Metallica all started with Lars Ulrich. He was hoping to start up a band of his own but did not have much luck finding other members. So he put an ad in a magizine in 1980 and James Hetfield was the one that answered it. They recored there first song on a cheap recorder with James singing. But eventually James' housemate and friend Ron McGoveny played bass and Dave Mustaine took lead guitar.

They recorded there first demo called 'No Life till Leather' which got them there first gigs in L.A and San Fransico. Then there they meet a up and coming band called Trauma. There bassist was the one that caught there attention, Cliff Burton. He eventually joined the band.

Then 'No Life till Leather' hit big in New York and they were asked to come out and play few shows and record an album. They went out there in a stolen U-Haul only to announce to their manager that there guitarist had to go. Roadie Mark Whitakker suggested a guitar player he knew back in SF and on April 1, 1983, Kirk Hammlet joined the band and later that year they released their first album, 'Kill 'Em All'.

Metallica toured behind 'Kill 'Em All' and in 1984 released there second album 'Ride the Lightning'. This album was more mature and was a lot better lyric wise because they put more effort into it. After 'Ride the Lightning', the band signed with major management agency Q Prime and soon after is signed to major record label Elektra.

In 1986 they release there thrid album 'Master of Puppets' and toured with Ozzy Osbourne. Touring with Ozzy helped them get noticed all around the world. But then during the tour the band ran into a big problem and that was that James broke his arm skateboarding and was unable to play guitar. After the Ozzy tour was done they went over to Europe and played there. But James still couldn't play guitar so they got someone else to fill in. Then on September 26th, 1986, James came back to perform, it was their last performance with Cliff.

Early that morning on the tour bus in Sweeden, the tour bus hit some black ice and the bus fliped killing Cliff. They were about to call a quits after that because Cliff was mayjor part in the band. Not only playing bass but also giving the band some musical wisdom. But Metallica still carried on.

They chose Jason Newsted out of over 40 auditions to play bass mainly because he was the only one that was able to keep up with the bands drinking habits. Then they went right back to the studio to record there fourth album, '...And Justice For All'. The album had huge success. It won them there first grammy award for Best Metal/Hard-Rock album and they made there first ever music video for 'One'. That also won them there second Grammy Award for Best Single for One.

Then in 1991 they released there fifth album which was self-titled. The album had shorter songs, and each song was fuller and deeper. The album went straight to number one all over the world and stayed there for several weeks. The album released several singles and videos and won them several awards including the Grammy for best album and a few MTV and American Music Awards.

Five years would pass before they would release their next album. They went to the recording studio with a whole bunch of songs that would not fit on one disk. So they released them separatly. First came 'Load' in 1996 which is the longest Metallica CD ever. It had 14 songs and used up all of the avalible space on a CD. Then in 1997 they release 'Reload' which was like a follow up to 'Load'. This albums had song that were loose and more powerful.

Then in April 1999, the band joined up with the San Fransico orcastra and played for two nights a number of songs including 'Master of Puppets', 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', and 'One'. They also play two brand new songs, 'No Leaf Clover' and '-Human'. They album got released in November 1999.