For anyone interested in music of substance, the metal scene of the early '80s was a pretty bleak place, dominated by cheesy hair bands hawking bubblegummy rock that had been dolled up with beefy guitars and naughty lyrics. Metallica, along with contemporaries like Megadeth and Anthrax had something altogether different in mind. Influenced by punk principles of raw musical directness and lyrical focus fraught with a dark and brooding idealism, they helped lay the groundwork for a whole new era of metal.

Metallica's many strengths were evident from the very beginning on their debut album Kill 'Em All. The scope, vehement playing, solid songwriting, and ambitious themes blended a stylized, almost Gothic sense of doom 'n' gloominess with an odd literary quirk (though it wasn't directly derrived from John Donne or Ernest Hemmingway, the cataclysmic mood of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" was something of a precursor to "One," ...And Justice For All's stunning rock adaptation of Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun) and charged it all with the incensed energy of hardcore punk. Master Of Puppets was the culmination of the early half of their career, a prodigious display of speed metal and a pristine rock album. Their 1991 self-titled album was a watershed for many reasons. With it they refined and intensified their metal premise, but also made a statement about the power of the DIY ethic. Through relentless touring and uncompromising musicianship they had built an immense fan-base without the benefit of MTV, mainstream media coverage or radio support. Metallica was so huge that mainstream media could no longer ignore the phenomenon; it went multi-platinum, tipped their previous albums into platinum status and won them their third Grammy.

The highly anticipated follow-up to Metallica threw everyone for a loop. Considering their track record as uncompromising purveyors of one of the cleanest, meanest metallic attacks in the business, the twangy guitars, the sensitive interludes and general griminess of Load was a bit of a shock to the system. Some of the experiments on it work better than others, yet as a whole it proves that they have the one thing that great artists must have--the fearless drive to forge ahead and dig into new terrain.

As if they were attempting to prove that point, Metallica continued to explore the new direction with Re-Load, a 1997 set that combined leftovers from the Load sessions with new material. The album even includes a guest spot by Marianne Faithfull as a backing vocalist on "The Memory Remains."

When Metallica returned to the record racks in 1999, it was with another curveball. S&M, recorded live during two concerts in April 1999, paired the veteran metal band with the San Francisco Symphony. The two-disc set features material ranging such as early blitzkriegs "Master Of Puppets" and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" to more recent hits such as "Enter Sandman" and "Wherever I May Roam."

Even between albums, Metallica managed to grab headlines in 2000 with its aggressive stance against music file-sharing service Napster. The band sued the company and insisted that 300,000 users, who allegedly illegally downloaded the group's songs, be barred from the service. The band's hardcore stance made it the target of Web-based cartoons and may have cost it some fans.

More controversy erupted in January 2001 when bassist Jason Newsted announced he was leaving the group. Temporarily reduced to a trio, Metallica entered the studio, but plans had to be put on hold while singer/guitarist James Hetfield checked into rehab to battle alcohol and substance abuse problems.

With those problematic times seemingly behind them, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock handling the bass duties. The sessions resulted in 2003's St. Anger, an album that marked the band's return to its hard-and-fast early style. Prior to the album's release, Metallica announced that former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Robert Trujillo had joined the band. In a trade of sorts, Newsted almost simultaneously signed on as Osbourne's new bassist.

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