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Credit: Tim Saccenti

Metallica Follow Artist +

California metal band whose aggressive yet melodic

style made them one of the most popular bands of all
time.

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Active 1980s - 2020s

Formed 1981 in Los Angeles, CA

Genre Pop/Rock

Styles Heavy Metal,

Speed/Thrash Metal,
Hard Rock

Group James Hetfield, Lars

Members Ulrich, Kirk Hammett,
Jason Newsted, Robert
Trujillo, Cliff Burton,
Dave Mustaine, Ron
McGovney

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Metallica
Top songs

Enter Sandman
1
Metallica

Master Of Puppets (Remastered)

2
Metallica

Nothing Else Matters

3
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Album Highlights

Kill 'Em All

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Biography

Metallica Biography by Stephen Thomas

Erlewine

Kill 'Em All Metallica is the definitive

heavy metal band, the
group that brought the
gnarly underground
sounds of thrash metal into
the mainstream, then reshaped the contours
of heavy music and hard rock once they
became the biggest rock band in the world
after the release of their self-titled "black
album" in 1991. By that point, Metallica already
had experienced enough upheaval for two
careers. Emerging from the feverish metal
underground of the early '80s, Metallica
became a word-of-mouth sensation with their
indie releases Kill 'Em All and Ride the
Lightning, records that helped them land a
contract with Elektra. Master of Puppets, their
major-label debut, found the band marshaling
their forces, but months after its release, the
group suffered a tragic bus accident that
killed bassist Cliff Burton. Vocalist/guitarist
James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and
guitarist Kirk Hammett forged ahead with
Jason Newsted, who appeared on 1988's …
And Justice for All, their first album to reach
the Billboard Top Ten. Once Metallica turned
the band into superstars in the early '90s, the
group sustained their popularity as they
explored new territory, streamlining their
sound for Load and Re-Load, then recording
the orchestral collaboration S&M with the San
Francisco Symphony. Despite their success,
Metallica still had inner troubles, many of
which they aired on Some Kind of Monster, a
documentary about the recording of St.
Anger, their first album without Newsted.
With bassist Robert Trujillo coming aboard in
2003, Metallica eventually reconnected with
the spirit of speed metal on 2008's Death
Magnetic, then discovered ways to mature
metal on 2016's Hardwired…To Self-Destruct
and 2023's 72 Seasons.

Metallica was formed in Los Angeles in 1981

by drummer Lars Ulrich. He put a call out for
local musicians to form a new band, and
eventually an early lineup came together that
included guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield,
bassist Ron McGovney, and lead guitarist
Dave Mustaine. In their earliest iteration,
Metallica combined the speedy tempos of
hardcore punk acts like Discharge with the
influence of more obscure acts from the New
Wave of British Heavy Metal that was
unfolding around the same time, resulting in
some of the earliest thrash metal. The band
made a few demo recordings with McGovney
before asking him to leave the group when
they met innovative bassist Cliff Burton.
Burton eventually joined Metallica, and the
quartet set out to record their first album in
1983. During the recording sessions, however,
Mustaine's problems with drugs and alcohol
led to him being fired from the band, and they
quickly recruited new lead guitarist Kirk
Hammett to complete the album. Released in
1983 on independent thrash-focused label
Megaforce Records, Metallica's debut long-
player, Kill 'Em All, marked the beginning of
the legitimization of heavy metal's
underground, bringing new complexity and
depth to thrash metal. Second album Ride the
Lightning followed quickly in 1984, deepening
the band's sound with the inclusion of
classically themed guitar elements and the
dark ballad "Fade to Black."

Shortly after the release of

Ride the Lightning,
Metallica signed on with
major-label Elektra
Records. They worked with
the label toward the release of their third LP,
Master of Puppets, which came out in March
1986. The album would prove to be a
significant breakthrough for Metallica,
reaching mainstream audiences without
diminishing the band's standing in the metal
community. It was their best-selling record up
until that point, but also their most innovative
and boundary-pushing, going on to be
heralded as one of the most influential metal
albums of all time. Tragedy struck the group
later that year when their tour bus crashed
while traveling in Sweden. Burton died in the
accident. When the band decided to continue,
Flotsam and Jetsom bassist Jason Newsted
was chosen to replace Burton. Newsted was
touring with the band by 1987, and that year
his first recorded material with Metallica was
released on The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-
Revisited, a self-produced EP of ragged
covers the band put together in a practice
space. In 1987, Metallica also paid tribute to
their departed bassist with Cliff 'Em All, a
video release that included unreleased live
footage and intimate home videos of Burton.

In 1988, the band returned with their

conceptually ambitious fourth studio album,
...And Justice for All. Before this record,
Metallica had been outspoken about rejecting
aspects of the music industry that they found
disingenuous, including pandering for
mainstream acceptance by making their music
more accessible or making music videos,
which were a relatively new medium in the
1980s. This changed with Justice, as the
group released their first-ever video for the
song "One." Despite minimal support from
MTV or mainstream radio, the album hit the
Top Ten and sold over a million copies within
weeks of its release. But the band completely
crossed over into the mainstream with 1991's
Metallica, a self-titled effort that found the
group trading in their long compositions for
more concise song structures. With slick,
layered production from Bob Rock and a shift
from the thrash of the band's early days for
more digestible, almost pop-leaning hard rock
hits like "Wherever I May Roam" and "Enter
Sandman," it resulted in a number one album
that sold over seven million copies in the U.S.
alone. To support the record, Metallica
launched a long tour that kept the musicians
on the road for nearly two years.

