and pressing lesson on YouTube.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group acquired the majority interest in Furnace Record Pressing last year.
Furnace has been working with Metallica since 2014. The company says it has produced more than 5 million pieces of Metallica vinyl since then. Furnace has pressed a number of definitive box set editions of some of the band's biggest albums, including "...And Justice For All," "Master of Puppets," and Kill 'Em All," among others.
Founded by Eric Astor in 1996, Furnace is known for making records at its 70,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Alexandria. With 12 Pheenix Alpha presses and two Finebilt presses, Furnace is one of the largest record pressing companies in the U.S.
Vinyl is experiencing a major resurgence among music fans. According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) annual revenue report, in 2022, vinyl records outsold CDs in the U.S. for the first time since 1987.
Astor told us in 2019 that he was not surprised vinyl records are getting more popular.
"With a record, you open it up and you can hear and see the story of the record the way that the artist intended it to be listened to," Astor said.