Metallica's January 2004 single, 'The Unnamed Feeling', featured a whole crop of classic tracks recorded in Paris the year before. The band, unveiling a lengthy second run of North American dates, won a prestigious Grammy Award in the "Best Metal Performance" category for 'St. Anger' at the 46th annual show held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Meantime, Rolling Stone magazine would place METALLICA as the fifth highest Rock n' Roll earner in North America for 2003, reckoning their 'Summer Sanitarium' tour had grossed close to $50 million. Behind the scenes, the band would benefit from a shake up of the Warner Bros. recording stable, shifting from long term imprint Elektra over to Warner Bros. for future product.

North American touring in the first half of 2004 had the band packaged with support band GODSMACK, these dates grossing a cool $22 million. As the world tour rolled into Europe and Scandinavia the band not only sustained but strengthened their appeal. Quite incredibly, METALLICA's concert at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland on 28th May was attended by 46,000 people, close to 1 percent of the country's 5.5-million population. This huge wave of support was translated to the national Finnish album charts where no less than six METALLICA albums occupied the top forty -'Metallica' at no. 4, 'Master Of Puppets' no. 7, '...And Justice For All' no. 11, 'Ride The Lightning' no. 14, 'Kill 'Em All' no. 10 and 'St. Anger' at no. 28.

METALLICA fared even better in Sweden where the band's gig in Gothenburg on 30th May propelled their back catalogue into the official national album listings again with 'Metallica' re-entering at no. 9, 'Master Of Puppets' at no. 14, '...and Justice For All' at no. 20, 'Ride The Lightning' at no. 23, 'Kill 'em All' at no. 28, 'St. Anger' at no. 31, 'Load' at no. 47, 'Reload' at no. 48, 'S&M' at no. 54 and 'Garage Inc.' at no. 60.

The group's 4th June 'Rock In Rio' festival performance in Lisbon, Portugal would broadcast live to more than 45 countries via several television channels.

Lars Ulrich was hospitalized just upfront of the band's headlining slot at the mammoth 'Download' festival in England on 6th June. Apparently the drummer had been taken ill while travelling in a private plane between Lisbon in Portugal and the UK, the decision being made to divert to Germany where an ambulance took Ulrich to hospital. Quickfire replacements were sought in the backstage area of the show with Hetfield, Hammett and Trujillo jamming with MACHINE HEAD's Dave McClain, HATEBREED's Matt Byrne and LIFE OF AGONY's Sal Abruscato among others. However, for a truncated nine song METALLICA employed Dave Lombardo of SLAYER playing 'Battery' and 'The Four Horsemen', Joey Jordison of SLIPKNOT covering 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', 'Creeping Death' and 'Creeping Death' and drum tech Fleming Larsen taking on 'Fade to Black'. Jordison returned for 'Wherever I May Roam', 'Last Caress', 'Sad But True' 'Nothing Else Matters' and 'Enter Sandman'. Lars Ulrich would be back in his rightful place for the band's next scheduled gig in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Meantime further acknowledgement of the band's standing poured in as Kirk Hammett was honored with the 'Outstanding Guitarist' award at the California Music Awards held on 6th June and the following day METALLICA scooped the 'Best International Act' award at the second annual Metal Hammer awards in London.

A new single, 'Some Kind Of Monster', would be launched in July to capitalise on the release of the Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky directed documentary of the same name. This EP, limited editions coming with a free T shirt, hosted live renditions of 'The Four Horsemen', 'Damage, Inc.', 'Leper Messiah', 'Motorbreath', 'Ride The Lightning' and 'Hit The Lights', recorded in Paris on June 11, 2003. Selling just shy of 30,000 copies in its debut week, 'Some Kind Of Monster' hit no. 37 on the US Billboard charts.

One setback came in Croatia, a 27th June appearance at Gradski Stadion in Zagreb being cancelled due to "insurmountable technical difficulties". METALLICA's show at Prague's T-Mobile Park on 1st July proved unusual too, the group taking to the stage an hour early to allow fans to watch their national soccer team play against Greece in the Euro 2004 semifinal.

Another METALLICA tribute would be in the air too as Mexican acoustic duo Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero, former members of Heavy Metal band members of TIERRA ACIDA, revealed plans for a METALLICA covers EP. Their 2004 album 'Live Manchester and Dublin', recorded in Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral and the Manchester Academy, included a segue of 'One' interwoven with the Dave Brubek Jazz standard 'Take 5'. Also on the METALLICA covers front, acts such as MOTORHEAD, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, DEATH ANGEL and DARK ANGEL all contributed to the latest tribute album 'Metallic Assault'.

