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1983: Kill 'Em All

1984: Ride the Lightning

1986: Master of Puppets

1988: ...And Justice for All

1991: Metallica

1996: Load

1997: ReLoad

2003: St. Anger

2008: Death Magnetic

Spike's Guys Choice (2009) (TV)

All Access Grammy Special (2009) (TV)



"No disparen al pianista"

Global Metal (2008)

Live Earth (2007) (TV)

The Work of Director Anton Corbijn (2005)

"Rage"

Fromage 2003 (2003) (TV)

2003 Radio Music Awards (2003) (TV)

Metallica: St. Anger Rehearsals (2003)

MTV Icon: Metallica (2003) (TV)

Classic Albums: Metallica - The Black Album (2001)

2000 (2000) (TV)

"Making the Video"

Woodstock '99 (1999) (TV)

Metallica: S&M (1999) (TV)

Metallica: Cunning Stunts (1998)

Metallica: Reload/Rehearse/Request (1998) (TV)

Hero of the Day (1998)



The 24th Annual American Music Awards (1997) (TV)

MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 (1996) (TV)

Woodstock '94 (1995)

A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica (1992)

The 34th Annual (1992) (TV)

For Those About to Rock: Monsters in Moscow (1992)

1991 (1991) (TV)

The 32nd Annual (1990) (TV)

Metallica: 2 of One (1989)

The 31st Annual (1989) (TV)

Metallica: Cliff 'Em All! (1987)

American Music Awards

2003 – Nominated American Music Award - Favorite Alternative Artist

1997 – Won 4 American Music Awards - Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist

1994 – Nominated American Music Award - Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist

1993 – Won 4 American Music Award - Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist

1992 – Nominated American Music Award - Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist

1992 – Nominated American Music Award - Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album for "Metallica"

ASCAP Awards

2004 – Won 4 ASCAP Creative Voice Awards

Billboard Music Awards

1999 – Won Billboard Music Award - Catalog Artist of the Year

1999 – Won Billboard Music Award - Catalog Album of the Year for "Metallica"

1988 – Won Billboard Music Award - Top Music Videocassette of the Year for "Cliff 'Em All"

California Music Awards

2000 – Won Arthur M. Sohcot Award - for Excellence

1999 – Won California Music Award - Outstanding Hard Rock Album for "Reload"

ECHO Awards, Germany

2009 – Nominated ECHO Award - Best International Rock/Metal/Alternative/Heavy Metal Group (Bester Kunstler/Kunstlerin/Gruppe/Kollaboration Rock/Alternative/Heavy Metal International)

Grammy Awards

2010 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Hard Rock Performance for "The Unforgiven III"

2009 – Won Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance for "My Apocalypse"

2009 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Suicide & Redemption"

2009 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Rock Album for "Death Magnetic"

2008 – Nominated Grammy Award - category Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "The Ecstasy of Gold"

2004 – Won Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance for "St. Anger"

2004 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Hard Rock Performance for "Some Kind Of Monster"

2001 – Won Grammy Award - Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "The Call Of The Ktulu" - shared with Michael Kamen; San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

2000 – Won Grammy Award - Best Hard Rock Performance for "Whiskey In The Jar"

1999 – Won Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance for "Better Than You"

1999 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Hard Rock Performance for "Fuel"

1996 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance for "For Whom The Bell Tolls"

1992 – Won Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance with Vocal for "Metallica"

1992 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Rock Song for "Enter Sandman"

1991 – Won Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance for "Stone Cold Crazy"

1990 – Won Grammy Award - Best Metal Performance "One"

1989 – Nominated Grammy Award - Best Hard Rock Performance for "..And Justice For All"

Independent Spirit Awards

2005 - Won Independent Spirit Award - Best Documentary for "Some Kind of Monster"

Juno Awards
2009 – Nominated Juno Award - International Album of the Year for "Death Magnetic"

