History Music / METALLICA

* ThrowItIn: "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" starts with Burton calmly announcing "Bass solo, take 1". He then proceeds to [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome blow your mind]].

* CosmicHorror: The band has ''three'' pieces, two songs and one instrumental, directly inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, of which Kirk Hammett and Cliff Burton are/were huge fans. "The Call of Ktulu" and "The Thing That Should Not Be" from "Master of Puppets". The third, "All Nightmare Long," from "Death Magnetic" was inspired by the Hounds of Tindalos, though most people [[MusicVideoOvershadowing just remember the zombies from the video]].

+ DeepPurple, {{Motorhead}}, Music/BlueOysterCult, Music/BlackSabbath, ThinLizzy, Music/LedZeppelin, Diamond Head, Music/JudasPriest, Budgie, Music/{{Queen}}, Killing Joke, Music/{{Venom}}, {{Rush}}, Music/IronMaiden, Mercyful Fate, {{Misfits}}, Samhain, UFO, Angel Witch, Saxon, BobSeger, TheRamones, Music/{{Aerosmith}}, LynyrdSkynyrd, JoeSatriani

** The ''Lulu'' album breaks this records with 3 songs over 10 minutes, with the longest being "Junior Dad", which is almost ''20 minutes'' long!

* EpicRocking: "Mercyful Fate", "...and Justice for All", "To Live is to Die", "Outlaw Torn", and a couple more not mentioned, but those particular ones are the longest in the Metallica library.

** Most recently Rick Rubin on ''Death Magnetic'' (whom [[{{Slayer}} Kerry King]] claims to have been stolen)

* GenkiBoy: Those who knew Lars Ulrich when he was a teenager describe him as being a hyperactive young man who was ''extremely'' enthusiastic about heavy metal. Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records recalls that whenever they would go to the specialty record stores in the early 1980s to buy imported NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) albums, Lars would jump out of the car ''before it had even stopped moving'' because he was so anxious to get new metal albums to listen to. Later when Brian Slagel had founded Metal Blade records he planned on putting together a compilation album called ''Metal Massacre'' featuring local heavy metal bands. When Lars found out about this he got so excited that he begged Slagel to let him record a song for the album despite the fact that Lars ''wasn't even in a band at the time''. This motivated Lars to call up James Hetfield and Ron McGovney to help him record a song for the album, and that's the story of how Lars' genki-ness resulted in the birth of Metallica.

* 2011 - ''Lulu'', an album in collaboration with [[VelvetUnderground Lou Reed]]

* GodSaveTheKing: Metallica borrowed the intro of Bleak House's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zowid7KAmnM "Rainbow Warrior"]] for "Welcome (Sanitarium)". They also lifted large parts of "Children of the Damned" by Music/IronMaiden for "The Unforgiven II"

* 2011? - ''Lulu'', and album in collaboration with [[VelvetUnderground Lou Reed]]

* GodSaveTheKing: Metallica borrowed the intro of Bleak House's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zowid7KAmnM "Rainbow Warrior"]] for "Welcome (Sanitarium)". They also lifted large parts of "Children of the Damned" by IronMaiden for "The Unforgiven II"

* {{Mascot}} - An odd subversion. Metallica has never had an actual mascot, but graphic artist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushead Pushead]]'s work is so synonymous with the band's image that it essentially counts the same as Vic Rattlehead for Music/{{Megadeth}} or Eddie for IronMaiden.

* CoverVersion: ''Lots''. Most recently, they covered "Remember Tomorrow" by IronMaiden and a cover of "Ecstasy of Gold", one of the songs Ennio Morricone did for ''TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'', and usually open their concerts with the original piece. There's also a heavier version of "Stone Cold Crazy" by {{Queen}}, which they even played at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. It was one of the earliest metal songs, and numerous metal bands have played covers as a way of tribute.

** Also true for Rob, though less so, as he came to the group with his own professional history (Suicidal Tendencies, playing bass with OzzyOsbourne on tour) and a more even footing.

* AudienceParticipationSong: Some songs seems made to illicit this effect.

In TheNineties, the band moved away from thrash metal (according to Hammett, "Touring behind it, we realized that the general consensus was that songs were too fucking long", though the rise of Grunge and alt-rock probably also had something to do with it), first coming out with their massively-successful album ''Metallica'' (aka "The Black Album"), then the rock-, country- and blues-tinged alt-rock pair ''Load'' and ''[=ReLoad=]''. The band were mostly quiet for a while, and when they finally set about making a new album, they had a full-on CreatorBreakdown, with a fed-up Jason leaving the group (from a combination of his continued hazing treatment, Hetfield's refusal to allow him to become a full songwriting partner, and a neck injury that needed rest), James going into rehab for alcoholism, and the entire future of the band in doubt. ''St. Anger'', the album forged in the midst of all this, is [[{{DisContinuity}} disdained by most fans]], though for others it's [[YourMileageMayVary an interesting experiment]] hamstrung by its intentionally unpolished production and [[ContemplateOurNavels overly introspective]] lyrics. Luckily for the band, new bassist Robert Trujillo both helped them mellow out and encouraged them to mix up their setlist on a nightly basis, pulling out songs they hadn't played for the better part of 20 years. Their latest album, ''Death Magnetic'', is the most in-character effort they've had in years, but is a casualty of the RecordOfLoudnessWar, and whether it's any good depends entirely on [[BrokenBase who you ask]].

* GodSaveTheKing: Metallica borrowed the intro of Bleak House's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zowid7KAmnM "Rainbow Warrior"]] for "Welcome (Sanitarium)".

* Fanservice: There is no other possible explanation for "Whiskey in the Jar".