An American heavy metal band whose "Nothing else matters" is banned along with "Stairway to Heaven" in most guitar stores.

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.

One of the greatest bands of all time, with over 85 million albums sold. Known to have been pioneers of the 80s metal scene.

One of the most influential and popular heavy metal groups of all time.

San Francisco metal band formed in the early 80's. Their four albums from the 80's are class, and incidentally their best known offerings. However the material released post-1991 is of curiously low standard with the occasional great track.

In 2002 (or was it 03?) they released St. Anger, an album which shocked us again at how low they could go. They completely removed the guitar solo (a vital part of the heavy metal song) from all the songs. This resulted in their worst album and their grouping with nu-metal.

One shouldn't forget, however, that their 80's albums are some of the best from that decade, including great tracks like Fade To Black, Sanitarium, One, Ride The Lightning, Battery, The Four Horsemen, Master Of Puppets.

A household name. The 7th biggest selling act in American history.

One of the greatest, and most prolific bands of all time. They were pioneers in the genre of thrash metal when they started out, with Kill Em' All. Their next three albums, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice for All, were, and still are, all considered speedmetal masterpieces. When the 90's rolled around, Metallica released a self titled album, nicknamed the black album. This record featured a softer, more mainstream sound, but still had that characteristic Metallica edge to it. After years of tuoring for the black album, Metallica finally went back into the studio to record their 6th album, Load. Load had a much different sound than any of their previous stuff, opting for a more bluesy, hard rock style than the speedmetal that everyone associated the band with. Not too long after Load came out, a follow up album was released, ReLoad, which consisted of other songs that were written during the same time but didn't make it onto the album. Afterwards, an collection of various old cover songs from the 80's was compiled with brand new covers, and released as Garage Inc. And not too long after that came out, Metallica recorded a concert in which they played many of their classic songs, as well as some new ones, with the San Francisco Symphony. The result was the S&M album. Years later, in 2003, Metallica put out their most recent album, St. Anger. The album had mixed reactions among fans and non fans alike, but now, more than two years after its release, hopefully the controversy has died down, and we can all look foward to the next album.

an awesome heavy metal band that helped pioneer metal and keep it alive and needs no introduction

Metallica is a legendary band that helped define the genre of thrash metal (though nowadays their sound can be considered more hard rock or garage than thrash). Their first lineup was James Hetfield (vocals and rhythm guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums), Dave Mustaine (lead guitar), and Ron McGoveney (bass). Ron was replaced with Cliff Burton and Dave was replaced with Kirk Hammett and they released their first album (Kill 'em All) in 1983. The rest of their albums include Ride the Lightning (1984), Master of Puppets (1986), ...And Justice For All (1988), Metallica (aka ''The Black Album'')(1991), Load (1996), Reload (1997), Garage Inc. (1998), S&M (1999), and St. Anger (2003). During their Master of Puppets tour, Cliff Burton died in a tragic bus accident on September 27, 1986. He was replaced with Jason Newsted, and Jason left in the late 90's and was replaced with Robert Trujillo. Metallica has gone through their share of struggles and hardships (Cliff's death, James' alchohol problems, Lars filing a lawsuit against Napster, and conflicts with each other), but they have managed to withstand the test of time and give it their all. Metallica is a great band and those who disagree need to stop making a big deal about it.