History Music / METALLICA

* 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. After 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.

* SongStyleShift: "One" and "Fade to Black".

* ClusterFBomb: "Ain't My Bitch,"(to some extent) St. Anger, and most of all, their cover of the Anti-Nowhere League's "So What?".

* {{Anvilicious}} / RefugeInAudacity: The [[CoverVersion cover]] of {{Misfits}}' "Last Caress/Green Hell" from the "[[CoverAlbum The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited]]". Within the first four lines, the narrator, mentions [[RapeAsDrama raping]] someone's [[YourMom mother]] and [[WouldHurtAChild killing their baby]].

* ClusterFBomb: "Ain't My Bitch" and (to some extent) St. Anger.

* EnterEponymous: "Enter Sandman", anyone?

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

** CoverAlbum: ''The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited'', including songs from Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg and The Misfits (this was also Newsted's debut). Later, an entire double album of them, ''Garage Inc.'', with one disc being reissues of their older covers and the other being new covers, including BobSeger's "Turn the Page" ThinLizzy's version of "Whiskey in the Jar", and LynyrdSkynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone".

* MagnumOpus: [[WordOfGod Lars]] says that he considers "....And Justice For All" to be this.

The one, the only. Formed in the early '80s when aspiring Danish tennis player/drummer Lars Ulrich placed an ad in a Los Angeles newspaper, which, in one of those moments of synchronicity, was answered by singer/guitarist James Hetfield. With lead guitarist Dave Mustaine and bass guitar virtuoso Cliff Burton, Metallica was one of the pioneering bands of ThrashMetal, along with Music/{{Anthrax}}, Music/{{Slayer}}, and Music/{{Megadeth}} (the last formed after guitarist Mustaine was kicked out of the band and replaced by Kirk Hammett, late of Exodus).

In the heady days of TheEighties, they forged their way from being the supporting act at tiny club gigs to headlining stadium tours, with next to no support from radio. Their '86 album ''Master of Puppets'' was hailed by critics as a metal masterpiece, but on the subsequent tour, Burton was killed in a bus accident. Choosing to continue on in spite of their grief, they auditioned and hired Jason Newsted, an intense young musician who became the perennial "New Guy" and the butt of 14 long years of hazing, starting with being mixed out of the ''...And Justice For All'' album entirely. It was with this album that the band first started getting accusations of "selling out", after they put out a music video for the song "One", something fans claimed they had promised in the past they'd never do.

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 [[FanonDisContinuity 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 Loudness War,]] and whether it's any good depends entirely on [[BrokenBase who you ask.]] In 2011, they collaborated with Music/LouReed on ''Lulu'', which has been panned by just about everyone that has an opinion on it.

[[TomatoInTheMirror I'm you]]

* BawdySong: Notably ''averted'' when the band repurposed Dave Mustaine's "The Mechanix", full of {{Double Entendre}}s about sex in an auto repair shop, into "The Four Horsemen", an ode to the Apocalypse. The song is arguably better for it, but don't let any Megadeth fans hear you say that...or Mustaine, for that matter. They then played it completely straight in their word-for-word CoverVersion of the most profane British punk song ever recorded, "So What?!", even though the song is a parody, with much of it taken from two drunken idiots attempting to outdo each other.
* BedlamHouse: "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)."

* ClusterFBomb: Ain't My Bitch and (to some extent) St. Anger.
* 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" from "Ride the Lightning" 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]].

* HumanPopsicle: "Trapped Under Ice"

* MythArc: The Unforgiven trilogy, possibly. They're united in subject matter, even if they're not about the same guy.

* WhamLine / YouBastard: On "Sad But True":

[[TomatoInTheMirror I'm you!]]

* XtremeKoolLetterz: "Fixxxer", the last track on ''ReLoad''.

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

* NonAppearingTitle: "Fade to Black", "...And Justice for All", "Disposable Heroes", "Enter Sandman" and the "Unforgiven" trilogy. As for "The Unforgiven", if you say otherwise in the 1991 original's case, you're {{Beam Me Up Scotty}}ing, because the first one goes "never free, never me/so I dub '''thee''' (as in "you") unforgiven".
** But, you fail to consider the fact that "The" is merely a filler word. An adjective, to give the other word "pop". "The" Unforgiven as a lot like "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", in that we never see the lyrics "Welcome Home" being said, but "Sanitarium" is said throughout. Thus, it's not a {{Beam Me Up Scotty}} situation at all, it's just a different use of the title. People don't call the first song "The Unforgiven" expecting "The" being said, they expect "Unforgiven", and nothing else. You can complain if you wish, but {{Non Appearing Title}} does not apply for that song.

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 [[FanonDisContinuity 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 Loudness War]], and whether it's any good depends entirely on [[BrokenBase who you ask]]. In 2011, they collaborated with Music/LouReed on ''[=LuLu=]'', which has been panned by just about everyone that has an opinion on it.

