NAMM 2026: The NAMM Show, in case you’re new to the beautiful circus that is the musical instrument industry, is the National Association of Music Merchants trade show.

Ostensibly it's a three-day conference in Anaheim, California, for the people who make gear to show it off to the people who buy gear, i.e., music merchants. In reality, it's a vortex that draws in every corner of the music biz.

Just as soon as you're shaking your head at a Gene Simmons impersonator, you're bumping into Stevie Wonder.

Yet, beyond the personalities on display, it's the chance to see and play nearly every piece of bass gear imaginable that makes the NAMM show a worthy annual pilgrimage.

For three days, we scoured the halls and searched through the masses of full stacks, combos, Class D heads, 4-strings, 5-strings, 27-strings (probably), and the heaps of new pedals to hit the shelves.

The result was a bout of hearing damage, calloused feet, and a roundup of all the exciting and amazing products debuting in the bass world.

Between talking shop with the best luthiers, and catching up with our bass guitar heroes, the yearly conglomeration of all things music was a wild success that left us lusting for new basses, amps, and pedals of every kind.

Here’s our pick of the crop from this year’s show.

Ernie Ball Music Man 50th Anniversary StingRay

It’s hard to believe that Music Man’s best-selling bass has been with us for 50 years, as it’s such an inescapable feature of the bass guitar landscape. Music Man designed and released the StingRay in 1976, a worthy successor to the Precision and Jazz Basses that Leo Fender had designed two decades before.

Ernie Ball's 50th Anniversary model celebrates five decades of the StingRay. They’re highly exclusive too. Available in two versions: the Liquid Gold will come in just 50 instruments worldwide, while the Molten Gold will be limited to 300 instruments. Each is fitted with a single humbucker and a commemorative 50th Anniversary silkscreen on the back of the headstock.

A truly exclusive bit of Californian craftsmanship that should have extra appeal to the well-heeled Music Man aficionado.

Aguilar Octamizer DLX

An effect that plunges you deeper into subsonic territory can only be a good thing, right? We are, of course, talking Aguilar’s Octamizer pedal.

The original circuit has been updated with an added octave up setting that’s a sure-fire solution to adding thickness to higher-register lines. Three independent footswitches provide control over the clean signal, octave down, and octave up effects, allowing you to stack voices instantly without adjusting any of the controls. The clean signal can now also be fully muted for pure sub-octave tones.

“When we set out to design the Octamizer DLX, the goal wasn’t to fix the original Octamizer – it was already doing what bass players needed,” writes Aguilar. “We wanted to keep that familiar feel intact while giving players more creative space, better tracking, and new voices they could access instantly.”

Walrus Audio Mantle Analog Bass Preamp DI

The new Mantle DI by Walrus Audio is a must-try for bass players serious about tone. It features two proprietary custom-wound Sapphire Transformers, and an EQ that’s designed to offer “powerful control over sub-lows, mids, and top-end content while remaining intuitive for fast tone shaping.”

If none of that makes sense to you, just know that bass gear guru Ian Martin Allison beelined it to the Walrus Audio booth solely to rave about it.

“I am an absolute DI fanatic, owning probably 50+ DIs and preamps,” said Allison. “And while they’re all great in specific ways, they all either lack something critical or try to stuff in too many features, making for an underwhelming or even overwhelming user experience. This is exactly why I needed this product to exist. I’m thrilled to say that now it does. And it is absolutely killer.” 

Ashdown Engineering UK-Built Amp Range

A manufacturer whose bass amps are ever growing in popularity, judging by the number of bass players we spoke to who love them, Ashdown Engineering has announced Phase 2 of its return to UK manufacturing with five brand-new UK-built amplifier ranges.

Finished in distinctive Ice Blue, the range spans ultra-portable micro heads, clean and intuitive amplifiers, studio-inspired combos, and powerful Rootmaster systems – each designed to deliver “unmistakable Ashdown tone, reliability, and practicality for today's bassists.”

Spector Limited Custom Shop SB-1

The first bass designed by Stuart Spector in the mid-1970s wasn’t quite as slick as the current range, but with other luthiers queueing up to take a long, hard look at the body shape, it left a mark on the bass world that is still obvious today.

Recreated in celebration of its 50th anniversary, the new SB-1 stays faithful to the original specs, including the body shape, pickup placement, vintage-style headstock, and neck-through construction.

Spector has created only 50 of these unique throwback basses in four wood options: 15 of walnut, 15 of maple, 10 of curly cherry, and 15 of rainbow alder, making it a unique collectors item.

As Spector put it, “The SB-1 predates the iconic NS series and is the foundation of the Spector legacy. This limited Custom Shop run brings the historic SB-1 design back.”

Fodera Victor Wooten '83 Monarch Standard

If Victor Wooten has a hand in a product, people are bound to take notice of it, and his Fodera signature model is no exception. Honouring Wooten’s original 1983 Monarch (serial number 037), the Victor Wooten ’83 Monarch Standard is essentially a Monarch featuring details from Victor’s own bass.

It features a solid mahogany body with a beautiful maple top. The three-piece maple neck has an Indian Rosewood fingerboard with clay dot inlays. And powering it all is a Trickfish Custom 3-Band Preamp wired to EMG P/J pickups.

Hearing Wooten himself test out its rich tone and dynamic range was the icing on the cake. “I got my first Fodera in 1983,” said Wooten. “I got it right out of high school and it just fit me perfectly. I’ve stuck with them ever since.”

Laney DB-East-Pre

Session veteran Nathan East was also on hand to demo Laney’s latest bass preamp that he helped design, and we were knocked out by its sound. After unveiling the dual-input DB-East signature head last year, the British amp builder is now offering the inner workings as a pro-level preamp.

With dual inputs and two pre-dialed-in outputs, the DB-East Pre features a tube channel, a Range dial for adding bottom end to its overdrive, selectable mid pre-shapes, and a Tilt switch for a little more bottom or top end EQ.

There’s even a partner app to dial in East’s favorite impulse responses, including IRs from hit record rigs. Pretty much everything a bassist could need on the fly.

“It's a total game-changer,” said East. “There's a lot of information packed into this little box.”

Aguilar Tone Hammer 210 Combo

Rated at 300 watts, Aguilar's new Tone Hammer combo features a vertically-oriented cabinet loaded with two custom ceramic 10-inch speakers inspired by the company’s DB series.

The back is home to dual XLR outputs for front-of-house and in-ear monitor routing as well as built-in cabinet impulse responses. A headphone output and auxiliary input seal the deal.

“The Tone Hammer combo wasn't designed as a scaled-down solution,” a press release states. “Instead, Aguilar focused on the environments bassists actually work in – small venues, Broadway pit settings, and houses of worship where players often rely on in-ear monitoring rather than stage volume.”

Dingwall Jacob Umansky 'Sol' Signature

Bass players of all stripes queued up to check out the latest collaboration between Jacob Umansky and Canadian luthier Sheldon Dingwall.

Designed as a mass-appeal version of Umansky’s Dingwall Custom Shop Z3, his signature model retains a host of premium features including a bookmatched ash top, a matte white/black ceruse finish and Darkglass electronics.

It’s not just for shredders either, with a pickup configuration that makes it far more versatile than you might think. Sure, you'll need to get to grips with that multi-scale fingerboard, but where else are you going to get that tone?

“It’s more than just an instrument to me,” said Umansky, having tested the prototype on tour with Intervals last year. “It’s a reflection of how I play and who I am as a musician. Each time I pick it up it pushes me to explore new ideas.”

Blackstar MM Debut Bass 25

There were rigs of all sizes at the Blackstar booth this year, but what caught our attention was the compact MM Debut 25, a Marco Mendoza signature edition of its Debut Bass 25 practice amp. With Clean and Drive channels, and a responsive 3-band EQ, this is a bassists dream for backstage practice. Other features include Mendoza's distinctive Bird logo, bespoke tolex, and custom fret cloth.

“The MM Debut Bass 25 is everything a bass player needs to enjoy playing every day,” said Mendoza. “It’s simple, inspiring and sounds incredible.”

Fodera x Trickfish Preamp & Practice Amp

Of all the excited rumblings we heard on the show floor about new products, Fodera’s collaboration with Trickfish might have been brought up the most.

Pairing the tone shaping of Fodera’s boutique instruments with the clean preamp circuitry that Trickfish is known for, this new preamp and practice amp has got everything you need: headphone out, aux in for play-alongs, DI out for recording, and a 4-band EQ. Plus the added ability to switch between 2-, 3- and 4-band to make on the fly adjustments quickly.

Ibanez Mode Series

The latest new models to arrive from the Ibanez stable are built upon a foundation of ergonomic design. And with split-coil Delta pickups and a Sonictech S Preamp onboard, they sound just as good as they look – but most important, they feature a competitive price tag that could allow almost any bassist to cop a high-end electric.

Other features include a passive tone control with a push/pull active/passive switch, the MR5S monorail bridge, luminescent side dots for stage visibility, and Ibanez’s new Aero-light Tuners.

