Metallica Biography

The metal band of the late 80s and 90s now a days known as 'Metallica' was formed in 1981 in California, USA. This band is started by Lars Ulrich (drumer) and James Alan Hetfield (guitar/vocals) after each separately advertised for fellow musicians in the classified section of American publication The Recycler.

Then Metallica band recorded it's first demo, No Life Til' Leather, with Lloyd Grand (guitar), who was further replaced in 1982 by David Mustaine who is from California, USA, and whose relationship with Ulrich and Hetfield proved unsatisfactory.

Jef Warner (guitar) and Ron McGovney (bass) each had a short tenure with the band. In 1982 Clifford Lee Burton (bass, ex-Trauma) joined the band, playing his first live performance on 1983.

Latter Mustaine departed to form Megadeth and was replaced by Kirk Hammett (guitar). Hammett, who came to the attention of Ulrich and Hetfield while playing with rock band Exodus, played his first concert with Metallica on 1983.

The Ulrich, Hetfield, Burton and Hammett combination endured until disaster struck the band in the small hours of 1986, when Metallica's tour bus overturned in Sweden, killing Cliff Burton. During those four years, the band put thrash metal on the map with the aggression and exuberance of their debut, Kill 'Em All, the album sleeve of which bore the legend 'Bang that head that doesn't bang'.

This served as a chapter for a whole new breed of metallica, though the originators themselves were quick to dispense with their own rule book. Touring with New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands Raven and Venom followed, while Music For Nations signed them for European distribution.

'For Whom The Bell Tolls', it was 1986's Master Of Puppets that offered further evidence of Metallica's appetite for the epic. The first album for Elektra Records in the USA (who had also re-released its predecessor), this was a taut, multi-faceted collection that both raged and lamented with equal conviction.

Again after the death of 'Burton', the band elected to continue, the remaining three members recruiting Jason Newsted (bass) of Flotsam And Jetsam. Newsted played his first concert with the band on 1986. The original partnership of Ulrich and Hetfield, however, remained responsible for Metallica's lyrics and musical direction up to the end.

The 1988 opus included an appropriately singular spectacular moment in 'One' (a US Top 40/UK Top 20 single), while elsewhere the barrage of riffs somewhat obscured the usual Metallica artistry. The songs on 1991's US/UK chart- topper Metallica continued to deal with large themes - justice and retribution, insanity, war, religion and relationships.

Compared to Kill 'Em All nearly a decade previously, however, the band had grown from chaos to thoughtful harmony, hallmarked by sudden and unexpected changes of mood and tempo. The MTV -friendly 'Enter Sandman' broke the band on a stadium level and entered the US Top 20.

The single also reached the UK Top 10, as did another album track, 'Nothing Else Matters'. Constant touring in the wake of the album ensued, along with a regular itinerary of awards ceremonies. Metallica having dragged mainstream metal, not so much kicking and screaming as whining and complaining, into a bright new dawn when artistic redundancy seemed inevitable.

In 1996 Metallica band was also certified as having sold nine million copies in the USA, and one month later their album 'Load' entered the US charts at number 1. The album marked a change in image for the band a lot, who began to court the alternative rock audience.

'Reload' album collected together more tracks recorded at the Load sessions, and featured 60s icon Marianne Faithfull on the first single to be released from the album, 'The Memory Remains'. Garage Inc. collected assorted cover versions, and broke the band's run of US number 1 albums when it debuted at number 2 in December 1998.

'S&M', recorded live with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, evoked the worst excesses of heavy rock icons Deep Purple. In 2001, Jason Newsted announced he was leaving Metallica after almost 15 years of his service with the band. In 2001 Metallica entered the studio again, although with no bassist, and started recording the new album in July 2001 James Hetfield announced that he was in re-hab for alcohol and 'other' addictions. The recording of the new album was put on hold until he recovered.