Information AboutMetallica |
Metallica is an American Thrash Metal band formed in October 1981. With 57 million albums sold in the United States ( RIAA Total Sales ), and 40 million albums sold outside the US [http://www.guitarcenter.com/interview/larsulrich/index.cfm , the total number of album sales is approximately 100 million. The band has become one of the most commercially successful heavy metal acts in history, as well as the 18th biggest selling act in American music history. After building a following through its role in the development of modern heavy metal, especially thrash metal, (considered, along with Megadeth , Slayer , and Anthrax as one of the "big four" of thrash metal) in the mid-1980s, the band broadened its audience in the early 1990s. Accordingly, the band stood as the most commercially visible example of the metal genre for most of that decade. In contrast, Metallica's vastly increased commercial success was accompanied by stylistic changes that fostered accusations of " Selling Out ". In 2003 Metallica released their 8th Studio Album , entitled '' St. Anger '', a collection of the most aggressive music they had written in a decade. Although critical reviews for the album were deeply divided, their 2004 "Madly in Anger with the World" tour in support of the album remained very successful. They have been named #5 on VH1 's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. HISTORY The early days (1981-1985) Metallica was formed in Downey, California in 1981 by drummer and former Tennis prodigy Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield , who met after each had separately placed classified advertisements in the American publication The Recycler . Hetfield responded to Ulrich's call. Bassist Ron McGovney was an original member, and the band used a few transient guitar players, such as Brad Parker and Jeff Warner. Their first session played was in Lars Ulrich 's garage. At that time there were only three members, Ulrich, Hetfield, and Lloyd Grant . McGovney joined a few days later. Metallica got its name when Ulrich was helping San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana pick out a name for a new magazine to promote metal and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands. Quintana came up with "Metallica," but Lars quickly suggested another and decided to use that name for the band he and Hetfield had just started. In early 1982, Metallica recorded "Hit the Lights" for the first ''Metal Massacre'' compilation. Guitarist Lloyd Grant was brought in to do the solos on the track but was never a full member of the band. Desperate for a full time lead guitarist, Ulrich posted an ad in the local newspapers. Dave Mustaine from Huntington Beach, California , a guitarist from the band Panic responded, and upon arrival started a sound check. Ulrich and Hetfield were so impressed with Mustaine's warm-up and equipment that they asked him to join before actually auditioning. A few months later the band recorded a full demo, '' No Life 'Til Leather '', which quickly drew attention on the underground tape trading circuit. Conflicts with Mustaine eventually caused McGovney to leave the band, and he was replaced by Cliff Burton from Castro Valley, California , lured from his band Trauma in exchange for the other members of Metallica relocating to the San Francisco area. Upon arriving in El Cerrito, California , the group quickly built a healthy local following in the Bay Area Thrash Scene via word-of-mouth and live performances. Metallica then traveled to Rochester, New York in 1983 at the urging of local promoters Jon and Marsha Zazula, and after a few gigs the band signed with the Zazulas' brand new label, Megaforce Records . Shortly after arriving in New York, Mustaine was fired due to various disruptive, unproductive behaviors related to Alcoholism and other addictions. Kirk Hammett was drafted from Exodus to replace him. Mustaine would go on to create the Thrash Metal band Megadeth . A pupil of Joe Satriani , Hammett brought to the band a more melodic and progressive guitar style quite different from Mustaine. This would become more apparent after '' Ride The Lightning '', the first album to feature Hammett's songwriting. Metallica's first album, Kill 'Em All , was released in 1983 on Megaforce Records. The album set the template that they would follow throughout the 1980s, prominently featuring Hetfield's heavy vocals and aggressive rhythm guitar. ''Kill 'Em All'' did not have huge sales after its initial release, but it did establish a loyal fan following in the growing 'underground metal' scene. A year later, Metallica released their second 'Megaforce' album, Ride The Lightning . The new album expanded their form with longer