Metallica, influential American heavy metal band that, along with Slayer and Anthrax, developed the subgenre speed metal in the early and mid-1980s. The principal members were lead singer and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield (b. August 3, 1963, Downey, California, U.S.), drummer Lars Ulrich (b. December 26, 1963, Gentofte, Denmark), lead guitarist Kirk Hammett (b. November 18, 1962, San Francisco, California), and bassist Cliff Burton (b. February 10, 1962, San Francisco—d. September 27, 1986, near Stockholm, Sweden). Jason Newsted (b. March 4, 1963, Battle Creek, Michigan) took over on bass after Burton was killed in a tour bus accident.
Formed by guitarist Hetfield and drummer Ulrich in 1981, Metallica drew upon punk and early 1980s British metal styles for their first album, Kill ’Em All (1983). The band followed with Ride the Lightning (1984), an album that shattered notions of what defined heavy metal. With social and political themes that seemed more suited to art rock, Ride the Lightning demonstrated that the band was willing to stretch the boundaries of heavy metal—perhaps most notably with the album’s closing track, the nine-minute instrumental “The Call of Ktulu.”
Heralded as a masterpiece by critics, Metallica’s third album, Master of Puppets (1986), sold more than three million copies with very little support from broadcast radio. The album’s title track opened with what would become one of heavy metal’s most recognizable guitar riffs, and songs such as “Battery” and “Damage, Inc.” defined thrash metal for an entire generation of fans. Metallica was touring in support of Master of Puppets when the band’s bus rolled over on a patch of icy road outside of Stockholm. Burton was thrown through a window and was killed instantly. The band returned home to San Francisco and hired Flotsam and Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted to replace Burton.
The new lineup debuted on …And Justice for All (1988), an album that included “One,” the group’s first Top 40 single. Metallica produced its first music video for “One,” and the antiwar anthem received heavy rotation on MTV. The band followed with Metallica (also known as The Black Album; 1991), which sold more than 15 million copies on the strength of singles such as “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” and “Sad but True.” Metallica explored a Southern rock sound on Load (1996) and its follow-up Reload (1997). The two albums were seen as more commercially accessible than previous releases, and “The Memory Remains,” a song featuring haunting backing vocals by Marianne Faithfull, demonstrated that Hetfield retained his knack for aggressive and intelligent lyrics. However, the driving thrash metal sound of Master of Puppets had clearly become part of the band’s past.
It was perhaps an attempt to recapture the revolutionary sound of their early years that inspired Metallica to enlist the San Francisco Symphony orchestra in the group’s next project, S&M (1999). The album collected material from a pair of concerts that explored the entire Metallica back catalog, reworked for accompaniment by the full orchestra. Metallica spent much of the next year on tour, but band members, most notably Ulrich, were becoming increasingly visible as crusaders against illegal Internet file-sharing services such as Napster. While this stance ultimately doomed Napster (which was reborn as a legal pay-for-play music service similar to Apple’s iTunes), it generated backlash against the band.
In January 2001 Newsted left the group, leaving Metallica without a bassist once again. Work on a new album was delayed while the band sought a replacement for Newsted, and Hetfield entered treatment for alcoholism. Bob Rock, who had produced the band since 1991, filled in on bass as Metallica entered the studio to record St. Anger (2003). True to its title, the album was a rage-fueled exploration of Hetfield’s psyche that confirmed to listeners that sobriety had not dulled the singer’s edge. Metallica added Robert Trujillo, former bassist for Ozzy Osbourne and skate-punk band Suicidal Tendencies, to the band’s lineup prior to embarking on the St. Anger tour. The period from Newsted’s departure to his replacement by Trujillo was captured in the documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004). The film showed a band at cross purposes with itself, trying to reconcile family and adult responsibilities with the creative and personal conflicts borne of two decades as one of the biggest names in heavy metal.
Metallica enlisted producer Rick Rubin for their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic (2008), and the single “My Apocalypse” earned the band its sixth Grammy Award for best metal performance. The group then teamed with Lou Reed for the audacious but critically reviled Lulu (2011), a two-disc collection inspired by the plays of German dramatist Frank Wedekind. Hardwired…to Self-Destruct (2016), another two-disc release, was a return to form that won over many critics. Metallica reunited with the San Francisco Symphony in 2019 for two concerts, recorded as S&M2 (2020). The band was scheduled to begin a tour later in 2019, but the tour was canceled when Hetfield reentered a treatment program for substance abuse. In 2009 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.