Metallica

* Born: 1981

* Birthplace: California

* Best Known As: The heavy metal band who did "Enter Sandman"

Metallica is an American heavy metal band, formed October 28, 1981. With 57 million albums sold in the United States alone and 35 million albums sold outside the U.S. , the band has sold just over 90 million albums, making them one of the most commercially successful heavy metal acts in history. Metallica is currently 18th on the RIAA's list of top selling acts in the United States.

After building a loyal following by helping to develop modern heavy metal, especially thrash metal (Metallica is the most successful of the "big four" of thrash metal, which include Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax) in the mid-1980s, the band broadened its audience in the early 1990s.

In 2003 Metallica released their long-delayed 8th studio album, entitled St. Anger. Although the album polarized critical and popular opinion, their 2004 Madly in Anger with the World supporting tour was a success, and a documentary of the recording of the album during a time of internal turmoil, Some Kind of Monster, was a critical success.

Metallica dominated heavy metal music in the 1980s and 1990s, emerging as one of the top musical acts in history by the end of the century. Drummer Lars Ulrich (26 December 1963) and guitarist James Hetfield (3 August 1963) started the band in 1981. After a few line-up changes (including guitarist Dave Mustaine, who left in 1982 to form Megadeath), the band released Kill 'Em All in 1983 and toured the U.S. with Ulrich, Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett (18 November 1962) and bass player Cliff Burton (10 February 1962). In 1986 the band released Master of Puppets, signalling their development from speed metal thrashers to serious songsmiths who could pound out the heavy riffs. That same year a bus accident claimed the life of Burton, and Jason Newsted (4 March 1963) joined the band. Their major-label release ...And Justice For All was a critical and popular success (they had a top 40 hit with "One"), and the band toured relentlessly. Their so-called "black" album in 1991 included the hit song "Enter Sandman," and their exposure on MTV helped make them superstars. In 1996 they released Load, followed the next year by Reload, both top-selling albums that solidified Metallica's presence in mainstream rock. In 2000 they were in the news regularly for their legal battle with the online file sharing service, Napster, and drummer Ulrich appeared before the United States Senate, explaining to a sympathetic Orrin Hatch that file sharing was, in fact, stealing. Eventually Metallica and Napster reached an agreement, but in 2001 Jason Newsted left the band and James Hetfield entered a substance abuse rehabilitation program, leaving the band's latest recording on hold.

History

Early days (1981-1985)

Metallica was formed in Petaluma,California, in 1981 by James Hettfield and Lars Ulrich after they each placed classified advertisements in the publication The Recycler. Hetfield, who had been influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, tried to start his own band before contacting Ulrich but was unsuccessful. Bassist Ron McGovney was an original member, and the band used a few transient guitar players, such as Brad Parker and Jeff Warner. At their first session, in Lars Ulrich's garage, there were only three members, Ulrich, Hetfield, and Lloyd Grant, but McGovney joined a few days later.

Metallica got its name when San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana asked Ulrich to help pick out a name for his new magazine to promote U.S. and British metal bands. Quintana came up with a list that included "Metallica," but Lars suggested "Metal Mania" and used "Metallica" for the band he and Hetfield had just started.