songs that featured lyrical and instrumental growth that rose above some of the playing on ''Kill 'Em All''. Perhaps the most significant feature of ''Ride the Lightning'' was the inclusion of " Fade To Black ", a slower, more introspective song that mused on the thoughts of someone contemplating suicide. "Fade to Black" is the first such song in a tradition that would come to include "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and "One". The inclusion of these slower, introspective songs distinguished Metallica from most other thrash metal bands such as Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth. Some fans saw Metallica's formation as a direct reaction to the prevalent rock and roll music of the early 1980s. Metallica was inspired by bands such as Motörhead , Diamond Head (declaring in the sleeve notes of 1998's '' Garage Inc. '' that "two heads were better than one"), Saxon and other bands of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal . They also took inspiration from Hardcore Punk bands like the Misfits and Discharge . By putting all these elements together, Metallica was single-minded in their desire to break the grip of Soft Metal on Heavy Metal fans. Mainstream success (1986-1994) After signing a major label deal with Despite the fact that no singles were ever released for the album, the band received some minor airplay from album tracks " Master Of Puppets " and " Welcome Home (Sanitarium) ". The supporting ''Damage Inc.'' tour was very successful and the album charted at number 29 on the Billboard Top Album Charts . On . The band's future was left in doubt following Cliff's death. The three remaining members knew it would be Cliff's wish that they carry on, and with the Burton family's blessings, the band decided to continue and seek a replacement. Auditions began almost immediately. Among the most promising of the auditioneers was a young Les Claypool , a childhood friend of Hammett's. The band liked Claypool but claimed his style was "too Funky ". Claypool would go on to form the highly successful Funk Metal group Primus . Three weeks after Burton's funeral, in a sushi restaurant, and was often denied limo transportation with the rest of the band. Newsted's resolve paid off later; the hazing soon died out and he was accepted. Following the tour, the band quickly recorded '''' in July of that same year as a way to test a new studio they had constructed (according to the EP's liner notes) and to test the talents of Newsted. This EP continued Metallica's fascination with covering songs by relatively obscure (to American audiences) British metal and hardcore bands. In 1988 the band recorded '' ...And Justice For All ''. An album full of some of the band's most structurally complex music, it was the first 'true' studio album released following the death of Cliff Burton. Jason Newsted was listed as bass player on the album's credits but very little bass was audible during playback of the album. Some have speculated that this was done intentionally by the original members of the band as a reaction to the death of Burton (or perhaps as a way of further hazing Newsted). The most likely reason, as mentioned by Hetfield and Ulrich in subsequent interviews, was that Newsted wasn't present in the mixing sessions, and as such wasn't able to input his opinion on the final mixing process. ''...And Justice for All'' was a milestone in the history of metal. Noting its intense focus on topics related to personal control and independence, many writers celebrated the album (and, by extension, Metallica itself) for the way it appeared to divorce hard rock from The Blues in ways bands such as Mötley Crüe or Poison resisted. Although the song-writing was praised, the production of this album was heavily criticized as Lars Ulrich's drums clicked more than thudded and the guitars had a thin sound. Because of the complexity and length of the songs, the band would later (in the mid-90's) cease to play most of them live. Metallica's made their first Music Video for the morbid but accessible World War I -themed " One ". Featuring clips from the film '' Johnny Got His Gun '' (based on the Dalton Trumbo book), it was popular on MTV and gained the band considerable additional exposure. The album also contained their last instrumental to date, "To Live Is To Die". It was a sort of tribute to Cliff Burton and contained unused riffs written by him and a poem also written by him and read by Hetfield. Importantly, Metallica never lost interest in always providing fans with a sensational live act. They retained their original humility and sense of humor and occasionally gave the fans a ' Band-switch ' treat. That is, the song "Am I Evil" would be played with James on