Birth. School. Metallica. Death.
There are only a few bands existing today that have not only the courage to make such a claim (and print it on the back of a T-shirt) but also have the credibility and fanbase to back it up. Indeed, Metallica are one of the most influencial, groundbreaking and popular heavy metal acts in the world. For a band to not only have a career that spans more than 20 years, but also have just as much relevance in 2004 then they did in 1992, is testament to the band's inability to simply curl up and die. Through all the obstacles they have faced, be it Drugs, Divorce or Death, Metallica have pulled through and lived to fight another day, always doing things the way they want. You could call it selfishness if you want, it's doubtful the band will even care. Their terms, their rules. If you don't like it, take a number.
"Pretty early on we felt we had something special on our hands; whether it was great or shit, it meant something."
-- Lars Ulrich
Currently, the band consists of:
Band History
The Four Horsemen
"When we start to rock, we never want to stop again!"
-- Hit The Lights (Kill 'Em All)
In August, 1980, Denmark-born Lars Ulrich moved with his family to Huntington Beach, just south of Los Angeles, where Ulrich was expected to pursue his life-long amibiton in tennis. However, also being an avid music lover, his obsession with heavy metal (especially the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) took over, and he decided to form a band. He placed an advert in the local newspaper The Recycler, where he asked for "a heavy metal guitarist, much heavier than LA scene". One of those who responded was the quiet James Hetfield, already a member of a band called Leather Charm. However, when James, James' then bandmate Hugh Tanner, and Lars first played a rehearsal together, things did not go well. James recalls that Lars' drum kit kept falling over, and various parts would break apart when they were hit. Lars himself had only been playing drums on and off for three years, and as such, James was not impressed.
However, soon afterwards, Lars befriended Brian Segel, a local promoter, who was putting together a heavy metal compilation album called "Metal Massacre". Lars badgered Brian for a slot on the record, and he agreed as long as he gave him a track. So Lars called Hetfield and proposed the idea of forming a band again. Hetfield jumped at the idea once he learned they would be recording a song. James once again brought in Leather Charm's bassist Hugh Tanner, and Lars got ahold of Lloyd Grant, another applicant to Lars' newspaper advert. Together, they recorded an old Leather Charm song called "Hit The Lights" (a crib from Diamond Head's "Shoot The Lights"), which was placed last on the track listing for the album. Lars chose the name "Metallica" from an idea he had for a fanzine, although it is suggested it was taken from a rock reference book called "Encyclopedia Metallica".
Soon after the album's release, Lloyd Grant was already tired of the band and decided to quit. In his place came Dave Mustaine, a local Judas Priest nut and heavy drinker (who later fronted the band Megadeath). On march 14, 1982, Metallica played their very first gig at Anaheim's Radio City, followed by a support slot with Saxon (whom Lars was a large fan of) at the famous Whisky A Go-Go. At first, Hetfield was uncomfortable with playing the guitar and singing at the same time, so other guitarists were brought in to play James' parts for him. One of them, Brad Parker (stage name Damian C. Phillips), was fired right after his first gig with them, after he ran onto the stage way before the rest of the band, and in a moment of pure Spinal Tap absurdity, started blasting solos to the crowd on his own. Unable to find a suitable replacement, James opted to do guitar work as well as sing.
Their second demo tape came soon afterwards, dubbed "No Life Till Leather", which included many of the band's more popular songs, later recorded for their first LP release. While their reputation as a powerful and exciting live act continued to increase, then bassist Ron McGoveny and Mustaine were falling out with each other. The band elected to throw McGoveny out of the band, who was deemed as the cataylst for the feud. The band now needed a replacement. Out of the many people they tried out with, none of them stood out more than Cliff Burton. Cliff was playing with a band called Trauma from San Francisco, and one of James' friends recommended they go seem them in action. James recalls "hearing this wild guitar solo", and soon realised that it was bassist Cliff Burton performing the solo. The band gave him the offer on the spot. However, Cliff refused to move to LA, so the band instead moved up to San Francisco.
