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Metallica

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Metallica is an American heavy metal band active from the 1980s to the 2000s. After building a loyal following through its role in the development of thrash metal in the 1980s, Metallica successfully 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. However, Metallica's vastly increased commercial success was accompanied by stylistic changes that fostered accusations of "selling out" by some long-time fans. In 2003 Metallica released St. Anger, a collection of the most aggressive music they'd written in a decade, to deeply divided critical reviews and comparatively mediocre sales figures. Nevertheless, extensive and successful tours throughout 2003 and 2004 reinforced the band's reputation as a top-notch live act.

Formation and early work

Metallica was formed in Los Angeles, 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. Bassist Ron McGovney was also an original member, and the band used a few transient guitar players, such as Brad Parker and Jef Warner, in the course of settling on a four-person lineup. Metallica got its name when drummer Lars Ulrich was helping San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana pick out a name for a new magazine to promote metal and the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) bands. Quintana came up with a suggestion "Metallica," but Lars quickly suggested another and decided to use that name for the band he and James 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 lead guitar 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, a guitarist from the band Panic responded, and upon arrival started a sound check. Ulrich and Hetfield were so impressed with Mustaine's soundcheck that they immediately asked him to join. A few months later the band recorded a full demo, No Life Till Leather, which quickly drew attention on the underground tape trading circuit. By this point bassist Cliff Burton had also joined Metallica, lured from his band Trauma in exchange for the other members of Metallica relocating to the San Francisco area.

Upon arriving in San Francisco, the group quickly built a healthy local following in the Bay Area Thrash scene via word-of-mouth and live performances. Metallica then travelled to 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. Megaforce released Metallica's first two albums. Shortly after arriving in New York, however, Mustaine was fired due to alcoholism and other addictions, and Kirk Hammett was drafted from Exodus to replace him. Mustaine would go on to create the speed metal band Megadeth.

Metallica's first album, Kill 'Em All, set the template that they would follow throughout the 1980s, prominently featuring the heavy vocals and rhythm guitar of James Hetfield. A year later, the next album, Ride the Lightning, expanded and improved their form with longer songs that featured both instrumental pyrotechnics and lyrics which rose above some of the more puerile songs on Kill 'Em All. Perhaps the most significant feature of Ride the Lightning was the inclusion of "Fade to Black," a slower, more interior song that mused on the thoughts of someone contemplating suicide. Indeed "Fade to Black" is the first such song in a tradition of these kinds of songs that would come to include "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and the band's first single to receive a video, "One." The inclusion of these slower, introspective songs distinguished Metallica from most other thrash metal bands such as Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth.

Metallica's formation was seen by some fans as a direct reaction to the prevalent rock and roll music of the early 1980s. Inspired by bands such as Motörhead, Diamond Head and Saxon, the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal, as well as hardcore punk like the Misfits and Discharge, Metallica were single-minded in their desire to break the grip of soft metal on heavy metal fans.

After signing a major label deal with Elektra Records in 1985, Metallica went on to produce another album, Master of Puppets, released in 1986 and regarded by many of their fans as their best work. However, on September 27th of that year, during a European leg of shows, bassist Cliff Burton was killed in a tour bus accident in Ljungby, Sweden. As something of a psychological defense against the potentially debilitating grief that now surrounded them, the band immediately found a new bassist in Jason Newsted, formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam. Shortly thereafter Metallica released The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited as a preliminary effort with their new member. This album continued the band's interest in recording obscure songs by relatively obscure (to American audiences) British metal and hardcore bands. In 1988 they recorded ...And Justice for All, an album full of some of the band's most structurally complex music. Critics regarded ...And Justice for All as a milestone in the history of metal, noting its intense focus on topics related to personal control and independence. Importantly, many writers also celebrated this 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.

In 1991, their 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 on albums by such pop-metal acts as Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, to create a more commercially viable product. The album featured a black cover that evoked humorous comparisons to Spinal Tap. The album featured the hits "Enter Sandman", which exemplified the radically pared-down style of songwriting across the album, and "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 band first encountered significant accusations of having "sold out." Charges of selling out would follow Metallica throughout the 1990s.

