The
Band's History
The old members of Metallica
not putting their elbows on the table
Lars Ulrich, fan of the New
Wave Of British Heavy Metal' and
especially Diamond Head, moves
from Copenhage to Los Angeles
to found his own, European
sounding heavy metal band. The first to
join him is guitarplayer James
Hetfield and a friend gets them the
name Metallica. They record
their first demo, with Lars on drums
and James on bass, guitar and
vocals. A friend of them, guitarplayer
Lloyd Grand does the guitarsolo
on the song "Hit the Lights!", that
short after the recording is
released on the compilation album "Metal
Massacre I".
In january of 1982 Dave Mustaine
joins the band, so they got now
their own solo-guitarplayer.
James' roommate Ron McGovney is
their new bassplayer. The band
starts to play in L.A.-clubs, but
when the glam and poserrock
comes up, they move to San
Francisco. A second demo is
recorded and gets them a fast growing
popularity in the underground-scene.
For a while guitarplayer Jeff
Warner (now: Black'n'Blue)
joins the group, but he leaves after a
short time. In july '82 their
legendary "No Life till Leather"-demo is
released and everyone is waiting
for their debut album. End of '82
bassplayer Cliff Burton joins
the band. In january of '83 the band is
invited by record shop-owner
Jon Zazula to do some gigs at the
Eastcoast. He also tries to
get them a contract, but when this fails,
he founds his own record label,
Megaforce Records. The band gets
troubles with Dave Mustaine
and he is fired. He is replaced by Kirk
Hammet, coming from the band
Exodus. In may they record the
first album "Kill Em All" in
Rochester. It's a smash hit. Songs like
"Metal Militia", "Seek &
Destroy" and "Hit the Lights", well known
by many headbangers thanks
to their demo's, become real classic
songs. These compositions are
also admired outside the
metal-scene, because of the
very tight, open chord scheme's. After
the release they tour through
America with Raven and through
Europe with Venom.
After this tour they start
making new material for their second
album "Ride the Lightning".
Because the album is recorded in
Denmark, they do also a mini-tour
in England with Twisted Sister.
With Peter Mensch they get
themselves a good manager (Def
Leppard) and he arranges a
major record deal for the band. In a
couple of weeks they sell more
than 100.000 albums, unique for an
independent heavy metal band.
They sign as first metal band a deal
with a major company, Elektra.
Other record companies see the
success and try to find their
own Metallica. They tour again through
Europe, with Tank as support
act, play at the Monsters of Rock in
Castle Donington and at the
Day on Green festival in Oakland.
Afterwards, they go again to
Copenhage, Denmark to record the
third album: "Master of Puppets".
This album is released in march
of 1986 and is a perfection
of the harmonic line, that they started
with "Ride the Lightning".
Halfway the tour with Ozzy, the record is
gold already.
During the tour, James breaks
his wrist on his skateboard, he'll do
this again a year later. More
serious is the accident during the
English tour of Metallica with
Anthrax: on september 26 of 1986 the
bus gets off the road and bassplayer
Cliff Burton is killed in the
accident. But two months later,
the band is touring again with the
new bassplayer Jason Newsted,
coming from Flotsam & Jetsam.
They play again at some big
European festivals: the Dutch (!)
Aardschokdag (earthquake shock-day)
and again the Monsters of
Rock-festival. they also release
"The $5.98 EP Garage Days
Revisited", an EP with five
covers of songs that have influenced the
band. After this, the band
starts working on the fourth album "...
and Justice for All". Because
of the 65 minutes long playtime of this
record it becomes a double
LP. Nevertheless the album is a bit
weak, compared to the previous
ones. In the autumn of '88 the
band starts it's biggest world
tour so far, with Queensryche as
support act. Metallica is one
of the most important heavy metal
bands of the eighties. They
gave metal a new direction and an
impulse to other bands. Because
of their success, they also got the
major record labels interested
in heavy metal, resulting in many
contracts for many bands.
James and Jason
throwing it all out with their newly organized
band
