before 1981
Lars Ulrich, fan of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and especcially Diamond Head, moved from Copenhagen to L.A. to found his own, European sounding heavy metal band. Lars tried putting a band together at this point but failed. He placed an ad in a South California paper called The Recycler looking for musicians to play with. James Hetfield (also called "The Angriest Kid in the World") who had formerly played in bands such as Obsession, Phantom Lord, and Leather Charm had an ad of his own on the same page, got together with Lars for a jam session. Lars played all of his New Wave of British Heavy Metal to James, who started really getting into the British metal sound. Nothing came out of this first meeting, mostly because Lars' cymbals fell off everytime he hit them!
1981
In the summer Lars came 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 first one he contacted was James. James and Lars, in time, formed a band and called it Metallica (so old people wouldn't mistake them for an old-time jazz ensemble). The name "Metallica" was stolen by Lars from Ron Quintana who was at the time putting together a fanzine. MetallicA was one of the possible titles for the mag. When Lars had persuaded his friend not to call the fanzine Metallica, he went to James with the name and they decided to call the band Metallica. The Metallica logo was originally designed by James. They recorded their first demo, with Lars on drums, James on bass, guitar and vocals and Lloyd Grant on the lead guitar (mostly in solos). The track 'Hit the Lights' was recorded for the Compilation album. On the original pressing of this album the band's name was mis-spelled MetallicA. Due to the fact that Brian Slagel (who put 'Metal Massacre' together) wouldn't finance a re-recording of the track 'Hit the Lights', the original demo version was used on the first pressing. By the time the second pressing of the album came out, this track was re-recorded with Dave Mustaines solos. During these re-recording sessions the following covers were recorded: 'Killing time' by Sweet Savage and 'Let it loose' also by Savage. A few weeks later Lloyd Grant left to be replaced by a guy called Mike.
1982
In January 1982 Dave Mustaine joined the band, so now they got their own lead guitar player. James' room-mate Ron McGovney was their new bassplayer (after that James had taught him to play). A second demo was recorded. It was a four song demo released in April, giving Metallica a fast growing popularity in the underground scene. The demo was recorded by Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine and McGovney. It featured "Hit The Lights", "The Mechanix" (later renamed "The Four Horsemen"), "Jump In The Fire" and "Motorbreath". This new version of 'Hit the Lights' appeared on the second pressing of 'Metal Massacre 1' (also on the recent re-release). On May 25 Metallica played a gig at Lars's high school (Backbay High School), appearing before an almost empty hall. For a while guitarplayer Jeff Warner (now Black 'n' Blue) joined the group, but he left after a short time. In May 28 they played for the first time as a five-membered band with their new member on vocals (luckily this didn't last). In July their legendary "No Life Til Leather"-demo is recorded and that's possibly the most legendary demo recording ever made. This demo was never official released but spread like wildfire. The cassette got circulated and distributed worldwide by the growing metal underground, who hailed the group as being one of the most innovative and unique new bands on the scene!!!! Now, after the demo, everyone was waiting for their debut album. One monday in August a San Francisco based band called Trauma, featuring Cliff Burton, play the Whisky-A-Go-Go. Lars and James were in the crowd. They became so impressed with the bass guitar player, that they immediately tried hard to get him to join Metallica, an offer that he initially refused. It wasn't until the end of the year that Cliff finally agreed to become a member of the band, but only if the band would move to San Francisco. On November 29 Metallica play their first headlining gig in the Bay Area. It was a local band who opened the show, Exodus, at that time featuring a 20-year-old Kirk Hammett.
