Metallica: Lyrics, History, Ideology.

The history of Metallica dates back to 1981. The band was founded by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Both placed advertisements in the newspaper "The Recycler" about forming a band. Soon too more musicians Ron McGovney and Lloyd Grand joined them. At the same time Ron Quintana asked Lars to help pick out a name for the magazine. Metallica was among the variants. Lars played Ron a trick, having convinced him, it was not a happy choice for the magazine's name. But he decided to use it as a perfect name for a band. As a result, Metallica was chosen as the name for one of the most successful bands in the end of the 20th century, and not for the music magazine. But Lloyd left the band, and it was necessary to find a new lead guitarist. The search seemed fruitless, in despair Lars posted an advertisement in a local newspaper. Dave Mustaine who was playing in the band Panic responded and met for an audition. Metallica was so impressed with Dave's warm-up and equipment, they asked him to join before the audition even began.

A bit earlier, in 1982, Lars convinced Brian Slagel (the owner and founder of "Metal Blade Records") to include the song "Hit the Lights" on the first "Metal Massacre" compilation. Later, in March and April 1982, Metallica recorded several demos including "Hit the Lights", "Ron McGovney's '82 Garage" Demo (which was recorded in Ron's garage) and the "Power Metal" demo. Then Metallica began to work at a full demo, No Life 'Till Leather, which quickly drew attention on the underground heavy music trading circuit. Then Metallica released the first live demo titled Metal Up Your Ass. Later that year, Dave spilled beer on Ron's bass-guitar, Ron could not stand that "punk" behavior anymore and left the band. Brian Slagel advised Metallica to pay attention to Cliff Burton ("Trauma"), who lived in San Francisco. After the musicians had heard Cliff playing in Trauma, they immediately wanted to have that gifted bassist in Metallica. They got in touch with Cliff and he agreed if the band would relocate to San Francisco. The musicians agreed to everything and moved .With Cliff Burton Metallica recorded the Megaforce Demo. Later that year, the musicians decided their lead guitarist's aggressive and disruptive behavior was becoming too much to handle. As a result, he was asked to leave the band and Kirk Hammett from the band Exodus (with which Metallica played in San Francisco clubs) was invited to replace him. The ex-member of Metallica band Dave Mustain went on to create his own band Megadeath that also established classic thrash metal.

Finally, when the line-up was fixed, Metallica faced its main problem - to get out of the underground and to conquer the hearts of heavy metal audience. The first step to world popularity was their move to New York in 1983 to sign a contract with the new label Megaforce Records. With the ready material Metallica traveled to Rochester, New York to record their first (now legendary) album, Kill 'Em All. The album was not an initial financial success, but it earned Metallica a growing fanbase among extreme music lovers. It must be mentioned, that Kill 'Em All itself differed a lot from Metallica's other works, but the ambition of the band was evident.

In order to understand, why this album later on became legendary for the majority of thrash metal bands, and not only for them, it is necessary to have a closer look at it... Probably, the main difference of the first Metallica album from the others was its lyrics. It was James Hetfield, the vocalist and rhythm-guitarist, who was totally responsible for Metallica lyrics. The lyrics of this album is penetrated with bursting energy, aggression and just a flow of emotions so typical of young musicians. You will not find there any philosophy or actual social problems, it is simple and primitive, in the finest sense of the word, thrash metal.

Hit the lights is one of the first Metallica songs, its lyrics are penetrated with aggression "we gonna kick some ass tonight, we got some metal madness..."

The Four Horsemen is one more remarkable song, its lyrics represent another portion of unrestrained energy "four horsemen are drawing nearer, on the leather steeds they ride - they've come to take your life..."

No Remorse is one of the most impressive songs of the album, this time its lyrics show the most aggressive human behavior, that is war "no mercy for what we are doing..." "Bullets are flying, people are dying. With madness surrounding all hell's breaking loose"

To make the album even more furious and unique James chose a hard-edged way - he simply started shouting, that was, undoubtedly, innovative for those times. Besides, Kill 'Em All is considered Metallica's most high-speed album, that is why it is often called transitional from speed metal to thrash. The aggressiveness of the album became apparent in everything: in its lyrics, in James' voice, in guitar riffs and the sound and Lars' drums. In June 1983 Metallica started their first Kill 'Em All tour with Raven, which ends in Metallica's native The Stone in San Francisco. At the turn of the year Metallica started recording their next album...