Thanks to the cultural phenomenon of tape swapping, Metallica's second demo wound up into the hands of Johnny Zazula (or Johnny Z) and his wife Marsha Zazula, record store owners and gig promoters in New Jersey. Once they heard the demo, they were so impressed they decided to fly the band out from the west coast, and let them stay at his apartment. Thanks to Johnny's belief in the band and rapidly decreasing bank balance, the band were able to start recording their first full album. However, relationships with lead guitarist Dave Mustaine were not going well and he was fired from the band. Mustaine had an hour to pack between being told the news and having to board a Greyhound bus heading for the west coast.
Back on the west coast, San Francisco's heavy metal scene was thriving. Once such band doing well for itself was Exodus, with guitarist Kirk Hammett on lead. One of Metallica's roadies mentioned the guitarist, and after flying him out over night to New York, he was accepted as Metallica's new lead guitarist. Soon afterwards, Metallica's first album "Kill 'Em All" was released on Megaforce Records, owned by Johnny Z. The album contained some of the fastest and heaviest songs ever created at the time (which was soon dubbed as 'Thrash Metal"), and the album received great reviews all around. So begins a heavy metal revolution.
Damage, Inc.
"Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me, cannot stop the battery!"
-- Battery (Master Of Puppets)
Thanks to Metallica's mixture of crushing heavy metal with punk's energetic pace, an entire music movement had been formed in the San Francisco Bay Area, dubbed then as The Bay Area Crunch. What ensued was countless imitators of Metallica's trademark fast and heavy sound saturating the music scene. Suddenly, Metallica were grouped along with all of this unfocused heavy metal, under the term Thrash Metal. Metallica needed to get out of a hole that they helped dig, and Ride The Lightning was their answer. Released in the summer of 1984 on Music For Nations, the record was an altogether more mature and progressive piece of work (the main theme throughout being causes of death). Metallica received large kudos for these new songs, especially the 8 minute epic "The Call of Ktulu" (sic), a purely instrumental thrash metal song, and "Fade To Black", the thrash movement's first ballad. Seeds of this sort of new direction were planted in their first album (most evident in Cliff Burton's 4 minute solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", but no one expected the band to grow this quickly, within the space of a year.
By the end of the year, Metallica had gained a gold disc for their first album, as well as a platinum disc for Ride The Lightning. This was achieved on word of mouth alone, with no promo videos or radio singles of any kind whatsoever. Thanks to this huge rise in popularity, the band's studio budget had been increased dramatically when it was time to record their third release. The band spent their time making sure the album was as good as it could be, spending months and months in the recording process. One track was debuted at a headlining appearance for a German Metal Festival in September of 1985. The track was called Disposable Heroes. a protest song against the horrors of war. By december, the album was finished, and the entire metal world's jaws dropped on it's release in early 1986. Master Of Puppets was deemed an instant classic by many critics on release. Brutally heavy and unforgivingly fast, yet also the most progressive and orchestrated album they had done thus far, the album is now many fan's favourite, and their first step towards super stardom.
Such was the band's success, that they managed to get a support slot with none other than Heavy Metal legend Ozzy Osbourne, on a huge six-month arena tour around the US, during which their popularity grew and grew exponentially. By the time the year was through, Master Of Puppets had sold more than 500,000 copies in the US alone, and it wasn't doing too bad overseas in Europe. Again, no promo videos or radio singles were released by the band; their popularity was gained via voice of mouth alone. The band had always had the attitude to do what they want, when they want, and how they want. Even after James sprained his wrist during Ozzy's tour in a skateboarding accident, they simply grabbed Guitar tech John Marshall to fill in for the remainder of the tour, with James on vocals, despite warnings from doctors. By September 1986, they were on their own headlining tour in Europe, headlining theatres and large venues such as the prestigious Hammersmith Odeon.
As the band's popuarlity grew and grew, so did their egos. The band were known for their excessive rockstar lifestyle, and were known for their wild drinking. Indeed, many areas of the public and media jokingl dubbed them "Alcoholica". The band even posed for a photo shoot with a large inflatable Smirnoff bottle, with their new apointed name in huge leters behind them on a wall. The band, rightfully so, felt utterly invincible.
To Live Is To Die
"Hold my breath as I wish for death. Oh please, God, wake me.."
