Metallica History

 

 

1980
A young Lars Ulrich was addicted to the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal), and he tried to put his own band together. At this point, his attempt failed, but he placed an ad in a magazine called Recycler, to which one James Hetfield answered. James and Lars met up to jam, but nothing became of this first meeting.
Summer 81
Lars went to the UK to follow Diamond Head around for 3 months on tour. On his return he secured a deal to record a track for the Metal Blade compilation Metal Massacre. Due to the fact that he didn't yet have a band, he quickly began contacting people. The three members he managed to put together were:
14.03.82.
Metallica's first show ever! At Radio City, in Anaheim, CA.
XX.04.82.
In order to get a certain live gig, Metallica needed to present some of their material, so they recorded a demo, later known as Power Metal. This was recorded with James, Lars, Ron McGovney, and Dave Mustaine. There isn't an actual title for this demo, but when it surfaced as a bootleg, the name stuck. The name comes from some early business cards of the band that Ron printed up.
xx.04.82
They re-recorded four tracks: Hit The Lights, Mechanix, Jump In The Fire, and Motorbreath. This new version of Hit The Lights appeared on the second pressing of Metal Massacre 1 (also the recent re-release).
25.05.82
Metallica played a gig at Lars’ high school, Backbay High School, managing to almost empty the hall.
28.05.82
They played as a five piece band for the first time with Jef Warner on vocals (luckily he didn't last).
14.06.82
The first print of the Metal Massacre compilation album was released, and included Metallica's first take of Hit The Lights. The second print had another version of this track. The album was released by Brian Slagel; this was the first release on his new label, Metal Blade.
06.07.82.
The demo No Life 'Til Leather was recorded. This demo was never officially released, but copies were made and spread like wildfire. Tracks included were:
xx.08.82
Brian Slagel told the band about a great bass player (Cliff Burton) in a band called Trauma that played the Whiskey a Go-Go. James and Lars were not happy with Ron McGovney, and where so amazed by Cliff's playing, that they realized that this was the new bass player for Metallica. Cliff was not interested, but said that he would join the band if they moved to San Francisco, for he thought L.A. was a fucked-up freak show.
18.09.82
To promote the Metal Massacre album, Brian Slagel organized a gig with the bands the San Francisco. This was the first time Metallica played in front of the Bay Area crowd, and it was a crucial job for them. All of the kids joined the headbangers on stage and went nuts. Metallica had to follow up this show with numerous gigs in the Bay Area.
29.11.82.
The guys played at "The Old Waldorf" in San Francisco, with support from a band named Exodus, with one Kirk Hammett on guitar; this was the first time they met him. The show was recorded, and today is known as the Live Metal Up Your Ass demo. They intended to record it through the mixing board, but something went wrong, so instead they set up a boombox in front of the speaker stacks; technically, this recording is an audience recording. Both Metal Up Your Ass and No Life 'Til Leather came with a cassette liner that was written by Lars and contained the track listings and the band logo. This was Dave Mustaine's first show with the band.
30.11.82
Mabuhay Gardens. The last gig with Ron on bass. They soon afterwards asked Cliff Burton to join; upon hearing this, Ron left.
28.12.82
First jam session with Cliff Burton.
xx.01.83
The band is invited by record shop owner Jon Zazula to do some gigs on the East Coast. He also tries to get them a record contract, but when this fails, he founds his own record label, Megaforce Records, and signs Metallica as his first band.
March 83
March of '83 saw them on a journey from SF to New York to play a number of dates organized by Jonny Z of Megaforce Records. During this trip Dave’s drinking problems were getting a bit out of hand. The morning after they played a show in Vandenburg, supporting VENOM, they asked Dave to leave. Meanwhile, Kirk was already on his way over by plane to replace him.
05.03.83
Cliff Burton's first gig with the band, in San Francisco, at The Stone.