Finally, in 1984 Metallica released its next album Ride the Lightning. This time the album was more philosophical, the lyrics had changed, and it is obvious, that James had worked fruitfully on this part of Metallica's work. Now Metallica's lyrics are devoted not only to global aggression, but also to every person taken separately. James also decided it is no use shouting anymore and switched to more classic thrash metal vocal. Metallica music became more diverse, and together with high-speed thrash compositions, Ride The Lightning also contains calmer and more structurally arranged tracks. Guitar solos had always been an important part of Metallica's music, and this album was not an exception. Once again, Kirk Hammet proves that he is one of the greatest and most talented guitarists. His solo in the songs Ride the lightning, Fade to Black continues to surprise real thrash lovers even after 100th listening. One more plus of Metallica's new album is the quality of recording. It obviously improved, and there was no sign of "dampness" in it. Overall, Metallica undoubtedly became mature in all senses, and it is obvious from the first minutes of Ride the Lightning sounding.

Fight Fire With Fire begins with guitar fingering and then suddenly transforms to high-speed distorted guitars sound. The lyrics are perfectly combined with the music, as the lyrics are devoted to nuclear war threat, and are some kind of "calm before a storm".

Ride the Lightning gave the name to the whole album. Its lyrics tell about thoughts and feelings of a person sentenced to death on electric chair. The guitar solo in the middle of the song is the peculiarity of the album.

Fade To Black is really the most beautiful song of the album and all Metallica's at all. It is the first ballad of the group. The lyrics tell about feelings of the person, who has lost sense of life. The lyrics of For Whom The Bell Tools is Metallica's music variant of Edgar Allan Po's story. It is always on Metallica's playlist of any concert.

Despite the fact, that the album was being ignored by mass media and commercial radio stations, Ride The Lightning held its place in Billboard's Top 200 for 50 weeks. The album attracted attention of big record companies, and Metallica signed with Elektra Records. In 1986 Metallica Released the next album with Elektra, which would surpass the two previous albums of Metallica. Master of Puppets (that was album's title) was warmly accepted by Metallica's fans. Many of them consider it to be the greatest album of Metallica and one of the most outstanding in thrash metal. That is why the history of Metallica can be divided into 2 parts: before and after Master of Puppets. The band gained even more exposure when they were asked to open for Ozzy Osbourne. Master of Puppets climbed to number 29 on the Billboard Top Album Charts. As well as for the previous albums James Hetfield wrote the lyrics for the album. Metallica's lyrics became more serious, and the main theme of Master of Puppets was the eternal theme of Master & Puppets.

Battery is the first track of the album, its music and lyrics represent an inexhaustible battery, which charged you all the time during listening for the album.

Master of Puppets is the greatest Metallica's song. It has everything to become a 100% hit. It is a great composition. Very impressive lyrics.

Welcome Home (Sanitarium) is one more hit, and its lyrics are masterpiece. James looks at this world through the eyes of the insane, showing madness.

The lyrics of The Thing That Should Not Be are penetrated with malice and tell about chaos and rising evil.

Master of Puppets is considered to be the turning point also because during the European tour, in Sweden, on September 27, 1986, Metallica's bus skidded off an icy road and turned over... Metallica members had a lucky escape and got only light wounds. But Cliff Burton was thrown out of the window and the bus landed on top of him. That was the tragic death of one of the most talented and promising bass-guitarists. It is a widespread opinion, that if Cliff were alive, there would be no future changes in Metallica's style and image. However, fate decreed differently, and Metallica faced the question of continuation of their work. The three remaining members decided that Cliff would want them to carry on, and with his parents' blessings, the band started seeking for a replacement.

Among several dozens of candidates the main was Les Claypool, a childhood friend of Hammett's. The band liked him but in Metallica's members opinion his style was not right for the band, and as a result, he was not offered the job. Metallica chose Jason Newsted from Flotsam & Jetsam. Jason officially joined Metallica on October 28, 1986. Metallica finished their tour in beginning of 1987 and the band recorded Garage Days Re-Revisited in Lars' garage as a way to test a new studio they had constructed and to trial the talents of Jason Newsted.

