Metallica discography highlights:

• Metallica was formed in November 1981 at Los Angeles, California, United States by drummer Lars Ulrich and vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield.
• The first published recording of the band was Hit the Lights, which was published in Metal Massacre compilation by Metal Blade Records. The band's name was accidentally written Mettallica.
• The first album, "Kill 'Em All", was originally to be titled Metal Up Your Ass. After their record label refused to publish an album with that name, it was changed.
• Metallica's danish drummer, Lars Ulrich and his parents originally moved to USA to give a boost to Lars's professional tennis career. His father, Torben Ulrich is a well-known tennis professional.
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Before Kirk Hammett joined the band, Metallica's solo-guitarist was Dave Mustaine. Due to Mustaine's problems with alcohol he was fired from the band. After it, Mustaine went to found "Megadeth".
Metallica's second bass-player, Cliff Burton died tragically in a bus-accident in Sweden on September 27, 1986. While the band and the crew were sleeping in the bus at night, the driver lost the control of the vehicle for unknown reasons. The bus fell off the road and after the accident, Burton was found under the bus, dead. Nobody else got seriously hurt in the accident.
After the release of their second album, "Ride the Lighting", the band ask John Bush to become their lead singer, since James Hetfield considered himself not to be good enough as a singer. Bush rejected this offer.
Metallica's second and third studio album, "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" were both recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, at Sweet Silence Studios. They both were produced also by man, Flemming Rasmussen, along with the band. Rasmussen produced also their fourth album ...And Justice for All.
Metallica caused a lot of controversy and anger when they sued file-sharing service Napster at 2000. Although a settlement was reached between the band and Napster ended up in bankruptcy on September 2002.
The beginning of the new millennium and decade were quite stormy for Metallica. After the Napster incident, also their bass-player Jason Newsted departed from the band, due to private and personal reasons. Shortly after that James Hetfield entered to rehab to cure his alcohol and other addictions.
On the album "St. Anger", the producer Bob Rock featured on bass, but after the release of the album and after three months of bass-player auditions, the former "Suicidal Tendencies" and "Ozzy Osbourne" band's player Robert Trujillo was appointed as a fourth bass-player in the history of Metallica.
After producing all Metallica albums since The Black Album, Bob Rock was replaced by producer Rick Rubin when the band started to record "Death Magnetic" album. When "Death Magnetic" was released, Metallica became the first band to have five consecutive albums to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 album list.
Metallica has won 9 Grammy Awards and have been nominated 18 times.