16.03.83
The "Megaforce demo" was recorded. This is Cliff Burton's first recording with the band. There are two different stories about this recording, and I'm not sure which version is correct, if either... Story one: the band used this recording (containing Whiplash and No Remorse) to get a contract with Megaforce Records. Story two: the band wanted to capture a recording with Cliff, so they did, and then took the tape to KUSF FM in San Francisco, where it was played over the air.
19.03.83
Live at The Stone in San Francisco. This was the second gig with Cliff, and this show was videotaped. Parts of this show are on the "Cliff 'Em All" video issued by Metallica.
April 83
Lars, James and Dave all re-located to San Francisco, where Cliff lived; he now became a full member of Metallica.
01.04.83
Metallica called Kirk Hammett and asked him if he would like to join Metallica in New York for an audition. Kirk thought someone played an April Fool's trick on him, and answered "Yes, sure". The next day they called again to supply further details, and he realized that they were serious.
09.04.83
Live at L'Amours in Brooklyn, New York. The last gig with Dave Mustaine.
16.04.83
Having done his audition for Metallica, Kirk was accepted into the band; on this day he did his first gig with them in New Jersey. Exodus, Kirk’s previous band, went on to release some good thrash albums in the 80's and early 90's.
May 1983
They went into the studio to record their first album, Kill 'Em All, produced by Paul Curcio. Originally, this album was to be called "Metal Up Your Ass", but the record distributors refused to release an album with such a name. The name was immediately changed to Kill 'Em All, in reference to the record industry's distributors.
xx.07.83.
Kill 'Em All was released.
27.06.83
Metallica went on the road for a two month tour with Raven for the "Kill 'Em All For One" tour (the Raven album at the time was entitled All for One). The tour ended on September 3, 1983.
October-December 83.
Metallica spent their time writing new material for the next album, Ride The Lightning.
February 84
The quartet visited Europe for the first time. They went on a tour supporting VENOM, starting in Zurich, Switzerland and covering Germany, France and Belgium, then finishing with the Aardshock Festival in Zwolle, Holland. During this tour, the British label, Music for Nations, released the 'Jump in the Fire' EP to promote the tour.
27.06.84
Ride The Lightning is released by Megaforce records.
xx.11.84
The "Creeping Death" EP is released, featuring the original garage days on the B-side. Included is one cover tune, originally recorded by Blitzkrieg, and one track by Diamond Head. These tracks are now available on the re-release of Kill 'Em All, and Garage Days Re-Revisited is the follow up to this recording.
17.08.85
Performed for the first time at the famous Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington, England. Metallica was squeezed in-between two poser bands, Ratt and Bon Jovi, on the bill. James decided to tell the 70,000 kids what to expect: "If you came here to see spandex, eye makeup, and the words 'Oh baby' in every fuckin' song, this ain't the fuckin' band."
xx.09.85 - 27.12.85.
The band was in Copenhagen again, recording the third album, this time with producer Flemming Rasmussen.
xx.03.86
Master Of Puppets was released.
27.03.86
The tour with Ozzy Osbourne starts. This was a very important tour for Metallica, supporting Ozzy, as their popularity was steadily rising and they were ready to hit the bigtime. This was also their last tour as a supporting act.
26.06.86.
Shortly before a gig in Adamsville, James broke his wrist in the infamous "skateboarding incident." The show was cancelled, and during the rest of the tour James sang with his arm in a sling while John Marshall stood in on guitar. At that time, John Marshall was Kirk’s guitar roadie, as well as a member of the band Metal Church.
27.09.86
It was approaching dawn on Saturday, the 27th of September, 1986. Metallica's two tour buses were making their way along a god-forsaken road that lies somewhere between the Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen. Apart from these vehicles, the route was deserted - there was no one else travelling at that unearthly hour of the morning. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, just before 6:15 a.m., one of the coaches swerved violently to its right and started careening wildly down the wrong side of the road. It was out of control, and a crash was inevitable.
