Naysay all you want but record sales say more today than they ever have and that's a fact.

Actually, I think the record sales on this album being particularly high are a number of reasons:

1. Fan base is already in place.
2. Marketing. Metallica themselves hyped this one very well.
3. The CD was marketed at a very reasonable price point. Borders Books and music was selling it about a month ago for less then $13.00 and it even includes a DVD. Very attractive.

I actually *tried* listening to it a little more yesterday but that damn snare is absolutely annoying. They'll probably remaster it again just to double sales. Sort of like when Coke came out with the "new" Coke then quickly repackaged the original flavor as "classic". It's just a scam to sell the same album twice I say.