Burnt out from almost three years of touring upon the Black Album's success, Metallica took a respite until late 1995, when they came back into the studio with a new zest for recording. Ulrich and Hetfield, both of whom were very strict on Hammett and Newsted in previous endeavours, claimed to have loosened the reins somewhat. Some have said the companion albums, Load (1996) and Reload (1997) were alternative rock-influenced, but others disagree, citing the band's hard touring, hard knocks, and hard liquor as factors in the relative bluesy-ness of these albums. In addition to the musical changes on Load and Reload, Metallica also reinvented their visual image by cutting their hair. The CD booklet for Load also showed a very different Metallica, as the band was photographed by Anton Corbin wearing pimp suits, smoking cigars, and sipping brandy. Mascara also made an appearance in the promotional photos. The music of two albums was quite tamer than that found on any previous albums, and, according to many, could not be termed "heavy metal" with any degree of accuracy. Nevertheless, or perhaps consequently, Load and ReLoad spawned a plethora of radio hits, including "Fuel," "Until it Sleeps," and "The Memory Remains." Not surprisingly, many in the band's speed metal fanbase were repulsed by these changes, and cited them as "proof" that Metallica had sold out.

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 Danzig, Thin Lizzy and Sabbath to more unexpected choices such as Bob Seger and Nick Cave. The second CD gathered together previously released covers, including the complete Garage Days Re-Revisited EP, which had at that point become a hard to find collectors item, as well as a collection of b-sides going as far back as 1984.

On April 21 and 22, 1999 Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, then led by Michael Kamen. Kamen, who had previously worked with the band on The Black Album, (specifically the track "Nothing Else Matters"), had approached the band shortly after that collaboration 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 tracks dating as far back as Ride the Lightning. Metallica also wrote (and Kamen scored) two brand new songs for the event, "No Leaf Clover" and "− Human." The recording was eventually released as the album S&M (a word play on Symphony and Metallica, as well as being the common abbreviation for Sadism and Masochism) in November 1999 on both CD and VHS/DVD.

Napster controversy

In 2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of their song "I Disappear" had been floating across the Napster file-sharing network. They soon discovered that their entire catalogue was also freely available. The band immediately determined to sue Napster and in the process asked that 300,000 Napster users found to be trading Metallica songs be kicked off the network. In 2001 Metallica and Napster agreed to an out-of-court settlement, and the band never actually sued any fans for copyright infringement. Nevertheless, the controversy created a public relations nightmare. In particular, Lars Ulrich found himself portrayed as a greedy and pretentious rock star completely out of touch with his fans.

Newsted leaves

Before they went into the studio to record their next album in 2001, Jason Newsted left the band due ostensibly 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 behind his Echobrain side-project — and Hetfield's intense resistance to such an idea — was the primary cause of Newsted's departure.

This began a low-point in recent Metallica history, as Hetfield soon entered rehab due to "alcoholism and other addictions" in July, 2001. For nearly a year the entity known as "Metallica" ceased to function in any meaningful way as Ulrich and Hammett for the first time seriously considered the possibility that Metallica might be finished. Upon Hetfield's return, though, the band slowly and cautiously continued as an incomplete 3-piece throughout the writing and recording of their next album. Longtime producer Bob Rock handled bass duties for the sessions. Metallica eventually found a new member in early 2003, journeyman bassist Rob Trujillo (ex-Suicidal Tendencies), who was then playing with Ozzy Osbourne's band. In an interesting turn of events, Jason Newsted, who had joined Canadian heavy metal band Voivod, filled Rob's shoes playing bass for Ozzy during the Ozzfest 2003 tour (which Voivod also supported).

In June 2003, Metallica released their eighth full-length studio album, St. Anger. The album debuted at number one on the album charts but also received harsh criticism for its underproduced sound (notably the sound of Ulrich's snare drum and Hetfield's "flexible" sense of pitch), overwrought songs, and noticeable lack of guitar solos. Nevertheless, Metallica won a Grammy in 2004 for St. Anger, the band's sixth such award.