Biography

Metallica was easily the best, most influential heavy metal band of the '80s, responsible for bringing the music back to Earth. Instead of playing the usual rock star games of metal stars of the early '80s, the band looked and talked like they were from the street. Metallica expanded the limits of thrash, using speed and volume not for their own sake, but to enhance their intricately structured compositions. The release of 1983's Kill 'Em All marked the beginning of the legitimization of heavy metal's underground, bringing new complexity and depth to thrash metal. With each album, the band's playing and writing improved; James Hetfield developed a signature rhythm playing that matched his growl, while lead guitarist Kirk Hammett became one of the most copied guitarists in metal. Lars Ulrich's thunderous, yet complex, drumming clicked in perfectly with Cliff Burton's innovative bass playing. After releasing their masterpiece Master of Puppets in 1986, tragedy struck the band when their tour bus crashed while traveling in Sweden, killing Burton. When the band decided to continue, Jason Newsted was chosen to replace Burton; two years later, the band released the conceptually ambitious ...And Justice for All, which hit the Top Ten without any radio play and very little support from MTV. But Metallica completely crossed over into the mainstream with 1991's Metallica, which found the band trading in their long compositions for more concise song structures; it resulted in a number one album that sold over seven million copies in the U.S. alone. The band launched a long, long tour which kept them on the road for nearly two years. By the '90s, Metallica had changed the rules for all heavy metal bands; they were the leaders of the genre, respected not only by headbangers, but by mainstream record buyers and critics. No other heavy metal band has ever been able to pull off such a trick. However, the group lost some members of their core audience with their long-awaited follow-up to Metallica, 1996's Load. For Load, the band decided to move toward alternative rock in terms of image -- they cut their hair and had their picture taken by Anton Corbijn. Although the album was a hit upon its summer release -- entering the charts at number one and selling three million copies within two months -- certain members of their audience complained about the shift in image, as well as the group's decision to headline the sixth Lollapalooza. Re-Load, which combined new material with songs left off of the Load record, appeared in 1997; despite poor reviews, it sold at a typically brisk pace through the next year. Garage Inc., a double-disc collection of B-sides, rarities, and newly recorded covers, followed in 1998. In 1999, Metallica continued their flood of product with S&M, documenting a live concert with the San Francisco Symphony; it debuted at number two, reconfirming their immense popularity.

The band spent most of 2000 embroiled in controversy by spearheading a legal assault on Napster, a file-sharing service that allowed users to download music files from each other's computers. Aggressively targeting copyright infringement of their own material, the band notoriously had over 300,000 users kicked off the service, creating a widespread debate over the availability of digital music that raged for most of the year. In January 2001, bassist Jason Newsted announced his amicable departure from the band. Shortly after the band appeared at the ESPN awards in April of the same year, Hetfield, Hammett, and Ulrich entered the recording studio to begin work on their next album, with producer Bob Rock lined up to handle bass duties for the sessions (with rumors of former Ozzy Osbourne/Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez being considered for the vacated position). In July, Metallica surprisingly dropped their lawsuit against Napster, perhaps sensing that their controversial stance did more bad than good to their "band of the people" image. In late summer 2001, the band's recording sessions (and all other band-related matters) were put on hold as Hetfield entered an undisclosed rehab facility for alcoholism and other addictions. He completed treatment and rejoined the band and they headed back into the studio in 2002 to record St. Anger, released in mid-2003. The recording of St. Anger was capped with the search for a permanent replacement for Newstead. After a long audition process, former Ozzy Osbourne/Suicidal Tendencies bass player Robert Trujillo was selected and joined Metallica for their 2003/2004 world tour. The growing pains the band experienced during the recording process of St. Anger were captured in the celebrated documentary Some Kind of Monster which saw theatrical release in 2004. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato

In early 1982, Metallica recorded "Hit the Lights" for the first Metal Massacre compilation. Desperate for a full time lead guitarist, Ulrich posted an advert in a local newspaper. Dave Mustaine from Huntington Beach, California, from the band Panic responded and met for an audition. Ulrich and Hetfield were so impressed with Mustaine's warm-up and equipment, they asked him to join before the audition began.

A few months later the band recorded a full demo, No Life 'Til Leather, which quickly drew attention on the underground tape trading circuit. After conflicts with Mustaine, McGovney left the band and was replaced by Cliff Burton from Castro Valley, California. Burton was lured from his band Trauma with the proviso Metallica relocated to the San Francisco area.

When the group arrived in El Cerrito, California, live performances and word-of-mouth enabled it to quickly build a healthy following in the Bay Area thrash metal scene. The music was inspired by bands such as Motörhead and Diamond Head (as the band declared in the sleeve notes of Garage Inc. (1998) "two heads were better than one"), Saxon and other British metal bands. They also took inspiration from hardcore punk bands like the Misfits and Discharge.