By the '90s, Metallica had changed the rules

for all heavy metal bands; they were the
leaders of the genre, respected not only by
headbangers but by mainstream record
buyers and critics. No other heavy metal band
has ever been able to pull off such a feat.
However, the group lost a portion of their core
audience with their long-awaited follow-up to
Metallica, 1996's Load. The album moved the
band toward alternative rock in terms of image
-- the bandmembers cut their hair and had
their picture taken by Anton Corbijn. Although
the record was a hit upon its summer release,
entering the charts at number one and selling
three million copies within two months, certain
members of the Metallica fan base
complained about the shift in image, as well as
the group's decision to headline the sixth
Lollapalooza. Re-Load, which combined new
material with songs left off the original Load
record, appeared in 1997; despite poor
reviews, it sold at a typically brisk pace and
spun off several successful singles, including
"Fuel" and "The Memory Remains." Garage
Inc., a double-disc collection of B-sides,
rarities, and newly recorded covers, followed
in 1998. Metallica's take on Bob Seger's "Turn
the Page" helped maintain their presence in
the charts, and the band continued their flood
of product with 1999's S&M, which
documented a live concert with the San
Francisco Symphony. It debuted at number
two, reconfirming the group's immense
popularity.

Metallica spent most of 2000 embroiled in

controversy by spearheading a legal assault
against Napster, a file-sharing service that
allowed users to download music files from
each other's computers. Aggressively
targeting copyright infringement of their own
material, Metallica notoriously had over
300,000 users kicked off the service, creating
a widespread debate over the availability of
digital music that raged for most of the year.
In January 2001, bassist Jason Newsted
announced his amicable departure from the
band. Shortly after the group appeared at the
ESPN Awards in April of the same year,
Hetfield, Hammett, and Ulrich entered the
recording studio to begin work on their next
album, with producer Bob Rock lined up to
handle bass duties for the sessions
(meanwhile, rumors swirled of former Ozzy
Osbourne/Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez
being considered for the vacated position). In
July, Metallica surprisingly dropped their
lawsuit against Napster, perhaps sensing that
their controversial stance did more harm than
good to their "band of the people" image. That
same summer, the group's recording sessions
(and all other band-related matters) were put
on hold as Hetfield entered an undisclosed
rehab facility for alcoholism and other
addictions. He completed treatment and
rejoined Metallica as they headed back into
the studio in 2002 to record St. Anger, which
was released in mid-2003.

The recording of St. Anger was capped with

the search for a permanent replacement for
Newsted. After a long audition process,
former Ozzy Osbourne/Suicidal Tendencies
bass player Robert Trujillo was selected and
joined Metallica for their 2003-2004 world
tour. The growing pains that the band
experienced during the recording of St. Anger
were captured in the celebrated documentary
Some Kind of Monster, which saw theatrical
release in 2004. Four years later, Metallica
returned with Death Magnetic, an energized
album that returned the group to their early-
'80s roots. Former Slayer producer Rick Rubin
helmed the album, having replaced the band's
longtime producer Bob Rock, while Kirk
Hammett (who was forbidden to play guitar
solos on St. Anger) peppered the record with
metallic riffs and frenetic solos.

Death Magnetic spent

three weeks at number one
on the Billboard charts and
the band supported it with
an extensive international
tour that included a festival gig with Slayer,
Megadeth, and Anthrax. Metallica closed out
their Warner contract with Death Magnetic --
outtakes from the sessions appeared as the
Beyond Magnetic EP in late 2011 -- and while
they were exploring their options, they struck
up a collaboration with Lou Reed, releasing
the ambitious, arty Lulu in the fall of 2011. In
2012, Metallica launched their own label,
Blackened, which would be distributed by
Universal. The following year, they announced
the release of their second motion picture,
Through the Never, which combined
spectacular concert footage of them blasting
through gems from their back catalog with a
surreal road-trip odyssey starring Dane
DeHaan. The film and its accompanying
soundtrack album were released in September
2013.

Over the next few years, Metallica played the

occasional high-profile concert as they
worked on a new studio album. In 2016, the
band launched a series of expanded reissues,
starting with deluxe editions of Kill 'Em All and
Ride the Lightning. These reissues were the
preamble to the November release of
Hardwired...To Self-Destruct, a double album
that was the group's first new music in eight
years. Produced by Greg Fidelman, James
Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich, Hardwired...To Self-
Destruct debuted at number one throughout
the world upon its November 2016 release.
The following year saw the group release a
massive, expanded edition of their landmark
1986 LP, Master of Puppets.

In 2019, Metallica S&M2

celebrated the 20th
anniversary of S&M by
reuniting with the San
Francisco Symphony for
another pair of concerts of orchestral
arrangements of their original songs. This
provided the source material for 2020's S&M2,
a double-live album released in August 2020.
Metallica spent 2021 celebrating the 30th
anniversary of The Black Album,
masterminding a lavish deluxe box set reissue
that was accompanied by The Metallica
Blacklist, a four-disc tribute album featuring
multiple covers of every song on the record.
Deliberately eclectic -- the 53-track tribute
had contributions by Mac Demarco, Weezer,
Jason Isbell, St. Vincent, the Neptunes, Jon
Pardi, Phoebe Bridgers, Imelda May and
Kamasi Washington -- The Metallica Blacklist
was released separately from the big box; it
charted at 103 on Billboard's Top 200.

Metallica returned with "Lux Æterna," their

first new music in nearly seven years, in
November 2022, heralding the April 2023
release of their 11th studio album, 72 Seasons.
Reuniting with Greg Fidelman, the co-
producer of Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, the
band explored concepts of youth and maturity
on the muscular, ballad-less album. The LP
earned Metallica the prize for Best Metal
Performance at the 66th Grammy Awards.

Discography

Quiz
Which “Hope Ur Ok" singer agreed to
change the lyrics of her song to
match a misspelled tattoo her fan
shared on TikTok in May 2024?

Sabrina Carpenter

Olivia Rodrigo

Billie Eilish
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