1983
After two years of sticking out like a sore thumb on the LA glam metal scene. When glam and poserock came up, Metallica relocated to San Francisco. They moved to join eccentric bass genius Cliff Burton. In January the band was invitated by record shop owner Jonny Zazula to do some gigs at the east-coast. He also tried to get them a contract, but when that failed, he founded his own record label, Megaforce Records. March saw them on the road on a journey from San Fransisco to New York. Their aim was to do a number of gigs organized by Jonny Z of Megaforce records. During this journey, Dave Mustaine's drinking problems were getting a bit out of hand. One morning after having played a gig in Vandenburg supporting Venom, they asked Dave to leave. Meanwhile Kirk was already on his way over by plane to replace him. They spent the rest of April playing gigs. In May 10-27, the band entered Barrett Alley Studios to record their legendary debut LP. It was appropriately entitled Kill 'Em All. The record studio was situated in Rochester, New York. The album was produced by Paul Curcio. Originally this album was to be called 'Metal up your ass'. It was characterized by speed, energy, and twisted innocence. Kill 'Em All blows the tired, brain-dead heavy metal genre all to hell. It's a smash hit. Songs like "Metal Militia" , "Seek & Destroy" and "Hit The Lights" became real classic songs. These songs are also well known by many headbangers thanks to their demos. But the best song of all in that recording, in my opinion, is "Pulling Teeth" with Cliff's solo. These compositions are also admired outside the metal scene, because of the very tight, open chord schemes. After the release (in July) they went out on the road for a two month tour through America. They toured with Raven. the tour was called 'Kill em all for One' (the Raven album at the time was 'All for One'). After this tour they started making new material for their second album "Ride The Lightning".
1984
In Febuary they went on tour in Europe with Venom starting in Zurich, Switzerland and covered Germany/France and Belgium. They finished with the Aardshock Festival in Zwolle, Holland. During this tour the British label Music for Nations released the 'Jump in the Fire' EP to coincide with the tour. After this tour they went to Copenhagen, Denmark to Record RTL. When they had recorded RTL they went back on tour in Europe (mostly England) supporting Twisted Sister (well, actually Twisted Sister rotated the headline position). With Peter Mensch they got themselves a good manager (Def Leppard). He arranged a major record deal for the band. Metallica's much awaited second album, Ride the Lightning (RTL), was released. The album - all rage and black fury - began, shockingly, with acoustic guitar. (Afterward, 3,000 other bands stole this idea.) Despite a solid wall of disinterest from commercial radio, Ride the Lightening got gold and spended 50 weeks on Billboard's Top 200. In a couple of weeks they sold more than 100,000 albums, unique for an independent heavy metal band.
1985
They signed, as first metal band, a deal with a major company, Elektra. Other record companies saw the success and tried to find their own Metallica. Most of -85 was spended on tour through Europe. With Tank as support act they played at The Monsters Of Rock in Castle Donington and at the Day On Green festival in Oakland, SF US. During that tour MFN released the 'Creaping Death' EP which included two covers namely 'Am i Evil' and 'Blitzkrieg' originals by Diamond Head and Blitkreig respectively. On the original Pressing Blitzkrieg was misspelt Blitzkreig. From September to December 27 the band were in Copenhagen again. Now they recorded the third album, that time with producer Flemming Rasmussen.
1986
Metallica's third release, (in early March) Master of Puppets, redefines "thrash metal" (an unfortunate appellation) with its intensive, melodic sound. That record was also recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark. Once again, they struck the music world, although they did return slightly to the thrash style that was expected of them. Metallica began to be recognized as a power in metal and appreciation for the bands unique style grew. Without the dubious benefit of singles or videos - vanities Metallica remains uninterested in - Master of Puppets sold a million copies in the U.S. alone. Halfway the tour with Ozzy Ozborne, the record is gold already. During the tour (June 26) James broke a wrist in a Skateboarding incident (he'll do this again a year later). During the rest of the tour James sang with his arm in a sling and John Marshall (a Metallica roadie) helped him on the guitar. On September 26th James played his first gig in a while on the guitar. Later that night, on the way to Copenhangen, Metallica was struck by a massive blow: On early September 27th, during their first headline tour of Europe, (with Antrax) Metallica's tour bus skids off an icy Swedish road whilst the driver sleeps... Popular basist Cliff Burton was killed instantly after that he had been thrown through the wind screen. When he was sort of halfway out of the window the bus fell over him... Despite the grief shared by the remaining members they all agreed that Cliff would not have them discontinue a tour as Lars Ulrich was quoted as saying, "Cliff would have been the first one to be pissed off if we didn't." There was no doubt that Metallica would carry on. Weeks later, a new basist is found in Jason Newsted. He came from Flotsam & Jetsam. Jason's band had recently released the album 'Doomsday for the deceiver'.
