On top is an old photo of the band from 1984. Left to right: Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Cliff Burton
Pictured below is the band nowadays. Left to right: Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Robert Trujillo

Metallica was formed by Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield in the fall of 1981. Ulrich (who originally went to the US from Denmark to play tennis) had, during that summer, met Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records and secured an appearance on an upcoming compilation called Metal Massacre, but had no band. He quickly found Hetfield, who was playing in Leather Charm at the time, and one day in December of 1981, they recorded the rhythm tracks to a remake of a Leather Charm song, "Hit the Lights". Hetfield tracked all guitars and bass on this recording, except for one of the solos, which was performed by guitarist Lloyd Grant in January 1982, and the song appeared on Metal Massacre in February.

Permanent guitarist Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) was brought in in February 1982, and a bassist, Ron McGovney, was found. Ron (who also designed the famous Metallica logo) was James's roommate, and James taught him to play bass, so that the band could play live. This line-up re-recorded "Hit the Lights" for the second pressing of Metal Massacre. The first live show was on March 14th at Radio City Music Hall in Anaheim. James did only vocals, and Dave was the single guitarist. The band at this point had several rehearsal tapes floating about, but then in response to one of those being pressed to vinyl by Bongus Loadus Records, decided to record their first demo, with the Grant version of Hit the Lights and two covers. This demo was first given out at the March 27th, 1982 gig at the Whisky, when they opened for Saxon. A vocalist named Sammy Dijon, of the band Ruthless, was in for a few rehearsals but no actual gigs (so do not add him to the former members section!).

Two more studio demos were recorded in 1982, one in April and one in July. On April 23rd, 1982, guitarist "Damien Phillips" (real name: Brad Parker) played one gig, before quitting, because Dave wouldn't let him do duelling leads. James took over as second guitarist live from then on. Extensive live gigging occured, including one show at Lars's high school on May 25th at which the final attendance was zero. On May 28th, Jeff Warner was on vocals, but this show seems to have been a glorified rehearsal. He sang only that one gig. Also, Tygers of Pan Tang vocalist Jesse Cox was considered, but he did not accept.

A live demo was recorded on November 29th, 1982 on a road trip to San Francisco. This road trip would prove useful, as the opener for Metallica on November 29th was a band called Exodus with Kirk Hammett on guitar. Also, Metallica attended a Trauma gig, with Cliff Burton on bass, and immediately tried to convince Cliff to join Metallica.

Cliff was convinced to join, on the condition that Metallica move to San Francisco. Cliff's first gig was March 5th, 1983. Ron McGovney was later seen in Phantasm. Problems between Dave Mustaine and the rest of the band arose in late March on a road trip to the east coast. Dave was given a bus ticket back home and unceremoniously released, while Kirk Hammett flew in and the band did not miss a gig. At this time, the band stayed with Anthrax and from what the band has said, it was very tough living, as all their little money went towards the band.

The first album, Kill 'em All, was recorded for Megaforce Records in the summer of 1983, and after some touring, they cut a four song demo in October. James Hetfield became the vocalist out of necessity and had considered finding a replacement so he could be a full time rhythm guitar player. They contemplated asking vocalist John Bush, vocalist of Armored Saint and later to be vocalist of Anthrax, to join but he declined, deciding to stay with "his buddies band." In the end Hetfield decided to take over vocals once and for all. The second album, Ride the Lightning, came out in the spring of 1984, featuring riffs from Dave Mustaine and also Tom Hunting via Kirk Hammett.

Work on a third album began in the summer of 1985, and the album, Master of Puppets, was released in the spring of 1986. As an early parody of the PMRC's "explicit lyrics" warning labels, many prints of Metallica's '86 release of Master of Puppets featured an octagonal sticker on the front stating:

"The only track you probably won't want to play is Damage, Inc. due to the multiple use of the infamous "F" word. Otherwise, there aren't any Shits, Fucks, Pisses, Cunts, Motherfuckers, or Cocksuckers anywhere on this record".

When James Hetfield broke his arm in a skateboarding accident in July 1986, six weeks of gigs featured roadie John Marshall on rhythm guitar (he would later join Metal Church). On September 25th, James was back. One more gig was played on the 26th, and then on the morning of the 27th, their tour bus hit a patch of black ice and flipped over, killing bassist Cliff Burton. (Morbid aside: he and Kirk had switched bunks just a few hours before.)