Metallica then travelled to Rochester, New York, in 1983 at the urging of local promoters Jon and Marsha Zazula, and after a few gigs the band signed with the Zazulas' new label, Megaforce Records. Shortly after arriving in New York, Ulrich and Hetfield decided Mustaine's aggressive and disruptive behavior relating to his extensive alcohol and drug problems was becoming too much to handle. Mustaine was asked to leave the band, and Kirk Hammett was drafted from Exodus to replace him. A former pupil of Joe Satriani, Hammett brought to the band his own unique style. This would become more apparent after Ride the Lightning, the first album to feature Hammett's songwriting. Mustaine would go on to create the hugely-successful Megadeth.

Metallica released its first album, Kill 'Em All (1983) on Megaforce. The album set the template that they would follow throughout the 1980s, featuring Hetfield's heavy vocals and aggressive rhythm guitar. The album did not have huge initial sales, but consolidated their loyal fan base in the growing underground metal scene. A year later, Metallica released their Ride the Lightning (1984), adding complexity and further melodic flair to the thrash metal of their debut. Longer songs showcased lyrical and musical growth, like "Fade to Black", a slower, more introspective song, or an ode to hoplessness and death, that some thought reflected the thoughts of someone contemplating suicide. The song in fact was written after the band's equipment was stolen (most notably a Marshall amplifier given to him by his mother who had died of cancer, leading Hetfield to post numerous rewards for the safe return of it in magazines and newspapers). The inclusion of slower, introspective songs with clean or acoustic guitar distinguished Metallica from most other thrash or heavy metal bands. Some tracks on Ride The Lightning contain riffs brought by Kirk Hammett from Exodus. "Trapped Under Ice", for example, is reminiscent of Exodus' "Impaler".

Mainstream success (1986-1994)

Metallica signed a major label deal with Elektra Records in 1984, and released Master of Puppets (1986). Many fans regard the album as the band's finest work, and some consider it to be the greatest heavy metal album of all time. Despite the fact that no singles were released for the album, the band received some minor airplay from album tracks "Master of Puppets" and "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". The album charted at number 29 on the Billboard Top Album Charts.

On September 27, 1986, during a European leg of shows, Burton was killed near Ljungby, Sweden, when Metallica's tour bus skidded off an icy road and flipped over. Burton was thrown out of the window, and the bus landed on top of him. It is uncertain if Burton was dead at this point or not. A winch that was lifting the bus off of him snapped, causing the bus to crush him a second time. It is said that Hetfield repeatedly yelled at the bus driver, asking him where the patch of ice was.

Burton's death left the band's future in doubt. The three remaining members knew the bassist would want them to carry on,[citation needed] and with the Burton family's blessings the band sought a replacement and began auditions almost immediately. Among the most promising of the auditioneers was Les Claypool, a childhood friend of Hammett's. The band liked Claypool but felt his style "too funky".[citation needed] In the band's Behind the Music episode, Hetfield explains that Claypool was too good (as well as too "out there") for Metallica (he had suggested "jamming to some Isley Brothers"), to which the latter responds, "They never returned my calls. I weeped; weeped like a little girl." Claypool later formed Primus.

Jason Newsted, formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam officially joined Metallica on October 28, 1986, three weeks after Burton's funeral. With Newsted, the band finished the Damage, Inc. tour in the early months of 1987. Following the tour, the band quickly recorded The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited in July 1987 as a way to test a new studio they had constructed (according to the EP's liner notes) and to test the talents of Newsted. This EP continued Metallica's fascination with covering songs by British metal and hardcore bands relatively unknown to American audiences. "Breadfan" by British group Budgie became a concert staple.

...And Justice for All (1988), the first studio album since Burton's death, featured some of the band's most structurally complex music. Very little of Newsted's bass is audible, and some fans speculate this was done intentionally as a reaction to Burton's death or as a way of hazing Newsted. The most likely reason, as mentioned by Hetfield and Ulrich in subsequent interviews, was that because Newsted wasn't at the mixing sessions, he wasn't able to affect the final mixing process. Ulrich has also stated the lack of perceived bass resulted from Newsted exclusively mirroring Hetfield's rhythm tracks.

Although the song-writing was praised, the production of this album was heavily criticized as Lars Ulrich's drums clicked more than thudded and the guitars had a thin sound. The Damaged Justice tour followed. However, over time, because of the complexity and length of the songs, the band would later cease to play most of them live (though several songs, most notably "One", would remain a constant in the group's live performances).