Kerang! Awards

2004 – Nominated Kerang! Award - Best Live Band

2004 – Nominated Kerang! Award - Best Band On The Planet

2003 – Nominated Kerang! Award - Best Album for "St Anger"

2003 – Nominated Kerang! Award - Best International Band

2009 – Won Kerrang! Award - Best Album for "Death Magnetic"

2009 – Nominated Kerrang! Award - Best Live Band

2009 – Nominated Kerrang! Award - Best International Band

2009 – Nominated Kerrang! Award - Best Video for "The Day That Never Comes"

2009 – Nominated Kerrang! Award - Best Single for "All Nightmare Long"

2008 – Won Kerrang! Inspiration Award

Los Premios MTV

2009 – Nominated Los Premio MTV - Best Rock Artist - International

MTV Europe Music Awards

2008 – Nominated MTV Europe Music Award - Rock Out

2008 – Nominated MTV Europe Music Award - Headliner

MTV Video Music Awards

2003 – Nominated MTV Video Music Award - Best Rock Video for "St. Anger"

2000 – Nominated MTV Video Music Award - Best Rock Video for "I Disappear"

2000 – Nominated MTV Video Music Award - Best Video from a Film for "I Disappear"

1998 – Nominated MTV Video Music Award - Best Rock Video for "The Unforgiven II"

1996 – Won MTV Video Music Award - Best Hard Rock Video for "Until It Sleeps"

1992 – Nominated MTV Video Music Award - Best Heavy Metal / Hard Rock Video for "Enter Sandman"

MuchMusic Video Music Awards

2000 – Nominated MuchMusic Video Music Award - Best International Video for "I Disappear"

My VH1 Music Awards

2000 – Won My VH1 Music Award - Gods of Thunder

2000 – Won My VH1 Music Award - Best Stage Spectacle - shared with San Francisco Symphony

Q Awards

2008 – Nominated Q Award - Best Act in the World Today

Radio Music Awards
2005 – Nominated Radio Music Award - Artist of the Year/ Alternative and Active Rock Radio

2005 – Nominated Radio Music Award - Artist of the Year/Rock Radio

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2009 – Won Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Performer

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In the ‘80s – when big hair and small ideas dominated heavy metal – Metallica’s dense blend of brains and brawn gave the genre a much-needed charge. By 1991, fans had responded to Metallica’s message in droves, buying 6 million copies of the group’s fifth full-length album – “Metallica” – and elevating its previous LPs to platinum. In the process, grim-faced guitarist/singer James Hetfield became not only a hero for the nation’s largest fraternity of misfits – suburban metal heads – but also a critically respected songwriter and bandleader. Metallica ended the decade as the biggest selling rock act of the ‘90’s.

Hetfield and Lars Ulrich came from different worlds to form Metallica in the L.A. suburbs in 1981. Hetfield, whose father was owner of a trucking company and mother a light opera singer, was raised in a strict Christian Science home; Ulrich, a recently transplanted Dane, had intended to become a professional tennis player like his father, Torben Ulrich. What the two teenagers shared was an interest in the gritty music of U.K. hard rockers Motörhead. Adding guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassist Ron McGovney, the band started writing songs and recording demo tapes. Metallica’s lineup solidified after Clifford Lee Burton replaced McGoverney in 1982, and the Bay Area guitarist Kirk Hammett, replaced Mustaine the following year. Mustaine, who was booted out for excessive substance abuse, went on to form Megadeth.

After gaining a solid cult following among fans who could not identify with contemporary pretty-boy pop-metal combos such as Van Halen and Bon Jovi, Metallica became known for its sophisticated, often complex song structures and serious lyrics that reflected teen obsessions with anger, despair, fear, and death. In sharp contract to those of other death-obsessed metal bands Metallica’s lyrics posed deeper questions about justice and retribution, drug addiction, mental illness, and political violence. The group’s debut album, “Kill ‘Em All”, is an anarchic catharsis of gloom, with songs like “No Remorse” decrying the insanity of war and “Seek and Destroy” looking at mindless street violence. (Re-released in 1986, the album went to #155). On subsequent albums, the subject matter alternated between the political (…And Justice for All) and the personal (Metallica).

