Metallica got a number of nominations at the Grammy Awards last night and they won a couple of them. They won Best Metal Performance for My Apocalypse and Best Recording Package for Death Magnetic.

Producer on Death Magnetic, Rick Rubin also picked up the award for Producer of the Year and in addition to Metallica he worked with an eclectic bunch including Neil Diamond, Jakob Dylan, Dancing For The Death Of An Imaginary Enemy and Weezer. He has been credited with working his revitalizing magic on the band and contributing to their best album for years.

They also got nominated for Best Rock Instrumental with Suicide and Redemption but missed out to Peaches En Regalia by Zappa Plays Zappa Featuring Steve Vai and Napoleon Murphy Brock. Their other nomination was for Best Rock Album with Death Magnetic but in the end the award went to Viva La Vida by Coldplay.

Metallica have won a number of Grammies over the years but their last award came back in 2004 and it was Best Metal Performance for St. Anger.

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In 1991 the band released an album entitled simply Metallica which is commonly known as the Black Album. It went straight to number one and stayed there for four weeks, selling millions of copies worldwide and over 15 million in the US alone. This album marked a new direction for Metallica and the radio friendly tracks were hugely popular with the mainstream public. The album got terrific reviews from critics and Metallica’s fan base grew dramatically over night.

The cover of the album is black with the Metallica logo top left and the coiled snake from the Gadsden flag bottom right, the Gadsden flag was one of the first US flags ever created and it was used during the American revolution, the original flag was bright yellow with the snake motif and emblazoned with the motto “Don’t Tread On Me”.

The album was produced by Bob Rock and came in at just over 62 minutes with an array of popular tracks.

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Some Kind of Monster is essential viewing for Metallica fans. It is a gripping documentary which was released in 2004 and it offers a behind the scenes insight into the relationships within the band and their struggle to record the St. Anger album.

A camera crew followed them around from 2001 until 2003 and, while the documentary was originally meant to be a straight forward look at how they recorded the St. Anger album, it proved to be a much deeper project which revealed the inner workings of Metallica warts and all.

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Metallica embarked on their World Magnetic Tour back in October 2008 and after over 30 gigs across the United States they are continuing with several concerts across Europe until the end of July 2009. They’ve always been a great live band and so it should come as no surprise that virtually all their gigs have sold out. In fact if you are desperate to see them on this tour and you haven’t got a ticket yet you are running out of time. The only remaining dates which haven’t yet sold out are the Novarock festival in Austria on June the 19th and Rock Werchter in Belgium on July the 5th.

If you are looking for tickets then check these links Novarock Festival and Rock Werchter. By the way the Rock Werchter tickets don’t go on sale until February the 14th.

Reports from the US gigs suggest that the aging band can still put on a great show and as usual they have impressive stage props and all sorts of pyrotechnic effects.

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…And Justice For All was released in 1988 and evidence that Metallica were now a huge band came in the form of a number 6 position on the US Billboard top 200 and a number 4 position in the UK album chart. The album would go on to sell over 8 million copies in the US alone and it propelled Metallica to a new level of fame.

This was Metallica’s first album with new bassist Jason Newsted and despite being a fantastic attack on injustice and war with thought provoking lyrics and tight skilful musical performances it did receive some criticism because of the dull production and the fact that Newsted’s bass track was deliberately turned down. The band was slow to accept Newsted as a replacement for Cliff Burton and they wouldn’t let him forget it.

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The position of bass player with Metallica has been held by four different musicians over the years and the current bassist Robert Trujillo joined the band in 2003. Trujillo built up a reputation as a great bassist with various bands and he has an array of playing techniques. He was officially announced as the new Metallica bassist on the 24th of February 2003 and reportedly received a $1 million advance on the percentage he would earn by being in the band.

The first bassist for Metallica was James Hetfield’s childhood friend Ron McGovney but he was soon replaced by Cliff Burton.

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Kirk Hammett is the talented and likeable lead guitarist of Metallica and he is also the oldest member of the band. His amazing solos and catchy riffs have given rise to some of the best Metallica songs over the years and he seems like a laidback character. In sharp contrast to some of his band mates he often has a smile on his face and has little interest in conflict.

Born in San Francisco in 1962 Hammett’s mother was a Filipina and his father an Irish Merchant Marine. He was raised in El Sobrante and it was his older brother Rick who inspired his love of rock. With an extensive collection including Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix records and guitars as well, Kirk was soon determined to become a guitarist. In fact he wanted to be the next Hendrix and he got his first guitar at the age of fifteen.

His first guitar was useless and as soon as he could he picked up a Fender Stratocaster but eventually decided the 1974 Gibson Flying V was the guitar for him.

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This was the album that catapulted Metallica to lasting fame and it remains a firm favourite. A towering thrash metal classic featuring a varied assortment of fresh and technically excellent tracks with well written lyrics, guitar solos aplenty from Kirk Hammett, some fantastic bass lines from Cliff Burton, strong drumming from Lars Ulrich and the powerful vocals of James Hetfield in top form. It appears on every list of the top heavy metal albums and it deserves to be there. With Master of Puppets Metallica brought together their talents to great effect and exerted a lasting influence on the rock world.

It was their third album and Elektra Records released it in 1986.

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Lars Ulrich is the outspoken drummer in Metallica and he has always been a loud and brash character who is anything but shy. His personality is reflected in his drumming and he pioneered fast thrash drum beats and exercised a big influence on the band. He formed a strong song writing partnership with James Hetfield and the pair are the only original members of Metallica who’ve been ever present since the band was put together back in 1981.

Ulrich was born in Denmark in 1963, the same year as Hetfield, and his father was a tennis pro and a Jazz musician. Lars followed in his footsteps and developed a real talent for tennis in his teens before moving to Los Angeles to train further. Once in California his desire to play tennis began to wither and he decided he would prefer to be a drummer in a band.

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James Hetfield is the unmistakeable leader of Metallica and one of the greatest front men of all time. He sings, plays rhythm guitar and is the main songwriter for the band as well as being a founding member and it is impossible to imagine Metallica without him. However when they were starting out he was by all accounts painfully shy and never intended to be the singer for the band.

Hetfield was born in 1963 in Los Angeles, his father was a truck driver and his mother was a light opera singer and they were both devout Christian Scientists who rejected medical treatment. Hetfield took to music from an early age with piano lessons at the age of nine, before he graduated via the drums to the guitar.

He loved rock music and his first band was called Obsession formed in his early teens. After his mother died of cancer the family moved to Brea in California and his next band was formed, this one was called Phantom Lord.

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