In 1989, Metallica received its first Grammy nomination for the album ...And Justice for All for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrument. However, in one of the most misunderstood Grammy decisions to date, the award was given to Jethro Tull for the album Crest of a Knave. The result generated much controversy, as Metallica was widely expected to take home the award, and was standing off-stage waiting to receive it after performing the song "One" for the telecast. Lars Ulrich even referenced the snub in accepting a Grammy for "One" the following year, stating, "We gotta thank Jethro Tull for not putting out an album this year."

The album also contained their last instrumental to date, "To Live Is To Die", which was a sort of tribute to Cliff Burton because it contained some of Burton's unused riffs and a poem he had written that was read by Hetfield.

It was during this time the band embraced the mainstream music world with their first ever music video. Ironically, they would choose the song "One", a song based upon the controversial World War I-themed anti-war novel "Johnny Got His Gun",written by Dalton Trumbo.

For the video, the band performed the song in an abandoned warehouse. The performance was then extensively "remixed" with footage of the film version of Johnny Got His Gun. The end result featured a coherent but shortened "mini-movie" version of "Johnny Got His Gun", with an intricate level of synchronization between the song and the film's dialogue, creating a singular narrative between the two.

The "remix" video was submitted to MTV, with the alternate "performance only" version held back in the event that MTV would ban the remix version. MTV accepted the remix version and despite its length (the video ran for nearly ten minutes) put the video in heavy rotation.[citation needed] The video would be many viewers first exposure to Metallica and was voted the #25 in the fall of 1999, when MTV aired its last "Top 100 Videos of All Time" countdown, and was prominently featured during MTV's 25th Anniversary edition of "ADD Video", which showcased the top videos to air on MTV in the last 25 years.

In 1991, the self-titled album, Metallica (popularly known as The Black Album by fans) saw the band reaching out to a wider audience. The record was co-produced with Bob Rock, whose resume included work with hard rock acts The Cult, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, and many others. The album featured a black cover that evoked humorous comparisons to Spinal Tap. The majority of the making of the Metallica album and the following tour was documented in A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica. The recording sessions were a long and arduous process, lasting over a year due to infighting among the band's members and endless arguments with Rock about the album's direction, scope, and sound. The cost of recording the album was reputed to be over $1 million.[citation needed] However, despite the battle to finish the album, it quickly became the band's most successful release, charting at number one on the Billboard charts.

The album featured the hit "Enter Sandman", which exemplified the radically pared-down style of songwriting across the album; it became one of Metallica's best-known songs and has been used extensively at sporting events. Another hit was "Nothing Else Matters", a more plaintive, acoustic ballad that outraged some fans but secured the album as a massive crossover hit and brought Metallica firmly into the mainstream. The intro to the track "Don't Tread on Me" pastiches Leonard Bernstein's "America" from the musical "West Side Story".

This album had been preceded by a cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" which was contributed to Rubáiyat, a compilation album commemorating Elektra's 40th anniversary, and which Hetfield, together with Queen's remaining band members, performed live at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Metallica also played a set at the concert.

Charges of selling out would be aimed at Metallica throughout the 1990s, to which the band often joked that they did indeed sell out — each and every date of the tour. Indeed, the Wherever We May Roam tour following The Black Album was especially successful and eventful. Many dates were held with no opening act, instead showing an introductory film that included unused interview footage from A Year and a Half..., and other footage of band members' antics backstage. The best-known incident during this tour was a pyrotechnics accident in 1992 in Montreal while Metallica was performing a series of joint shows with Guns N' Roses. Hetfield suffered severe second and third degree burns to his left arm during the opening of "Fade To Black", leaving him unable to play guitar for a portion of the tour (former Metallica roadie and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall filled in while Hetfield continued to sing). The Guns N' Roses set was also cut short when lead singer Axl Rose left the stage claiming he was unhappy with the sound. After two setlists cut short, fans grew angry and a riot ensued.

