ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Rock heavyweights Metallica have a new home in Alexandria, Virginia. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group just acquired the majority interest in Furnace Record Pressing.
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.
CEO Astor, COO Ali Miller and VP of Operations Mark Reiter will continue in their respective roles at Furnace. Each remains an equity owner of the company and each will be a member of the company’s Board of Directors, the company said.
“We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace — and Eric, Ali and Mark specifically — to the next level,” said Lars Ulrich, co-founder of Metallica in a press statement. “Their indie spirit, the passion they have for their craft… culturally we’re kindred souls."
James Hetfield said the partnership will be great for Metallica fans around the world.
“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, will have continued access to high quality records in the future," Hetfield said.
Vinyl is experiencing a major resurgence among music fans. According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) annual revenue report, vinyl records outsold CDs in the U.S. last year for the first time since 1987.
Astor told us in 2019 that he is 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.