Aria Pro II SB-CLB Cliff Burton Signature

Elsewhere at the show, Aria announced a commemorative signature bass to mark 40 years since Cliff Burton's passing. A reissue of the Aria Pro II Cliff Burton – which launched in 2013 with the approval of his family and Metallica – the new model retains many characteristics of the original with a few additional features.

It’s built with an ash body, a 7-piece maple/walnut neck, and a 24-fret rosewood fingerboard. Aria fits it with an MB-1E pickup and their B.B. Circuit, which features an Attack Mode Selector offering six predefined EQ curves. Burton’s signature is also reproduced on the back of the headstock.

Tech 21 Geddy Lee Amalgamation Signature Chorus

Also new for 2026, Geddy Lee has teamed up once again with Tech 21 to create a chorus pedal tailored to his own personal specs, allowing you to get even closer to his signature sound.

“With the Detune control, you can adjust the pitch of the choral voicing,” write Tech 21. “Engaging Deviate mode alters the Detune function and adds an additional voicing for even more depth – as if 3 people are playing at once.”

Speed and Depth knobs round out the control set for adjusting the modulation.

NAMM 2026: Aria Guitars has announced a commemorative signature bass for the late Cliff Burton to mark 40 years since his passing.

The instrument, a reissue of the Aria Pro II Cliff Burton – which launched in 2013 with the approval of his family and Metallica – “honors Cliff Burton’s groundbreaking tone and legacy.” But isn’t purely sentimental, with Aria saying it has been “created for a new generation of players.”

Metallica’s golden-era bassist was a pivotal songwriting force in the band’s early successes, with tracks like (Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth quickly embedding themselves into the instrument’s folklore. And while his death in 1986, aged just 24, cut the musician’s life tragically short, the impact of his work still lives on.

Though Burton’s talents never earned him a signature guitar in his lifetime, the 2013 release saw his go-to bass and unsung brand celebrating his legacy, with that recipe now revived and refreshed 13 years later.

Currently, details about the bass are scarce. It remains to be seen whether the same alder body, seven-piece maple/walnut through neck, and 24-fret rosewood fingerboard recipe has been altered. The 2013 model also rocked a solid brass tailpiece with 24K gold-plated saddles and a single Aria MB-V passive pickup.

It will be interesting to see how much of this has been tweaked to cater to modern bass rigs. Judging by the image Aria has posted on Instagram, it certainly looks to be a faithful recreation of the instrument that Burton made so iconic and lusted-over. It doesn’t look any less gold-plated either. Fancy.

Thankfully, with its unveiling set to take place at NAMM 2026, the wait won’t be long, at least.

Other Cliff Burto-themed posthumous releases have included a reissue of his Morley fuzz wah and a limited-edition beer, which raised money for the late Metallica bassist's scholarship foundation to support young musicians.

The metal world of the early '80s had not yet encountered a bass player with such formidable and dynamic musical abilities as the late Cliff Burton. At the time, only Iron Maiden's Steve Harris had really elevated the bass guitar as an equal participant in the guitar-dominated world of metal.

Right from the beginning, Burton forged an inimitable style, both musical and otherwise. As most headbangers succumbed to the typical thrash-metal uniform of the day – black T-shirts, and leather bike jackets – Burton wore bell-bottom jeans and flannel shirts ten years before grunge deemed it cool.

“Cliff strikes me as a player who would have said, ‘This is how we’re doing it’,” said Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bass player since 2003. “He had a vision, and he would go for that vision. Rather than a producer trying to control him.”

If you’re still sceptical about proclamations that Burton made Metallica the band they are today, look no further than Orion from Master of Puppets.

Orion begins with a multi-layered bass intro, and breaks down to a classically-inspired bassline (beginning at 03:59) that outlines a straightforward F#-A-B-E progression and supports the guitars' 3rds and counterpoint.

Burton uses the same progression as the basis for his own melodic improvisations, adding another layer to the overall contrapuntal texture.

The actual harmonic language of these sections remains easy to follow (everything is squarely in F# minor). However, the mere presence of ensemble textures characterized by counterpoint and diatonic harmony was largely unheard of in mid-'80s thrash metal.

Guitarist Kirk Hammett remembered Burton in the February 2005 issue of Bass Player, “Cliff was heavily into classical music, and he'd incorporate classical harmonies and techniques into his bass playing all the time.

“Whenever we went on tour he'd bring along his guitar, and he'd plug it into a Scholz Rockman with two little speakers and play along with songs for hours.

“He was actually on his way to becoming a really good guitar player – in fact, I picked up a few things from his hotel-room guitar playing that ended up on Master of Puppets.”

Andy Battye, who worked for Metallica on the band’s Ride the Lightning tour, also recalled Burton’s free-flowing vibe onstage. “I remember my first time seeing Cliff with Metallica. I spent the first three songs in total astonishment watching his onstage antics. After the show he told me everything sounded fine, but that I really needed to keep those drinks coming!”

It was about this time that Burton switched to an Aria Pro II bass. “We were on the Ozzy Osbourne Ultimate Sin tour and Cliff had just got an endorsement from Aria Guitars,” bass tech Eddie Kercher told Bass Player.

“After a few shows, Cliff took off the bass and started smashing it against the side-fill monitor, which made a dent at the top of the neck. He told me I'd better start ordering more basses, because he liked whacking them around!”

“Even after destroying a few side fills, putting holes in the stage, and throwing the bass out into the crowd, he was still using that instrument through the very last show he played in Stockholm. That thing never went out of tune!”

It was during the European tour for Master of Puppets that Cliff unexpectedly bid farewell to the world. What he would be doing nowadays if he’d survived that terrible coach crash in Sweden is anybody’s guess, but one thing’s for sure – it would have been awesome.

If you know your Metallica history, you'll know that Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo aren't the only guys to have filled the bass chair with the thrash metal giants. The first, Ron McGovney, joined in January 1982, but his time with the band was to be short-lived.

The story goes that McGovney was at a concert in San Francisco with guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich when they saw Cliff Burton play with his band Trauma.

“Cliff starts going into this bass solo. And they’re just looking at him and their eyes are wide open,” McGovney told Bass Player in 2018. “I kind of knew right at that point: ‘This is the guy that they’re gonna go after.’ I could just feel it.”

Tension with guitarist Dave Mustaine eventually led McGovney to quit – he was more interested in being a motorcycle mechanic than in playing thrash metal. Burton joined in September 1982, but he always respected McGovney’s time in the band, giving him a backstage pass to a concert at the Palladium in 1984.

Burton’s impact on Metallica’s music was immense – listen to Orion from their superlative Master Of Puppets album for evidence – and on the next generation of metal bassists, all of whom owe him a debt to a greater or lesser degree.

Burton’s most famous instrument was his 1979 Rickenbacker 4001, uniquely modded with three replacement pickups: a Gibson EB, a Seymour Duncan stacked Jazz, and a Duncan Stratocaster pickup under the bridge for extra top end. It’s this bass that you can hear on Kill ’Em All and Ride The Lightning, but by the time of Master Of Puppets, he had switched to an Aria Pro II.

“Cliff’s style was very aggressive,” says Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bass player since 2003. “When I joined Metallica, I became more familiar with where he was coming from creatively. That’s when I realized how special he was.”

By 1986 Metallica were riding high, but the year was to end in tragedy. While on tour in Sweden the group's tourbus skidded and crashed. Burton was trapped under the bus and killed. He was 24 years old when he died.

It looked like Metallica had been dealt a blow from which they would never recover, but they made the decision to carry on, with Jason Newsted joining in October 1986. For his audition Newsted had learned the band's entire back catalogue. When they asked him which song he wanted to play, he replied, “Whatever song you want.”

Newsted’s stint with Metallica was commercially successful, but also creatively inconsistent. While his bass playing was always exemplary, delivered on a range of basses including his beloved Sadowsky, he was inaudible on the 1988 album ...And Justice For All, while other, less assured records such as Load and Reload divided the Metallica fanbase.

Still, 1991’s self-titled LP – the Black Album – was a massive success, selling over 30 million copies worldwide.

Metallica found a new, bottom-heavy sound thanks to Canadian producer Bob Rock. “In Bob Rock I found someone who knew what he wanted and how to achieve it,” said Newsted. “I learned a lot by listening for what he wanted in terms of bass sound. I learned to bring lots of mids up. I didn't do that before.”

As current bassist Robert Trujillo told Bass Player: “You could hear Jason’s parts better for sure, and they were a bit more delegated, but still great, though. There’s an art to simplicity, and Jason brought that art.

“Obviously Cliff was very aggressive, very melodic, and a busier player, so it’s not like one way’s better than the other, but it would be safe to say that Jason’s parts were easier for me to learn, for sure.”

After one too many disputes with the other band members Newsted called it a day, and left in January 2001.