drums, Kirk on bass, Jason on guitar, and Lars doing the singing. In 1991, the self-titled album, ''Metallica'' (popularly known as ''The Black Album'') broadened the band's horizon again. The record was co-produced with Bob Rock , whose resume included work with hard rock acts The Cult , Bon Jovi , Mötley Crüe and many others. The album featured a black cover that evoked humorous comparisons to Spinal Tap . The majority of the making of the ''Metallica'' album and the following tour was recorded, of which around four hours were used in the documentary '' A Year And A Half In The Life Of Metallica ''. The recording sessions were a long and ardurous process, lasting over a year due to infighting amongst the band's members and endless arguments with Rock about the direction, scope and sound it should have. The cost of recording the album was reputed to be over $1 million. However, despite the battle to finish the album, it quickly became the band's most successful release, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts and going gold, then platinum, within weeks. The album featured the hit " Enter Sandman ", which exemplified the radically pared-down style of songwriting across the album; it became Metallica's best-known song and has been used by wrestlers and baseball players as their theme music. Another hit was " Nothing Else Matters ", a more plaintive, acoustic ballad that outraged some of their more hardcore fans. The album was a massive crossover hit, bringing Metallica firmly into the mainstream, and it was with this album that the band first encountered significant accusations of having "sold out." This album had been preceded by a cover of Queen's " Stone Cold Crazy " which was contributed to ''Rubáiyat'', a compilation album commemorating Elektra's 40th anniversary, and which Hetfield, together with Queen's remaining band members performed live at the The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert . Metallica also played a set at the concert. Charges of Selling Out would follow Metallica throughout the 1990s, to which the band often joked that they did indeed sell out — each and every date of the tour. Indeed, the tour following the Black Album was especially successful and eventful. Many dates were held with no opening act, instead showing an introductory film that included interview footage filmed during ''A Year and a Half...'' not included in the film, and other footage of band members' antics backstage. The best-known incident during this tour was a Pyrotechnics accident in 1992 in Montréal while Metallica was performing a series of joint shows with Guns N' Roses . Hetfield suffered severe second and third degree burns to his left arm during the opening of "Fade to Black", leaving him unable to play guitar for a portion of the tour (former Metallica roadie and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall filled in while Hetfield continued to sing). Guns N' Roses played three songs after the incident, but lead singer Axl Rose's throat was in severe pain after the short set; unable even to hear himself, Axl left the stage. The premature end to the show provoked widespread rioting. The Load era (1995-1999) After almost three years of touring to support the Black Album, Metallica took a respite until late 1995. On December 13 , they recorded during their rehearsal for Lemmy 's 50th birthday party; the track "Hero of the Day" and four Motörhead covers were later released as a two-part limited edition CD single. The band spent around a year writing and recording new songs, resulting in '' Load '' (1996). Due to limitations of CD run-time and the band's reluctance to release a double-album of original material, '' ReLoad '' was released in 1997. Some songs written during ''Load'' were changed by the time they were recorded for ''ReLoad''; in particular, " Fuel " had different lyrics than the version played during the ''Load'' Tour, as evidenced by the version played on the '' Cunning Stunts '' concert film (the song was then-titled "Fuel for Fire"). These albums represented a significant musical change for Metallica. The band's breakneck metal tempos and layered guitar compositions had largely been replaced by Blues y rock songs, full of bent notes, warm guitar Tones , Slide Guitar , as well as Shuffle rhythms. Hetfield's vocals took a larger role than ever before, and several songs (such as "Mama Said" and " Low Man's Lyric "), broadened Hetfield and the rest of the band's willingness to experiment with various sounds and instruments. These changes included the use of the Steel Guitar (commonly used in country music) in "Mama Said", as well as the use of the Hurdy-gurdy and Violin in Low Man's Lyric . Some fans felt that the intricacy and