Artist Feature: Metallica - The Early Days

A very young Lars Ulrich

To tell the story of Metallica, one must start with the story of how the band came into being. And that story starts with Lars Ulrich.

Lars was born in Denmark, to an acclaimed tennis player. Lars’ father, Torben Ulrich, was also a musician who shared a stage with jazz-legend, Miles Davis. Lars moved to America in 1980 to pursue a career as tennis player, but this plan was to fall to the wayside when he met a young James Hetfield.

James Hetfield

James answered a classified ad which was placed in a local newspaper, by Ulrich, who was in search of likeminded musicians to jam along with. It is often sited that the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ was the inspiration behind the forming of Metallica, with Ulrich listing Diamond Head as one of his main influences. With, what would become, the core of Metallica established, the band was officially formed in October 1981. Having found a talented singer and guitar player in Hetfield, Ulrich once again placed an advertisement in a local newspaper, only this time for a lead-guitarist. 

Dave Mustain

After seeing his expensive guitar equipment, Dave Mustain was immediately recruited. Ulrich had the opportunity to record a song for Metal Blade Records’ upcoming compilation disk “Metal Massacre”. The very first original Metallica song to be recorded was Hit the Lights, which was wrongly credited on the compilation vinyl to “Mettallica”. Not having a bassist at the time, Hetfield is credited for the bass duties on the track. Angered by the misspelling of their name, but still driven, Metallica managed to generate enough interest through the track and performed live for the first time on March 14, 1982 at Radio City in Anaheim, California with Ron McGovney on bass duties. This configuration was to be short lived however. 

Cliff Burton

After attending a show in late 1982 featuring the band Trauma, Ulrich and Hefield were blown away by the bands bassist, Cliff Burton. Cliff was immediately approached to play for Metallica, and at first declined the offer, but later agreed on condition the band move to San Francisco’s Bay area. Since McGovney “didn’t contribute anything, he just followed” Hetfield, Mustain and Ulrich left Ron behind in Los Angeles to join up with Burton. With the perfect fit now established, Metallica was ready to record their debut album. Funded out of concert promoter, Johny Zazula’s back pocket, the band was off to New York in May 1983 to record Metal Up Your Ass.

Kirk Hammet

In April 1983 just before the recording sessions for the 1^st album started, Dave Mustain was kicked out of the band due to his drug and alcohol abuse. Replacement guitarist Kirk Hammet of the band Exodus was flown in the same day to replace Mustain on the lead guitar. This sparked a widely-publicised, 20-year feud between Mustain (who would go on to form rival Thrash metal band Megadeth) and the remaining Metallica members. The turf-war between Mustain and Metallica had its beginnings with Megadeth releasing the track "Mechanix" on their 1985 debut offering Killing Is My Business and Business Is Good... Mustain claimed that new guitarist, Hammet, “stole my job” and that he became famous “by playing my riffs” – a claim he substantiated by saying that Metallica’s track off their debut album, The Four Horsemen is a reworked version of Megadeth’s Mechanix.

Metallica during the Kill 'Em All recordings

The album, that took just 17 days to finish recording, was initially entitled Metal Up Your Ass - a name inspired by a saying within the band. The name was changed to Kill ‘Em All when record label Megaforce Records and distributors refused to release an album with that title. Released in May 1983, the record was not a major financial success and only managed to reach # 120 on the Billboard 200. What Kill 'Em All did do for Metallica was earn them a loyal following in the underground metal scene. The album was widely regarded as extremely innovative. Metallica was playing metal faster, louder and much more technically than any band of the time. James Hetfield says in a reflective interview: “There were so many good bands just starting out back then. We had to do something special to be recognised, so we just played harder and faster until people paid attention.” This was to be Metallica’s recipe for success.

1884 Seven Gates of Hell Tour flyer

In support of the new album, Metallica went on tour with Venom to the Netherlands, where they played in front of almost 10,000 people at the 1984 Seven Dates of Hell Tour.

The band kept to a hectic schedule, and went straight back to the studio to record Ride The Lightning. Recorded in early 1984 at Sweet Silence Studios in Denmark, the album again took less than a month to complete. Singles from the album include For Whom The Bell Tolls, Fade to Black and Creeping Death. These 3 songs tell the biblical story of the Hebrew’s exodus from Egypt focusing on the plague that descended on the Egyptians. This is evident of Hetfield’s strict Christian upbringing. With themes touching on sensitive issues like religion, corrupt leaders, insanity and drugs, it’s quite clear that the band had a need to be heard, and that Hetfield was not just another angry-at-the-world teenager, but had an opinion - and a strong one at that.

1986 saw the release of my personal favourite ‘Tallica album – Master of Puppets. The album saw a shift in Metallica’s careers when they left Megaforce records to sign with a new, big budget label, Electra. This was to be the beginning of Metallica’s rise to superstardom. As part of the deal with Electra, the band now also enjoyed the benefits of professional management from Q-Prime Management’s Cliff Burnstein – a relationship that continues on until today.

Master of Puppets saw Metallica return to Sweet Silence Studios for the recording of the album between September and December of 1985. The masterpiece was released to an expectant fan base on March 3^rd, 1986 and managed to climb to # 29 on the Billboard 200. Since the release Master Of Puppets, the album has been a mainstay for metal fans and critics alike. 'Puppets is often cited as “the best metal album ever recorded” and features on numerous ‘greatest album of all time’ lists including TIME magazine’s “The All-TIME 100 albums” and RollingStone Magazine's “The 500 greatest albums of all time”. What amazes me most about this album is that it climbed so high with no radio airplay or the support of a music video. Realising the fact that their flavour of music is not exactly radio-friendly, Metallica took to the road to do what they do best, perform live.
It was during the European stage of the Damage Inc. Tour, in support of Master of Puppets that Metallica would lose bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident in rural Sweden.