Concert: Metallica

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Whenever one hears the words like Thrash Metal, Speed Metal and Hard Rock then only one band strikes your mind and it's none other than Metallica. They are regarded as the god of rock music and they are the one who popularized head banging rock music. They are the most famous and popular rock band ever, in the history of rock music. Metallica is an American heavy metal rock band which was born in October 1981 in Downey, California. This band was the first thought and conceptualized by the lead drummer and former tennis prodigy Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield. They both bumped into each other as a sheer coincidence when they both placed classified advertisements in the American publication The Recycler. James responded to Lars call and they decided to work together as a team. This is how this band came into existence. In their early days there were only three members naming Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, and Dave Mustaine. Soon they were joined by Ron McGovney who became the lead bassist of the band. The Band was given the name Metallica by Lars when he was helping San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana in hunting the name for his new magazine New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands. Quintana suggested Metallica for his magazine but Lars' witty nature helped him to suggest a new name for the magazine and he opted for Metallica as the name for his band.

Metallica made its debut in the rock music arena with a powerful bang with their first album Kill 'Em All which became the largest selling album of all times. By their debut album they simply set the new and powerful template which they followed in whole 1980's. This template consisted of heavy vocals and aggressive rhythm guitar. But soon they broke this monotonous theme with their new album Ride the Lightning. This album opened a new chapter in the book of rock music and it is still popular among rock music lovers. But it was "Fade to Black" number in the album which set the new image for the band. This slow song was more of an introspective song that pondered on the thoughts of someone considering suicide. By seeing this song's stupendous success many rock bands produced songs of a similar type but all failed to create an impact. Metallica has been the source of inspiration for many rock bands such as Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. Majority of their albums were hits which was the sole reason why their concert tickets are always hard to find. Seeing the trend, many people started booking their tickets well in advance from their nearby ticketing vendor.

Another interesting piece of information is that it was the same band got into controversy which is popularly known as Napster controversy. It all happened in 2000 when the band discovered that their demo song "I Disappear" was being publicized all over via the Napster P2P file-sharing network. This song was the original soundtrack of the movie Mission: Impossible 2. Adding salt to their wounds they also soon discovered that not only the song but whole catalogue was being freely distributed. Soon Metallica sued Napster and also asked them to ban the login of 300,000 Napster users. Furthermore, they also sued Yale University, University of Southern California, and Indiana University for not jamming Napster network in their campuses. Later Metallica and Napster settled for an out of court settlement. After the whole controversy, there was a lull period in their music but they were back in 2003 with more vengeance as they released their 8th studio album titled St. Anger. This album was the collection of the most aggressive music ever written by anyone. Now they are planning their 9th studio album release which is slated for release in either 2006 or early 2007. This album is being produced by the legendary Rick Rubin. Thus, so long as there is rock music, Metallica will be considered its godfather thus tickets to their concert are hard to find.