Following Newsted's departure, Rock kept the group's album plans alive by playing all the bass guitar parts on its 2003 Elektra release, St. Anger. Rock played just three gigs with Metallica, but in the studio he became an essential part of the group's bass legacy.

“Please – tell all the bass players to be easy on me, man,” Rock told Bass Player. “I did my best to represent you well!”

Robert Trujillo – who had played with Suicidal Tendencies, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society and Jerry Cantrell's solo band prior to joining – was announced as Metallica's new bassist on February 24, 2003, following a two-day try-out that was captured on their fly-on-the-wall Metallica: Some Kind of Monster rockumentary.

Bassists Pepper Keenan, Jeordie White, Scott Reeder, Eric Avery, Danny Lohner and Chris Wyse – among others – also tried out for the role, but after months of auditions, Trujillo was officially declared the new bassist.

“For the first couple of years, I was literally just hanging on,” said Trujillo. “We hadn’t even done Anesthesia until the Puppets anniversary show in 2006, so I did a lot on my own, to stay ahead of the game, because for the first three years I was chasing it.”

When we ask about his his predecessors, Trujillo reflected: “Hard shoes to fill. Both guys are incredible players. Considering Newsted's a pick player, and the speed and dexterity involved in this music, I think it's a tall order. And for Cliff too, who was a finger player.

“I'm not being disrespectful to all the bass players out there, but there aren't many bassists that could do this job. Playing with Metallica is the most demanding gig there is.”

Cliff Burton's shredding fingerstyle bass solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth, from Metallica's 1983 debut album, Kill 'Em All, stamped his identity firmly on the emerging thrash metal movement. Heavy metal bass was not known for being particularly inventive before he came to prominence, but right from the off, Burton was unstoppable.

He recorded parts that metal bassists still learn today as a part of their basic training. Anesthesia, with its famous classical motifs derived from J.S. Bach and a hugely overdriven tone, was just the first of these.

“Cliff always wanted to play more than he should have,” James Hetfield told Bass Player. “He'd go up high on the neck a lot and the bottom would drop out, and certain notes always stood out more than others. But we didn't try to control him – we couldn't. We wanted him to figure out his place himself.”

The opening sequence of (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth is a Dm triad moving down to a C major triad. Rhythmically, it's a three-over-four grouping – a three-note pattern that fits into 4/4 time. The Dm shape slides up a whole-step to Em for two bars, then up a half-step to an F major triad.

To play the Dm smoothly, use your 3rd finger on the D string's 12th fret and stretch up with your pinkie to hit the high A. Slide down to the 2nd finger for the C major triad.

After the two power chords, the Dm-C progression continues, now in 3/4 time. Note to close the wah pedal on the chords to achieve Burton's enraged tone.

At 01:03 Burton introduces a root-5-octave pattern that moves from B to A to G# back to A. Don't let the alternating 5/8-to-3/4 time signatures throw you; it's easier to count it as a group of five and a group of six.

The pattern breaks at 01:13, when it moves up to C and stays in 3/4 (count six). At 01:19 we're in 5/8 again and Burton sets up a cool descending pattern – C triad to Em/B to D/A – that ends with some Baroque-inspired embellishments.

The next section returns to the root-5-octave pattern; it goes from C to E to A with a walkdown line to F, continuing to D then G with a walkup back to the C in the first ending. The second time through, Burton pauses with a little bend before really stepping on the gas.

The fast triplets at 02:16 are tricky to play clean; the open A string is the key, but make sure the top notes don't blur too much – practice it slowly first. The Eb to E over the open A at 02:28 is classic metal; slide up to the high A (D string, 19th fret) with the 3rd finger to make the alternating A to Asus chords easier to play. Now, enters the drums.

This next section consists mostly of typical E minor pentatonic rock licks, not to say that it's easy to play – it’s fast and furious and combined with the wah pedal. If you're on a 20-fret bass, you'll have to pick up the high B natural on the G string at the 16th fret.

The bends at 02:59 are tricky; use your 3rd finger to hold the high D and bend the A up with the 2nd finger, but use the 1st finger behind it to get the grip you need to bend to the right pitch. Burton then drops down to the low E and gets nasty with the wah. Be sure to open and close the pedal on the correct beats.

At 03:07 Burton starts a bluesy lick in the higher octave of E minor pentatonic in the 12th fret position. Then it's back down to low E for another big buildup.

At 03:17 he plays an A7 chord with the open A ringing through the measure – but with the heavy distortion, it's pretty gnarly at this point. The 16th-note lick at 03:30 is a G triad; play the high D with the 4th finger, the B with the 1st, and the G with the 2nd. More pentatonic patterns follow and more riding the low E.

This melodic, sudden break from the mayhem is like the eye of the hurricane, because after a brief trip down to earth with the roaring low E (which ends with a B/F# power chord on top), the ground erupts again with double-stop slides that climb back up with fingernail scrapes up the E and A strings into a gnashing of the D and G strings against the pickups.

It was in Los Angeles almost 30 years ago that Lars Ulrich, a teenage tennis prodigy turned drummer, first jammed with James Hetfield, a guitarist and singer from the nearby SoCal neighborhood of Downey.

At the time, a none-too-impressed Hetfield figured that first session to be their last. He was, of course, very wrong. As the backbone of Metallica, Hetfield and Ulrich have gone on to perform countless times for millions of fans around the world and to sell many millions of albums.

All of this would not have been possible without the major players who have passed through the band’s ranks over the years, among them guitarist Dave Mustaine, bassist Jason Newsted, and, perhaps most crucial, the late, great bassist Cliff Burton. But no single musician has been beside Hetfield and Ulrich longer than lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, who joined Metallica prior to the recording of their 1983 debut, Kill ’Em All, and whose quick-fingered, melodic soloing is an indispensable element of the band’s sound to this day.

Currently rounded out by bassist Robert Trujillo, Metallica recently released their ninth studio effort, Death Magnetic. The album is being hailed as a return to the band’s thrash metal roots, which makes this an ideal moment to tell the story of those trailblazing early days.

In this exclusive oral history, Hetfield, Hammett, and Ulrich, along with some friends and former band mates, look back on Metallica’s first decade, and recount the recording of their classic first five albums. Through the eyes of those who saw it, heard it, and helped to create the timeless music, Guitar World charts Metallica’s rise from L.A. thrash upstarts to reigning biggest heavy metal band in the world.

In the Beginning

In 1980, 16-year-old Lars Ulrich moves with his family from his native Denmark to Los Angeles. Inspired by Deep Purple and New Wave of British Heavy Metal acts like Diamond Head, Saxon, and Motörhead, Ulrich puts down his tennis racket, picks up a pair of drumsticks, and decides to form a band. Among the first people he meets after moving to L.A. is Brian Slagel, a Southern California teen who would go on to found the independent record label Metal Blade.

Brian Slagel: “Lars would always say, ‘I’m going to start a band one day,’ and I’d be like, ‘Sure man, whatever.’

“He had this little drum set in the corner of his bedroom, but it wasn’t even set up. I’d always laugh when I saw it because it was just a big mess. But when I started putting together Metal Massacre [the Metal Blade compilation of local, unsigned metal bands] Lars came to me and said, ‘If I get a band together, can I be on the album?’ Since he was a good friend I said, ‘Absolutely.’”

In the summer of 1980, Ulrich places a classified ad in SoCal paper The Recycler: “Drummer looking for other musicians to jam with – Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head, Iron Maiden.” Guitarist James Hetfield is among the respondents.

James Hetfield: “The first time Lars and I got together to jam, it just didn’t happen. There was no vibe. But he introduced me to a whole new world of heavy music. I had heard of Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, but not too many of the other, more obscure English metal bands.

“I would spend days just going through his record collection, taping over my REO Speedwagon cassettes with bands like Angel Witch and Diamond Head and Motörhead. I was in heaven at his house.”

Slagel: “When Lars heard about the Metal Massacre compilation I was putting together, the two of them recorded Hit the Lights on a little Fostex cassette, and they had their friend, Lloyd Grant, who was a guitar teacher, come in and do the lead.”

Hetfield: “Lars came to me with the opportunity to be on a record, and that was pretty interesting. At that point in my life I wanted to play music. I didn’t want to work.”

Ulrich steals the name Metallica from friend and radio DJ Ron Quintana, who had mentioned it as a possible title for a fanzine he was preparing to launch. Ulrich and Hetfield recruit bassist Ron McGovney, who had played with Hetfield previously in the band Leather Charm, and lead guitarist Dave Mustaine to fill out the band’s lineup.

Dave Mustaine: “Before the [first] rehearsal, I went to Lars’ house, and he played me the tape of Hit the Lights. I said, ‘This song sucks. You need more guitar solos.’ And Lars went, ‘Oh fuck, reeeeaaallly?’

“I convinced him that I should be in the band and went to rehearsal. I was tuning up when all the other guys went into another room. They weren’t talking to me, so I went in and said, ‘What the fuck? Am I in the band or not?’ And they said, ‘You’ve got the gig.’ It was as easy as that.”