1987
Metallica was back in the United States. Having converted Lars' garage into a rehearsal studio, the band released "The $5.98 EP Garage Days Revisited", an EP with five covers of songs that have influenced them. They then played a few dates including the Donington 87 festival. It is rumored, that in this time period, after one of Metallica's performances at Londons 100 club, John Paul Jones (Led Zepplin's Bass Player) commented, "I didn't know that sort of thing was possible....". After that it was studio time again, because of the fact that Flemming wasn't available they recorded two covers which no one produced. The covers they recorded were named Breadfan and The Prince.
1988
Once Flemming was available they started work on the next Album at the 'One on One' Studios in LA. Preceeding the album was an EP, the 'Harvester of Sorrow' which included the two previously mentioned covers. The album was to feature the last ever material written by Cliff Burton (To live is to Die). On the 5th of September Metallica's fourth album, "...And Justice for All" was released. Because of the 65 minutes long playtime of this record it became a double-LP. Nevertheless the album is a bit weak (ain't my opinion..:-), compared to previous ones. The band released a tribute video, "Cliff Em All". In July Master of Puppets hits platinum. That means 1,000,000 sales in the States. They played again at some European festivals: the Dutch (!) Aardschohdag (earthquake shock-day) and again the Monsters Of Rock festival. Sales went wild and Metallica became even more well known. But still, until the release of singles, "One" and "Harvester of Sorrow", the radio and MTV ignored them. 'One' was released in three versions: A short 3 minute version just featuring the band in a warehouse, a short 3 minute version featuring the film clips and the warehouse shots and a full length version featuring the film clips and the warehouse shots. The film footage was from a film called 'Johnny got his gun' James had actually written the song based on the book of the same name. After that their popularity became more evident. In the autumn the band started a big world tour with Queensryche as support act. the tour was called 'And justice for all'. During the tour a single, 'Eye of the beholder' was released in the US and France. The tour included a full stage set (unlike masters backdrop and a few white crosses) which was made up of a statue of liberty which exploded and collapsed (wow...). The tour lasted for over two years. During 1990 they returned to the UK to play 4 shows without any stage set. By the end of the year Cliff Em' All becomes the year's top-selling music home video.
1991
October - July: With 12 songs ready Metallica entered One On One Studios again. As I have previous mentioned they were located in Los Angeles. The producer was Bob Rock and the record to be recorded was "Metallica", more commonly known as "The Black Album" or "The Snake". This is the most known record among non-Metallica fans. On the 12th of August Metallica released thier 5th album. Within a week of its release it sold over 600,000 units in the US alone. The record proved a collection of tremendous lyrics and powerful music, it was a little bit more subtle than the others. Metallica began to recieve some of the recognition they deserved. This lead to 5 Singles, a double Live CD + three video package, a double video and a massive 300-gigs world tour (in 37 countries) which lasted about 3 years. The tour was only halted on 8 August -92 (in Montreal) when James was burned in a pyro accident. Preceding the album was a single 'Enter Sandman' which included 'Hoolier than thou', a Sandman demo and 'Stone cold crazy'. Stone cold crazy was previously available on a Elektra 25 year compilation.
1992-1994
After the world tour Lars Ulrich was quoted, "Human nature is strange. There's been this mass hysteria over nothing. It's been fun to sit and watch it happen, though. ...And Justice for All now sounds like it was recorded in a matchbox. It was like, 'Look at us, we can play all this intricate sideways stuff.' Well, so what? Metallica is more emotional. When it's angry, it's more angry. When it's subtle, it's more subtle. For the first time, we've done what was best for the big picture." Metallica won a Grammy for the "Best Heavy Metal Performance" for "Stone Cold Crazy" featured on Elektra's Rubaiyat Compilation. Since it's release in 1991 Metallica's "black album" has sold 15 million copies worldwide - it's still selling and on the Billboard top 200 list!
1995-1996
After the several hit singles of "The Snake" as well as the touring from August 1991 to July 1993, Metallica returned to recording and recorded two albums with worthy material. The band went into the studio (the Plant, Sausalito California) in early february 95. During mid December 95 they left this first studio having recorded 18 of the 25 tracks they had written. In late August 95 the band took about 4 weeks out of the studio to play 3 dates. 2 tracks where previewed at these dates: 2x4 and Devils Dance. With the surprising new album, "Load", Metallica was both criticized for the change and praised for its diversity. Once again, Metallica changed the face of music in America. Metallica gave metal a new direction and an impulse to another bands. Because of their success, they also got the major record labels interested in heavy metal, resulting in many contracts for many bands...