Politics

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 Throughout the 1980s and early 90s much of the critical discussion and interest in Metallica revolved around the band's combination of structurally complex music with lyrics that appeared to be more "intelligent" than most other metal groups. Largely absent from the band's music were lyrics about Satan or sex. Indeed, Metallica's overall aesthetic during the late 80s was labeled by one journalist as "thinking man's metal" and much of the band's output from those years (in particular the ...And Justice For All album) was therefore read as "political." Such a reading was also possible because the specific topics of critique present in Metallica's lyrics meshed with the generally leftist slant found in other rock lyrics also thought to represent "political" statements. Lyrics such as those in "Disposable Heroes," which rail against the plight of ordinary soldiers ordered "back to the front" in the service of more powerful and influential members of society, or "...And Justice For All," which decries the tight connection between wealth, justice, and power, are part of a history of so-called "political" music that reaches back many decades in popular music. While the band's source for the song "One" was Dalton Trumbo's anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun (1939), both the song and video resist ultimately making a judgement for or against war. Like "Disposable Heroes," Metallica focuses intently on an individual experience of war in "One," but without the thinly veiled condemnation of large-scale manipulation detectable in "Disposable Heroes." In general, because the lyrical content seemed to touch on left-leaning concerns could the music be considered political; had the content seemed to come from the right it would have been understood (and perhaps derided) as propaganda.

Indeed, questions of propaganda arise in the lyrics to "Don't Tread On Me" highlight just how slippery and unnuanced the label "political" is. "Don't Tread On Me" appears on The Black Album, and on the surface it seems to repudiate any sense of Metallica having been disposed toward left-leaning politics. "Don't Tread On Me" represents a clear statement of American national pride. The lyrics draw on phrases and imagery first mentioned in the early days of the American Revolutionary War through an anonymous 1775 essay (now identified as having been written by Benjamin Franklin) musing on the symbolism of the rattlesnake that adorned a militia flag seen in Philadelphia. Phrases from the essay, such as "never begins an attack," "once engaged, never surrenders," and "emblem of vigilance" are lifted directly into the lyrics of "Don't Tread On Me." Patrick Henry's famous "Liberty or death" also makes an appearance in the song (it's the song's first lyric in fact). Indeed, the phrase "Don't Tread on Me," along with the famous coiled rattlesnake, was an important symbol of American resolve during the Revolutionary War, and is particularly identified with the Culpeper Flag used by Virginia militiamen. These militaristic images, coupled with the song's quotation of the "America" theme from Bernstein's West Side Story, give "Don't Tread On Me" an unabashedly nationalist sensibility. Moreover, the general foregrounding of militaristic prowess and national pride in the song swims against the normal criteria of political popular music so that, like celebrations of white racial pride, it was quickly understood as stemming from a generally right-wing sentiment. Finally, the release of The Black Album soon after the Persian Gulf War (a war many Americans felt had at last removed the Vietnam War's specter of military failure) led many rock critics to hear the rightist imagery in "Don't Tread On Me" as mindless and jingoistic propaganda following a war in which the American homeland and its citizens were never threatened.

Importantly, the members of Metallica worked very hard to dissuade commentators from assuming the band's pointed critiques of various aspects of American society amounted to an activist's desire to become directly engaged in political action. In other words, according to Hetfield and Ulrich the songs most easily read in terms of left-leaning political statements were never intended to also represent ringing endorsements for social change. This is an important distinction in comparison to the aesthetics of other popular music groups at the time, such as U2, R.E.M., or Public Enemy for whom some sort of conspicuous praxis was an important part of the critique. Thus, while "Ride the Lightning" may have explored the thoughts and emotions of one sentenced to die by electrocution, the song was not meant to participate in the broader debates regarding Capital punishment. Instead, as discussed in the ...And Justice For All article, Ulrich and Hetfield framed their lyrical critiques as the products of merely being "interested" in a certain topic, without appearing to tell others how to act. Still, an ideology of "interest" is something of a political statement by itself, and the desire not to be pigeonholed points dramatically to the band's overarching concern with a kind of Libertarian personal independence and self-reliance. "Eye of the Beholder" (from ...And Justice For All) would seem to be one of the band's most direct takes on this subject, with its blunt statements on personal freedom that pepper each verse. At the same time, the freedom that lies at the heart of the lyrical message is constantly under threat from entrenched cultural interests (the inspiration for the lyrics seems to have been Hetfield's reaction to the indecency trial of Jello Biafra in 1986). However, for all the emphasis on personal freedom, Hetfield resisted making "Eye of the Beholder" into an anthem of greater empowerment: the song's chorus music (perhaps the archetypal place for such statements in popular music) simply oscillates between two pitches with no goal-oriented direction with which to solidify a definitive message about freedom. This leads many to believe that Hetfield is a [Libertarian]