Kerry King: (Slayer guitarist) “I remember seeing Dave play with Metallica at the Woodstock in Anaheim [California]. He was ripping these killer solos and riffs, and he was just glaring at the crowd – not even looking at his fingers. I was blown away.”

In the spring of 1982, the Hetfield-Ulrich-Mustaine-McGovney lineup records a four-song demo with a new version of Hit the Lights. The tape comes to be known as the “Power Metal” demo due to business cards McGovney prints up with the phrase at the time.

Ron McGovney: “Lars said, ‘What did you do! What the hell is ‘power metal’? I can’t believe you did such a stupid thing!’ He was so pissed off at me.”

In late 1982, while trying to replace McGovney, Ulrich and Hetfield spot bassist Cliff Burton onstage with his band, Trauma, at the Whisky a Go Go in L.A. The two ask him to join Metallica. Burton agrees, on the condition that the band relocate to his hometown of San Francisco.

Slagel: “Metallica had a lot of problems in L.A. because all the club owners thought they were either too heavy or too punk. They went over so much better in San Francisco than they ever did in their hometown.”

Gary Holt: (Exodus guitarist) “When they first came to the Bay Area, L.A. was known for nothing more than a lot of shit bands. And then here comes this band, and we’re all into the same stuff – Diamond Head, Budgie… Metallica came along and started playing everywhere.”

Prior to Burton’s joining, Metallica had recorded the No Life ’Til Leather demo, which featured much of the material that would eventually comprise Kill ’Em All. The demo becomes a hot item on the underground tape-trading circuit.

Holt: “The tape-trading scene was how we all got heard. You would record a demo and the traders would circulate it all over the world – to all the fans, the magazines, and the independent record labels.”

King: “Metallica’s demo got passed around, big time. We all had that.”

Scott Ian: (Anthrax guitarist) “When I heard No Life ‘Til Leather I immediately thought, ‘Wow, here’s some guys from the other side of the country that are doing the same thing we’re doing; they’re just a little better at it right now.’

“I remember being there the day Jonny Z [Jon Zazula, owner of New Jersey record store Rock N’ Roll Heaven and founder of indie label Megaforce Records] got it in the mail. He put it on, and I was like, ‘That’s fucking killer! Who are these guys?’ Jonny told me, ‘They’re called Metallica, and I’m bringing them to New York. Somehow we’re gonna make a record.’”

Jonny Z: “We hustled together $1,500 for them to rent a van to come out to the East Coast and play some shows.”

Metallica set up shop at the Music Building in Queens, New York, where Anthrax practice as well. The band live and rehearse at the space and play their first East Coast gigs.

Ian: “Metallica were opening for Vandenberg [the group guitarist Adrian Vandenberg led prior to joining Whitesnake] at L’amour in Brooklyn, and we were all down there in the afternoon, waiting for them to soundcheck. Mustaine was already shitfaced by 3:30, and he was yelling at Adrian Vandenberg, ‘Get the fuck off the stage! You suck!’ And we were all like, ‘What the fuck, dude? Shhhh!’”

Slagel: “Everybody liked to drink back then and have a good time, but Dave could go much further over the line than anyone else would, and you could see that sooner or later that was going to be a problem.”

Ian: “I showed up at the Music Building for band practice one day, and Cliff was outside smoking a cigarette. He told me they had just kicked Dave out of the band. The other guys said, ‘We had known we were gonna do it for weeks now. We woke him up this morning, and he was so drunk and hungover that before he could even realize what was going on we got him out of here.’

“I asked them what they were going to do, and they said they already had another guy on his way into town. His name was Kirk Hammett, and he was the guitar player in Exodus.”

Kirk Hammett: “I was familiar with Metallica’s music before I joined the band. I had the No Life ‘Til Leather demo, and my friends and I listened to it quite a bit. It was what everyone in the San Francisco underground metal scene was listening to in 1982. Plus, Exodus played with Metallica pretty often in San Francisco.

“The first time I spoke to Lars was after they had just finished a set and I said, ‘Thanks for letting us play. I really like you guys.’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, cool, cool,’ but as I was talking to him, he started taking his stage clothes off, and before I knew it he was just completely naked in front of me, and I was just shocked. I said to myself, ‘Oh, he’s European. Europeans do stuff like this.’”

Lars Ulrich: “I remember the first time I heard Kirk. He had a feel that very few young players have – very rooted in European metal. It was really nice to hear an American guy who didn’t play like Eddie Van Halen.”

Kill ’Em All

In the spring of 1983, Metallica travel to Music America Studios in Rochester, New York, to record their debut album, Kill ’Em All, with producer Paul Curcio.

Hammett: “We totally trashed the place. I felt bad. But it’s four guys, you know? There was carpet in every single room, and we drank pretty much 24 hours a day back then. So you can imagine how that turned out. Moist places shouldn’t have rugs.”

Ulrich: “The actual studio was in the basement of this huge old colonial-type of clubhouse. On the second floor there was a huge ballroom; perfect for getting a good drum sound. The problem was the place was fucking haunted. My cymbals would start spinning for no reason. Shit like that. It was scary.”

Hetfield: “Occasionally we put guitar and bass amps in the [ballroom] for ambience. I remember Cliff being in that room with all his amps and his headphones on while he recorded (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth, his bass solo. He literally was just standing in front of his amps.”

Hammett: “The guitar stuff was recorded through James’ magical, mythical Marshall. He had it modified by some guy in L.A. who used to work on Eddie Van Halen’s gear. I used it too, because we didn’t have much equipment back then. I also used a wah pedal and a Boss Super Distortion. James played his white Flying V, and I used my black Flying V. Those were the only guitars we had.”

Hammett, who has only been in the band a few months, still has to contend with the looming presence of Dave Mustaine, who had written many of the riffs and solos to the songs.

Hammett: “Jonny Z said, ‘You know, you have to play Dave’s solos.’” I said, “‘No, I don’t really want to play Dave’s solos.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you play the opening to every solo, so that people think you’re going to play Dave’s solos, and then you can go somewhere else with them.’ And that’s exactly what I did.

“As a 20-year-old kid, put in a position like that, you don’t want to rock the boat too much – especially being the new guy. So I took the first four bars of most of the solos and changed them.”

Hetfield: “Dave brought the song The Four Horsemen over from one of his other bands. Back then it was called The Mechanix. After he left Metallica, we kind of fixed the song up. The lyrics he used were pretty silly.”

Kill ’Em All is released on July 25, 1983, on Megaforce. Though the first wave of thrash bands, including Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax, and Overkill, are up and running, Metallica are the first act to record and release a full-length vinyl album.

Hetfield: “It was Cliff who named the album. Originally we were supposed to call it ‘Metal Up Your Ass.’ We got a phone call from our manager telling us half the record outlets wouldn’t carry the album if it was called that. Cliff said, ‘You know what? Fuck those fuckers, man. We should just kill ’em all.’”

Hammett: “After we recorded the album and we came back to the Bay Area, there seemed to be 10 or 12 newer bands that were playing faster, really aggressive beats.”

David Ellefson: (former Megadeth bassist) “I remember early on Dave [Mustaine] got a fan letter from some kid in the Bay Area who wrote, ‘Can’t wait to hear your new stuff. Hope it’s faster than Metallica.’ We went to rehearsal the next day and everything jumped up 50 beats per minute!”

Hammett: “Part of the reason why we would play so fast is because we were just nervous. As a young musician, when I was nervous I had a tendency to speed things up. Joining Metallica, I thought, ‘This is great, because it can never be too fast.’”

Hetfield: “Lars was always nervous onstage, so he’d play faster and faster. Nobody wanted to wimp out and tell him. We just figured, ‘Hell, we’ll just play fast, too,’ and that’s what we did on the record.”

Hammett: “I would have been happy selling [a few] copies and being able to do a club tour across the States. To me, that was success. Then when we found out we were actually going to go to Europe and play shows there for the first time – I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s totally unexpected.’

“For James and Cliff and myself, we had never been outside the United States. It was all very inspiring, because there were more possibilities out there than we imagined at the onset.”

Ian: “Jonny Z had been trying to land Metallica a deal, and all the guys at the big labels would put their fingers in their ears when he played them the album. They were clueless. But when they saw how many copies Jonny sold, they realized, ‘Wow, there’s thousands of kids out there who are into this shit.’”

Jonny Z: “We printed up 1,500 copies, and they went in five seconds. We printed another 3,500, and they went in a week. We just kept on building and building, and then Elektra picked them up for Ride the Lightning.”

Ride the Lightning

After completing a European tour opening for Venom in early 1984, Metallica travel to Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, to record their second album, with producer Flemming Rasmussen.

The result, Ride the Lightning, is issued on Megaforce on July 27. A few months later, after a gig in New York City, the band is signed by Elektra, making them the first thrash metal act to be picked up by a major label. Elektra then reissues Ride the Lightning in the fall of 1984.