Load era (1995-1999)

After almost three years of touring to support The Black Album, during which time the trek was relabelled the Nowhere Else to Roam Tour, Metallica took a respite until late 1995. On December 13, they recorded during their rehearsal for Lemmy Kilmister's 50th birthday party; four Motörhead covers were later released as a two-part limited edition CD single. The band spent around a year writing and recording new songs, resulting in Load (1996). At one point during early production, Load was intended to be a double album. Ultimately, it was decided that it would be best to release half of the songs first, and continue to work on the remaining songs and release them the following year. This resulted in the follow up album ReLoad (1997). Some songs written during Load were changed by the time they were recorded for ReLoad; in particular, "Fuel" had different lyrics than the version played during the Load Tour, as evidenced by the version played on the Cunning Stunts concert film (the song was then-titled "Fuel for Fire").

These albums represented a significant musical change for Metallica. The band's breakneck metal tempos and layered guitar compositions had largely been replaced by bluesy guitar tones, slide guitar and shuffle rhythms. Hetfield's vocals took a larger role than ever before, and several songs (such as "Mama Said" and "Low Man's Lyric"), and showed the band's willingness to experiment with varied sounds and instruments. These changes included the use of the steel guitar (commonly used in country music) in "Mama Said" (this is not supported by Kirk Hammett, who in a Guitar Player interview claimed it's not pedal steel guitar on "Load", but an electric guitar processed to emulate one), as well as the use of the hurdy-gurdy and violin in "Low Man's Lyric".

Many of the changes on Load and ReLoad had been anticipated by earlier experiments (especially on The Black Album), but listeners generally regard the two albums as the band's turning point. Sales were lower than sales of the previous three albums. Many songs from Load and ReLoad received extensive radio play, including "Until It Sleeps", "Hero of the Day", "King Nothing", "The Memory Remains", "The Unforgiven II", and "Fuel".

Hetfield noted later in the documentary film Some Kind of Monster that many songs on these two albums were initially thought by the band to be of only average quality, and polished and re-worked repeatedly until judged to be releasable.

By 1996, all of the band members had cut their hair (although Hammett eventually grew it back), which was ridiculed by many, including band friends Alice in Chains, whose edition of MTV's Unplugged featured, on Mike Inez's bass, the words "friends don't let friends get Friends haircuts." Metallica were in the audience for the taping of the show.

In 1998 Metallica compiled a double CD called Garage Inc.. The first CD contained newly recorded covers, ranging from obvious Metallica influences such as The Misfits, Thin Lizzy, Mercyful Fate and Black Sabbath to more unexpected choices like Nick Cave and Bob Seger (the band's cover of Seger's "Turn the Page" garnered extensive radio airplay). The second CD gathered together previously released covers, including the original The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had become a scarce collectors' item. The CD also included B-side covers going as far back as 1984.

On March 7, 1999, Metallica were inducted into the San Francisco Walk of Fame. The mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, proclaimed the day "Official Metallica Day" in San Francisco. A month later, on April 21-22, 1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, then conducted by Michael Kamen. Kamen, who had previously worked with Bob Rock on "Nothing Else Matters", approached the band with the idea of pairing Metallica's music with a symphony orchestra. Kamen and his staff composed additional orchestral material for a number of Metallica songs and the concerts featured broad selection of songs dating as far back as Ride the Lightning. Metallica also wrote two brand-new Kamen-scored songs for the event, "No Leaf Clover" and "−Human." The audio recording and concert footage were released later that year as the album/concert film S&M, in November 1999, on CD, VHS, VCD, and DVD.

Napster controversy (2000-2001)

In 2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of their song "I Disappear" was being distributed via the Napster P2P file-sharing network. Not only was the song unfinished, it was supposed to be released in combination with the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack.

They soon discovered that in addition to the demo, their entire catalogue was also freely available. The band initiated legal action against Napster and, in the process, demanded that 300,000 Napster users found to be trading Metallica songs be banned from the network. Legal actions were also started against Yale University, University of Southern California, and Indiana University for not blocking Napster from their campuses. In 2001, Metallica and Napster agreed to an out-of-court settlement which led to many Napster user accounts being locked out. The band did not take legal action against any individuals for copyright infringement. Lars Ulrich provided a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding copyright infringement on July 11, 2000.

