This is a biography of Metallica I wrote for a Comm. project in 2004. As it was a school thing, I didn't take too much care with details etc. So don't use this for anything, as its most likely wrong in most area's.
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At the end of October, 1981, Lars Ulrich, a young, little known drummer from California secured his “band” a slot on Brian Slagel’s Metal Blade label’s debut album. Unfortunately Lars didn’t have a band at the time, but he did later that day, when he joined forces with James Hetfield, a guitar player/singer from L.A.
Hetfield’s house mate Ron McGoveny was persuaded to take up bass duties
and Dave Mustaine took lead guitar. Using the name Metallica, Young Metal Attack, what would become the greatest heavy metal band in history, began gigging around L.A. opening for bands like Saxon. Their first demo, “No Life Till Leather” , began cirulation and the band began to get some attention, especially in San Francisco and New York.
After becoming just plain Metallica, the band moved upstate and McGoveny was replaced on bass by Cliff Burton, of the band Trauma. After making it to New York in a stolen U-haul in ‘83, the band announced that Mustaine was no longer a part of Metallica. Struggling to find a suitable replacement, a roadie mentioned a guitarist he knew back in San Francisco and Kirk Hammett joined Metallica in April. At the end of the year the first album, “Kill Em All” , was released. A second album, “Ride the Lightning“, followed in ‘84.
They signed to the management agency Qprime in ‘85, and soon after secured a record deal, with the major label Elektra. 1986 brought album number three, “Master Of Puppets” and a tour with Ozzy Osbourne. The album charted at number 29 in the US and stayed on the chart for 72 weeks, this, along with the Ozzy tour, gained them widespread exposure.
Towards the end of ‘86, James broke his arm and was unable to play guitar in the band and missed most of the tour of Europe and the Far East. When James returned to full guitar duties in September, it turned out it was Cliff Burton’s last gig. The following morning, the tour bus skidded and flipped, tragically cutting short Cliff’s life. The band now faced a dilemma, Cliff was a very important part of the band but, knowing what Cliff would have wanted, Metallica carried on while a new bassist was chosen.
Jason Newstead won through a series of auditions and joined the band. To
introduce him, Metallica released an EP of cover songs entitled “Garage
Days Re-Revisited“. With Jason now established, a fourth album, “And Justice For All“, was released in August ‘88. This album received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal/Hard Rock album.
Three years later in 1991, the band released their self titled “Black
Album” with a new producer, Bob Rock. A departure from previous albums,
the songs were shorter and heavier. The “Black Album” went to number one all over the world and several singles were released from it. It remains the most successful Metallica alum to date and it won several awards including a Grammy and several MTV and American Music Awards.
The band toured for a while, playing alone in “An evening with
Metallica” or with rock legends Guns N’ Roses, and headlining many festivals. Metallica literally brought the “BlackAlbum” to the people.
It was another five years until Metallica’s next full release. Again
produced by Bob Rock, “Load” surfaced in 1996 and was followed in ‘97 by “Reload“. Both were written and mostly recorded together. The “Load twins” were louder, longer and more powerful then previous Metallica albums.
For the next few years Metallica went quiet, releasing a couple of almost half hearted albums, "Garage Inc." ('98) and "S&M" ('99). The band also appeared in some movie soundtracks including Mission Impossible 2. All was going well until Mr Newstead rocked the band by leaving for “personal reasons” at the beginning of 2001.
The band entered a temporary hiatus, with Hetfield going into rehab for alcohol addiction. The future of the band was far from secure, and it wasn't until late 2002 that they finally got back together, and confirming a new album was to be recorded.
In February 2003 Rob Trujillo was hired as bassist. The former Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne’s band member, gave an awesome audition and even Bob Rock commented on how complete the band sounded with him playing.
Five months later, Metallica released the promised album, “St Anger”. The longest Metallica album to date, at 72 minutes, it also shows the band’s angrier side. The album gained the band a new generation of fans and with the accompanying DVD, reached a wider audience.
So after yet another great album, the future still looks good (fingers crossed) for the most famous metal band.
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