Metallica
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This article is about the band. For its eponymous fifth album, see Metallica
(album). For other uses, see Metallica (disambiguation).
Metallica
Members of Metallica onstage
Metallica in London, England in 2017. From left to right: Lars Ulrich, James
Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.
Background information
Origin Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres
Heavy metalthrash metal
Years active 1981�present
Labels
MegaforceElektraVertigoWarner Bros.Blackened
Associated acts
Leather CharmFlemming RasmussenLou ReedBob RockOzzy OsbourneSpastik Children
Website metallica.com
Members
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo
Past members
Dave Mustaine
Ron McGovney
Cliff Burton
Jason Newsted
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los
Angeles, California, by drummer Lars Ulrich and vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield,
and has been based in San Francisco, California for most of its career.[1][2] The
group's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the
founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.
Metallica's current lineup comprises founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime
lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Guitarist Dave Mustaine
(who went on to form Megadeth) and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton and Jason
Newsted are former members of the band.
Metallica earned a growing fan base in the underground music community and won
critical acclaim with its first five albums.[3] The band's third album, Master of
Puppets (1986), was described as one of the heaviest and most influential thrash
metal albums; its eponymous fifth album, Metallica (1991), the band's first to root
predominantly in heavy metal, appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving
substantial commercial success and selling over 16 million copies in the United
States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era. After
experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, the band
returned to its thrash metal roots with the release of its ninth album, Death
Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band's earlier albums.
In 2000, Metallica led the case against the peer-to-peer file sharing service
Napster, in which the band and several other artists filed lawsuits against the
service for sharing their copyright-protected material without consent; after
reaching a settlement, Napster became a pay-to-use service in 2003. Metallica was
the subject of the acclaimed 2004 documentary film Some Kind of Monster, which
documented the troubled production of the band's eighth album, St. Anger (2003),
and the internal struggles within the band at the time. In 2009, Metallica was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band wrote the screenplay for and
starred in the 2013 IMAX concert film Metallica: Through the Never, in which the
band performed live against a fictional thriller storyline.
Metallica has released ten studio albums, four live albums, a cover album, five
extended plays, 37 singles and 39 music videos. The band has won nine Grammy Awards
from 23 nominations, and its last six studio albums (beginning with Metallica) have
consecutively debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica ranks as one of
the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold over 125 million
albums worldwide as of 2018.[4] Metallica has been listed as one of the greatest
artists of all time by magazines such as Rolling Stone, which ranked them at no. 61
on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.[5] As of 2017, Metallica is the third
best-selling music artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991,[6]
selling a total of 58 million albums in the United States.[7]