The lawsuit created a public relations nightmare. Throughout the controversy, many websites hosted cartoon parodies of band members, portraying them as selfish rock stars who were out of touch with their fans. The most popular of these was a cartoon parody entitled Napster Bad!, by Camp Chaos, which spawned an entire series. Some critics mocked Ulrich by spelling his name as "Lar$". In retaliation to the controversy, Ulrich appeared during the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, in a skit with that years host Marlon Wayans, that blasted against fans' idea of using Napster to share music. Marlon was featured as a college student listening to Metallica's "I Disappear" (ironically to the idea that the demo version was being downloaded on Napster, and to the fact that it was Metallica's current big playing single on radio and MTV), and Lars walking in and from receiving Wayans' sharing excuse, interpreted the idea of sharing by being able to borrow anything that was yours without asking, can also be coined to the point of anything and Metallica roadcrew entered into the dorm room and confiscated everything, while slapping a Napster sticker onto everything, leaving Wayans with an empty room, and even clothless. Napster creator Shawn Fanning would respond by presenting an award wearing a Metallica shirt, saying "I borrowed this shirt from a friend. Maybe, if I like it, I'll buy one of my own," to mock the controversy Ulrich and co. had ensued upon. Public ridicule was widespread as many longtime fans felt Metallica had got their start via underground trading of bootleg recordings of their performances[citation needed]. Metallica's defense was that Napster was allowing free access to their back catalogue and not live bootleg recordings which the band had always encouraged. The fan backlash would not be the only setback the band would experience that year.

Metallica, like a number of other bands, refused to sell their music on iTunes for a number of years. They finally ended this holdout on Tuesday, July 25, 2006, although only in the US and Canada.

Newsted's Departure (2001-2003)

As plans were being made to go into the recording studio in 2001, Newsted left the band, ostensibly due to "the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love." However, subsequent interviews with Newsted and the remaining members revealed that Newsted's desire to release a CD and tour with his Echobrain side-project – and Hetfield's intense resistance to such an idea – was the primary cause of Newsted's departure, as Hetfield believed a release by an individual band member would somehow weaken the band. The 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster provided more insight into the reasons for Newsted's departure. In the film he says he felt Metallica's desire to hire a therapist to help solve the problems between the band members was "fucking lame and weak".

This would be the first in a series of low-points the band would endure. In July, 2001, Hetfield entered rehab due to "alcoholism and other addictions". For nearly a year, Metallica ceased to function in any meaningful way. Ulrich and Hammett, for the first time, seriously considered the possibility that Metallica might be finished. Hetfield eventually returned to the band following his rehab hiatus. Slowly and cautiously Metallica continued as a 3-piece throughout the writing and recording of their next album. Longtime producer Bob Rock handled bass duties for the sessions.

Metallica held auditions for Newsted's permanent replacement in early 2003. Robert Trujillo formerly of Suicidal Tendencies, and Ozzy Osbourne's band, was chosen as the new bassist. Robert's resume also included Infectious Grooves as well as a stint with Black Label Society on their Boozed, Broozed, and Broken-Boned DVD. As Metallica moved on, Jason Newsted also found a new musical home joining Canadian thrash metal legends Voivod in 2002. In an interesting turn of events, Jason became Robert's replacement in Ozzy's band during the 2003 Ozzfest tour (which included Voivod as part of the touring bill).

St. Anger (2003-2004)

In June 2003, Metallica's eighth full-length, St. Anger, debuted at number one on the album charts. Though it was an intentionally raw and unpolished album, harsh criticism from fans followed. The record's under-produced sound, Hetfield's "flexible" sense of pitch, Ulrich's new signature steel snare drum and no guitar solos received particular criticism. The album won best metal performance at the 2004 Grammys, the band's seventh such award. The documentary Some Kind of Monster followed the album and offered an inside view into the daily affairs of Metallica as never before. While the film focused on the growing tensions within the band, it fulfilled its original purpose of helping to promote the album. The film also exposed to fans that Metallica had sought the guidance of a therapist, Phil Towle, to deal with a vast amount of the band's inner turmoil.