In 1988 Metallica put out a video "Cliff Em All" a tribute to Cliff Burton. At the same time, Metallica went on a tour through the U.S. within the series of concerts Monsters of Rock together with Van Halen, The Scorpions, and Kingdome Come. In September 1988, the next studio album of Metallica And Justice for All was released. The album immediately climbed in various music charts, was a great success, but had its drawbacks. On the album very little of Jason's bass is audible. Fans decided, it was done on purpose as a reaction on Cliff Burton's death, but later Metallica explained, that their new bassist Jason Newsted was not present during the reduction and could not influence the process. Lars Ulrich stated his opinion that Newsted's bass mirrored James Hetfield's rhythm sections. Despite the fact, that Metallica's lyrics on this album were highly appreciated, the production was strongly criticized. Lars' drums sounded too low, and the guitars - too thin.

The lyrics of Blackened, the main track of the album, present some kind of Armageddon, death of the world, description.

The lyrics of And Justice for All, the song that gave name to Metallica's album, state, that there can not be any justice in our corrupted world and one can buy any justice.

One is one more great track, which was later filmed for Metallica's video its lyrics tell about the soldier, who survived the mine explosion during the war, he is alive, but he does not want to live, to feel himself weak and helpless.

The lyrics of Harvester of Sorrow is very actual even nowadays, it is stated, that in our crazy world all the problems are solved by basest means - alcohol, drugs, fights, etc.

Right after Metallica's And Justice for All release, the tour followed to promote the album. Despite criticism, Metallica received its first Grammy nomination. However, the award was given to Jethro Tull, which provoked many arguments. Jethro Tull had not even watched the ceremony as their chance was negligibly small. Besides, the nomination was for the Best Hard Rock/Metal categories, and Jethro Tull was considered by most to not even belong to these styles. Then endless concerts and performances followed, during which Metallica prepared material for their new album.

The recording of Metallica's new album lasted over a year due to long arguments with their new producer Bob Rock, who worked with Bon Jovi before (the previous producer was Flemming Rassmusen), about the album's scope and sound. From that very moment inevitable changes of Metallica's music and image started. The album has two titles: Metallica and The Black Album. After its release, the album immediately climbed in all music charts and reached the top of Billboard. Overall, the album proved to be controversial among critics: some believed, it was a step towards commercial music; others regarded it as progress and desire to be modern. Metallica's lyrics were as before written by James Hetfield. Now the lyrics touch upon different aspects of human nature.

Enter Sandman is one of the main tracks of the album. Due to this song, Metallica received Grammy. The video was shot. The lyrics represent some kind of lullaby.

Sad But True is one more great song, its lyrics tell us about the darkest corners of human soul.

The Unforgiven is a well-known Metallica's ballad, its lyrics discuss absolute restraint of human nature, and the person described in the lyrics does not have his own opinion, always adapts himself to others, and cannot open his soul to anybody.

Wherever I May Roam is worth old Metallica. The lyrics tell us about the eternal vagabond. The sense of life for him is his wanderings around the world, no matter alive or dead.

Of Wolf and Man is one of the key songs of the album. In the lyrics James develops some kind of philosophy of animal instincts in every person's soul.

After Black Album's release critics, as well as old Metallica fans started accusing Metallica of financial orientation of their music, and the Metallica often jokingly confirmed it. However, despite the album's great controversy, it became one of the most financially successful Metallica's albums. During the tour with Guns N' Roses in 1992, James Hetfield suffered second and third degree burns due to unfortunate pyrotechnics during the song "Fade to Black" .It left him unable to play guitar, and that was why John Marshall filled in temporarily on guitar while James continued to sing. After almost three years of touring to support The Black Album, Metallica took a break for a year.