In 1986 Metallica’s tour bus skidded off an icy road in Sweden, killing bassist Burton. The surviving members took some time off before regrouping with ex-Flotsam and Jetsam bassist, Jason Newsted. Newsted’s more solid playing style brought a thicker, tighter sound, which contributed to the group’s massive success in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. On August 8, 1992, the band experienced another near-tragedy when their pyrotechnics went awry during an ill-fated performance with Guns n’ Roses (it was the same night of G n’ R’s notorious riot show) at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium; Hetfield wound up walking into a wall of flames and suffering serious burns, but recovered fully.

Metallica had developed its following without the benefit of radio play, so it came as a bit of a surprise when “Master of Puppets” reached #29 in 1986. The follow-up EP, “Garage Days Re-Revisited”, a collection of covers of songs by various punk and metal bands including Killing Joke and the Misfits, made it to #28. Metallica’s first Top 10 album was…”And Justice for All”, which reached #6 in 1988 with it’s single “One”, breaking in to the Top 40 at #35. Its striking video included clips from the 1971 antiwar film adaptation of Dalton Trumbo’s “Johnny Got His Gun”, the tale of a faceless quadruple-amputee World War 1 veteran. After a three year hiatus, the much anticipated “Metallica” (a.k.a. the Black Album” entered the charts at #1. The album contained a string of hits, including “Enter Sandman” (#16), “The Unforgiven” (#35), and “Nothing Else Matters” (#34). Metallica’s first official live album, “Live Shit” (#26, 1993), was recorded in 1993 over five shows in Mexico City.

In 1994 Metallica sued its longtime label, Elektra, seeking escape from a contract that locked the band in to a modest 14 percent royalty rate. The suit was settled out of court and the band re-signed with the label. By then, Metallica recognized the changes on the rock landscape epitomized by Nirvana and in 1996 the band fully stepped away from its early lyrics of blood and guts and explored some non-metal influences for an updated, almost alternative-leaning sound on “Load” (#1). The album continued the band’s string of hits with “Until It Sleeps” (#10,), “Hero of the Day” (#60), and “King Nothing” (#90). Metallica also sought to change its image; Band members cut their hair and the abstract album cover by controversial photographer Andres Serrano (famous for his work “Piss Christ”) depicted a mixture of blood and semen. Not all fans were pleased.

More confusion followed when Metallica headlined the alternative rock-themed “Lollapalooza” Tour in 1996. That year, the band also made a surprise stop at the Whisky-a-Go-Go in Hollywood for the 50th birthday party of Lemmy of Motörhead, appearing at the club all dressed like the metal veteran and performing a full set of Motörhead songs. In 1997 Metallica finished songs left over from the “Load” sessions for the heavier “ReLoad” (#1), which included vocals by Marianne Faithfull on “The Memory Remains” (#28). The album also contained “The Unforgiven II” (#59). The next year, Metallica combined the original “Garage Days Revisited” EP with 11 new covers and various B sides for the two-disc set “Garage Inc. (#2). A live collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony (arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen) was recorded for 1999’s “S&M”.

In 2000 Metallica led a battle over the rights of recording artists against Napster, a popular file-sharing web site where fans could download music (including Metallica’s) for free. Metallica not only responded with copyright infringement suits against Napster but demanded that the estimated 335,000 Napster users who had ever downloaded a Metallica track be permanently barred from the service. To critics it was a confounding strategy that inevitably targeted some of the band’s most rabid followers. Despite a fan backlash, the controversy failed to derail that year’s successful stadium tour with Korn and Kid Rock. In January 2001 Newsted left Metallica on good terms and in the autumn of 2002 Robert Tujillo became the band’s new bassist.