intelligence of Metallica's songwriting had not necessarily been watered down, but that it had been presented in a radically different - or perhaps a simply more varied - stylistic package. Hetfield noted later in the documentary film '' Some Kind Of Monster '' that many songs on these two albums were initially thought by the band to be of only average quality, and polished and re-worked repeatedly until judged to be releasable. By 1996, all of the band members had cut their hair (although Hammett eventually regrew most of it), which was made the point of ridicule by many people, including band friends Alice In Chains , whose edition of MTV's Unplugged featured, on Mike Inez's bass, the words "friends don't let friends get Friends haircuts." Metallica were in the audience for the taping of the show. Their hair seemed to overshadow their music in press coverage. Many of the changes on ''Load'' and ''ReLoad'' had been anticipated by earlier experiments (especially on the Black Album), but listeners generally regard the two albums as the band's turning point. Sales were lower than sales of the previous three albums. Previously rabid fans began to sarcastically refer to the band as "Poptallica" or "Alternica" in light of the band's apparent conformity to more mainstream styles of pop or alternative rock music. Indeed, perhaps because of these musical changes, many songs from '' Load '' and '' ReLoad '' received extensive radio play, including " Until It Sleeps ", "Hero of the Day", " King Nothing ", " The Memory Remains ", " The Unforgiven II ", and " Fuel ". In 1998 Metallica returned briefly to its role as a cover band and compiled a double CD called '' Garage Inc. ''. The first CD contained newly recorded tracks, ranging from obvious Metallica influences such as The Misfits , Thin Lizzy , Mercyful Fate and Black Sabbath to more unexpected choices like Nick Cave and Bob Seger (the band's cover of Seger's " Turn The Page " garnered extensive radio airplay). The second CD gathered together previously released covers, including the complete '' Garage Days Re-Revisited '' EP, which had, at that point, become a scarce collectors' item. The CD also collected B-side covers going as far back as 1984. On March 7 , 1999 , Metallica were inducted into San Francisco Walk of Fame. The mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, proclaimed the day "Official Metallica Day" in San Francisco. A month later, on April 21-22, 1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , then conducted by Michael Kamen . Kamen, who had previously worked with Bob Rock on "Nothing Else Matters", approached the band with the idea of pairing Metallica's music with a symphony orchestra. Kamen and his staff composed additional orchestral material for a number of Metallica songs and the concerts featured a collection of songs dating as far back as ''Ride the Lightning''. Metallica also wrote two brand-new Kamen-scored songs for the event, "No Leaf Clover" and "Minus Human." The audio recording and concert footage were released later that year as the album/concert film '' S&M '', in November, 1999, on CD , VHS , VCD , and DVD . Napster controversy (2000-2001) In soundtrack. They soon discovered that in addition to the demo, their entire catalogue was also freely available. The band initiated legal action against Napster and, in the process, demanded that 300,000 Napster users found to be trading Metallica songs be banned from the network. Legal actions were also started against Yale University , University Of Southern California , and Indiana University for not blocking Napster from their campuses. In 2001 , Metallica and Napster agreed to an out-of-court settlement which led to many Napster user accounts being locked out. The band did not take legal action against any individuals for copyright infringement. Lars Ulrich provided a statement to a Senate Judiciary Committee regarding copyright infringement on July 11, 2000. See Lars Ulrich's testimony to the Senate The lawsuit created a public relations nightmare. Throughout the controversy, many websites hosted cartoon parodies of band members, portraying them as selfish rock stars who were out of touch with their fans. The most popular of these was a cartoon parody entitled Napster Bad! , by Camp Chaos , which spawned an entire series. Some critics mocked Ulrich by spelling his first name as "Lar$". Public ridicule was widespread as many longtime fans felt Metallica had got their start via underground trading of bootleg recordings of their performances. Metallica's defense was that Napster was allowing free access to their back catalogue and not live bootleg recordings which the band had always encouraged. The fan backlash would not be the only setback