A band which has been writing songs and albums since the eighties and is still writing them today. Unlike many heavy metal bands out there, such as Slipknot, they chose not to attempt to growl and scream about murder. Instead, they focused on more meaningful problems. St. Anger, for example, was an album almost entirely based around alcohol addiction.
Many fans believe that they "sold out"
in the Black Album, which featured their most widely known (though not most popular) song, Enter Sandman, which was their first music video, and
won best hard rock music video at the 1992 MTV music video awards.
Their most popular album is probably
Master of Puppets, for the song represented in the title. Their most controversial is St. Anger, which was written shortly after James Hetfield (the lead singer) got over some really bad alcohol-related problems. Arguably the least popular member of the band is Lars Ulrich, who led Metallica's infamous lawsuit against Napster.
"
Ride the Lightning" is still often referred to in popular popular culture, and is often used as a one-liner by characters in video-games and movies when killing someone with electricity.
"You know Metallica?"
"...Yes?"
"Totally sold out after the
Black Album. I can't believe them."
"They changed their style, they didn't sell out."
"FUCK YOU,
MASTER OF PUPPETS IS TEH BEST SONG EVER!"
"... Okay, but how does that actually reinforce your argument?"
"... FUCK YOU!"
"
Okay then."