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 [[FanonDisContinuity 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 Loudness War]], and whether it's any good depends entirely on [[BrokenBase who you ask]]. In 2011, they collaborated with Music/LouReed
on ''LuLu'', which has been panned by just about everyone that has an opinion on it.

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 [[{{FanonDisContinuity}} 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]].

Metallica is perhaps best known for its somewhat turbulent relationship with [[UnpleasableFanbase its]] [[BrokenBase fans]]. Some of this is the result of their long career and their experimentation with other musical styles, with "hardcore" metalheads staying away from anything after ''Justice'' (or after ''Master of Puppets'' if they're not into prog-metal, with Hetfield even mentioning in interviews that the band lost some especially vocal fans after the acoustic guitar intro on "Fade to Black"), fans who got into the band with the Black Album and like the the band's anthemic '90s style better, those who uncritically love everything the band releases, and some who seem to exist [[{{Hatedom}} solely to antagonize the band and other fans]]. Metallica hasn't always helped this situation: Lars Ulrich's [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil crusade against Napster]] left a bad taste in the mouths of many, who wondered if he hadn't just shot his own band in the foot. Ulrich has never outright apologized for some of the things he said during this time, although the band has been much more internet-friendly since then, playing nice with iTunes, putting up old shows online for free, and allowing recent concertgoers to download a copy of the show they attended. They also cottoned on with atypical shrewdness to the popularity of ''GuitarHero'' and the potential that their guitar-driven songs had in the format. After licensing a few of their more popular tunes for the series, they went the whole hog by releasing their most recent album as downloadable content, and followed it up by co-developing ''GuitarHero: Metallica'', [[RuleOfCool an entire game allowing players to perform as the band themselves]]. (The Metallica tracks in any given GuitarHero or RockBand game are generally amongst the hardest, because... Well. It's ''Metallica''.)

In the heady days of TheEighties, they forged their way from being the supporting act at tiny club gigs to headlining stadium tours, with next to no support from radio. Their '86 album ''Master of Puppets'' was hailed by critics as a metal masterpiece, but on the subsequent tour, the band lost bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident. Choosing to continue on in spite of their grief, they auditioned and hired Jason Newsted, an intense young musician who became the perennial "New Guy" and the butt of 14 long years of hazing, starting with being mixed out of the ''...And Justice For All'' album entirely. It was with this album that the band first started getting accusations of "selling out", after they put out a music video for the song "One", something fans claimed they had promised in the past they'd never do.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Every album in the 80's and in the 21st century ranged from 7 ("Seek and Destroy") to 9 ("Battery", "Disposable Heroes") with ballads starting around 4 to end around 8, with the exception of "Fade To Black," which goes only up to about 6 or 7 on the hard parts, and "Escape", which is a radio-styled [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] that is at about 5/6. The Black Album's songs are between 6-8, with "The Unforgiven" around a 4 and "Nothing Else Matters" at a 1. The ''Load''s were 6 and 7, with some 1-4s in there as ballads, and a couple songs (such as Fuel and Wasting My Hate) bordering on 8.

** And yet the GuitarHero song pack has the unaltered master tracks that avoid this, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I no seriously]]. The general rule for ''Death Magnetic'' is to buy the album, throw it out, [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes and burn this version instead.]]

* VideoFullOfFilmClips: Inverted with "One," as the band actually ''bought the rights to JohnnyGotHisGun'' so they could use it in the video. [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes Unfortunately, they failed to license the film to a different company for home video for a couple of decades afterwards]].

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Every album in the 80's and in the 21st century ranged from 7 ("Seek and Destroy") to 9 ("Battery", "Disposable Heroes") with ballads starting around 4 to end around 8, with the exception of "Fade To Black," which goes only up to about 6 or 7 on the hard parts, and "Escape", which is a radio-styled [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] that is at about 5/6. The Black Album's songs are between 6-8, with "The Unforgiven" around a 4 and "Nothing Else Matters" at a 1. The ''Load''s were 6 and 7, with some 1-4s in there as ballads.

** YourMileageMayVary. I think the final third of Fade To Black is definitely a 7 or 8. Meanwhile, Fuel from ReLoad would be a low-8.

** YourMileageMayVary. I think the final third of Fade To Black is definitely a 7 or 8.

* BawdySong: Notably ''averted'' when the band repurposed Dave Mustaine's "The Mechanix", full of {{Double Entendre}}s about sex in an auto repair shop, into "The Four Horsemen", an ode to the Apocalypse. The song is arguably better for it, but don't let any Megadeth fans hear you say that...or Mustaine, for that matter. They then played it completely straight in their word-for-word CoverVersion of the most profane British punk song ever recorded, "So What?!"