the band would experience that year. Newsted leaves (2001-2003) As plans were being made to go into the recording studio in 2001 , Jason Newsted left the band, ostensibly due to "the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love." However, subsequent interviews with Newsted and the remaining members revealed that Newsted's desire to release and tour with his Echobrain Side-project – and Hetfield's intense resistance to such an idea – was the primary cause of Newsted's departure, as Hetfield believed a release by an individual band member would somehow weaken the band. The 2004 documentary Some Kind Of Monster provided more insight into the reasons for Newsted's departure. In the film he says he felt Metallica's desire to hire a psychologist to help solve the problems between the band members was "weak and lame". This would be the first in a series of low-points the band would endure. In July, 2001, Hetfield entered rehab due to "alcoholism and other addictions". For nearly a year, Metallica ceased to function in any meaningful way. Ulrich and Hammett, for the first time, seriously considered the possibility that Metallica might be finished. Hetfield eventually returned to the band following his rehab hiatus. Slowly and cautiously Metallica continued as a 3-piece throughout the writing and recording of their next album. Longtime producer Bob Rock handled bass duties for the sessions. Metallica held auditions for Newsted's permanent replacement in early 2003. Robert Trujillo formerly of Suicidal Tendencies , and Ozzy Osbourne 's band, was chosen as the new bassist. Robert's resume also included Infectious Grooves as well as a stint with Black Label Society on their '' Boozed, Broozed, And Broken-Boned '' DVD. As Metallica moved on, Jason Newsted also found a new musical home joining Canadian thrash metal legends Voivod in 2002. In an interesting turn of events, Jason became Robert's replacement in Ozzy's band during the 2003 Ozzfest tour (which included Voivod as part of the touring bill). A new beginning (2003-present) On June 2003, Metallica released their eighth full-length studio album, '' St. Anger ''. The album debuted at number one on the album charts, as an intentionally raw and unpolished album as a response to critics' complaints that they had lost their edge. Harsh criticism from fans followed, however, for the record's underproduced sound (notably Hetfield's "flexible" sense of pitch), Ulrich's new signature steel snare drum, overwrought songs, and no guitar solos whatsoever (a rarity for Metallica). Reports of second-hand CD shops being flooded with copies of the album made in onto the internet. Despite the criticism, Metallica won a Grammy in 2004 for ''St. Anger''; this being the band's seventh such award. The documentary ''Some Kind of Monster'' followed the album and offered an inside view into the daily affairs of Metallica as never before. While the film focused on the growing tensions within the band, it fulfilled its original purpose of helping to promote the album. The film also exposed to fans that Metallica had sought the guidance of a Psychiatrist to deal with a vast amount of the band's inner turmoil. Metallica abruptly and unfeelingly ditched the psychiatrist near the end of the documentary. Having toured extensively for two years in support of ''St. Anger'' on the ''Madly In Anger With The World'' Tour (in which nearly every performance was professionally recorded and sold on LiveMetallica.com ) Metallica took a break from performing and spent most of 2005 amongst their friends and families. On , Weezer , Audioslave , Slipknot , System Of A Down , Johnny Cash , LL Cool J , Jay-Z and Slayer . They are currently working on new material for the new album which should be released sometime in either late 2006 or early/mid 2007. Other appearances
LINE-UPS Notes: Temporary live members 1982
1986 and 1992
2000 James injured his back while water-skiing prior to a July 7th show at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
2004 Temporary drummers (when Lars Ulrich was unable to perform at 2004's Download Festival ):
DISCOGRAPHY Main albums (All album sales are based on U.S. totals. Including worldwide totals, Metallica have sold approximately 100 million albums.) Outside of the USA and Canada, Metallica's recorded works are released by Vertigo/Universal. Individual songs
DVDs and videos
Chart singles Chart Singles Source link AUDIO
AWARDS Metallica has won seven Grammy Awards :
Mtv Music Video Awards:
American Music Awards:
Bammies:
BillBoard Music Awards:
Governor's Award:
Kerrang! Awards :
OTHER INFO Trivia
Name usage
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
REFERENCES
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