Ulrich: “Cliff was responsible for a lot of the things that happened between Kill ’Em All and Ride the Lightning. He really exposed James and I to a whole new musical horizon of harmonies and melodies. [Our] whole way of writing songs together was very much shaped around Cliff’s musical input.”

Hetfield: “Touring definitely made us a little more worldly. We started to see other things that were going on in the world. And that’s when more of the punk-oriented, opinionated kind of thoughts began to appear in our lyrics. And actually having to sit down and write an album made a difference, because Kill ’Em All was just songs we had been playing in clubs for the two years before we recorded it.”

Hammett: “I tracked the whole album with Marshall amps and my Gibson Flying V, and by then James had his Gibson Explorer.”

Hetfield: “That whole album was a real huge step for us. Creeping Death was our first big, chanting, gang-vocal thing. There was almost some production value to it!”

Hammett: “When we did the crunchy ‘Die by my hand’ breakdown in the middle, we sat in the control room after we did the gang vocals, and everyone was just going nuts!”

In addition to thrashy cuts like Creeping Death, Fight Fire with Fire, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, the album features the song Fade to Black, which many consider the first thrash-metal ballad.

Slagel: “Metallica really pushed the boundaries with Fade to Black. That was the first time any of the bands tried something like that. I remember some of their hardcore fans accused them of selling out with that song, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s just a great, extremely well-written tune.”

Hetfield: “It’s a suicide song, and we got a lot of flack for it; kids were killing themselves because of the song. But we also got hundreds and hundreds of letters from kids telling us how they related to the song and that it made them feel better. It was also pretty much our first ballad, so it was challenging, and we knew it would freak people out.”

Hammett: “For the extended solo at the end I wasn’t sure what to play. We had been in Denmark for five or six months, and I was getting really homesick. Since it was a somber song and we were all bummed out anyway, I thought of some depressing things when I did the solo – and it really helped!

“When that was finished, I went back and did the clean guitar parts behind the verse. James played an arpeggiated figure while I arpeggiated three-note chords. We ended up getting a very Dire Straits–type of sound.”

Hetfield: “Bands like Exodus and Slayer don’t do ballads, but they’ve stuck themselves in that position, which is something we’ve never wanted to do. Limiting yourself to please your audience is bullshit.”

With the support of Elektra, Metallica begin to make inroads to the mainstream. Throughout 1984 and 1985 the band tour the world, embarking on the ‘Bang the Head That Doesn’t Bang’ tour across Europe and playing the U.S. with W.A.S.P. and Armored Saint.

In August of 1985, Metallica appear at the Day on the Green festival in Oakland, California, where they perform before an audience of 60,000. That same month, they play to more than 70,000 at the Monsters of Rock festival in Donington, England, where they’re sandwiched on the bill between Ratt and Bon Jovi.

Hetfield: (onstage at Monsters of Rock) “If you came here to see spandex, eye makeup, and the words ‘Oh baby’ in every fuckin' song, this ain't the fuckin' band.”

Master of Puppets

After touring for much of the year, Metallica return to Sweet Silence Studios in September 1985, to begin work on their third album, Master of Puppets, again with Flemming Rasmussen at the helm.

Hammett: “By that point, we had been playing together for a few years. We’d toured a ton; we knew each other musically and personally; everybody was contributing amazing ideas, and it was just a culmination of all the right spots and all the right notes at the right time. Maybe the planets were aligned or something, I don’t know, but that’s what it felt like.”

Hetfield: “We started getting into the longer, more orchestrated songs. It was more of a challenge to write a long song that didn’t seem long.”

Hammett: “I’ll tell you how the main [descending] riff to Master of Puppets came about. On the Ride the Lightning tour, James would always play the riff in the dressing room, but on the D string, and I’d play it simultaneously on the G string as a parallel-fourths harmony line. It sounded really dorky and funny.

“Then, one day at rehearsal, James said, ‘Let me show you this really heavy song intro,’ and proceeded to play that exact riff on the low E string. I said, ‘Ah, so you finally found a use for that dorky little thing!’ It’s anything but dorky now.”

Hetfield: “The riff for the title track was pretty messy – constantly moving. But it works good live. People love to scream Master! a couple of times.”

Hammett: “I used a Mesa/Boogie Mark II-C head and my Jackson Randy Rhoads V on that song. When you listen to the solo, there’s this weird sound right after the mellow part where it sounds like I’m hitting a super high note, like I’m fretting the string against the pickup.

“What happened was, I accidentally pulled the string off the fretboard, and it fretted out on the side of the neck! I heard it back and was like, ‘That’s brilliant! We’ve gotta keep that!’ Of course, I’ve never been able to reproduce it since.”

Master of Puppets is released on March 3, 1986. In addition to the epic title track, the album features incredibly aggressive material like Battery, Damage, Inc., and Disposable Heroes, as well as a second ballad, Welcome Home (Sanitarium).

A Sticker that appeared on the cover of early pressings of Master of Puppets read: “The only track you probably won't want to play is Damage, Inc. due to the multiple uses of the infamous ‘F’ word. Otherwise, there aren't any ‘Shits,’ ‘Fucks,’ ‘Pisses,’ ‘Cunts,’ ‘Motherfuckers,’ or ‘Cocksuckers’ anywhere on this record.”

Hetfield: “The idea for Welcome Home (Sanitarium) came from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Fade to Black worked well, and we wanted to have another slow, clean, picking type of song, this time with a chorus. I had trouble singing that chorus – it’s really high. And the riff for the song was lifted from some other band, who shall remain anonymous.”

Master of Puppets peaks at #29 on the Billboard album chart, and within a few months of its release sells more than 500,000 copies. With no help from radio or MTV, Metallica earn their first Gold-certified album. The band receive a large amount of mainstream exposure from their opening slot on Ozzy Osbourne’s tour in support of his Ultimate Sin album.

Hammett: “Going on the Ozzy tour really made a difference, because all of a sudden we were playing Master of Puppets to a pretty mainstream audience. Your typical Ozzy fan might not have gotten Metallica, but two or three years later, they were all saying, ‘Yeah, I saw Metallica with Ozzy, and they blew him away!’

“We converted people night after night. Suddenly we were selling albums, and a lot of it had to do with playing our asses off, putting on a great show, just bringing the music to the people in that way, because radio wasn’t having us.”

In the fall of ’86, Metallica embark on the European leg of the ‘Damage, Inc.’ tour, with Anthrax supporting.

Dan Spitz: (Anthrax guitarist) “The aura each night when they got onstage was incredible. I imagine Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath had that same vibe. Seeing Metallica back then, you just knew something big was about to happen. Master of Puppets was the changing of the guard.”

On September 27, while en route to a gig in Copenhagen, Metallica’s tour bus skids off the road near Dorarp, Sweden, and flips over several times. Cliff Burton, asleep in his bunk, is thrown through a window. The bus falls on top of him, killing him instantly. He was 24 years old.

Hetfield: “I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I went to pieces. The driver tried to take Cliff’s blanket to give that to someone else. I just screamed, ‘Fuck that!’ I wanted to kill the guy. I didn’t know if he was drunk or if the bus had skidded on ice. All I knew was Cliff was dead.”

Hammett: “A part of Metallica was lost forever when he died.”

Hetfield: “The only thing I could think was: ‘The band? No way! There ain’t no band. The band is not the band right now. It’s just three guys.’”

Ian: “It was a terrible time. You just don’t imagine something like that happening to one of your friends, especially when you’re on tour, because there’s this feeling of invincibility. But I know that the rest of Metallica never considered ending the band. Their attitude was, ‘Why would we stop? That’s the last thing Cliff would want us to do.’”

A few weeks after Burton’s funeral, Hetfield, Ulrich, and Hammett begin auditioning bass players. They eventually settle on 23-year-old Flotsam and Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted.

Ulrich: “We did about 60 people in one week. And we decided that we wanted to ask four back. Jason was second of the four. We played all day, and then went out for a meal. And then we went for the big test, which was the drink test.

“Somehow, I swear it wasn’t planned, me, Kirk, and James ended up in the toilet together, pissing. So we’re standing there at three in the morning, out of our faces, all of us in a line, not saying anything. And I just said without looking at anybody, ‘That’s him, right?’ And the other guys said, ‘Yeah, that’s him.’ And that was it.”

Jason Newsted: “When I came into Metallica, I had to do justice to Cliff’s work, but I also had to put my own signature on it. No one could be Cliff Burton; Cliff Burton was the Jimi Hendrix of bass. I had to practice, practice, practice to get anywhere close to where he was.”

Holt: “After all these years, anyone who plays bass in Metallica is still filling Cliff Burton’s shoes. There was nobody like him.”

With Newsted onboard, Metallica head back out to the road, touring America and Europe with Metal Church, and ending with three shows as part of the Monsters of Rock festival. In the summer of 1987, they return to L.A. and record The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited. The set features covers of songs by Metallica favorites the Misfits, Budgie, and NWOBHM legends Diamond Head.

