Metallica Essentials
25 TracksMetallica may not have outright invented or defined the heavy-metal genre — that honor goes to Black Sabbath — but they’ve done more than any group in rock history to expand metal’s artistic and commercial potential. Formed in Southern California in the early 1980s and later relocating to the Bay Area, Metallica shaped influences from NWOBHM, classic metal and hardcore punk into a revolutionary sound called thrash. They became pillars of the subgenre alongside Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, and by the mid-1980s were being lauded by critics from far outside metal for the visionary depth of albums like 1986’s game-changing “Master of Puppets.” Following the tragic death of original bassist Cliff Burton, Metallica returned with bassist Jason Newsted on 1988’s similarly epic “…And Justice for All.” With the release of 1991’s self-titled “Black Album,” which managed to fuse their unyielding heaviness with the stuff of chart-topping songcraft, the band’s mainstream popularity went from mighty to simply unfathomable. The ensuing decades have seen the release of underrated bluesy hard-rock LPs like “Load” and “Reload,” as well as “Death Magnetic” and “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct,” acclaimed contemporary thrash albums featuring bassist Robert Trujillo, who joined in 2003. All the while, Metallica has managed to uphold the title of world’s biggest and most important metal band — or perhaps rock band, period. Listen to the classic tracks from this metal behemoth. (Photo: Blackened/Press)