Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Metallica Featured at Outside Lands Festival : April 18, 2012

This year’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco may be the festival’s greatest year yet. A large part of the reason for this are the recently annou [...]

Metallica Introduces ‘Orion Music + More’ Festival in Atlantic City : February 08, 2012

Metallica has announced its first Orion Festival, a two-day live music event that will be held at the unused Bader Field Airport in Atlantic City, N.J. While the band wil [...]

Metallica Tabbed to Headline Download Festival : November 11, 2011

Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, it was recently announced that the 2012 Download Festival will feature Metallica. Additionally, the band will perform their classic self [...]

Metallica Concert Cancellation Causes Riot in India : October 31, 2011

Metallica’s first ever-planned concert in India did not go well. In fact, it didn’t go on at all. The band was billed to play the F1 Rocks concert in Delhi on Frid [...]

Metallica Announces 4 Shows at San Francisco Fillmore : July 29, 2011

To celebrate their 30th anniversary Metallica, the Bay Area's all-time biggest metal act, will perform four intimate shows in their hometown. The four member band, whi [...]

Metallica, Lou Reed Record New Album Together : June 16, 2011

The last full-length album from Metallica, the metal super group, was their 2008 release “Death Magnetic.” However, reportedly the band is working on new music and d [...]

Metallica & Big 4 Book Follow-up Dates in India, Yankees Stadium : May 02, 2011

Metallica, after performing their first show in the U.S. last week in Indio, California as one of the Big Four, suggested there might be additional U.S. dates in the work [...]

Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Antrax Man the Stage at Big 4 Festival : January 25, 2011

Last week, the 2011 official lineup for Coachella Festival was announced, signaling that despite snow continuing to fall on a majority of the country, that the summer con [...]

Top 50 Concert Tours of the Decade : December 22, 2009

Well it’s official. 2009 is days away from coming to a close so it’s time to pull out all of those best of the decade lists. They are exhaustive, tedious and largely [...]

Metallica Set as Support for the Stones on San Francisco Date : August 03, 2005

Metal-grunge icons and perhaps one of the most popular rock bands of the ‘90s – Metallica – will be gracing the stage of the SBC Park in their native San Francisco [...]

metallica Biography

The heavy metal American band Metallica was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles, California after James Hetfield responded to a local newspaper ad that was posted by Lars Ulrich. Featured in the current line up are Kirk Hammett, the band's long time lead guitarist who joined in 1983, Ulrich, Hetfield and bassist Robert Trujillo, who joined in 2003. Notable past members include Dave Mustaine, former lead guitarist and founder of Megadeth, along with former bassists Jason Newsted, Cliff Burton and Ron McGovney. The band and producer Bob Rock have collaborated for a long time. From 1990 through 2003 Rock produced all of Metallica's albums. He was also the band's temporary bassist between Newsted leaving and Trujillo being hired.

The early releases of Metallica's included aggressive musicianship, instrumentals and fast tempos and placed the group as one of thrash metal's big four bands along with Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer as the genre developed and became popular. Metallica earned critical acclaim and a growing underground music fan base when they released “Master of Puppets” in 1986. The album has been described as one of the more influential heavy thrash metal sets. Their fifth self-titled album (also called “The Black Album”) brought the band substantial commercial success. It debuted on Billboard's 200 chart at number one. The release saw the band beginning to expand their musical direction which resulted in music that appealed to more mainstream audiences.

Metallica in 2000 was one of the artists that filed a lawsuit on Napster due to the company sharing the copyright protected material of the band for free without their consent. Napster settled and the service became pay-to-use. “St. Anger,” despite reaching the top of Billboard's 200 chart, alienated many of their fans due to the absence of any guitar solos and steel sounding snare drum. The documentary “Some Kind of Monster” followed Metallica's recording process on “St. Anger” as well as the turmoil the band was experiencing at that time.

Over the course of their career Metallica has released 45 singles, 24 music videos, two EPs, three live albums and nine studio albums. Metallica has been awarded nine Grammys. The band has also had five albums in a row debut on Billboard's 200 chart at number one, making them the first band ever to accomplish that feat. Dave Matthews later matched them. “Metallica,” their 1991 album, has sold more than 15 million U.S. copies as well as 22 million worldwide copies. In December 2009 “Metallica” became the SoundScan era's best selling album, surpassing Shania Twain's 1997 set “Come On Over.” Metallica has sold 100 million worldwide records. Their latest release is “Death Magnetic.”