Hammett: “We did that EP for the fans, just for fun, and Elektra loved it and released it. All the lead parts flowed really quickly; I did them in two nights. That was when I first started using ESP guitars with EMG pickups.”

Hetfield: “We were still dealing with Cliff’s death, and Q-Prime, our management, was telling us to jump right back into it and start playing again. I guess we kind of mourned through music and doing the cover songs on that album.”

…And Justice for All

In January 1988, Metallica reconvene with producer Flemming Rasmussen, this time at One On One Studios in Los Angeles, to begin work on their fourth full-length album.

Titled …And Justice for All, the effort is the most progressive and technically challenging in the band’s catalog, boasting just nine songs for a combined length of more than one hour.

Hammett: “Things changed after Cliff’s death. Even our sound changed. On Justice, we kind of fell prey to that whole virtuosic, late-Eighties thing that was happening. All of a sudden, everyone wanted to be progressive and show off their abilities. Somehow, just playing fast and heavy took a backseat to that.”

Hetfield: “Sometimes we look back at some of our material and wonder how – or why – we ever came up with certain parts. There was a lot of urgency to that material, but a lot of it was just wank – just us showing off. But that’s where we were at that time.”

Though the album is Newsted’s first full-length effort with Metallica, his bass parts are almost completely inaudible on the finished product. This is widely believed to be the result of the rest of the band’s “hazing” of the bassist, though they deny the charge.

Hetfield: “The bass was obscured for two reasons. First, Jason tended to double my rhythm guitar parts, so it was hard to tell where my guitar started and his bass left off. Also, my tone on Justice was very scooped – all lows and highs, with very little midrange.

“When my rhythm parts were placed in the mix, my guitar sound ate up all the lower frequencies. Jason and I were always battling for the same space in the mix.”

Newsted: “I can’t explain how much grief I dealt with – and still deal with – over that record.”

Hammett: “There was a lot of anguish after Cliff died, and basically Jason was the punching bag. We vented so much on him, and it wasn’t really fair.”

…And Justice for All is released on September 6, 1988, and becomes Metallica’s biggest album to date. It is also their mainstream breakthrough. This is in large part due to the success of the song One, for which the band films their first music video. In the video, Hetfield’s dark lyrics are set against disturbing images from the 1971 film adaptation of Dalton Trumbo’s antiwar novel, Johnny Got His Gun.

Hetfield: “We’d never done a video until then because we’d never been asked to. We certainly didn’t want to get to the position where we had to beg MTV to play one of our videos.

“Our fans were calling them up and asking for our videos to be played. MTV were like, ‘Who the hell are Metallica?’ But they ended up asking us to make a video. So we finally did one, and we did it our way. And, of course, it was incredibly disturbing.”

Hammett: “I knew we were on to a good thing when I saw One on MTV at, like, 11:30 in the evening. I watched it, and afterward the VJ came on and said, ‘Wow, that’s a real bowl of rainbows!’”

In the wake of the album’s massive success – it peaks at #6 on the Billboard album chart, and is certified Platinum in less than three months – Metallica embark on ‘Damaged Justice,’ their first headlining arena tour, which takes them around the world and stretches on for more than a year.

One is also nominated for a Grammy – the first year the Recording Academy offers the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category – but the band lose to Jethro Tull, a band whose music is neither hard rock nor metal.

Ulrich: “I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was disappointed. Human nature is that you’d rather win than lose, but Jethro Tull walking away with it makes a huge mockery of the intentions of the event.”

A Sticker on the cover of subsequent copies of …And Justice for All reads: “Grammy Award LOSERS.”

The Black Album

After completing the ‘Damaged Justice’ tour, Metallica return to One On One Studios in October 1990 to record their fifth studio album. The music they write and record largely eschews their thrash metal roots in favor of a decidedly more commercial sound with slower tempos, simpler guitar riffs, and shorter, more accessible songs.

James Hetfield’s vocals are more melodic as well. This change in sound is credited by many to the influence of producer Bob Rock, best known for his work with radio-friendly acts like Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe.

Hetfield: “People will be saying Bob [Rock] made Metallica sound like Bon Jovi. They don’t realize that no one screws with us, except us.”

Ulrich: “One thing that Bob should be given total credit for is making James comfortable enough to take that guard down and really sing. We’ve always thought of ourselves as Big Bad Metallica, but Bob taught us a new word none of us had ever heard before: ‘soulful.’”

Hetfield: “Radio airplay wasn’t the whole idea behind our writing shorter songs. It seemed to us that we had pretty much done the longer song format to death. We had one song that has just two riffs in it, which is pretty amazing. It only takes two minutes to get the point across.”

By the time the new album is released, on August 13, 1991, Metallica have been in the studio for close to a year, and the cost of the production reaches one million dollars. They choose to title the record Metallica, though due to its stark cover image – a coiled snake against a black background – it comes to be known as the “Black Album.”

Newsted: “It took us a long time to think up that title. I guess we could have just called it ‘Five’ or named it after one of the songs. We wanted to keep it simple.”

Ulrich: “The songs aren’t so busy, and Kirk’s guitar playing fits in well when he plays with the laid-back drums. James and I tried to set things up that were easier for Kirk to solo over. Some of the things on Justice got a little out of hand. Then it was, ‘Okay, Kirk, solo over this!’ And it would be the most sideways, difficult thing.”

Newsted: “The bass sound is much weightier. I tried to create a real rhythm section rather than a one-dimensional sound. It comes down to the music – making it a real rhythm section for once, and letting the guitars do their work. I’m glad the rest of the band could tell me that that’s what was needed.”

Hetfield: “What we really wanted was a live feel. In the past, Lars and I constructed the rhythm parts without Kirk and Jason. This time I wanted to try playing as a band unit in the studio. It lightens things up and you get more of a vibe.”

Hammett: “I used a Bradshaw preamp for the lows and mids and a couple of Marshalls for the nice clean highs. We EQ’d it through the board a little bit, and it worked out great. And I used two guitars – a Strat-style ESP with two EMG [pickups] and an ’89 Les Paul Deluxe with two EMGs.”

Hetfield: “We tried a bunch of amps, but I ended up using the same Mesa/Boogie Mark II Simul Class that I’d used on the last three albums. My primary guitar was my ESP Explorer with EMGs, but I also used a Telecaster, a Gretsch White Falcon with a Bigsby, and a Guild 12-string.”

The album’s lead-off track, Enter Sandman, is propelled by a simple and hooky riff and a huge, sing-along chorus. It becomes a worldwide smash hit.

Hetfield: “I can remember when I wrote the lyrics to Enter Sandman, Bob Rock and Lars came to me and said, ‘These aren’t as good as they could be.’ And that pissed me off so much. I was like, ‘Fuck you! I’m the writer here!’ That was the first challenge from someone else, and it made me work harder.”

Hammett: “I think the time has come to reveal where I actually got the guitar lick before the breakdown in Enter Sandman: It’s from Magic Man, by Heart, but I didn’t get it from Heart’s version; I got it from a cut off Ice-T’s Power album, where he sampled it. I heard that and thought, ‘I have to snake this!’”

Mainstream music fans wholeheartedly embrace the new, friendlier Metallica. The “Black Album” enters the Billboard album chart at number one and sells 600,000 copies in its first week of release.

In addition to Enter Sandman, the record spawns five more hit singles, including The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam, and the acoustic ballad Nothing Else Matters. The album has since sold more than 22 million copies worldwide.

Ulrich: “You think one day some fucker’s going to tell you, ‘You have a number-one record in America’ and the whole world will ejaculate. I stood there in my hotel room, and there was this fax that said, ‘You’re number one.’ And it was like, ‘Well, okay.’ It was just another fucking fax from the office.”

Beyond the Black

In October 1991, Metallica embark on the ‘Wherever We May Roam’ tour. They stay on the road for close to three years, in the process becoming one of the biggest touring and recording acts in the world.

Over the next decade the band release a series of albums – Load, ReLoad, St. Anger – on which they continually reinvent their sound (and image), gaining – and losing – fans in the process.

In 2001, Jason Newsted leaves Metallica due to strained relations with the rest of the band, in particular James Hetfield. In 2003 he is replaced by ex–Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne bassist Robert Trujillo, who joins prior to the tour in support of St. Anger.

In September 2008, Metallica release their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic. To date they’ve sold more than 90 million records worldwide, and remain one of the most influential and successful bands in hard rock and heavy metal.

Hammett: “I think Metallica have a lot more to say. We’re the type of band that likes to experiment. We don’t like to stay in one spot for too long; all the albums after the ‘Black Album’ prove that. We’re not afraid to take artistic risks, even at the cost of pissing off our audience and our friends.”

Hetfield: “The cool thing about Metallica is that there’s always a new generation of angry young men who latch onto Kill ’Em All and know what I’m talking about. And maybe they grow up with the rest of the records.