METALLICA's North American 'Madly In Anger With The World' campaign re-commenced in St. Paul, Minnesota on 16th August. This show would also mark the launch of METALLICA's official biographry 'So What: The Good, The Mad, and The Ugly' through Broadway Books. Fans pre-purchasing the 1000 page tome and picking up a special wristband would be eligible for a meet and greet with the band on the day of the concert. Subsequent gigs saw a shift in song content as the track 'Some Kind Of Monster' was debuted at a Peoria, Illinois on the 24th. During this show the band also performed 'Trapped Under Ice', an exceptionally rare outing for this song. METALLICA closed out the first leg with a show in Lubbock, Texas, notable for a set list containing a first time ever live rendition of 'Sweet Amber'.

The second leg of the tour maintained the momentum of the first, illustrated by the fact that tickets for the Montreal Bell Centre concert on 4th October sold out of its 19,000 tickets in less than three hours. A further night was duly added to the itinerary. Canada also scored with the addition of a second Quebec City Colisée Pepsi concert, this show added as a fundraiser for CHOI 98.1 FM radio station, threatened by closure by the CRTC. The first Quebec show sold all 13,000 tickets in under three hours.

In October METALLICA provided more fodder for die hard US collectors with the issue of 'Vinyl Box' which comprised special editions of its first four studio albums, as well as the 'Garage Days Re-Revisited' EP and the European 'Creeping Death' picture disc. Restricted to just 5,000 hand numbered copies 'Vinyl Box' saw the albums 'Kill 'Em All', 'Ride The Lightning', 'Master Of Puppets' and '...And Justice For All' expanded to double-vinyl sets on 180-gramme audiophile vinyl with new gatefold jackets.

On 7th September James Hetfield performed a "metal version" of WAYLON JENNINGS Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand' during the 'CMT Outlaws' concert taping at Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment Center. Meanwhile, back on the METALLICA tour the band maintained their interest in keeping the live set fluid by performing 'Wasting My Hate' breaking a seven year break for that song in Quebec and then performing 'The God That Failed' for the first time in ten years at the 17th October Washington, D.C. MCI Center gig. By the time the band had wrapped up the 'Madly in Anger with the World' tour it had grossed a reported $53.8 million in box office reciepts.

In December the METALLICA track 'Some Kind Of Monster' would be nominated in the 'Best Hard Rock Performance' category for the 47th annual Grammy Awards. May of 2005 saw an announcement that Kirk Hammett had contributed guest guitar to SANTANA's 'All That I Am' album. That same month the Recording Industry Association of America revealed METALLICA had sold over 57 million albums in the USA, with only LED ZEPPELIN, AC/DC and AEROSMITH ranking above them in terms of Hard Rock sales.

METALLICA returned to the live stage playing two shows opening up for the ROLLING STONES in their home city of San Francisco at the SBC Pacbell Park on 13th and 15th November.

It's the sort of story that scriptwriters would get laughed out of conference rooms for entering. The sort of story that illustrates perfect synchronicity between hunger, passion and time. The sort of story that only happens every 30-odd years. And the sort of story that would approximately 500 pages to do it true justice.

Metallica. A household name. The 7th biggest selling act in American history.

Who'd have thought it when, on October 28th, 1981, drummer Lars Ulrich made guitar player/singer James Hetfield an offer he couldn't refuse: "I’ve got a track saved for my band on Brian Slagel's new Metal Blade label."

The truth is, Lars didn't have a band at that time, but he did that day when James joined him. The two recorded their first track on a cheap recorder with James performing singing duties, rhythm guitar duties and bass guitar duties. Lars dutifully pounded the drums, helped with musical arrangements and acted as manager. Hetfield's friend and housemate Ron McGovney was eventually talked into taking up bass and Dave Mustaine took lead guitar duties.

The band adopted the moniker Metallica after a suggestion from Bay Area friend Ron Quintana, and they quickly began gigging in the Los Angeles area opening for bands like Saxon. Eventually recording a fully-fledged demo called No Life Til Leather, Metallica quickly saw the tape whistle around the metal tape-trading underground and become a hot commodity, with San Francisco and New York particularly receptive.

