The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced that Metallica will be inducted this year. The ceremony will take place on the 4th April 2009 in Cleveland and tickets go on sale to the general public on January the 24th.

It is somewhat inevitable that Metallica will take their place in the Hall of Fame given their impact on the world of Rock and Roll over the years. The rules stipulate that any act being inducted has to have released their first album at least 25 years ago and since Kill ‘Em All came out back in 1983 the band are now eligible.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also has a museum based in Cleveland. It is a non-profit organisation which exists in order to educate the world about the importance of Rock and Roll and highlight some of the best acts from over the years.

This year’s ceremony will be broadcast live on Fuse TV and as well as Metallica they will be inducting Jeff Beck, Run DMC and Bobby Womack.

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Ride the Lightning was Metallica’s second album and as well as featuring a great name it was a classic thrash metal album which cemented Metallica as an act to look out for in the rock world. Ride the Lightning showed how quickly the band were developing with a range of great tracks which were each pushing in new directions and showing off their growing technical skills as musicians. The lyrics were better, the music was more polished and impressive and their imagination was pushing them to create music which would continue to influence the metal scene for years afterwards.

The album was first released in 1984 by Megaforce Records and then re-released later the same year by new label Elektra Records. It sold well on release indicating the growing fan base that Metallica was developing but while the initial sales were less than stellar, over the years the album went on to sell over 5 million copies in the US alone.

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Metallica have released a number of music videos over the years but perhaps their most famous effort was also the first one they ever made, the video for One. The song One won a Grammy Award and appeared on the …And Justice For All album. It was released in 1989 and was also the band’s first top 40 single.

One is a long song, lasting 7 minutes 24 seconds and it kicks off with a spectacular steadily rising battle montage before the guitar kicks in. Written by Hetfield and Ulrich the song is based on a 1939 novel called Johnny Got His Gun about an unfortunate soldier in World War I who loses all his limbs and his senses, leaving him as a torso with no ability to communicate with the outside world, trapped within his own mind.

The video used footage from the 1971 film adaptation of Johnny Got His Gun and Metallica bought the rights to it so they could use it in their video. The video also featured footage of Metallica performing in a warehouse rendered in black and white to fit the movie footage.

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Jason Newsted joined Metallica as bassist at the end of 1986 after the tragic death of Cliff Burton. Newsted was already a big Metallica fan and he had learned to play their entire back catalogue. He played with a band called Flotsam and Jetsam from 1982 but left them to join Metallica.

He auditioned for the position along with several other hopefuls after scraping together the money to fly there with the help of his friends and was lucky enough to be chosen. However the band was grieving for Burton and they took out a lot of their anger and frustration on Newsted.

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Of all the band members that have left Metallica the story of Cliff Burton is undoubtedly the most tragic and touching. Burton joined the band as bassist in 1982 but in 1986 while on tour in Sweden to promote the Master of Puppets album the Metallica tour bus crashed and Burton was killed.

Cliff Burton grew up around the San Francisco area and began to play the bass at the age of 13. He performed in a few high school bands before joining Trauma in 1982. Trauma were fairly successful and apparently put on a good show with Burton standing out because of his wild head banging and fantastic bass solos.

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Kill ‘Em All was Metallica’s first album released on the 29th July, 1983. Megaforce Records printed an initial run of 1,500 copies and the album wasn’t a great financial success for the band on release although it did spark their growing fan base. With the band becoming increasingly famous and popular over the years the album eventually went on to sell over 3 million copies in the US alone.

The album features a raw, fast and youthful sounding Metallica perhaps lacking in the sophistication they later brought to their music. It was still an important landmark in metal and it soon began to draw in a fan base for them. The whole album was recorded in just two weeks on a minimal budget and production values are fairly low.

The album was originally going to be called Metal Up Your Ass but the publishers Megaforce Records persuaded them to change it.

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Dave Mustaine joined Metallica as lead guitarist in October of 1981 and left in April of 1983. During his time with the band Metallica continued to grow into a serious force in the metal scene but Mustaine reportedly had a problem with alcohol and drugs and there were several arguments and fights with other members. He joined after answering an advert in The Recycler newspaper for a lead guitarist and he quickly impressed Hetfield and Ulrich with his skill, talent and expensive guitar.

Mustaine co-wrote several songs with Metallica and they later appeared on Kill Em All and Ride the Lightning he also recorded the No Life Til Leather demo with them.

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The vast majority of bands change their line up over the years for various reasons including tragic deaths, drug abuse, lack of talent or effort, growing egos and plain old personality clashes. Metallica are no exception to this rule and only two of the current members are from the original line up, Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield. It is tough to imagine Metallica without them but there have been a few lost members along the way and in this series we take a look at the forgotten faces that left the band.

The first member of Metallica to leave was Ron McGovney and he didn’t leave by choice.

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I'm actually surprised that there has been little reviews or opinions on this blog about the newest album, Death Magnetic. Among my peers, some of whom are but casual Metallica fans, there was much discussion and debate as to the merits, if any, of the disc and was I certain that on a blog dedicated solely to discussion of the Metal Gods, there would much more than what I am finding here. It is good to see that of late there has been an upswing in information and news about the band, but still, no meaty discussion regarding the actual album.
So here it is, my humble review of Death Magnetic:
Imagine if you will, that there are nexus points at key moments in the space/time continuum allowing for alternate time lines and realities to be scattered throughout it.

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Death Magnetic was Metallica’s ninth studio album and it was released on the 12th of September 2008 to universal acclaim. It was the fifth Metallica album in a row to go straight to the number one spot on the Billboard 200 in the US and by the end of October it had gone platinum with over 1,000,000 copies sold.

The album features ten tracks, although they actually recorded eleven and it is the first album released by Metallica with Robert Trujillo on base guitar. Trujillo actually joined Metallica back in 2003 after auditioning and he had previously played with Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne, he was apparently paid a $1 million advance when he joined.

It is also the first Metallica album to be produced by Rick Rubin and according to Lars he drilled the songs into the band until they knew them inside out. Rubin has a reputation for re-invigorating artists and bands and he has previously worked with Slayer, The Beastie Boys, Neil Diamond and Johnny Cash.

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