Another UNOfficial Metallica Fan Site

Metallica was originally formed in 1981 by Lars Ulrich, who put out an ad in his local newspaper looking for a guitarist, claiming that he had a band (when in fact, it was just himself and a drum set). James Hetfield responded. With just the two of them, they recorded a few songs, with Lars on drums and James on guitar, bass, and vocals.

Llyod Grant joined for a brief period of time as a guitarist, but didn't even remain with the band for a year. Ron McGoverny (bass) and Dave Mustaine (guitar), joined to record Metallica's first ever demo "No Life 'Till Leather". McGoverny left the band (November 30, 1982), replaced by Cliff Burton (March 5, 1983). Mustaine was fired (April 11th, 1983) due to his problems with drinking, and was replaced by Kirk Hammett (April 16, 1983).

The new line up (James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burotn, and Kirk Hammett) went on to make "Kill 'Em All" (the first ever Metallica album), "Ride the Lightening", and "Master of Puppets", amazing albums with mind blowing guitar work and dark lyrics that spoke to the rebellious generation who was buying/stealing the albums. Hetfield was accepting the role as vocalist, simply because no one else in the band wanted to (and because Metallica's only attempt at a five person band never got off the ground). The band was touring with other famous metal bands (such as Mercyful Fate, Motorhead, and Ozzy Osbourne to name a few), sometimes becoming even more of a show-stopper than the actual headliners.

Launching into rock stardom, Metallica's was becoming a major icon of heavy metal, when disaster struck on September 27, 1986, on an icy highway in Sweden. The tour bus holding the band and numerous other crew members, hit a patch of black ice, and flipped over, eventually landing sixty feet from its original location. There was one fatality in the entire accident: Cliff Burton. His young life was ended tradgetically, just as he was reaching his prime.

The band recovered from the tradgety, getting bassist Jason Newstead to join them. The band was churning out albums such as "...And Justice For All" and "Metallica (The Black Album)", which turned the band into a mainstream group. The next few albums however ("Load", "RELoad", and "Garage Inc.") were often examples of controversy among the metal community. Good? Bad? No one could quite agree, but despite that, they still sold.

About a decade and a half after the death of Cliff Burton, another tradgety hit Metallica: James Hetfield quit the band and checked into rehab for drug and alcohol abuse, and Jason also left for personal reasons. However, shortly after emerging from rehab as a newly clean and sober man, James returned to the band. They began producing "St. Anger", this time with a therapist and camera crew in tow. Both Lars and Kirk were ready to quit, nervous about how everything would turn out with their newly sober lead singer and wondering if the music would turn into a bunch of "rehab songs". The studio efforts, which almost caused the destruction of the band, can be seen in the documentary "Some Kind of Monster".

Robert Trujillo joined the band (February 24, 2003), to replace the long absent Jason. He is the fifth person to play bass since the start of Metallica back in 1981.