Metallica

METALLICA. American heavy metal band from LA California first formed in 1981. They are known for their fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship placing them as one of the founding "big four" of thrash-metal along with Slayer / Megadeth and Anthrax. The band earned a growing fan-base in the underground music community and critical acclaim with its first four albums, with their third ; Master of Puppets (1986) described as one of the most influential and heavy thrash metal albums of all-time. The group achieved substantial commercial success with their fifth album (The Black Album) which debuted at No1 on the Billboard 200. In 2000, Metallica was among a number of artists who filed a lawsuit against Napster for sharing the band's copyright-protected material for free without any band member's consent. A settlement was reached and Napster became a pay-to-use service. Despite again reaching No1, the release of St Anger (2003) alienated many fans with the exclusion of guitar solos and the "steel-sounding" snare drum. A film titled Some Kind of Monster documented the recording process of St. Anger and the tensions within the band during that time. Metallica have released nine studio albums / four live albums / five extended plays / 25 music videos and 37 singles. They have won nine Grammy Awards and have had five consecutive albums debut at No1 on the Billboard 200 (making them the first band to do so). The band's eponymous 1991 album has sold over 16 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling album of the Soundscan Era. They rank as one of most commercially successful bands of all time selling 110 million records worldwide. They have been listed as one of the greatest bands of all time by many magazines including Rolling Stone which ranked them 61st on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. As of December 2012, Metallica is the fourth best-selling music artist (since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991) selling over 53 million albums in the United States alone ......