The bus' brief, but horrific, excursion came to a halt some 60 feet further up the tarmac. By this time, the vehicle was on its side and lying in a ditch by the side of the road, near the small Swedish town of Ljungby.

During the unavoidable confusion that followed, the vast majority of the overturned bus' passengers managed to scramble free of the wreckage. Those that emerged included three of the four members of the band. In all honesty, the survivors had been extremely lucky, as they had all somehow managed to escape with little more than minor injuries and shock.

Swedish police arriving on the scene of the crash immediately arrested the driver as a matter of routine, but later released him without charges after further investigation revealed that the cause of the crash was black ice on a nasty bend in the road.

Unfortunately, however, there had been one fatality in the accident...... what is more, the deceased individual turned out to be one of the group. So, tragically, in the short space of those few dreadful seconds on that lonely Swedish road, Metallica's dreamlike existence was suddenly transformed into a hellish nightmare. Their 24 year old bass player, Cliff Burton, was dead.

"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 don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore." James Hetfield -1993

29.09.86
The dazed group dealt with their anxiety in the manner with which they were most familiar: drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed, venting his rage. Kirk and his guitar tech, John Marshall, were so shaken that they left the light on in their room that night. On this day James, Lars and Kirk returned to the United States.
28.10.86
Jason Newstead goes to an audition, in the hopes to become the new bass player. He learned all the songs in a couple of days, so when the three of them asked Jason what song he would like to play, he said "anyone you like." At the end of the audition, Metallica had five candidates, but invited Jason to have a drink with them at Tommy's Joint. Before leaving the place, the three members went to the loo, and when they came back, they told Jason, "Welcome to Metallica."
 
08.11.86
Jason's first gig with Metallica, opening for Metal Church at The Country Club in Reseda. His second gig was the very next night at Jezabelle's in Anaheim.
10.08.87
The EP Garage Days Re-Revisited was released only including cover tunes to introduce Jason on vinyl to the fans. One of the tracks was left off the British version so it could qualify for the singles chart. This masterpiece is no longer available, and is now a rare collector's item.
20.08.87
The band started their European festival tour with a small secret gig at Club 100 in London. Thousands of people showed up, even though the gig wasn't advertised; however, many were denied at the door, as the club only had capacity for a few hundred!
04.12.87
Metallica's first home video, Cliff 'Em All, is released. This is Metallica's homage to their previous bass player. They didn't have any footage from the old shows, so bootleg videos taped by fans were added to the home video.
24.05.88
First show of the American "Monsters of Rock" Festival tour, with Van Halen at the Country Club in Los Angeles.
25.08.88
...And Justice for All is released by Elektra records in September 1988.
11.09.88
First show on the Damaged Justice Tour 88-89 in Budapest, Hungry.
06.12.88
Metallica filmed their first music video, One. They always said that they wouldn’t do a music video, but they now felt that the time was right, and were given maximum artistic freedom from their label.
22.02.89
This year Metallica received a nomination in the heavy metal category for the Grammy Awards. They performed One live at the show, but the award went to Jethro Tull. Metallica didn't seem to care, though; they added a sticker to their album reading "Grammy Award LOOSERS".
20.06.89
The home video "Two Of One" is released.
xx.02.90
Metallica wins a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, for One. While on stage receiving the award, the band gives Jethro Tull a big thank you for not releasing anything this year, as they won last year.
06.10.90
Metallica enters the studio "One On One" in North Hollywood to record their next album. Time passes, and the band is not finished until June 16th of the next year. The album is recorded by Randy Staub and assistant Mike Tacci, and produced by Bob Rock together with Hetfield and Ulrich.
04.11.90
Metallica recorded the track Stone Cold Crazy for an Elektra sampler.
xx.02.91
Metallica wins its second Grammy, for Best Metal Performance for Stone Cold Crazy.
30.07.91
World premiere of the video for Enter Sandman.
