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Metallica, a heavy metal group that was formed in 1981 by lead-singer James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, has survived many set backs on their road to fame.
When Metallica first arrived on the scene their sound was not greeted with the respect that they had hoped for. Critics and the public put their music down and told them they would never make it. Despite all of the adversity, they found that they had grown a following of fans. They were not big yet, but they were on their way.
After they lost two of their original bandmates, gained two more, put out a few albums, and gained a pretty large fan following, real tragedy struck. In 1987, the groups tourbus flipped and killed bassist Cliff Burton. Taking a few months off for grieving and searching for someone to replace him, they gained Jason Newstead and went back on the road, never skipping a beat.
After years of constant touring, the new Metallica took a break to write and produce their next album, Metallica: The Black Album. When the album came onto the scene in 1991, fans flocked to stores to pick it up, but when many got home they were disappointed to find the sound had changed. It was now slightly mellow and more emotional. Some fans and critics even went as far as to say Metallica had "sold-out."
With their next few albums, Load, ReLoad, and Garage Inc., they mellowed out their sound a great deal and even broke into blues and country like songs. The new sound created a slight controversy between their faithful fans and critics. Rumors of the group getting old, selling out, and even getting ready to retire, circulated around the media and followers.
Despite all of the rumors and criticism, Metallica continued to tour world-wide, put out a new album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, put on a New Years concert in Michigan, wrote and performed a song for a major movie, and came off vacation to do a summer tour.
To this very day, they are criticized and put down, but if a critic or ex-fan would attend one of Metallica's recent concerts they would see that it seems for every fan Metallica loses, they gain ten more and that they really have "sold-out," stadium seating-wise that is.
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