Metallica performed 2 shows in San Francisco and found the crowds friendlier and more honest than LA's "there to be seen" mob. They also caught up-and-coming band Trauma, and most importantly their bass player, Cliff Burton. Cliff refused to move to Southern California: it was enough to convince Metallica to relocate to the Bay Area, and Cliff subsequently joined Metallica.

In New York, a copy of No Life Til Leather made its way to Jon Zazula's record shop, the aptly named Metal Heaven. Zazula quickly recruited Metallica to come out east to play some shows and record an album. The band made it to New York in a stolen U-Haul. Dave Mustaine, at that point the band's guitarist, was proving to be more problematic than even these loose young chaps could handle. Thus a few weeks after arrival, Mustaine was sent packing, roadie Mark Whitakker suggesting Kirk Hammett from Bay Area thrashers Exodus. Two phone calls and one flight later, on April 1, 1983 Kirk Hammett joined Metallica.

Metallica's first album, Kill 'Em All, was released in late 1983 and some ferocious touring which saw the band's reputation soar both in the US and Europe. In 1984 they went to work with producer Flemming Rassmussen in Copenhagen at Sweet Silence Studios on their second album. 'Ride The Lightning' proved that Metallica were not some thrash-in-the-pan one trick pony, the writing and sound illustrating a growth, maturity and intensity which saw them immediately targeted by major management in QPrime, and a major label in Elektra. Both deals were done by the fall of '84 and their reputation continued to grow worldwide.

Returning to the same studios in 1985, the group recorded 'Master Of Puppets', mixing in LA with Michael Wagner and releasing in early 1986. They quickly secured a tour with Ozzy Osbourne, and that stint (plus a top 30 album chart position) saw their fan base and name take a quantum leap. What had seemed so unlikely was nearer than ever to coming true; world domination. 

On September 27th, 1986, that dream was given the most shattering of blows. Somewhere in Sweden on an overnight drive, the bands' tour bus skidded out of control and flipped, killing Cliff Burton. His influence on the musical growth of the band was enormous. Burton combined the DIY philosophies of jamming and experimenting with an acute knowledge of musical theory, and Hetfield in particular found a lot in his playing and personality. It was impossible to imagine Metallica without him. Yet Cliff would equally not have cared for people throwing in the towel because he wasn't around. And so it was that after a brief yet intense mourning period, Lars, James and Kirk decided to fight on. Jason Newsted was chosen from over 40 auditions to be the new bassist, the Michigan-born four-stringer leaving Arizona based Flotsam & Jetsam to take on the chance of a lifetime. The quartet immediately jumped into a tour, and then quickly recorded an EP of cover tunes titled Garage Days Re-Revisited (the band literally did the dirty work in Lars' garage!).

With Jason fully established, the band went back to record their fourth full-length album, ...And Justice For All, released in August 1988. The explosion that had been threatening for sometime finally happened. It reached #6 on the US charts, received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal/Hard Rock album, the band blew headliners Van Halen off-stage during the Monsters Of Rock tour and subsequently embarked upon an enormous worldwide tour. It was even the moment they finally delved into video territory, although the footage for 'One' was most certainly the most 'anti' video video of it's era.

The band took the show back out on the road and toured extensively to all parts of the world. ...And Justice For All produced two US singles and the band's very first venture into music video for the song One.

In 1991 Metallica released the self-titled 'Black' album, and saw their popularity soar to stratospheric heights. With new producer Bob Rock, this album was a subtle departure from the previous album with shorter songs, a fuller sound and simpler arrangements. It went straight to number one all over the world, stayed there for several weeks and ended up selling in excess of 15 million copies worldwide, spawned several legitimate singles as well as earning a Grammy and MTV/ American Music Awards. The band toured for close to three years, playing a solo arena tour in 'An Evening With Metallica', with Guns N' Roses on the duos' joint-headline stadium tour, and as headliner at many festivals. It meant that by the time the fall of 1993 rolled around, the four members were shattered both physically and mentally. Save for some Summer Shed action, there was little major activity as the band allowed their real lives to catch up with their rock lives.

