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1981 - Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield meet, and together with bassist Ron McGovney and guitarist Dave Mustaine, they form METALLICA.
1982 - Bassist Ron McGovney quits Metallica. A young and upcoming bassist, Cliff Burton, joins in his replacement.
1983 - Dave Mustaine is kicked out of Metallica, and replaced with guitarist Kirk Hammet. By the end of the year, Metallica's first full-length EP,
Kill 'Em All, is released on Megaforce Records.
1984 - Metallica signs with Elektra;
Ride the Lightning is released.
1985 -
Master of Puppets, arguably the greatest release from the band, is finished.
1986 -
Master of Puppets is released by Elektra, and a bus accident en route to Copenhagen takes the life of bassist Cliff Burton at the age of 24. Bassist Jason Newsted takes over.
1987 - Recording sessions begin for
The Garage Days Re-Revisited album of covers.
1988 - The album,
...And Justice for All, is released, and the video for
One is shot in Los Angeles.
1989 - Metallica receives it's first Grammy nomination for
...And Justice for All, but are ultimately beat out by Jethro Tull's album,
Crest of a Knave.
1990 - Metallica wins it's first Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category for
One; recording begins on the album which is later known as
The Black Album by fans later that year.
1991 - Metallica wins it's second Grammy for the single
Stone Cold Crazy in February, later that year,
The Black Album is finished and released ten days after a free listening party at Madison Square Garden in New York.
1992 - The Grammy for Best Metal Performance With Vocal is given to Metallica for
The Black Album; along with MTV's award for Best Hard Rock Video for
Enter Sandman; while on tour with Gun's and Roses and Faith No More, Metallica front-man James Hetfield receives second and third-degree burns due to a pyrotechnic accident while performing.
1993 – Metallica’s boxed set of live performances,
Live Shi*t: Binge & Purge is released.
1994-1996 - Little activity occurred in the years between 1994 and 1996 as the band allowed their real lives to catch up with their rock lives.
1996 – Major changes occurred for Metallica as they did away with their trademark long hair, and opted for a more “cleaned up” look when their first studio album release since 1991 they called simply
Load.
1997 – Leftovers from the
Load sessions wrought the album
Reload.
1998 - All the old B-sides, covers and the two previous Garage Days sessions were combined with 11 new cover songs, and were released in a two-disc set called
Garage Inc.
1999 – Metallica, together with conductor/composer Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, recorded the live album, Symphony and Metallica, known simply as
S&M.
2000 – Metallica cite Napster and three universities in a copyright suit early in the year; The Summer Sanitarium tour begins. To many hardcore fans, what came to be known as the “Napster Fiasco”, was the beginning of the end for Metallica.
2001 – Bassist Jason Newsted leaves Metallica. James Hetfield enters into a rehabilitation center.
2002 – The recording for the album
St. Anger began with long time Metallica producer Bob Rock on bass.
2003 – The album
St. Anger is released early in the year; again, most hardcore fans are disappointed by the new, more “emotional”, “corporate lackeys” that Metallica had become; auditions begin for their next bassist; Robert Trujillo, former bassist for Ozzy Osbourne is chosen. Later that year, MTV honors Metallica by entering them into their
MTVicons hall of fame. Several artists preformed live covers of some of the band’s greatest songs, including
One preformed by KoRn,
(Welcome Home) Sanitarium preformed by Limb Bizkit,
Fuel by Avril Lavigne, and
Sad But True, preformed by Snoop Dog.
2004 – The documentary,
Some Kind of Monster is recorded and released in theaters across the country.
2005 -
Some Kind of Monster is released on DVD; Metallica destroys what little faith their fans had left by appearing on
The Jane Pauly Show.
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I wrote this to show all of you how Metallica, once one of the greatest bands of all time, have faded into a heap of dust. The last nail was placed in their coffin today as I was flipping through the channels on my VCR to play my N64, when I saw them discussing their "feelings" with Jane Pauly. I nearly cried as the last remnants of my love for the band slipped through the cockles of my heart.
St. Anger was bad; suing twelve year-old girls was bad; the whole concept of
Some Kind of Monster was bad, but I held on for dear life, hoping that one day that they'd grow out their hair, start drinking, and raise Cliff Burton from the grave with the aid of a Voodoo witch doctor paid in booze. But now I see that day will never come.
EVER.
