The most
consistently innovative metal band of the late 80s and early 90s was formed
in 1981 in California, USA, by Lars Ulrich
(DOB December 26, 1963, Copenhagen, Denmark; DRUMS)
and
James Alan Hetfield (DOB August
3, 963, USA; guitar, VOCALS) after
each separately advertised for fellow musicians in the classified section
of American publication The Recycler. They recorded their
first demo, No Life Til' Leather,
with Lloyd Grand (GUITAR),
who was replaced in January 1982 by David Mustaine
(DOB September 13, 1961, La Mesa, California, USA), whose relationship
with Ulrich and Hetfield proved
unsatisfactory.
Jef
Warner (GUITAR) and RonMcGovney
(BASS) each had a brief tenure with
the band. At the end of 1982
Clifford Lee Burton
(DOB February 10, 1962, USA, DIED September 27, 1986; bass), formerly
of Trauma, joined
the band, playing his first live performance on March 5, 1983. Mustaine
departed to form Megadeth
and was replaced by Kirk Hammett (DOB
November 8, 1962, San Francisco, California, USA; GUITAR).
Hammett, who came to the attention of Ulrich and Hetfield while playing
with rock band
Exodus,
played his first concert with MetallicAon
16 April 1983.
The Ulrich,
Hetfield, Burton and Hammett combination endured until disaster struck
the band in the small hours of September 27, 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 template
for a whole new breed of metal, 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. Although
Ride
The Lightning was not without distinction, notably on
'For
Whom The Bell Tolls', it was Master
Of Puppets that offered further
evidence of MetallicA'sappetite
for the epic.
Their first
album for Elektra Records in the USA (who had also re-released its predecessor),
this was a taut, multi-faceted collection hat both raged and lamented with
equal conviction. After the death of Burton, the band elected to continue,
the remaining three members recruiting Jason Newsted
(DOB March 4, 1963; BASS) of Flotsam
And Jetsam. Newsted played his first concert with the
band on November 8, 1986. The original partnership of Ulrich and Hetfield,
however, remained responsible for MetallicA's
lyrics and musical direction.
The new
line-up's first recording together was The $5.98 EP - Garage
Days Re-Revisited - a 
collection
of cover versions including material from Budgie,
Diamond
Head, Killing Joke
and the Misfits, which
also served as a neat summation of the band's influences to date. Sessions
for .... And Justice For All
initially began with Guns N'Roses
producer Mike Clink at the helm, before the band opted to return to Johnny
Zazula, a relationship they had begun with
Ride
The Lightning. A long and densely constructed effort,
this 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 iconoclastic 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.
There could surely be no more deserving recipients, 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.
MetallicA
was certified as having sold nine million copies in the USA by June 1996,
and one month later LoaD
entered the US charts at number 1. The album marked a change in image for
the band, who began to court the alternative rock audience. The following
year's ReLoaD
collected together more tracks recorded at the LoaDsessions,
and featured 60s icon Faithfull, Marianne 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.
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