“We’ve never been about creating some fantasy world with our records; we’re just documenting where we’re at at the time. There’s always going to be youth on the planet, and whether they can relate to that or not, I don’t know. But every time I look out in the crowd and see some kids battling it out in the middle of the mosh pit, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I was there, man.’”

Hammett: “We want to get out there and show people how strong Metallica are. It’s not a mask and it’s not bullshit. We feel really good about being us right now, and here we are. Now, see if you can hang on.”

This feature was originally published in the December 2008 issue of Guitar World.

It’s hard to believe that Metallica’s original bassist, Cliff Burton, would be in his sixties today had he not died in a tour bus accident in September 1986. Fortunately we'll always have the classic basslines he threw down on Metallica's breakthrough album, Master of Puppets.

On the opening track, the thrash-metal classic Battery, he laid down the gauntlet with a breakneck metal riff that Burton not only copped with his superhuman fingers, but enhanced and slightly reharmonized along the way.

In a 2006 interview with a Swedish newspaper about the 20th anniversary of Burton's death, Metallica frontman James Hetfield credited him with expanding the band's harmonic horizons. “We never would have written guitar harmonies like that, or songs with very intricate melodies and orchestrations, without Cliff.”

Technically, the sheer speed of this track is the main area of concern. Not only does it clock in at 202bpm in some sections, but Burton plays everything fingerstyle including some impressive octaves. And with Robert Trujillo now holding down Metallica’s bass chair, all can see that it's not only possible to pull off Battery with just your fingers, the band actually prefers it.

Let's look at the physical technique first. The good news is you never have to leave the E string. The bad news is, your plucking hand needs to be in serious shape to play this line without a pick, as Burton did.

Start by striking the first note with your index finger, then get your gallop on by playing the two 16th-notes and following eighth-note with a three-finger rake: ring finger, middle finger, index finger. Repeat the gallop and return to regular plucking-hand fingering for the last three eighth-notes of bar 1 of the riff.

Can it be done with just two fingers? Sure, but the three-finger gallop gives it a sonic texture that's closer to the original intention. Plus, galloping is way more metal! Like anything, slower tempos are recommended for practice, especially as you build the Burton-level endurance necessary for the complete assault.

Inevitably, this particular style takes a long time to develop, and some of the faster octave sections will be a stretch even with the standard two-finger approach. You could leave out some of the 16th note rhythms to help you negotiate some sections, but you'll lose the drive so consider using a pick.

Harmonically, Burton tips off his awareness of the greater musical picture with just four notes of the line. The guitars and bass are essentially in single-note/power-chord unison the whole time except for the last three eighth-notes of bar 2 and the first eighth of bar 3, where the guitars play E minor 3rds.

Burton takes this opportunity to emphasize each interval's minor 3rd in the lowest register possible, propelling the riff in a subtle, but effective way. He was a classically trained pianist, and his knowledge of theory – combined with his fearsome bass technique and windmill-headbanging – helped shape Metallica into the multi-platinum monster it eventually became.

Burton played a Rickenbacker 4001 and an Alembic Spoiler, which was later stolen. His preferred Aria Pro II was likely used for this album, however. Burton also used Mesa/Boogie amps and a custom-built 115 cabinet.

Robert Trujillo was born to be in Metallica. He’s one of the heaviest bassists you'll ever hear, and he also looks strong enough to survive what is surely one of the toughest gigs in rock. His CV is pretty impressive, too. 

After developing his bass craft with hardcore favourites Suicidal Tendencies, he later formed the funkier outfit Infectious Grooves before taking on two of the most demanding jobs of his career – Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society and a seven-year stint with Ozzy Osbourne.

It was just the experience Trujillo needed to prepare him for life in Metallica. Lest we forget, he joined the band at its lowest ebb. Its members were still reeling from the acrimonious departure of bassist Jason Newsted, James Hetfield's eight months of rehab, and the difficult recording of the aptly named St Anger, documented in the film Some Kind of Monster.

“I feel like I've had so many challenges,” Trujillo told Bass Player. “You know, I live in Los Angeles, but since I joined the band I've been spending more time in the Bay Area, and I actually really like it. Los Angeles has become so overpopulated and blown out. San Francisco has such a nice balance, almost like a funky '70s flavour to it. The way LA used to be back in the Cheech & Chong days!

"But the biggest challenge has been with my bass playing. I'm not being disrespectful to all the bass players out there, but there aren't many bassists that could do this job. Playing with Metallica is the most demanding gig there is.”

If you know your Metallica history, you’ll know that Trujillo isn’t the only one to have filled the bass role. There are also three other names in the family tree.

The first, Ron McGovney, joined in January 1982. His membership was to be short-lived. The story goes that Lars and James went to see a band called Trauma at the legendary Whisky-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The bassist in the band was one Cliff Burton, whose break-neck bass style left the duo open-mouthed, and apparently determined to poach his unique talent.

The band pursued Burton until he gave them an ultimatum. He would join on the condition that they relocate from LA to his hometown of San Francisco. It's a testament to his talent that Metallica agreed. Burton joined in September 1982. McGovney was history.

Burton played on some of Metallica's finest recordings, including Kill'Em All released in 1983. Ride The Lightning followed in 1984, and then the album that many believe to be the band's masterpiece, Master Of Puppets in 1986.

“Cliff was amazing for Metallica. His ideas, his presence, and where he was taking the bass and taking metal, were so special. And his stage presence – he was such a physical player. He played what he felt, and that was the bottom line. His approach was, ‘I’m gonna play what I feel, and if you don’t like it, screw you!’

“He used to ask Kirk to show him Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar solos so he could play them on bass, and not many bass guitar players were doing that back then. I thought that was so cool. Cliff was a force on a lot of different levels.”

By 1986, Metallica were riding high, but the year was to end in tragedy. While on tour in Sweden the group's tourbus skidded and crashed. Burton was trapped under the bus and killed. It looked like Metallica had been dealt a blow from which they would never recover, but they made the decision to carry on, and began the search for a new bassist.

Jason Newsted joined in October 1986. For his audition he had learned the band's entire back catalog. When they asked him which song he wanted to play he replied, “whatever song you want.”

His first recording with Metallica was the Garage Days Revisited EP released in 1987. Newsted had a 14-year career with the band that ultimately went sour. After one too many disputes with the other band members he called it a day, and left in January 2001.

Trujillo officially joined in 2003, and, more than two decades later, there's no question he has earned his spot with the legendary band. “I had some hard shoes to fill. Both those guys are incredible players.”

“I really appreciate Jason Newsted. Considering he's a pick player, and the speed and dexterity involved in this music, I think it's a tall order. But he was really keeping it and holding it down, keeping it solid – more simple than Cliff, but in a good way.

“I love the fact that we’re all different. We all have our thing that we’ve brought to the band, but I also have my own style and I like to express that.”

The internet is full of weird and wonderful things – and now Alexander Mercieca has added his own brand of muscular bass guitar insanity to the mix. 

The bass-playing CrossFit trainer has gone viral on social media for tearing through Cliff Burton’s (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth bass solo while, erm, squatting 225lbs – and making it look effortless.

Crowned the best bass solo of all time for its highly distorted, classically inspired motifs, the song saw Burton stamp his identity firmly on the emerging thrash metal movement. Now, Mercieca has literally taken its heaviness to a whole new level. 

At the time of writing, his Instagram post has garnered nearly 70,000 likes in just three days. It follows similar videos, which capture Mercieca playing Slayer while squatting 315lbs, and deadlifting while playing Victor Wooten. Talk about multi-tasking.

One commenter said: “Bro is a living breathing hell yeah”, and we don't disagree – having said that, we'd be too scared to, even if we did.

His posts have won him many admirers, including Neural DSP, Sophie Burrell, and Enterprise Earth's Gabe Mangold.

In Guitar World’s list of the world’s greatest bass solos, the Metallica barnstormer pipped the likes of John Entwistle, Flea, and Jaco Pastorius to the finish line.

It was a song that not only delivered aggression and elegance in equal measure, but also changed the sound of metal bass guitar forever.

Cliff Burton's legacy has been honored in numerous ways, including a signature Morley wah, relaunched earlier this year, an action figure, and even an IPA. Mind you, we don't think we've ever seen a tribute quite like the one offered by Mercieca.

Mercieca’s other videos have showcased other standout multi-tasking feats, such as playing Thunderstruck on the drums and two bass guitars simultaneously. 

For countless musicians, hearing Cliff Burton’s monstrous bass tones on Metallica’s first trio of albums was a game-changer. And now Morley has modernized and reissued Burton’s “secret weapon” fuzz wah whilst bolstering its build with modern features.

Tonally, the Cliff Burton Tribute Series Power Wah Fuzz is a careful recreation of the original 1976 issue pedal and features the same optical circuitry that gave Burton’s pedal its unique flavor. Its fuzz therefore emulates that "old-school ripped speaker sound" of the original, whilst the low sweep of the wah remains unchanged.

