"No life `til leather"
On October 28th, 1981, drummer Lars Ulrich makes guitar
player/singer James Hetfield the offer he can't refuse: "I've
got a track saved for my band on Brian Slagel's new Metal
Blade label."
The truth is, Lars didn't have a band at that time, but he
did that day when James joined him. The two recorded
their first track on a cheap recorder with James performing singing duties (with a sore
throat, even!), rhythm guitar duties and bass guitar duties. Lars dutifully pounded the
drums, helped with musical arrangements and acted as manager. Hetfield's friend and
housemate Ron McGoveny was eventually talked into taking up bass and Dave Mustaine
took lead guitar duties.
The band adopted the moniker Metallica: Young 
Metal Attack, and began gigging in the Los
Angeles area opening for bands like Saxon. They
eventually recorded a full-fledged demo called No
Life Til Leather. The demo was circulated near
and abroad by Lars and his metal tape-trading
buddies.
No Life Til Leather stirred up some interest in the
underground metal community and the band
started garnering some attention, especially in
San Francisco and New York.
Metallica performed 2 shows in San Francisco and found the crowds there more friendly
than LA's "there to be seen" crowd. They also caught up-and-coming band Trauma, and
most importantly their bass player, Cliff Burton. Eventually, Metallica moved upstate and
Cliff joined Metallica.
In New York, a copy of No Life Til Leather made its
way to Jon Zazula's record shop, the aptly-named
Metal Heaven. Zazula quickly recruited Metallica to
come out east to play some shows and record an album.
The band made it to New York in a stolen U-Haul
only to make announcement to their now
manager/record producer: "Our guitar player has got
to go." Roadie Mark Whitakker suggested a guitar
player from a band he knew back in SF, and on April
1, 1983 Kirk Hammett joins Metallica.
Metallica's first album, Kill 'Em All, is released in late
1983.
"Feed My Brain with your so
called standard. Who says that
I ain't right?"
Metallica toured behind Kill 'Em All, and in 1984, a second album Ride The Lightning was
recorded and released. This album was a more mature album, both lyrically and musically
while not missing a beat of the ferocity of Kill 'Em All.
Notable on Ride The Lightning's eight songs is track four; Fade To Black. Inspired by the
theft of the band's equipment earlier that year in Boston, the song delves rather deeply
into dealing with loss. Other tracks are inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and the movie The
Ten Commandments.
The band signed with major management agency Q Prime and soon after is signed to
major record label Elektra.
"Messenger of fear insight"
1986 brought their third album, Master Of Puppets,
and a tour with Ozzy Osbourne. Metallica was
reaching new highs: the new album reached #29 and
enjoyed a 72-week run on the US charts. The Ozzy
tour helped them gain wide exposure.
The band endured a minor downfall when James broke
his arm skateboarding and was unable to play guitar.
John Marshall pulled double duty, acting as Kirk's
guitar roadie and filling in on rhythm guitar until James
healed.
With the Ozzy tour complete the band moved on to
Europe and planned their first venture to the Far
East. It was hoped that James would be ready to handle his guitar duties, but for the
first shows in Europe, Marshall filled in.
James returned in full guitar and vocal duties on September 26th, 1986, the last time
Metallica performed with Cliff. Early the next morning, the tour bus skidded out of
control and flipped, killing Cliff Burton.
It probably would have been easier for Metallica to call it quits
right then and there. Cliff was a major part of the band, not
only supplying bass but being somewhat of a teacher and
mentor, sharing his musical wisdom and "be yourself" attitude.
Knowing Cliff would be the first to want them to carry on,
Metallica minus one carried on.
"
"I`ve got something to say"
Jason Newsted was
chosen from over 40
auditions to play bass with Metallica. His many
strengths included being able to keep up with the
band`s drinking habits!
It was decided they would jump right back into
"tour mode" to initiate the new bass player and
wrap up loose ends.
The band also released an EP of all cover songs
as an introduction to Jason. The EP, titled Garage Days Re-Revisited is considered a
sequel of sorts to Garage Days Revisited which appeared as a B-side in 1984.
"Waves of fear they pull me under"
With Jason established, 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, and received a Grammy
nomination for Best Metal/Hard Rock album.
The band took the show back out on the
road and toured extensively to all parts of
the world. ...And Justice For All produced
two US singles and the band's very first venture into music video for the song One.
They finally won a Grammy for the One single.
"The Pressure upon you is so unreal""
In 1991 Metallica released the
self titled "black album." With
new producer Bob Rock, this
album was a departure from the
previous album. The songs were
shorter and the sound was fuller
deeper and less monotone. The
"black album" went straight to
number one all over the world..
and stayed there for several weeks.
The album spawned several
singles and videos and remains
the most successful Metallica
album to date. The band won several awards including a Grammy for the album and several MTV and American Music
Awards.
The band toured and toured and toured (get the picture?) playing all alone in "An
Evening With Metallica" or with Guns N' Roses, or as headliner at many festivals.
Metallica took the Black Album (and the other songs as well) to the people.
"To fall in love with life again""
Five years would pass before the next
Metallica album saw the light. The album
was called Load and was the longest
Metallica album to date. With 14 songs it
took all available room on a compact disc.
The album was again produced by Bob
Rock, as was ReLoad, which followed in
1997. Both albums were written and
mostly recorded together, and continued
what the self-titled album started.
Soundwise, the album was thick and and
punchy, the songs were loose, powerful
and eclectic.
It would be unfair to say Metallica changed a great deal, as the band is the same band
that recorded Kill 'Em All, ...And Justice For All and the rest, but the Load twins show a
Metallica that has grown towards expanding past the "all attitude and speed" days and
back to the "be yourself" attitude.
"There's a devil lying by your side""
With the completion and
subsequent touring for Load
and ReLoad and quite possibly
the end of this phase of
Metallica, it's natural only to
become somewhat
introspective. While lyrically the
Load albums reflected a great
deal of what lies inside each of
us emotionally and
subconsciously, it came a time
to look into what made this
band.
No greater reflection of what
makes Metallica "Metallica" are
their influences. And as they
did in 1981 when they started,
1984 with Garage Days Revisited and 1987 with Garage Days Re-Revisited, the band did
what comes naturally.. they went back to the garage.
Metallica was and is very much a garage band. Whether it's in Kirk's basement, Jason's
Chophouse, Lars' Dungeon or on stage in front of 50,000, Metallica always plays that
song or that riff that helped them out somewhere along the road. They had already
released 2 garage projects and put out a smattering of cover songs as B-sides. In fact,
the Garage Days projects had become so collectable and rare, that poorly-recorded
bootleg copies have been circulating for outrageous prices.
The band chose 11 new songs to record"
its third "in the garage" project, again with
Bob Rock. The project was aptly-titled
Garage Inc. as it incorporates ALL the
previously-recorded garage cover songs
along with the 11 new tracks.
So what's next? Look for the band on tour
in some new, as well as the old familiar
places. A new project unlike anything
you'd expect, and a welcome to the year
2000 that most certainly be one to
remember!
