Metal Box

Metal Box was assembled from separate sessions with different drummers, none of them credited on the original release. Albatross and Swan Lake were recorded at The Manor with David Humphrey, and Albatross was made up as the band went along and recorded in one take. Memories, No Birds, Socialist and Chant were cut at Townhouse with Richard Dudanski, who also played on Graveyard. Levene played the drums on Poptones, Wobble played them on Careering and recorded the backing track for The Suit alone at Gooseberry Sound, and Martin Atkins drummed on Bad Baby. Radio 4 was played entirely by Levene, who said it was the last track recorded. He used aluminium Veleno guitars to get a sharp, metallic sound.

The original release was three 12-inch records at 45 rpm in an embossed metal canister, designed by Dennis Morris and made by the Metal Box Company, with each side holding about ten minutes. About 60,000 were pressed, and the album was reissued on 22 February 1980 as Second Edition, a double LP with distorted photographs of the band on the sleeve. The tracklist below follows Second Edition. The canister original ran in six sides, with Socialist, Chant and Radio 4 sharing the last one.

It reached number 18 in the UK and 171 in the United States. Second Edition reached 46 in the UK. NME ranked it second among the albums of 1979. Reynolds wrote in Pitchfork that it stretches rock to its furthest extent, in the manner of the Stooges' Fun House or Can's Tago Mago. Rolling Stone's review of the 2006 vinyl reissue said Lydon wailed like two bats mating in a trash can, and that the CD versions sounded thin compared with the vinyl. A super deluxe edition appeared in December 2016, and Wobble released a new version, Metal Box - Rebuilt in Dub, in 2021.