Back from the vacation, in 1995 Metallica gave a concert in Donington for the elation of their 60000 fans. Then they went into the studio to write and record their sixth studio album. There was enough material for two albums. But Metallica decided that it would be better to release one more album the following year. In 1996, with the release of Load, all Metallica members cut their hair, which radically changed their image. Later Kirk Hammett grew it back again, which was ridiculed by old fans of Metallica. The new album represented a change for Metallica. Its lyrics lack the aggression of the first albums. James Hetfield was still the only author of the lyrics. The lyrics of this album are very intimate. The music also changed drastically, it was not the thrash metal anymore. First of all due to the sound changes and the absence of speed guitar riffs. Right after Load's release in 1997 Metallica released Re-Load. The album resembles the previous one very much, as the material was written at the same time. A number of videos were shot, including Fuel, Unforgiven II, Until It Sleeps, Mama Said. But despite it, sales of Load and Re-Load were lower than sales of the previous albums. Meanwhile Lars and James got married to their girlfriends; a bit later Kirk Hammet also did so. In 1998, Metallica released a double CD called Garage Inc. The first CD contained newly recorded covers of different bands (Killing Joke, The Misfits, Thin Lizzy, Mercyful Fate, and Black Sabbath). The second Metallica's CD gathered together previously released covers, including the original The $5.98 E.P. Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had become a scarce collector's item and bonus-tracks of 1994.

The mayor of San Francisco proclaimed March 7, 1999 the official Metallica Day in San Francisco. On April 21-22, Metallica recorded two performances with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Michael Kamen, the orchestra conductor, had previously worked with Metallica on "Nothing Else Matters", and it was he who had approached the band with the idea of pairing Metallica's music with a symphony orchestra. Later the musicians composed additional material for a number of Metallica songs dating as far back as Ride the Lightning. Metallica also presented two new songs "Minus Human" and "No Leaf Clover". Later, in November, the audio recording and concert footage, entitled S&M, were released.

In 2001, Jason Newsted left the band after 15 years in Metallica. According to Jason's official statement, the reasons were physical tiredness and health problems. However, subsequent interviews with Newsted and the remaining members made it clear... Jason had always had many side-projects, he was a real music fan and could not live without it. He wanted to release a CD and then tour with his Echobrain project, but James Hetfield's intense resistance to such an idea was the primary cause of this conflict. Later, a Playboy interview revealed that the "hazing" that Jason received since joining the band had not lessened even after his 15 years with Metallica. Perhaps, that was why Jason only received co-writing credit on three songs (Blackened, My Friend of Misery, and Where the Wild Things Are). Perhaps, that was why he did not compromise with Hetfield, having decided, with Metallica he had no opportunities to demonstrate all his talents. In 2002 he joined the legendary Canadian thrash metal band Voivod. The documentary about Metallica , SomeKind of Monster, released in 2004 provided more insight into the reasons for Newsted's departure.

In 2001, James Hetfield came to Kamchatka to hunt. Cold Russian winter and vodka, its indispensable attribute, did their job. As a result, James underwent a course of (medical) treatment to overcome alcoholism. For nearly a year, Metallica ceased to perform, write songs, i.e. to function in any meaningful way. Lars and Kirk seriously considered the possibility that Metallica might be officially finished. James eventually returned to the band, but at first, he worked only four hours a day and spent the rest of his time with his family. The band's producer Bob Rock handled bass duties. For the first time Metallica was choosing the material for the album out of several dozens of songs. Metallica's lyrics were composed by each member of Metallica, while before it had been only James Hetfield who had done it. Following the album's recording, Metallica held auditions for bass-guitarist replacement. Robert Trujillo formerly of Suicidal Tendencies, and Ozzy Osbourne's band, was eventually chosen as the new bassist. Incidentally, Newsted became Rob's replacement in Ozzy Osbourne's band during the Ozzfest tour (which included Voivod as part of the touring bill).

In June 2003, eventually Metallica's eighth studio album St. Anger was released. The album differed greatly from the previous Metallica's album. The recording was intentionally raw and unpolished. The steely sounding snare and the absence of any guitar solos received particular criticism. But despite this, Metallica won "best metal performance" at the 2004 Grammys. Metallica toured extensively for two years in support of the new album on the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003. The concerts also featured Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Mudvayne. In 2004 the book dedicated to Metallica "So what! The Good, The Mad, The Ugly" was released. But the main event was the release of the film about Metallica "Some Kind Of Monster", dealing with the complicated period of St. Anger's recording. In 2005, Metallica took a break for a year.

On February 16, 2006, Metallica announced on their official website that producer Bob Rock, who had worked with Metallica since 1991, would not be producing Metallica's ninth studio album. Metallica is currently working with producer Rick Rubin who worked with Linkin Park, System of A Down, SlipKnot, Slayer. On December 4, 2006, Metallica released a new DVD The Videos 1989-2004, containing all Metallica's videos. On March 12, 2007, Metallica began recording of the next studio album.