History of the Band:

Metallica is the 7th biggest selling act in all of America's history. In 1981, Lars Ulrich was looking for band members, when he met James Hetfield. Hetfield's friend Ron McGovney was eventually talked into playing bass and Dave Mustaine took lead guitar. The band adopted the name Metallica after a suggestion from Bay Area friend Ron Quintana, and they began gigging in the Los Angeles area. After 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 big commodity.

Metallica performed 2 shows in San Francisco and found the crowds friendlier and more honest than LA's mobs. They also caught up-and-coming band Trauma, and most importantly their bass player, Cliff Burton, who later signed to be bass player for Metallica. Dave Mustaine, at that point the band's guitarist, was proving to be more problematic, so they dropped him for Exodus guitar player Kirk Hammett. Metallica's first album, Kill 'Em All, was released in late 1983 and some ferocious touring which saw the band's reputation soar both in the US and Europe.

They then made Ride the Lightning, their second album, which helped their popularity grow worldwide. Returning to the same studios in 1985, the group recorded Master Of Puppets. After that, the bands popularity soared, and they started touring. But there was one accident made on that tour. Some place in Sweden on an overnight drive, the bands' tour bus skidded out of control and flipped, killing Cliff Burton, who was sleeping on the top bunk that night. Jason Newsted was chosen from over 40 auditions to be the new bassist, and stuck with Metallica for fourteen years.

The band went back to record their fourth full-length album, ...And Justice For All, released in August 1988. It reached #6 on the US charts, received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal/Hard Rock album, the band blew headliners Van Halen off-stage during the Monsters Of Rock tour and embarked upon an enormous worldwide tour. In 1991 Metallica released the self-titled 'Black' album, and saw their popularity soar. It went straight to number one all over the world, stayed there for several weeks and ended up selling 15 million copies worldwide.

Their next album, called Load, and recorded at The Plant in Sausalito California, it was the longest Metallica album to date with 14 songs, and signaled some significant changes for the band. So many songs came from the sessions, that a second album titled ReLoad, followed in 1997. The Load tour was amazing, encompassing cutting-edge technology, stuntmen, two-stages and an epic two-plus hours of performances.

In the summer of 2000, Metallica bassist, Jason Newsted, departed the band. They set up shop at an old ex-Army barracks called The Presidio, jammed together at length and made a decision not to rush the process of finding a new bassist. In the middle of 2001, James Hetfield reached a place in his life where he felt rehabilitation was necessary for him to continue.

Settling into their new HQ, the band set about making 'St Anger' with Bob Rock. Lyrics were written by everyone, writing was shared and performance was amazing. It was in the Fall of 2002 that the band decided it was time to search for a new bassist. They held auditions, and then they found Rob Trujillo. They gave him the bassist part of the band. Not temporary, or replacement, but permanent.

On April 30th,May 1st with a small matter of a video shoot at San Quentin prison for their St. Anger track, the St. Anger era was then kicked off. This continued with an MTV Icons Tribute a week later, peers such as Korn and Limp Bizkit payed tribute to Metallica. Metallica also performed live, which was a first with Robert Trujillo.

The band then did 19 whole months of touring, playing to crowds of 60,000 and even more. St. Anger was released on June 5th. They even played 3 shows at three different clubs in one night at one point in time.

The band then spent months with a different producer (Rick Rubin) and tried to rediscover their roots. Then on Sep. 12, 2008 the Death Magnetic album came out, and was another of Metallica's Billboard 200 number 1's. They then went on the World Magnetic tour starting Oct. 20th of 2008 and will be done in 2010.

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