Any discussion of music and politics in Metallica must also take into account the way "political" lyrics largely disappeared from Hetfield's lyrics after ...And Justice For All. Moreover, the general shift in Hetfield's lyrical subjects away from the politics of society and toward a psychology of himself was accompanied by the gradual reshaping of the band's public image and the ascendancy of the individual band members' personalities into that image. Of course, the individual personalities had always been present, but during the 80s critics and journalists had little interest in recognizing the differences. As such, any political leanings in Hetfield's lyrics from those years were ballooned into representing the views of all four members. Especially after The Black Album and throughout the rest of the 1990s Hetfield and Ulrich developed radically different social networks outside of Metallica, as Hetfield began asserting a down-to-earth working class identity (marked by hotrods, Harley-Davidsons, and tattoos) while Ulrich moved more in more within the "glitterati" of Hollywood and New York (Ulrich began to be known as a serious modern art collector in these years). These divisions, combined with Hammett's interest in Eastern philosophies and vegetarianism, make it difficult to discuss the politics of "Metallica," because the individual members have so developed public images outside of the band. Indeed, for the first two decades of its existence, any discussion of the Metallica's "politics" is really a discussion of the song lyrics, and because of that political readings of the lyrics are in some way traceable back to Hetfield alone. While Ulrich certainly spoke to critics and journalists about the meaning of certain lyrics, there is still the issue of Ulrich interpreting Hetfield's lyrics. The missing views of Hammett, Newsted, and even Cliff Burton are also important. It's certainly reasonable to collapse all of those views into a monolithic understanding of "Metallica's" politics, but it's also dangerous to assume that Hetfield's lyrics represent some sort of agreed-upon and unified front put forth by the members of the band.

Audio

DVD & Video

Line-ups

Early Lineups

Early Lineup 1 (No Life 'Til Leather demo)

Early Lineup 2 (various tracks and contributions in Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning)

The work of this lineup is scattered throughout Metallica's early works and is very controversial. The sole difference between this lineup and Metallica's first major lineup is Dave Mustaine as lead guitarist. Mustaine wrote many of the lead guitar parts in several songs on Kill 'Em All, as well as some of the riffs on Ride The Lightning (such as "The Call of Ktulu"). Mustaine claims to have also written parts of "Leper Messiah" (Master of Puppets) and "Dyer's Eve" (...And Justice for All). None of those claims has ever been acknowledged by the other members of Metallica.

Recording Lineups

1983-1986 (Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets)

1986-2001 (...And Justice For All, Metallica, Load, Reload, Garage Inc., S&M)

2001-2003 (St. Anger)

  • James Hetfield
  • Kirk Hammett
  • Bob Rock (temporary bassist, also the band's producer)
  • Lars Ulrich

2003-present (no albums currently recorded by this lineup)

Discography

Year Title Label Other information
1983 Kill 'Em All Megaforce The rights were sold to Elektra who now releases the title
1984 Ride the Lightning Megaforce
1986 Master of Puppets Elektra
1987 Garage Days Re-Revisited (EP) Elektra
1988 ...And Justice for All Elektra
1990 The Good, the Bad and the Live Vertigo Box set of singles and live tracks
1991 Metallica Elektra Usually called "The Black Album"
1993 Live Shit: Binge & Purge Elektra Live box set (with videos of 2 shows)
1996 Load Elektra
1997 Reload Elektra
1998 Garage Inc. Elektra A collection of covers, including all tracks from Garage Days Re-revisited
1999 S&M Elektra A collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony (Symphony & Metallica)
2003 St. Anger Elektra
2004 Some Kind of Monster (EP) Elektra

The band also contributed one track, "I Disappear", to the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack.

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Metallica.
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