-- One (...And Justice For All)
In the early morning of Saturday, September 27, 1986, Metallica were travelling nearby a Swedish town called Ljungby, on their tour bus. So far, the 'Master of Puppets Tour" in Europe has been a success. On a stretch of road early in the morning, the bus swerved off the road and crashed into a ditch. The bus driver claimed to have hit some black ice. Most of the people on the bus had survived with just cuts and bruises, but Lars had broken his foot. Once out of the crashed bus (now on it's side), Kirk says he "remembered everyone screaming....except for Cliff."
"I saw the bus lying right on him, I saw his legs sticking out, I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other people. I just went 'don't fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I didn't know if he was drunk or he hit some ice, all I knew was that he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore."
-- James Hetfield
As the bus fell into the ditch by the road, Cliff was thrown through a window in the side of the bus, just as it was rolling over. The bus crushed the upper part of his body. Later on, as the rescue team were lifting the bus, the bus slipped and fell right back on top of him. If there was any hope that he could be saved, that was long gone. Cliff Burton was pronounced dead on arrival. The band were not only heartbroken, but a new sense of vunerability crept over them. Kirk recalls that he lent Cliff his bunk for the night, and claims he has never gotten over how it could have been him underneath the bus.
Cliff's memorial service took place on October 7 in his hometown Castro Valley. At the ceremony, the band insisted that they play the instrumental Orion, a song that Cliff was heavily involved in during the writing. HIs family and friends then took his ashes to one of his favourite places, Maxwell Ranch.
While this was a sad moment in Metallica's history, one thing was for certain: they weren't going to give up. It wasn't a question of whether they could keep going, it was rather when they could start going again. First job was to find a replacement bassist in time for a Japanese tour the band promised not to cancel. For just over a week, the band auditioned with countless bass players, none of them right for the part. One person, however, stood out. Jason Newstead, frontman for the band Flotsam and Jetsam, was given the job soon after they auditioned him. After a quick secret gig and hours and hours of practise, Jason went to Japan to honour the tour dates Metallica had made. As well as this, Metallica recorded "Garage Days Revisited", a small cover album recorded in Lars' garage, to break Jason into the group.
Soon after this, Metallica returned to the studio to record their fourth album. This would be Jason's writing and recording debut with the band, and soon the album became one of the most heavily awaited heavy metal albums in 1988. The album was called "...And Justice For All", named after the famous movie starring Al Pacino. This time, the band focused on the corruption of the American Dream, the horrors of war and family feuding. Unsuprisingly, the album was much darker than previous efforts, porbably thanks in part to Cliff's death. One song is said to be a tribute to Cliff, The Shortest Straw, as it's rumoured Cliff drew the short straw for which bunk to sleep in on the tour bus. However, this is more likely the instrumental To Live Is To Die, which was made up of a number of things Cliff wrote before he died.
The band did not seem to be accomodating their new bassist well. With their latest album, the only real criticism that people levelled at it was that the production mde it sound like it was recorded in a tin can. Consequently, Jason suffered, as his bass is effectively inaudible. If it wasn't for this error, the album would have been a classic, but instead it suffers because of it.
In a move that fans didn't seem to agree with, Metallica finally decided to make a video and promo single, namely for the song One. It was seen as the best song on the album, and Metallica felt that if there was to be a video, it could make the song a lot better, giving more insight into the contex of the song. The song itself was based on an anti-war novel called "Johnny got His Gun", written by Dalton Trumbo in 1939. It told the story of a man who lost all his limbs and face in a mine explosion, and is kept alive in a hospital. He is determined to die, but the hospital staff continue to keep him alive. For the promo video, the band elected to take bits from the movie adaption of this novel, intercut between shots of the band playing the song in an empty warehouse. The video got heavy rotation on MTV, and quite naturally, was something the mainstream had never seen before. "...And Justice For All" went multi-platinum, and Metallica won a grammy for best metal performance (after being cheated out of it the previous year).
Within the space of two years, Metallica not only managed to recover from the death of their best friend, but also released an album that was considered the pinnacle of progressive metal, managing to appeal to people who wouldn't ordinarily listen to heavy metal. With a new bassist, new found fans, and a shitload of money, Metallica went into the studio to record their fifth album.
