Metallica

Widely acknowledged as heavy metal's quintessential act, Metallica transported thrash metal's gritty subterranean textures into broad commercial acceptance before reconfiguring the shape of heavy music and hard rock after attaining worldwide rock dominance through the 1991 arrival of their self-titled "black album." By then the group had already weathered sufficient turmoil to fill two lifetimes. Arising from the intense metal underground of the early 1980s, Metallica generated word-of-mouth excitement via their independent releases Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning, which secured a deal with Elektra. Their major-label debut Master of Puppets showcased the band consolidating its power, yet months later a catastrophic bus accident claimed the life of bassist Cliff Burton. Vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and guitarist Kirk Hammett pressed forward alongside Jason Newsted, who featured on 1988's …And Justice for All, the band's initial Billboard Top Ten entry. After Metallica ascended to superstardom in the early 1990s, the ensemble maintained its stature while venturing into fresh terrain by refining its approach on Load and Re-Load before documenting the orchestral collaboration S&M with the San Francisco Symphony. Notwithstanding its achievements, Metallica continued to confront internal conflicts, many exposed in Some Kind of Monster, the documentary chronicling the making of St. Anger, its first album without Newsted. With bassist Robert Trujillo joining in 2003, Metallica ultimately revived the essence of speed metal on 2008's Death Magnetic before charting paths toward metal's maturation on 2016's Hardwired…To Self-Destruct and 2023's 72 Seasons.

Metallica originated in Los Angeles in 1981 when drummer Lars Ulrich issued an invitation for area players to assemble a fresh ensemble; an initial configuration eventually coalesced that featured guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield, bassist Ron McGovney, and lead guitarist Dave Mustaine. In that formative phase, Metallica fused the rapid tempos of hardcore punk outfits such as Discharge with the influence of lesser-known New Wave of British Heavy Metal acts emerging concurrently, yielding some of the earliest examples of thrash metal. The band produced several demo recordings with McGovney before parting ways with him upon encountering innovative bassist Cliff Burton. Burton ultimately enlisted with Metallica, prompting the quartet to enter the studio for its debut album in 1983. During those sessions, however, Mustaine's struggles with drugs and alcohol resulted in his dismissal, after which the group swiftly enlisted new lead guitarist Kirk Hammett to finish the record. Issued in 1983 on the independent thrash-oriented label Megaforce Records, Metallica's first long-player Kill 'Em All signaled the onset of heavy metal's underground gaining legitimacy by introducing greater complexity and depth to thrash metal. The follow-up Ride the Lightning arrived swiftly in 1984, expanding the band's palette through classically inflected guitar passages and the somber ballad "Fade to Black."

Not long after Ride the Lightning appeared, Metallica secured a contract with major-label Elektra Records. Working with the company, the group prepared its third LP Master of Puppets, which surfaced in March 1986. That release marked a pivotal breakthrough for Metallica, reaching broader audiences without eroding its credibility within the metal community; it became the band's strongest seller to date while also proving its most inventive and exploratory work, later recognized as one of the most influential metal albums ever. Later that year tragedy befell the ensemble when its tour bus crashed during travel in Sweden, killing Burton. Once the band resolved to continue, Flotsam and Jetsom bassist Jason Newsted was selected as Burton's replacement. Newsted began touring with Metallica by 1987, and his earliest recorded contribution appeared that year on The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-Revisited, a self-produced EP of rough-hewn covers assembled in a rehearsal space. Metallica also honored its late bassist in 1987 with Cliff 'Em All, a video collection containing unreleased live footage and personal home videos of Burton.

The band resurfaced in 1988 with its conceptually ambitious fourth studio album …And Justice for All. Prior to this release Metallica had publicly resisted elements of the music industry it deemed insincere, such as courting mainstream favor by softening its music or producing videos, a still-novel format in the 1980s. That stance shifted with Justice, which yielded the group's first video, for the song "One." Despite scant backing from MTV or commercial radio, the album reached the Top Ten and moved over a million copies within weeks. Metallica fully entered the mainstream with 1991's Metallica, a self-titled effort that traded lengthy compositions for tighter structures. Employing polished, layered production from Bob Rock and moving away from early thrash toward more accessible, nearly pop-inflected hard rock tracks such as "Wherever I May Roam" and "Enter Sandman," the record became a number-one album that sold more than seven million copies in the U.S. alone. To promote it, Metallica embarked on an extended tour that kept the musicians on the road for nearly two years.