01.08.91
First show on the megatour - 'Wherever I May Roam' 91-92-93 at Phoenix Theatre - Petaluma, CA.
12.08.91.
The black album Metallica saw the light of day. Some shops opened the doors at 00:01 in the morning to be the first to sell the black album.
xx.02.92
Performed Enter Sandman at Grammys, and won for Best Metal Performance.
26.02.92
World premiere for the video Nothing Else Matters.
20.04.92
Played at "Concert For Life," a tribute show to Freddy Mercury at the Wembley Stadium in London. Metallica played three songs, which were released as a single only days later. All proceeds from this gig and the sales of the single were donated to Freddy Mercury's AIDS fund. The show was also TV broadcasted to the whole world.
09.08.92
James got burned by the pyrotechnics in Montreal, Canada. The next gigs had to be cancelled because James couldn't play the guitar with his burnt hand.
25.10.92
The first time Metallica played So What? live. What obviously made it so cool was that Animal, the vocalist from the Anti-Nowhere League who wrote this song, was dragged up to sing this masterpiece at Wembley Area, London, England.
05.11.92
All four members of Diamond Head were on the guest list this day in Birmingham, England. This started Metallica thinking of the possibility of jamming with them. With two drum sets on the stage, all eight band members played Am I Evil? and Helpless together. The members of Diamond Head are close friends of Lars, for he traveled with them on tour before Metallica was formed. Both of these tracks, and the jam with Animal ten days earlier, are available on the "Metallican vid" that comes in the Metallican-box for ...And Justice For All.
Nov. 92
The two home videos, "A Year And A Half In Ihe Life Of Metallica," parts 1 & 2, were released.
21.01.93
Some people at Elektra suggested that Metallica should come to Manhattan, and transform a record store into their own Metalli-store. The guys liked the idea and opened the store to a flood of fans on this day, selling only Metallica albums and merchandise. A tape was released for this day, and was exclusively sold at this shop on the Grand Opening. The tape consists of a medley recorded in Moscow. It was James who designed the tape cover with a drawing of Scary Guy.
22.01.93
A new tour saw the light of day. The "Nowhere Else To Roam" Tour '93 began in Kalamazoo, MI.
29.11.93
The box set "Live Shit: Binge & Purge" was released containing three CD's, three videos and a book.
28.05.94
'Shit hits the Sheds' starts with a Rehearsal Show in Buffalo, NY.
22.06.94.
Performed live at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Detroit. Glenn Danzig and Chuck Biscuts from Danzig played Last Caress with the band. Last Caress was written by Danzig when he was a member in Misfits.
03.07.94.
Performed live at the World Music Theatre in Chicago. This is Danzig's last show on the tour; Glenn Danzig sings London Dungeon, Last Caress, and Green Hell with the band. Suicidal Tendencies joins the band during So What?
21.08.94.
Performed live at the Bicentennial Park in Miami. The last show of the "Summer Shit Tour". Special guest is Rob Halford (ex-Judas Priest, now Fight) who sings Rapid Fire (an old Judas Priest song) with the band.
23.08.95
The tracks 2 x 4 and Devil's Dance are played for the first time in front of an audience at the London Astoria in England. This was a private show, and only members of the fan club were invited. According to Metallica this was the best gig they had ever played. This was also the first date on their short tour "Escape From The Studio" 95.
03.09.95
The Arctic Circle show, sponsored by Molson Breweries in Canada. 500 or so contest winners were invited to the "Coldest Show On Earth," in arctic northern Canada, a place so desolate and frigid that the only way in or out was by charter flights. The show was played in a huge, clover-shaped tent. Using four massive, fuel-burning, heating units they managed to keep the temperature warm enough for the instruments to function!
13.11.95
Metallica performed 7 Motorhead songs (dubbing their performance the "Lemmys") during Lemmy's birthday party at the famous club "Whiskey A Go-Go". This is also the club where Lars and James met Cliff Burton.
xx.12.95 - xx.02.96.