Don't Tread On Me
"
But I'll take my time anywhere, free to speak my mind anywhere, and I'll redefine anywhere."
-- Wherever I May Roam (Metallica)
Thanks to Metallica's now handsomely huge following, the pressure was on the band to deliver something that not only bettered "...And Justice For All", but one that also made just as much of an impact on the music scene. Thanks to these new found responsibilities, tensions mounted higher than ever on the recording of their 5th album. Lars and James especially, who both started the band, argued more than everyone else. Thanks to the long recording process, these arguments were so heated that 3 out of the 4 members were divorced by the time the album was finished.
Wherever the band member's heads were during the recording, they definitely knew what they were trying to do. A lot of controversy exploded around the fact that Bob Rock (famous for producing the radio-friendly Bon Jovi) was producing the album. Fans were afraid that Metallica were heading for a sound too radio-friendly themselves. And this did indeed happen. The songs on the new record (now officially self-titled) were suprisingly accessible for a thrash metal band (most notably due to the fantasic production work by Bob Rock, who made "...And Justice For All" sound like a demo tape). Hell, a lot of these songs didn't sounds like thrash metal at all.
Of course, Metallica's spirit has always been to do what they want, when they want, and how they want, and not let anyone else interfer. Their 5th album (nick-named 'The Black Album" thanks to it's all black cover) was what Metallica wanted to do at the time. The band was sick of thrash metal; they had effectively done everything they could do by the time "...And Justice For All" came out. They wanted to experiment a bit,. and they really came up with a winner. "The Black Album"'s first single, "Enter Sandman", is undoubtedly the most popular and well known heavy metal song in the world, and with good reason; it helped Metallica sell over 10 million copies of their record within the next two years, staying in the billboard charts for almost three years. Metallica were officially the biggest band in the world at this point.
For this reason, the band decided they would do a tour with Guns N Roses, who were effectively just as big as Metallica. Very soon, however, Metallica regretted setting out on a world tour with Axl Rose. The band were alreay sick of Axl's arrogance and "holier than thou" attitude. Axl would occasionally stop mid-set during his band's performance, and just leave. or he would get into a tantrum because some fan brought a camera into the show. The two bands completely ignored each other for most of the tour, not being able to stand each other. The same thing was also happening within the Metallica ranks as well; Lars had developed a taste for cocaine, something that alienated the rest the band, while Jason and Kirk tended to hang out together on their own, smoking pot all day. James did not fit into any of this, and thus spent his time in country and western bars, where "people didn't bother you". Things were not going so well for the band.
This feeling climaxed during a set in France, when James lost his footing during (ironically) Fade to Black , and stepped into a 10 foot jet of pyro. The entire left side of James' body was burnt to a crisp, and his skin was rising up off of his fingers and arm. A humorous event to come of this, happened when the band was waiting for an ambulance. Someone bumped into James' arm, and it was so painful that James managed to punch him in in the testicles. After James was rushed to hopsital, the band came out and promised that they would return and fulfill their commitment to their dates. The band were now hoping that Guns N Roses would save the day. Of course, this didn't happen. Instead of playing the full two hours, Axl dragged his not-so-merry men off-stage after about 45 minutes. The fans were not happy, and rioted all through the night.
A few weeks after James got out of hospital, the band came back to Europe to finish their tour. James could not play guitar, seeing he could hardly move his arm or hand, so he sung vocals while long-time roadie John Marshall filled James' shoes once again. The band finally managed to complete their tour, after almost two and a half years, and released Live Shit: Binge and Purge, a huge collection of live shows caught on 3 video tapes and 2 CDs. Thanks to this constant touring, the band needed a break, and so they all took a year or two off away from each other, and away from Metallica.
The Memory Remains
"Rebel, mind your last name, wild blood in my veins, they bring strings around my neck, the mark that still remains."
-- Mama Said (Load)
It had been a full five years since Metallica had released a full length album, and by the time their sixth was underway, the pressure applied could not have been more unstable. Metallica had learnt their lesson during the recording process of "The Black Album", so this time around the decided to let all ideas loose on each other. Beforehand, it was usually Lars and James who approved what would appear on a record, but this time all band members were allowed to let their influences run wild. What emerged was a more laid back, groove-orientated Metallica, one that focus