Metallica History

Metallica was a band that started out in the garage of one of the members when they were in high school. The band went through many changes, tragedies, but found solutions for them and somehow remained playing. They started in 1980 as one of the first, if not the first Black/Metal band. Their popularity decreased in 1987, and from there they went on to become really popular later on. With Black Sabbath founding heavy metal in the Seventies, Metallica redefined thrash metal in the Eighties. Since erupting on the scene with their debut album, Kill ‘Em All, in 1983, Metallica has been a cutting-edge band – the standard by which metal’s vitality and virtuosity are measure (1). No band has loomed larger, rocked heavier, raged more angrily or pushed the limits further than Metallica. The group in 1981, around the core of James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, who both lived in Los Angeles, met when Hetfield answered an ad looking for someone to jam with. The pair bonded over their mutual love of metal – especially the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal.” Ulrich, a Danish immigrant, turned Hetfield on to this faster, thrash like wave of British heavy metal. The sensibility of that movement – feisty, aggressive, anti-fashion and, most of all, independent in spirit – rubbed off as they assembled an American band that would break free of commercial glam-metal clichés. The name Metallica unambiguously expressed their metal salvage mission, and they became identified with the subgenre known as thrash-metal(). In addition to singer/guitarist Hetfield and drummer Ulrich, Metallica’s first lineup included guitarist Dave Mustaine (who’d found Megadeth after leaving) and bassist Ron McGovney. Their first release was a seven-song tape, No Life ’Til Leather, that spread their name through heavy-metal’s rabid tape-trading underground(2). After slogging it out on the L.A. scene for two years, Metallica relocated to San Francisco. With a revamped lineup that included bassist Cliff Burton and