By the 1990s Metallica had rewritten the playbook for every heavy metal band, occupying the genre's summit and earning esteem from both dedicated headbangers and mainstream listeners and reviewers. No prior heavy metal act had accomplished anything comparable. Still, the group forfeited part of its devoted following with the long-awaited successor to Metallica, 1996's Load. The album steered Metallica toward alternative rock visually, with the bandmembers trimming their hair and sitting for photographs by Anton Corbijn. Though the record debuted at number one upon its summer release and sold three million copies within two months, segments of the Metallica audience voiced dissatisfaction with the visual shift and the decision to headline the sixth Lollapalooza. Re-Load, which blended new songs with material omitted from the original Load sessions, appeared in 1997; despite unfavorable notices it moved at the customary brisk rate and generated several hit singles, among them "Fuel" and "The Memory Remains." Garage Inc., a double-disc anthology of B-sides, rarities, and freshly recorded covers, followed in 1998. Metallica's rendition of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" sustained its chart visibility, and the band sustained its output with 1999's S&M, which captured a live performance alongside the San Francisco Symphony; the set debuted at number two, underscoring the group's vast popularity.

Metallica devoted much of 2000 to controversy after spearheading litigation against Napster, the file-sharing platform permitting users to exchange music files directly. Aggressively pursuing copyright violations involving its own songs, Metallica famously caused more than 300,000 accounts to be removed from the service, igniting an extensive debate over digital music access that persisted throughout the year. In January 2001 bassist Jason Newsted disclosed his amicable exit. Shortly after the band performed at the ESPN Awards that April, Hetfield, Hammett, and Ulrich entered the studio to commence work on the next album, with producer Bob Rock slated to play bass for the sessions while speculation circulated regarding former Ozzy Osbourne/Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez as a potential candidate for the opening. In July Metallica unexpectedly withdrew its suit against Napster, possibly recognizing that its contentious position had harmed its "band of the people" persona more than it helped. That same summer the group's recording sessions, along with all other band activities, paused when Hetfield entered an undisclosed rehabilitation facility for alcoholism and related addictions. He finished treatment and rejoined Metallica as the band returned to the studio in 2002 to record St. Anger, released in mid-2003.

The making of St. Anger concluded with the quest for a permanent successor to Newsted. Following an extensive audition process, former Ozzy Osbourne/Suicidal Tendencies bass player Robert Trujillo was chosen and integrated into Metallica for the 2003-2004 world tour. The band's difficulties during the recording of St. Anger were documented in the acclaimed film Some Kind of Monster, which received a theatrical release in 2004. Four years afterward Metallica resurfaced with Death Magnetic, an invigorated album that restored the group to its early-1980s foundations. Former Slayer producer Rick Rubin guided the project, supplanting longtime producer Bob Rock, while Kirk Hammett, barred from guitar solos on St. Anger, infused the record with metallic riffs and rapid-fire solos. Death Magnetic occupied the Billboard summit for three weeks, and the band backed it with an expansive international tour that included a festival appearance alongside Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Metallica concluded its Warner tenure with Death Magnetic; leftover tracks from those sessions surfaced as the Beyond Magnetic EP in late 2011. While weighing future options, the group initiated a collaboration with Lou Reed that yielded the ambitious, arty Lulu in fall 2011. In 2012 Metallica established its own imprint, Blackened, to be handled through Universal distribution. The next year the band revealed its second motion picture, Through the Never, which interwove lavish concert footage of the group performing catalog staples with a surreal road-trip narrative starring Dane DeHaan; the film and its accompanying soundtrack album arrived in September 2013.

Over the ensuing years Metallica staged occasional high-profile concerts while developing a new studio album. In 2016 the band initiated a sequence of expanded reissues beginning with deluxe editions of Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning. These sets preceded the November arrival of Hardwired...To Self-Destruct, a double album marking the group's first new material in eight years. Produced by Greg Fidelman, James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich, Hardwired...To Self-Destruct entered at number one globally upon its November 2016 release. The following year the ensemble issued a lavish expanded edition of its landmark 1986 LP Master of Puppets.

In 2019 Metallica marked the 20th anniversary of S&M by reuniting with the San Francisco Symphony for two further concerts featuring orchestral arrangements of its original songs; the performances supplied the foundation for 2020's S&M2, a double-live album released in August 2020. Metallica devoted 2021 to commemorating the 30th anniversary of The Black Album, overseeing an elaborate deluxe box-set reissue paired with The Metallica Blacklist, a four-disc tribute collection containing multiple covers of every track from the record. Intentionally varied, the 53-track set featured contributions from Mac DeMarco, Weezer, Jason Isbell, St. Vincent, the Neptunes, Jon Pardi, Phoebe Bridgers, Imelda May, and Kamasi Washington. Issued separately from the box, The Metallica Blacklist reached number 103 on Billboard's Top 200.

Metallica reemerged with "Lux Æterna," its first new music in nearly seven years, in November 2022, signaling the April 2023 arrival of its eleventh studio album, 72 Seasons. Reuniting with Greg Fidelman, co-producer of Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, the band examined themes of youth and maturity across the muscular, ballad-free album. The LP earned Metallica the Best Metal Performance honor at the 66th Grammy Awards.