Metallica was founded in the early 1980s when a young man from Denmark named Lars Ulrich was looking to start a band in the Los Angeles area. The musical style labeled "The New Wave of British Heavy Metal" captivated Lars. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal started in England in late 70s and was a product of some people's distaste for the current punk rock scene (Crocker 11-12). Lars, who had recently moved to the United States, started searching excessively for someone to jam with. He came across the name of a local heavy metal guitarist and vocalist in a local newspaper called The Recycler. This man was named James Hetfield. The two quickly became friends and began to play their favorite heavy metal music together on a regular basis (Hadland, Encyclopedia Metallica).

The story behind the name Metallica i

Metallica's heavy roots are traced back to their 1983 debut album Kill 'Em All. This album is considered by most the very first thrash metal album ever. According to Alan Gilkeson from the website about.com, thrash metal is "...basically derived from the Hardcore Punk cross over of the late 70's and early 80's, this style was of course brought to notoriety by the one and only Metallica." The band's main early influences include Motorhead, Diamond Head, and Judas Priest (Crocker, 24). Taking these influences and mixing them with their own writing style, Metallica invented thrash metal. Although a new style of music was spawned from this album, it was not technically advanced. The music mainly consisted of a lot of double picking on the guitar and fast double bass drum beats (Doughton, 25-26). The lyrical content of Kill 'Em All is not particularly profound. There are several examples of this on the album. The track Seek and Destroy is basically about a group of people looking to start an unsubstantiated fight, and the song entitled Motorbreath talks about fast cars and fast living (Hadland, Encyclopedia Metallica). Ultimately, Kill 'Em All, while being simplistic in musical and lyrical content, it has come to be one of the most influential metal albums of all time.

s very interesting. A friend of Lars' was starting a heavy metal fanzine and asked Lars for advice on what its title should be. The friend gave Lars a list of candidate names and the word Metallica was on the list. Lars liked it so much he told his friend to choose another name and kept Metallica for himself (Crocker 25-26). In 1983, the band's lineup came to consist of James on vocals and rhythm guitar, Lars on percussion, Cliff Burton on bass guitar, and Kirk Hammett on lead guitar. However, in 1986, while the band was several albums into their career, Cliff Burton was tragically killed in a bus accident while the band was on tour in Sweden. Jason Newsted of the band Flotsam and Jetsam immediately replaced Cliff after his death (Doughton, 73).

Metallica's self-titled album, commonly known as "The Black Album", is widely regarded by the mainstream as their biggest change. Many people charged Metallica with "selling out" by releasing this album for many reasons. First, the album seems to be geared toward a more mainstream audience having shorter song times and a greater number of songs. The album also sounds very produced. The song structures are very tight, using a few core riffs for each song. In addition to those factors, this was the first album Metallica included a ballad, co

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