The band decided to continue, and began searching for a new bassist. Among those that tried out was Kirk Hammett's friend, bass legend Les Claypool (Blind Illusion, Primus), who was rejected, because he played too well. In the end, Flotsam & Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted was brought in in November, being officially sworn in at a restaurant in Phoenix called Tommy's Joint. The ...and Justice for All album was recorded in 1988, with a serious lack of bass presence, and then a world tour followed in 1989.

In 1989, Metallica was nominated for a Grammy in "Best Heavy Metal Performance of the Year" alongside AC/DC, Iggy Pop, and Jethro Tull. Everybody was expecting for Metallica to take the award, but, surprisingly, the award went to Jethro Tull, who did not even play metal or anything resembling it.

In 1991, the fifth Metallica album was released and this time they had a new producer. Flemming Rasmussen (producer of Pretty Maids, Blind Guardian, etc.), who had produced the previous 3 albums was out, and the new producer was Bob Rock. The new album was self-titled and had a much more commercial feel to it and sold 20 million copies worldwide.

And this time, justice took place as Metallica received a Grammy award for "Best Heavy Metal Performance of the Year". When they received it, Lars Ulrich said: "We wanna thank Jethro Tull for not putting out an album this year."

After extensive touring over the next four years, Metallica returned to the studio in May 1995, and recorded the album Load. The album was less metal-orientated and more laid back, and it still divides fans to this day. The follow up to Load, Reload, was released in 1997, and consisted of outtakes from Load.

The next album was released only a year later. Garage Inc. was a collection of B-Sides and the long out of print Garage Days Re-Revisited EP, along with a second disc consisting of brand new covers of songs from bands such as Mercyful Fate, Misfits, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others.

After a year of touring, the next Metallica project was entitled S&M a collaboration of sorts with the San Fransisco Symphony Orchestra. This consisted of two live shows, with Metallica playing some of their songs with a full Orchestral Backing.
S&M was released on cassette, CD, VHS, and DVD formats in November 1999. Metallica then won a grammy for "Rock Instrumental Performance" with "The Call of the Ktulu" taken from the S&M album.

The next few years would see a lot of upheaval within Metallica. In 2000 Metallica sued the file-sharing service Napster, with the claim that Napster "encourages and enables visitors to its website to unlawfully exchange with others copyrighted songs and sound recordings without the knowledge or permission of Metallica." This move, while ultimately successful, alienated a significant portion of Metallica's fans. Next, in January 2001, Jason Newstead, who had been Metallica's bassist for 14 years, quit "due to private and personal reasons, and the physical damage that [he had] done to [him]self over the years." This was followed by James going to rehab in July 2001.

Over the next few years Metallica were quite close to splitting up, as was documented in their DVD Some Kind of Monster However, they managed to overcome their differences, and by July 2003 they had Rob Trujillo as their new bassist and had released their eighth studio album, St. Anger

On April 4th, 2009 Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On November 30th, 2012, Metallica launched their own label, Blackened Recordings and took ownership of all of their master recordings from the Warner Music Group.

In late 2013, the band won a Guinness world record for playing in all continents (Antarctica included) in less than one year.

Compilation appearances:
- "Hit the Lights" on Metal Massacre (Metal Blade, 1982).
- "Metal Militia" on Hell on Earth (Music For Nations, 1983).
- "Motorbreath" on Metal Hammer (Metal Hammer/Roadrunner, 1984).
- "Whiplash" on Metal Treasures and Vinyl Heavies (Action Replay, 1984).
- "Creeping Death" on Hell Comes to Your House (Music For Nations, 1984).
- "Hit the Lights" on Giants of Steel (Roadrunner, 1984).
- "Trapped Under Ice" on Metal Concussion (Bandit, 1985).
- "Creeping Death" on Banzai Axe (Banzai, 1985).
- "Disposable Heroes" on Mad Trax II - Beyond Metal Zone (Music For Nations, 1986).
- "Creeping Death" on Mad Trax II - Beyond Metal Zone (PGP RTB/Music For Nations, 1987, Yugoslavian press).
- "Sad But True", "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters" on Metal Attack (On Tour, 1993).
- "For Whom the Bell Tolls (The Irony of it All)" (w/ D.J. Spooky) on the Spawn soundtrack (Epic, 1997).
- "Seek and Destroy (live)" on Metal Shock (CGD, 1988).
- "Remember Tomorrow" on Maiden Heaven, Kerrang! magazine's Iron Maiden tribute album.