The band went into the Plant studio in Sausalito, California, where they recorded 18 of the 25 tracks due to appear on the new album. Again, Bob Rock is producing.
09.06.96
The four guys played at Slims Club, in San Francisco, for fan club members only. They did three members-only gigs in a row this month.
06-07.05.96
The video for Until It Sleeps was shot at locations around and in Los Angeles.
MAY.96
Our four guys spent time travelling around the world to promote the new album. They conducted numerous interviews, and organized huge listening parties where they would set up a truck full of speakers and play the new album, then sign some autographs for the fans. This occurred all over the world; in the States, Europe, Australia and Japan.
20.05.96
The single Until It Sleeps is released world-wide, excluding Northern America, where the fans would have to wait one more day.
26.05.96.
A huge Metallica listening party was held on the second day of the DYNAMO Festival in Eindhoven, Holland. Metallica's new album, Load, was played through the PA at the festival site for the 60,000+ audience, making this the largest listening party held, ever!! Two band members (probably Lars & Kirk) were at the festival site to present this event, to give interviews, and to promote the new album. Load was released a whole week earlier in Holland than the rest of the world, to make it possible to be sold at the festival. Therefore, Eindhoven was blessed not only with hosting the world premiere, but also with the release of the album for the first time anywhere in the world!
01.06.96
Load is released in Japan only.
03.06.96.
The album is released world-wide.
04.06.96.
The album is released in North America.
11.06.96
Metallica played live for the entire world, via the Internet. The broadcast site was Slim's, a small club in San Francisco, where the Webcast crew beamed the show across the globe, live as it happened, in spycams, music, video, pictures and descriptions.
17.06.96
MTV presented a Metallica contest that was so huge it took four tractor trailers to deliver the prizes to the homes of the four contest winners. The four band members of Metallica hung out with the grand prize winner, met the neighbors, and played some tunes. The contest final was aired July 1.
27.06.96
The American Loolapalooza festival tour starts in Kansas City with Metallica headlining the bill.
12.09.96
Another European tour begins. This time the tour starts in Ostenhalle, Germany.
23.09.96
Recorded the live video of Hero Of The Day in Barcelona, Spain. They weren't using a recording, and 5 seconds before each of the 3 times they played the song, a metronom was introducing the band to the required rythym, and the beeps of it sounded throughout the whole audio system at the stadium. Also, Kirk got 3 or 4 notes wrong on the intro during the first attempt. Moreover, Lars asked the crowd to be more energetic in each one of the new versions they played. So, by the third try, it sounded louder than hell!
13.11.96
Metallica recorded 3 live songs for the TV program "Later With Jools Holland," on the British channel BBC2. Wasting My Hate, Mama Said (James only acoustic) and King Nothing were performed completely live, with no playback.. It was broadcast on November 16th.
14.11.96
Metallica was intoduced to perform King Nothing live on stage at the MTV Europe Video Awards show. The lights went down and the band launched into the song Last Caress followed by So What? A few classic minutes of television to savour. The band was nominated earlier that evening, in the "Best Rock Video" catagory, but the award went to the Smashing Pumpkins. James later said in an interview: We needed to wake people up at the show! We felt it was a little boring, and we had been daring each other to do that for years.
18.11.96
The single Mama Said is released world wide.
18 & 19.11.96
Apocalyptica, the band who released an album containing Metallica covers performed with cellos, opened for Metallica in Helsinki, Finland.
17.01.97
King Nothing premiered on MTV on 1/17/97. It was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah about a month earlier.
26.01.97.
Lars got married to his long time girlfriend Skylar. Apparantly Lars said that thing about them breaking it off was so that they would not get mobbed by fans at the church they got married in.
27.01.97
MetallicA played "King Nothing" on the American Music Awards and won the price for best metal/hard rock album. When they went up to accept their award, Lars said, "I would like to thank this man, James Hetfield, for putting on his best suit and being my best man at my wedding last night."
