Story startsMetallica was formed 1981
by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Lars came from a wealthy family
in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was strongly influenced by
NWOBHM MetallicaThey now called themselves
'Metallica', a name that Lars actually had stolen from a
couple of friends who had planned to start a magazine. He
simply "adviced" them to come up with something
better and then kept the title for himself. They got
James's roommate Ron McGovney on the bassguitar and on
lead guitar they got another guy from Los Angeles, Dave Mustaine. They were Dave MustaineBut they had problems
within the band. Between James and Dave. Dave, the
leadguitarrist,wanted to be the frontman. James, who
refused to get pushed aside, wouldn't to accept this. He
was the one who had sormed he band and was also the
singer. James and Cliff BurtonWhen James and Lars
entered they heard a remarkable solo and Kirk HammetFinding a replacement for
Dave appeared to be much easier than expected. Before
they kicked Dave they got a tip about a guitarrist in the Kill 'Em AllSo now they were finally
prepared to make teir first album. This was done in a
small studio and the six weeks there costed the band
$15000. Lars tought that the studio was haunted because
creepy things happened all the time. The original title
of the album was originally ‘Metal up your
ass’. Lars came up with that one night when he was
drunk. The album cover was a hand in a toilet holding a
knife. Ride The LightningFebruar 13, the date of
the end of the tour with Venom, it was time to record
their second album. They went to 'Sweet Silence Studios
in Copenhagen, Denmark, to get the exact sound on the
drums that Lars wanted. They also decided to hire the
producer Flemming Rasmussen. Besides, Copenhagen was
Lars's home town. Master Of PuppetsOnce again they chosed
'Sweet Sielence Studios' with the producer Flemming
Rasmussen. That was their first album recorded with the
new record company Elektra. Thereby they had a much
bigger budget and didn't have to stress when recording
it. |
(New wave of British heavy metal ) and bands
like Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. He started to play
drums as a teenager. His great idol was Ian Paice in Deep
Purple. Lars often went with his father Torben, who was a
tennisplayer, to America. While Lars was one too, his
family finally moved to Los Angeles. That's where he met
James. James Hetfield had been playing guitar since he
was a teenager and was a big fan of Black Sabbath. He had
been playing piano before and wasn't into metal at all
until his brother once brought him to an Aerosmith
consert. He wanted to stand there onstage making noice
himself. During the school years James and a couple of
friends formed a band.
He wrote some songs himself, but
the others just wanted to play covers. That's when he
responded to Lars's advertisement. James and Lars hade
been playing with each other before but James thought
that the little danish boy wasn't good enough. "I
wasn't very good back then" Lars admitted later.
"My drumkit was so poor that the cymbals used to fly
across the room when I struck them." This time it
went much better. They now got the opportunity to record
a song to the coming album ‘Metal massacre’.
Together with the guitarrist Lloyd Grant they recorded
their own song 'Hit The Lights'. The recording was made
with a small tape recorder, and the sound quality wasn't
good at all, but people in Los Angeles now begun to pay
the duo some attention.
now practising frequently and
finally got their first gig thanks to ‘Metal
massacre’. Together with Saxon, which was one of the
big bands at that time, they played at a bar, ‘The
Whiskey’, in West Hollywood. Metallica begun to play
in clubs and bars all over Los Angeles. On the setlists
there were some own songs, but mostly covers like Diamond
Head’s ‘The Prince’, ‘Am I
Evil?’ and Blitzkrieg's 'Blitzkrieg'. They usually
wouldn't mention that those were cover songs in hope that
people would think that they were their own songs. .
After a short while they managed to collect enough money
to make a demotape. It was titled 'No Life 'Til Leather'
and contained the seven original songs; ‘Hit The
Lights’, ‘The Mechanix’,
‘Motorbreath’, ‘Seek And Destroy’,
‘Metal Militia’, ‘Jump In The Fire’
and ‘Phantom Lord’. This demo was a typical
garagerecording with bad sound quality. The bass was to
loud as an example. But defiant to this the demo was very
appreciated among critics and metalfans. Many consider
this demo as one of the representatives of the birth of
Thrash Metal. Metallica now begun to build up their image
as the hardest, fastest and most intensive band in Los
Angeles. 