** So is "Master of Puppets".

* MindScrew: "The Unforgiven" and "The Unforgiven Two".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Before he died, Cliff Burton was leading the band into a progressive direction. One can only wonder how far they would have gone into ProgressiveMetal had Cliff not died.
** Also, on ''S&M'', both "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human" had a unique sound to them. They were still rock, like ''Load'' and ''[=ReLoad=]'', but without the blues and country elements. They were a lot heavier, more technical and had a darker, almost hopeless atmosphere to them. As with the example above, they may have continued in this more musically mature and progressive direction if not for their subsequent CreatorBreakdown.

* KickTheDog: Done to each other by James and Dave; the most notable incident is when James [[LiteralTrope literally kicked Dave's pit bull]] for attacking Ron [=McGovney=]'s 1972 Pontiac [=LeMans=].

* TheRockumentary

* {{Eagleland}}: "Don't Tread On Me" is a Type 1.

* EpicRocking: "Mercyful Fate", "...and Justice for All", "To Live is to Die", "Outlaw Torn", and a couple more not mentioned.
** The ''Lulu'' album breaks this record with 3 songs over 10 minutes, with the longest being "Junior Dad", which is almost ''20 minutes'' long!

* HiddenVillain: [[CthuluMythos Cthulu]] from "The Thing That Should Not Be"

* EpicRocking: They frequently have songs over 5 minutes long, but some really fit the trope, such as "One", "And Justice for All" (the song), and the King Diamond medley "Mercyful Fate".

** The New Guy for 14 years, he finally had enough of the abuse and quit, kicking off the chain reaction that nearly destroyed the band. Additionally, he had never enjoyed the songwriting influence of the others (only three co-writing credits in his tenure), and his efforts to have side projects, such as Voivod, were constantly being shot down by Hetfield. His only ''stated'' reason for leaving was that he'd sustained a neck injury from headbanging, though it's thought he made more of this than there really was in order to avoid airing his grievances in public.

** So is "Master of Puppets".
** In their early days the band was sometimes nicknamed "Alcoholica" because all the members were such heavy drinkers.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Arguably the point behind ''Metallica''. Besides Hammett's comment about the songs being "too fucking long" and his claim that one of the band members swore that they'd never play "...And Justice For All" (the song) again after a grueling concert (he also mentioned "seeing the front row start to yawn by the 8th minute"), Hetfield recounted that they were encouraged to actually pursue the direction when they saw that a previously GlamMetal-infected MTV was showing harder {{Grunge}} stuff.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Although it's about the futility of war, it's a kick ass song that gets one's adrenaline pumping.

* ForDoomTheBellTolls: "For Whom The Bell Tolls" obviously.

* IronicHell: "Trapped Under Ice" is about the 9th circle of {{Hell}} from ''The Inferno'' segment of the ''TheDivineComedy'', which is all about this trope, where those guilty of sins of betrayal are sealed under a lake of ice.
** {{Jossed}}: James said there is no hidden meaning. It really is about being trapped in a perfectly mundane frozen-over body of water.

--> ''Fed through the tube that sticks in me / Just like a wartime novelty. / Tied to machines that make me be. / Cut this life off from me./ Hold my breath as I wish for death. / Oh, please, God, wake me!

* EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: "Blackened"

* ForDoomTheBellTolls: "For Whom the Bell Tolls".

* IronicNurseryTune: "Enter Sandman" again.

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

* KickTheDog: Done to each other by James and Dave; the most notable incident is when James kicked Dave's pit bull for attacking Ron [=McGovney=]'s 1972 Pontiac [=LeMans=].

* NobodyLovesTheBassist: Jason Newsted, unfortunately. His replacement and the one he replaced on the other hand...

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: "Death Magnetic" for some of the fans who call "[[ItsPopularNowItSucks sellout on anything post-Black Album]].

* WhamLine: On "Sad But True":

[[TomatoInTheMirror I'm]] [[YouBastard you!]]

* ConceptAlbum: Disputed, but ''Ride the Lightning'', ''Master of Puppets'', and ''...And Justice for All'' each have thematic elements linking their songs together (death, those whose fates are controlled by others or who control others' fates, and the miscarriage of justice, respectively). ''Death Magnetic'' is a borderline case, with Hetfield saying the general idea of the title was inspired by the untimely deaths of several friends and colleagues.

* FireAndBrimstoneHell: "Jump In The Fire"

* StartMyOwn: After being fired from Metallica for his drug problems, Dave Mustaine formed Music/{{Megadeth}}.
* StreisandEffect: The band's opposition to peer-to-peer downloading served only to make their songs even more widely pirated.

* TheNineties: Alt-rock, black clothes, and short haircuts.

** {{Jossed}}: James said there is no hidden meaning. It really is about being trapped in a perfectly mundane frozen-over body of water.

[[TomatoInTheMirror I'm you!]]

* [[SpeedyTechnoRemake Speedy Techno Remix]]: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1GeGRXrMY&fmt=18 YOU LIVE IT YOU LIE IT]], a happy hardcore remix of "Frantic", made by the electronic musician Renard under his "Captain Gotobed" alias.

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