This changed with Justice, as the group released their first-ever video for the song 'One.' Despite minimal support from MTV or mainstream radio, the album hit the Top Ten and sold over a million copies within weeks of its release.

Before this record, Metallica had been outspoken about rejecting aspects of the music industry that they found disingenuous, including pandering for mainstream acceptance by making their music more accessible or making music videos, which were a relatively new medium in the 1980s. In 1988, the band returned with their conceptually ambitious fourth studio album. In 1987, Metallica also paid tribute to their departed bassist with Cliff 'Em All, a video release that included unreleased live footage and intimate home videos of Burton. Garage Days Re-Revisited, a self-produced EP of ragged covers the band put together in a practice space. Newsted was touring with the band by 1987, and that year his first recorded material with Metallica was released on The $5.98 E.P. When the band decided to continue, Flotsam and Jetsom bassist Jason Newsted was chosen to replace Burton. Tragedy struck the group later that year when their tour bus crashed while traveling in Sweden. It was their best-selling record up until that point, but also their most innovative and boundary-pushing, going on to be heralded as one of the most influential metal albums of all time. Master of Puppets would prove to be a significant breakthrough for Metallica, reaching mainstream audiences without diminishing the band's standing in the metal community. They worked with the label towards the release of third album Master of Puppets, which came out in March 1986. Shortly after the release of Ride the Lightning, Metallica signed on with major label Elektra Records. Second album Ride the Lightning followed quickly in 1984, deepening the band's sound with the inclusion of classically themed guitar elements and the dark ballad 'Fade to Black.' Released in 1983 on independent thrash-focused label Megaforce Records, Metallica's debut long-player, Kill 'Em All, marked the beginning of the legitimization of heavy metal's underground, bringing new complexity and depth to thrash metal. During the recording sessions, however, Mustaine's problems with drugs and alcohol led to him being fired from the band, and they quickly recruited new lead guitarist Kirk Hammett to complete the album. Burton eventually joined Metallica, and the quartet set out to record their first album in 1983. The band made a few demo recordings with McGovney before asking him to leave the group when they met innovative bassist Cliff Burton.

In their earliest iteration, Metallica combined the speedy tempos of hardcore punk acts like Discharge with the influence of more obscure acts from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that was unfolding around the same time, resulting in some of the earliest thrash metal. He put a call out for local musicians to form a new band, and eventually an early lineup came together that included guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield, bassist Ron McGovney, and lead guitarist Dave Mustaine. Metallica was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich. Anger or their tenth studio album, 2016's Hardwired.To Self-Destruct. Razor-sharp riffs, growling vocals, and high-power precision drumming remained at the core of their sound even as they explored new ideas on later albums like 2003's St. Throughout the '90s and beyond, the group was highly active as a stadium-level touring act while sporadically releasing new music. Between the meeting of raw energy and intricate speed metal compositions of their 1983 debut Kill 'Em All and the layered, radio-geared production of 1991's self-titled 'black album,' the band turned in classic album after classic album, each new chapter leading the development of metal on a global scale.

Metallica is one of the most important and most influential metal bands of all time, drafting the blueprint for thrash metal in their earliest days, then pushing the boundaries of mainstream metal and hard rock as they settled into their role as a popular legacy act as the decades went on.

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