Biography metallica

American heavy metal band

This article is about the band. For its fifth album, see Metallica (album). For other uses, see Metallica (disambiguation).

Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Metallica's current lineup comprises founding members and primary songwriters Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Guitarist Dave Mustaine, who formed Megadeth after being fired from Metallica, and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted are former members of the band.

Metallica first found commercial success with the release of its third album, Master of Puppets (1986), which is cited as one of the heaviest metal albums and the band's best work. The band's next album, ...And Justice for All (1988), gave Metallica its first Grammy Award nomination. Its fifth album, Metallica (1991), was a turning point for the band that saw them transition from their thrash roots; it appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving substantial commercial success and selling more than 16 million copies in the United States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era. After experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, Metallica returned to its thrash metal roots with its ninth album, Death Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band's earlier albums. The band's eleventh and most recent album, 72 Seasons, was released in 2023.

In 2000, Metallica led the case against the peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster, in which the band and several other artists filed lawsuits aga

James Hetfield has been the face and voice of Metallica since the very beginning. When fans think of Metallica, it's impossible not to hear Hetfield's signature growl ring through their heads. He embodies all that is mighty Metallica.

Born on Aug. 3, 1963, to parents Cynthia and Virgil, Hetfield grew up in Downey, Calif., for most of his childhood. The first instrument he learned to play was not the guitar; he took piano lessons at the age of nine. It didn't take long for him to leave the keys to pick up a pair of drumsticks and jam on his half-brother David's set. Finally, before he hit his teen years, Hetfield decided to pick up an axe.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Inspiration surrounded Hetfield throughout his formative years, both for the music he'd play as well as the lyrics he'd later write with Metallica. His family's values revolved around the religious system of Christian Science and those beliefs would play a big role for many of the lyrics behind Metallica's songs.

The influence of Hetfield's music style came from bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. Hetfield has also said that Aerosmith played a big role in his childhood, making a huge musical impact in his life.

Metallica was not Hetfield's first band. According to Metallica's official website, his first endeavor into rock stardom was with the band Obsession. Alongside the Veloz brothers and Jim Arnold, Hetfield spent a lot of time jamming with the band. In fact, Obsession is the band in which Hetfield first played with Ron McGovney, the first bassist to play for Metallica. Obsession didn't last long, though, as Hetfield moved to Brea, Calif., after his sophomore year in Downey.

In Brea, Hetfield took his next step toward becoming a rock star as he created the band Phantom Lord. The band was made up of Hugh Tanner on guitar, Jim Mulligan on drums and Hetfield lead

Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Metallica's current lineup comprises founding members and primary songwriters Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Guitarist Dave Mustaine, who formed Megadeth after being fired from the band, and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted are former members of the band.

Metallica first found commercial success with the release of its third album, Master of Puppets (1986), which is cited as one of the heaviest metal albums and the band's best work. The band's next album, ...And Justice for All (1988), gave Metallica its first Grammy Award nomination. Its self-titled fifth album, Metallica (1991), was the band's first not to root predominantly in thrash metal; it appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving substantial commercial success and selling over 16 million copies in the United States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era. After experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, Metallica returned to its thrash metal roots with the release of its ninth album, Death Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band's earlier albums. This was followed by the band's 10th studio album, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct (2016), with its 11th album, 72 Seasons, releasing in 2023.

In 2000, Metallica led the case against the peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster, in which the band and several other artists filed lawsuits against the service for sharing their copyright-protected material without consent, eventually reach

It's the sort of story that scriptwriters would get laughed out of conference rooms for proposing. The sort of story that illustrates perfect synchronicity between hunger, passion and time. The sort of story that only happens every 30-odd years. And the sort of story that would need approximately 500 pages to do it true justice.

Metallica. A household name. The 7th biggest selling act in American history.

Who'd have thought it when, on October 28th, 1981, drummer Lars Ulrich made guitar player/singer James Hetfield an offer he couldn't refuse: "I've got a track saved for my band on Brian Slagel's new Metal Blade label."

The truth is, Lars didn't have a band at that time, but he did that day when James joined him. The two recorded their first track on a cheap recorder with James performing singing duties, rhythm guitar duties and bass guitar duties. Lars dutifully pounded the drums, helped with musical arrangements and acted as manager. Hetfield's friend and housemate Ron McGovney was eventually talked into taking up bass and Dave Mustaine took lead guitar duties.

The band adopted the moniker Metallica after a suggestion from Bay Area friend Ron Quintana, and they quickly began gigging in the Los Angeles area opening for bands like Saxon. Eventually recording a fully-fledged demo called No Life 'Til Leather, Metallica quickly saw the tape whistle around the metal tape-trading underground and become a hot commodity, with San Francisco and New York particularly receptive.

Metallica performed two shows in San Francisco and found the crowds friendlier and more honest than LA's "there to be seen" mob. They also caught up-and-coming band Trauma, and most importantly their bass player, Cliff Burton. Cliff refused to move to Southern California: it was enough to convince Metallica to relocate to the Bay Area, and Cliff subsequently joined Metallica.

In New York, a copy of No Life �