Artist of the Week: Metallica

Metallica is the most consistently innovative metal band of the late 80s and 90s. This music group was formed in 1981 in California, USA, by Lars Ulrich (b. 26 December 1963, Copenhagen, Denmark; drums) and James Alan Hetfield (b. 3 August 1963, USA; guitar/vocals) after each separately advertised for fellow musicians in the classified section of American publication The Recycler. Set about in 1981 when the teen Lars put an advertisement in a paper searching for like-minded musicians to create a band, James immediately responded to the ad, and shortly the two began lived their music with Lars played drumes and made musical suggestions, while James covered all guitar parts (rhythm, lead, and bass,) as well as singing. Both of them got the name Metallica when Lars was helping San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana to pick out a name for a new magazine to promote metal and the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) bands. Quintana came up with a suggestion "Metallica," but Lars quickly suggested another and decided to use that name for the band he and James Hetfield had just started.