Lars realized that something had to be done
if Metallica was supposed to succeed to a more
proffesional level. They were both convinced that Dave
had to be kicked out of the band. It was ovious that he
was very talanted, but his attitude against the others
and his very serioius problems with drugs and alcohole
gave them no choise. Dave used to be so high on drugs
that he simply became a slobbering maniac which the other
bandmembers couldn't handle. They had their doubts about
Ron too. He was indifferent, both to the band and the
gigs. Many times they caught him in the act, daydreaming
on the gigs. James wasn't really suree about the singing
thig either. His suggestion was that he would play guitar
only and get somebody with a better voice to sing for
them to get the power in the music that they needed.
Armored Saint’s singer John Bush got the offer but
declined. Suddenly everything changed over one night. One
monday when they had left Ron McGowney behind they went
to 'The Wiskey's' to look for a new bassplayer. There was
a gig with the band Trauma with 
looked
towards the stage. They couldn't see any leadguitarrist,
which made them very surprised. Finally they saw Cliff
doing a solo on the bass. James and Lars got so impressed
by Cliff that they gave him the offer right there and
then. As another surprise to them he declined. Cliff
lived in San Fransisco and didn't want to move just
because of a band. They tried to convince him for several
months, but he refused to join them. Then they gave up
and desided that they should move to San Fransisco
instead. They went rehearsing with Cliff emidiatly and
realized that he was their man. Officially Dave was still
in the band, but the other members of the band decided
that something radical had to be done. Metallica had
signed a contract with Megaforce Records was in New York
to record their débutalbum with the producer Johnny
Zazula. They now kicked Dave and tried to find a
replacement to teach before the recording. 
speedmetal-band
'Exodus' His name was 
Unfortunately the record company didn't like
this and they had to change both the cover and the title.
The new title was ‘
Once again James was unsure about
his role as singer in the band. For the second time they
asked John Bush in 'Armored Saint' if he wanted the job
Once again he declined because he didn't want to abandon
his friends in the band. So, while there wasn't anybody
else that they wanted James had to go on as the singer.
Besides, the other bandmembers thought that his voice was
suited to the lyrics and the songs they played. They
weren't really playing love songs. At this time Metallica
was almost broke. The budget for the new album was
calculated to $20000 but reached $30000 after half the
recording time. Finally they finished the recording and
went together to Great Brittain to ditribute the new
album. Their record company desperately tried to set up a
gig to introduce them to the brittish market. It was a
dull period and one day during that time James and Cliff
was caught by the brittish police when they were out
shopping. They thought that Cliff's alergic pills were
narcotics and that both of the young american
metal-freaks looked like two true drug dealers. They were
kept a couple of hours. Cliff got really pissed off and
yelled at the cops because his only day off was ruined. A
few days later they did teir first gig on the tour. To
get publicity at the prospect of the new album they went
as a foreband to Twisted Sister. Together they performed
five times in europe. July 27 1984 they released their
new album ‘
The new record
company now bought the rights to 'Kill 'em all' and also
ree-released 'Ride the lightning'. Metallica then
returned to Europe to promote the album with conserts in
Belgium, France, Italy, Schweiz, Germany, Holland,
Denmark, Sweden, Finland and England. In the beginning of
1985 they went on tour with 'Armored Saint'. The two
bands worked fine together and they treated eachother
like brothers. Their tour bus was to be known as the
”Edna Express” while they always invited a
bunch of girls to party. On the windscreen bypassing
people could read the text: ”Don’t Laugh
Mister, Your Daughter’s Probably Inside!”.
During the tour both bands staggered around half drunk
all the time. Thanks to the wild parties and the great
consumption of alcohole Metallica got the nickname
"Alcoholica". One time, when they had spent
several hours at the bar in a hotel, they decided to go
to the room of the bassplayer in 'Armored Saint' and
drink up all his beer. When they had finished doing that
tey were so drunk that they started to throw the empty
bottles out of the window. By accident they throwed his
jacket out too, and they decided to go and get it. On
their way down they opened the elevator's doors between
two floors and got stuck for half an hour. When they
finally got out James was so mad that he took a fire
extinguisher and sprayed lather at people that went by.
The time was then 5 am. Anyhow, they survived the tour
and went back to Copenhagen to record their third album. 
Metallica's third album ‘