Lopez 1

Edica Lopez
MUSC 1040
Mary Danzig
May 1, 2016

Final Project Paper: Metallica

Metallica, the most influential heavy metal band of the 80s and the 90s. Made it
known that heavy metal was back and heavier than ever. The young, thrashy bandmates even
looked the part. The band members include James Hetfield as vocals/guitar, Kirk Hammett as the
lead guitarist, Lars Ulrich on the drums also who founded the band, and finally Cliff Burton as
bass. Metallica expedited the limits of thrash, using speed and volume at their best advantage and
it worked for them. Including their amazing intricately structured compositions. It was their
release of Kill Em All that turned them into a huge hit and got them known instantly. The song
included heavy metals underground, bringing new complexity and depth to thrash metal. As they
progressed with each album, the bands playing and writing improved.
The band was created by drummer, Lars Ulrich on October 28, 1981. Lars put out a
newspaper ad in LA Recycler. This recruited James Hetfield, then later Hetfields friend and
housemate Ron McGovney to play bass, Dave Mustaine to play lead guitar. The band name
Metallica came after a suggestion from a friend Ron Quintana. They did many shows in the Bay
Area and soon came time to relocate. This made McGovney stay behind, leaving the band. Then
convinced Cliff Burton to leave his band Trauma to replace McGovney. In 1983 the band got an
album deal with Megaforce Records, which founded themselves traveling to New York in a

Lopez 2
stolen U-Haul to record their first album. After arriving in New York Mustaine was replaced by
Exodus guitar player Kirk Hammett. Later they produced the album Kill Em All, which
exploded instantly! Later came the album Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets, which hit
the top 30 album charts and expanded their fan base exponentially. They seemed unstoppable
until tragedy hit. On September 27, 1986 the band was on tour in Sweden, during an overnight
drive the bands tour bus skidded out of control and flipped. This resulted the death of Cliff
Burton. It was an enormous loss to the band and fans. Of course, the band found themselves
replacing Burton. After over 40 auditions they found bass player Jason Newsted. Soon after, the
band recorded E.P. Garage Days. More albums were created including, And Justice For All,
Metallica (their self titled black album), Load, Reload, S&M, and St. Anger. St. Anger was their
first album they made at their new HQ studio. Released in June 2003, Metallica went on tour
with new bassist Robert Trujillo who was previously from bands/artists, Suicidal Tendencies,
Infectious Grooves, and Ozzy Osbourne. The current band members today include, Lars Ulrich,
James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo. In September of 2008, they released their
latest album Death Magnetic. This brought a world tour for the band. There wasnt much created
from the band after their Death Magnetic album. For the past three years Metallica has their
annual San Francisco Giants night, one in particular, in 2015 they honored the Golden State
Warriors by performing the National Anthem. They have headlined the first Rock in Rio festival,
also headlining Lollapalooza in Chicago. There has been some talk about a new album being
released soon but no date yet. I am hoping they will release it soon so I can see them live. It is
my life goal to see Metallica perform live.
The song that I showed in class, is a song that is my absolutely favorite by Metallica. It is
from their And Justice For All album, One. James Hetfield wrote it, based on a movie called

Lopez 3
Johnny Got His Gun. It is about a WWI soldier Joe Bonham who was injured in battle, which
resulted in losing his limbs, sight, smell, and hearing. He still has the ability to think and memory
of what had happened to him. Basically trapped in his own body, Bonham would rather die.
Hetfield explains it all in the Metallica song One. I love this song not only for the message but
mostly the intense guitar riffs. The song starts off slow but then gets powerful towards the end,
with lyrics like, I cannot live - I cannot die - Trapped in myself - Body my holding cell. It is a
song that definitely needs to be listened to.
Metallica, the best heavy metal band of all time. From all of their success I cant imagine
what they will do next. No matter how old they are, they are still thrashin and rockin.
Long live Metallica!

Lopez 4
Bibliography

https://metallica.com/band/history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun
http://www.pandora.com/metallica?bio