Metallica: the Early Days

The Godfathers of Heavy Metal: The Early Days
Metallica has become a household name over the past 30 years. They revolutionized rock music in the early 1980’s. Their sound was like no other in the United States. To date, according to MTV Icon they are the 7th biggest selling band in American history(2). The group was created October 1981 in the Los Angeles area(1). The creation is thanks to drummer Lars Ulrich, who posted an ad in the local recycler looking for band members(1). A guitar player named James Hetfield answered the ad(1). After playing together only once they knew they had something, with the strong vocals of Hetfield and the percussion skills of Ulrich a legend was in the making.
In addition to Hetfield and Ulrich they called upon James’ roommate Ron McGovney for the duties on bass while Dave Mustaine took the role of lead guitar(1). With these four the original Metallica was born. Metallica played only two shows with these four. They were both in San Francisco, where they played with a local band named Trauma(1). Trauma had a bass player that caught the attention of Metallica, by the name of Cliff Burton(1). The band encouraged Cliff to join Metallica, which he was willing to do but refused to move to Southern California(1). The band decided his talents were too great to pass on so they packed up their guitars and amps and moved to San Francisco(2)
Metallica then recorded a demo titled “No Life ‘Til Leather”(1). It quickly became a hit in the underground scene. The demo made to into a recording shop named Metal Heaven, where owner Jon Zazula noticed the potential and encouraged Metallica to travel to New York to lay down some tracks with him(1). They agreed to make the trip. The trip showed the side of Dave Mustaine that got him kicked out of the band(1). All the band members were doing the normal 1980’s rock band things; partying, heavy drinking and drug use but Dave’s abuse to these lead to his departure from the band. Once the band arrived in...