Having toured extensively for two years with Godsmack in support of St. Anger on first the brief Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003 in festivals and then the lengthy Madly in Anger with the World tour (in which nearly every performance was professionally recorded and sold on LiveMetallica.com) Metallica took a break from performing and spent most of 2005 with friends and family.

Escape From the Studio '06 Tour and The New Album (2005-Present)

On February 16 2006, Metallica announced on their official website, that after their 15+ year relationship, longtime producer Bob Rock has stepped down from recording Metallica's next studio album. Rock had produced every Metallica album since 1991, beginning with Metallica. Metallica is working on a studio album with legendary producer Rick Rubin known for his work with, among numerous others, Slayer and Danzig.

Metallica debuted an untitled song nicknamed "The New Song" in Berlin, Germany on June 6th, 2006 on the European leg of the Escape from the Studio '06 mini tour. On August 12th, 2006, Metallica debuted another song in Tokyo, Japan on the Asian leg of the tour, nicknamed "The Other New Song" (which are available to view on YouTube). The band has previously unveiled new songs prior to their release: Four songs from Ride the Lightning ("Fight Fire with Fire", "Ride The Lightning", "Creeping Death", and "The Call of Ktulu") were performed before the release of the album; Master of Puppets' "Disposable Heroes" was debuted in September of 1985; ...And Justice for All's "Harvester of Sorrow" received its live debut in 1987, Load's "2x4" was played during the Escape from the Studio '95 mini-tour; and Reload's "Fuel" and "Devil's Dance" were played at various points during the Load tour 1996-97 and again during the 3 shows European mini-tour in August 1997 ("The Memory Remains" and "Bad Seed" were teased numerous times at shows throughout 1996 and 1997).

It was during this time on tour that the band finally bowed to fan pressure decided to make each of their albums available at the iTunes Store - though strictly in the U.S. and Canada until issues with their European label are sorted out - allowing individual tracks to be legally downloaded for the first time. Exclusive tracks from the Seattle '89 shows were added to the band's first four albums.

On October 13, 2006 Metallica announced that they will release a DVD containing all their videos from 1989 to 2004. The DVD will be called The Videos 1989-2004 and it will be released on December 4, 2006 worldwide and on December 5 in North America.

Other appearances

* James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich contributed their voices to the Disney cartoon "Dave the Barbarian" in an episode titled "Here There Be Dragons", which aired February 27, 2004.

* James Hetfield lended his voice in the movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" which was produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

* On September 20, 2005, Metallica went to the studio to record their voice parts for their appearance in an episode of The Simpsons. The episode was named The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer and it was the first of Season 18, being aired in the United States on September 10, 2006. In the scene, Otto Mann passes Metallica as they stand by their broken-down bus. He offers to give them a ride, but Bart drives off with his bus. Metallica ends up getting a ride from Hans Moleman (who slept with Lars's grandmother), and they drive off as Metallica starts playing "Master Of Puppets".

* James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have recorded guest voices for Adult Swim's new show "Metalocalypse".

* Metallica played two shows with The Rolling Stones in their hometown of San Francisco on November 13, 2005 and November 15, 2005. Metallica opened both nights and the concert was held at SBC Park.

* Metallica played their first shows on the African continent March 18-25, 2006, at the Coca-Cola Co-lab Massive Mix in South Africa. The band was billed alongside such artists as Collective Soul, Seether, Simple Plan, and Fatboy Slim.

* The band made an appearance in the independent film The Darwin Awards and played at its Sundance Film Festival private party premiere on January 25, 2006.[citation needed]

* On March 13, 2006 Metallica inducted Black Sabbath into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and played "Iron Man" and "Hole in the Sky". The ceremony was aired on VH1, March 21, 2006.

* Throughout the entire 2006 tour, Metallica has performed Master of Puppets in its entirety to celebrate the album's twentieth anniversary of release. These performances mark the only full renditions of "Orion" since Burton's death. The band has performed abbreviated versions of the song on many occasions, most notably as part of the bass solo during the Nowhere Else to Roam world tour from 1991-1993, and in November 2005 during a pair of dates opening for The Rolling Stones.