22.02.97
Ted Nugent was guest star at the gig at Palace Of Auburn Hills. They weren't too happy with him for what he did. Ted basically forced his way into their show, then ruined their moment in the sun (throwing pics and sticks and thanking the crowd).
22.08.97
Metallica played 3 festivals in Europe this summer to get out of the studio for a while. First day was at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium
23.08.97
Blindman's Ball Festival, Stuttgart, Germany
24.08.97
Reading Festival, Reading, U.K.
06.10.97
To celebrate the release of their new album, Metallica wanted to play a concert - for free. The only problem was that they didn't know where! They gave the fans a few details and a 800 telephone number where they could call in to make suggestions. The free concert had to be held on Tuesday, November 11 (Veteran's Day), outdoors as this had to be a big free show for anyone wishing to make the trip. Over 120,000 Metallica fans bombarded a phone lines.
10.10.97
Photo session for the launch of the new album has already took place, and it is a stunning live session by Anton Corbijn. These live photos will be included in the packaging for the new album. There was further two photo sessions prior to the album release, which was for press use.
18.10.96
The 11th Annual Bridge School Benefit Shows at Shoreline Amphitheater, San Francisco. They played an entirely acoustic set which lasted about an hour. Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains came out and played the Lynrd Skynrd song Tuesday's Gone. They also played Lowman's Lyrics for the first time.
19.10.96
The second Annual Bridge School Benefit Show at the save venue. the sets were the same except on Saturday they did not play Low Mans Lyric, instead they played another new tune called "My Eye's". Also on the bill was Kacy Crowley, Blues Traveler's, Lou Reed, Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthew's Band, and Neil Young.
20 & 21.10.97
The band shot the "Memory remains" video in LA, actually at the Van Nuys airport. It costed $400.000.00 and featured the band it a huge box that costed over $100.000.00. The video had it's world premiere on MTV's Mattrock show the 15th of November 1997.
26.10.97
The final day for the fans to call in to teh 800 telefone number and suggest a place where Metallica could play their free show. The "winner"? Philadelphia's CoreStates Arena parking lot.
07.11.97
Neighbors of the Philadelphia's CoreStates Arena parking lot in South Philadelphia are going went court on morning to try to block the free outdoor concert by the "heavy-metal band". It wasVincent Fumo who asked his Harrisburg lawyer, Christopher Craig, to see what he could do. Craig spent all day drafting a request for an injunction that he delivered to Common Pleas.
11.11.97
Metallica's free concert, dubbed the "Million Decibel March," was helt in Philadelphia parking lot and was a great success. For the show's intro, they showed Jaymz playing the famous ESPN commercials' "Da-na-na, na-na-na" from the Sportscenter music on his guitar. Here is what the local newspapaer Philadelphia Inquirer had to say about the show: "It was part burlesque show, part rugby match, and hearing-loss loud. The band was profane on stage and charming before the show. Police pronounced the fans better behaved than a Philadelphia Eagles crowd. And neighbors who feared the worst from the self-styled Loudest Band in the World complained more about the sound from the news choppers circling overhead."
12.11.97
Memory Remains single released in America. It has been available in Europe ant the rest of the world for a few weeks
13.11.97
Lars and his bandmates played a free show at London's premier dance venue Ministry Of Sound to launch their new album 'Re-Load'. Prior to the show Lars said in a press release: "I've never heard of the Ministry Of Sound but I'm sure Metallica playing there will making it a hit!"
06.12.97
Metallica will performed live on NBC's Saturday Night Live show
Mars 98
The world tour in support of Reload will commence in Asia in March 1998. Metallica wasn't there on their Load tour, and they will visit Australia as well.
Mars 98
The live film will be completed in March 1998. 52 minutes edit of the film will be available for launch parties worldwide, completed with personalised IDs. The band have said that they may consider use of the promotional film for TV broadcasts.