Nearly four years would pass before the next Metallica album saw the light. Called Load, and recorded at The Plant in Sausalito California, it was the longest Metallica album to date with 14 songs, and signaled some significant changes for the band. Produced by Bob Rock, the material was loose, powerful and eclectic, the sound thick and punchy and the image one which screamed out change and freedom from enslavement to the Black album era. So many songs came from the sessions, that a second album titled ReLoad, followed in 1997. The Load tour was spectacular, encompassing cutting-edge technology, stuntmen, two-stages and an epic two-plus hours of performance. What ever doubts people might have had were swiftly blown away, and whilst Load could never match the heights of the Black album sales wise, it became a phenomenally successful album in it's own right.

In 1998, they re-packaged all the old B-sides, covers and the two previous Garage Days sessions and ran into The Plant to slam down 11 new covers. Electric, exciting and raw, the double-disc Garage Inc. was great reminder that for all the success, Metallica's heart still lay in the music. This point was further proven in 1999, when with conductor/composer Michael Kamen, Metallica embarked upon collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony to bring new dimension to classic material. Any potential skepticism of the project was blown away by two nights in April at the Berkeley Community Theater which proved to be epic milestones in the group's history. Far from their material being compromised, the arrangements of songs such as 'Master Of Puppets' gave symphonic instruments the chance to explode into the spaces and fill them with greater, heavier power than ever before. Having recorded and filmed the shows on the off-chance it might turn out alright on the night, Metallica released the S&M double-disc and DVD in late '99, marking yet another significant chapter in a Hall Of Fame - like history.

In the summer of 2000, Metallica took yet fresher steps towards establishing freedom from convention, proving that it was possible to assemble, and headline, your own stadium tour without promoting a record. Summer Sanitarium, Hetfield's back not withstanding, was a huge success, and anticipation grew as to when the band would hit the studio again.

The anticipation was replaced by fear at the turn of 2001 when, after several rumors, Jason Newsted departed the band. No one reason can be fairly the cause, more several long-standing issues that silently grew beyond their initial molehills. Of course many assumed that this would precipitate the break-up of the band, when of course it merely provided a conduit to newer levels of creativity and understanding.

The band realized there was much work to be done on both their personal and creative relationships, and spent the first part of 2001 investigating spontaneous avenues of discovery both in and out of the studio. They set up shop at an old ex-Army barracks called The Presidio, jammed together at length and made a decision not to rush the process of finding a new band member, opting instead to have producer Bob Rock do all bass parts.

In the middle of 2001, James Hetfield reached a place in his life where he felt rehabilitation, rest and re-focus were necessary for him to not only continue but also flourish. It meant that for many months, the members of Metallica embarked upon various levels of deeper discovery about themselves, the band and their lives both as a band and human beings. The results were to manifest themselves two-fold: when they came together again in the Spring of 2002 there was a deeper respect and appreciation for each other than ever before. And they were finally ready to make a new album, free of outside expectations, free of inner expectations and independent of anyone.

Settling into their new HQ, the band set about making 'St Anger' with Bob Rock. Those early Presidio sessions had certainly helped shape the freeform thinking and expression that was to come, but no-one, least of all the guys themselves, could've known just how fierce, raw and passionate the 'St Anger' material would turn out to be. With Rock always offering prompt and support, lyrics were written by everyone, writing was shared and performance was off the cuff, spontaneous and a 180 degree turn from the months of cut-and-paste which had become a part of the Metallirecording process in the past.

This Metallica was proud, confident, appreciative, humble, hungry, edgy, angry and also happy. Nervous? Sure, a little bit, but that too was good, yet another driver to new places and creative achievements that Metallica were enjoying.

It was in the Fall of 2002 that the band decided it was time to search for a new bassist, and after some closed auditions with personal invitees over a few months, ex-Suicidal Tendencies/Ozzy Osbourne bass player Robert Trujillo was chosen to be the new member of Metallica. Note, member. Not bassist or hired gun or replacement. But a band member. His whole demeanor, happy, relaxed, warm, enthusiastic blended with over 15 years of experience and a ferocious finger-picking style made Robert the only natural choice.

And so it is that as you read this, 'St Anger' has been completed, expectations are reaching heights that even the band cannot believe and there is the excitement of the first proper tour since Summer Sanitarium 2000. Looking at them, listening to them and seeing them, Lars, Kirk, Robert and James look like excited, eager children, men who cannot wait to be let out of then house to go and wreak aural havoc. Why? Because they can't! Metallica are about to hit a whole new level...and this is a story that will most DEFINITELY be continued...