By doing so, Morely hopes an “entire new generation of players will be able to experience the exact same pedal that Cliff used on his iconic recordings.”

Structurally, it’s a re-imagining, with a series of new features added to appeal to guitar, bass, and keys players beyond nostalgists.

Chief among its improvements is the inclusion of Morley’s switchless activation. With the feature, players need not engage a footswitch to power the effect on or off; instead, it kicks into gear as soon as its treadle is stepped on. Stepping off the treadles instantly bypasses the effect.

Not only is this a practical enhancement, but Morley says it means that players can start with the effect engaged at “the more desirable lower end of the sweep”, which is the sound Burton unleashed on the For Whom the Bell Tolls intro.

Its in-built wah circuit offers a 15db level control to help boost the signal and have it cut through the mix for the kind of ‘bass is way cooler’ solos that Burton loved to unleash.

There’s also a glow-in-the-dark treadle and toe sticker to make it easy to find the pedal as it lurks on even the darkest of stages. 

Aesthetically, the pedal has been given a distressed chrome finish to mirror the gig-worn pedal Burton would place upon stages every night. Paired with those nifty glow-in-the-dark features, it makes for a fairly gnarly-looking bit of kit.

Coming in classic Morley sizing (L:9.13″, W:5.88″, H:2.75″) it benefits from the firm's electro-optical design, meaning its pots will "never wear out." A premium buffer circuit ensures unblemished tonal output, and it is powered by your standard 9V adapter.

Says Morley: “Morley’s mission with this pedal is to keep Cliff Burton’s legacy alive and to grow it. Without our great fans and the great musicians like Cliff Burton who have used our pedals, we would not be where we are today.”

The firm’s owner, Scott Fietsam adds to that by saying: “When I acquired Morley, I made it my mission to be the best steward I possibly could for the brand. I want players to experience the same joy that I had with my first Morley. We are honored to now shepherd the legacy of Cliff Burton, quench the thirst of his loving fans, and to expose his genius to the next generation of players.”

Morley has created signature wahs for the likes of Steve Vai, Mark Tremonti, DJ Ashba and Dokken's George Lynch over the years – his was entirely glow-in-the-dark, featured a dragon, and was a little more compact – but no player is as closely associated with the pedal as Burton. 

Metallica are continuing Burton's legacy in their own way, and recently nabbed the Best Metal Performance Grammy for their latest album, 72 Seasons, pipping Spiritbox to the post. 

The Cliff Burton Tribute Series Power Wah Fuzz is being sold exclusively at Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend in the USA and is available to order now. For the rest of the world, it can become part of your collection from April 1. It costs $229.

For more information, visit Morley.

If Jaco Pastorius was the greatest bass player who ever lived, then Les Claypool – bassist, banjoist, sometime Metallica wannabe, producer, novelist and low-end guest to the stars – is surely the most likely contender to his throne. Frontman with the perennially remarkable funk-rock band Primus and a whole string of side-projects including Sausage and Oysterhead, Claypool is best known for his stunning slap-and-pop technique which, combined with near-impossible speed and eccentricity on a host of fretted, fretless, whammy-barred and multi-stringed instruments, leaves all but the world's best bass players in the shade.

But Claypool is no mindless shredder. Technique is only an adjunct to feel in his philosophy, with the butt-shaking groove of his playing the mainstay of his approach. In 1986 Claypool got the chance to audition for Metallica following the death of bassist Cliff Burton following a horrific bus accident. Although the perfect replacement eventually came in the form of Jason Newsted.

In 2005, Claypool was asked about his audition. “I can't really remember what songs we played, but I didn't fit in, that was really obvious,” he told BP. “I believe Lars said. ‘You're not really used to this kind of music, are you?’ My first response was, goddamn, this is loud! And then I asked them if they wanted to jam on an Isley Brothers tune, just as a joke. which they didn’t think was very funny.”

Was Claypool serious about wanting to join? “Back in 1986 I was a carpenter and would have joined any band that paid me! At the time I think it would have been a fantastic, fun thing to do, but I'm incredibly glad it didn't happen. Kirk Hammett's an old high-school friend of mine, so he called me. He used to give me guitar magazines and was the guy who turned me on to Hendrix.”

Claypool was later asked by Kerrang! whether the rumours were true that when he auditioned, Metallica frontman James Hetfield rejected him on the basis of the bassist being too talented for the role. “No, it wasn't that – I just didn’t fit in. I had a blonde Mohawk and baggy skater pants and two different coloured tennis shoes – and this was back when they had long hair long hair and tight pants. I was talking to James a few years ago, and he'd said in this Behind The Music documentary on Metallica that I was too good. I told him he was full of it, and thought I was a freak! That was why he didn't want me! And he just laughed, because it was true. I wouldn't have fit. They're not dumb.”

Listening to Claypool play with Primus , there’s no shortage of virtuosity on show. He slaps, taps, and strums his Carl Thompson bass to produce a frenetic whack-fest while hardly wasting a note. “My style in Primus evolved from me consciously trying to play bass and rhythm guitar at the same time, at least at the beginning. Primus was all about doing something that nobody had ever heard before, and the guitar players I used were textural players. I wasn't really used to playing with regressive players who wanted the bass to stay in the background. I was more into Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp and Andy Summers, who were textural. Primus's guitarist Larry Lalonde was exactly the same way.”

Ironically, Cliff Burton was also an incredibly elaborate player. “Cliff was, and I think he would have gone on to be one of the superheroes of the bass. He really had charisma, not only from his personality, but from his playing.”

After so many years at the low-end, what wisdom does Claypool have to offer the world of bass? “I tell young players all the time to play with as many different people as possible, because there are so many different approaches to music and so many cultures. Until you're dead, you're always learning - unless you're a close-minded individual who just plays the same thing over and over again. Unfortunately, the majority of people are!”

A steady five-decades long stream of ambitious bass-driven songs has made Geddy Lee perhaps the most admired bassist in the land – he was Bass Player’s first ever Bassist of the Year back in 1991. Maybe that’s why, when Geddy was spotted at a Metallica show during the group's Ride the Lightning tour, Metallica’s first bassist Cliff Burton, was humbled, to say the least. 

“We played Toronto and all of a sudden we got a message backstage that Geddy Lee was in the audience,” guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed during a Q&A for the band's longtime photographer, Ross Halfin. “Cliff Burton just freaked out. He started pacing, he started smoking pot, and he was like, ‘Oh my God! Geddy! Geddy Lee!’ He could not settle down; he was so nervous and just happy at the same time that Geddy Lee was there.

“And then Ross tells him that Geezer Butler is out there one night,” Kirk continues. “Same thing – he starts pacing around, super nervous, grabs a beer.”

Kirk picks up the story at 31:50 in the video below.

Speaking to vice.com in 2015, Geddy Lee also remembered attending the show, claiming that he nearly worked with the band. “I remember going to see them here in Toronto,” said Geddy.

"That’s when the original bass player was still happening. There was some discussion with Lars about working with them. And, you know, we talked about it and I liked their band a lot at that time, but it just never came together. I’ve got great respect for them, but you won’t hear too much speed metal or death metal in my house.”

Listen to Metallica play Whiplash from their 1985 Toronto show below.

Influenced by bass players as diverse as Stanley Clarke and Lemmy, Cliff Burton, who was tragically killed in a bus accident in September 1986, pioneered a unique ‘lead bass guitar’ approach that left an indelible mark on the first three Metallica albums, Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. 

In an interview with Thrash Metal back in 1986, Cliff listed his bass influences in full. “Well, first off, with bass playing it would be Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Stanley Clarke," said Burton. "Everything Thin Lizzy did has also had an influence.” Asked if Steve Harris was on his radar Burton replied: “No, I never really heard him until I’d already developed my own style. Lemmy also had an influence in the way he uses distortion. That was different, new and exciting.”

Burton was also a fan of Peter Gabriel, Yes and The Police. He loved classical music, especially Bach, which came to the fore in his riff workout on Master of Puppets. "This was the guy who would sit around and listen to the Eagles and the Velvet Underground," Kirk later told Metallica biographer, Mick Wall. "He turned us on to R.E.M. he turned us on to Creedence Clearwater Revival. And he also loved Lynyrd Skynyrd too. Cliff was so far ahead of his time."

Ross Halfin’s book Metallica: The Black Album In Black & White is available now.

Even after 40 years of Metallica’s evolution, For Whom The Bell Tolls, track three of the group’s era-defining Ride The Lightning album, has retained its status as one of the most recognisable bass guitar anthems in the history of metal. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed that Metallica’s first truly heavy song took shape, strangely enough, on bassist Cliff Burton’s acoustic guitar. “Cliff would play that riff a lot in the hotel room, when him and I were hanging out,” said Kirk. 

“He used to carry around an acoustic classical guitar that he detuned so that he could bend the strings. Anyway, when he would play that riff, I would think, ‘That’s such a weird, atonal riff that isn’t really heavy at all.’ I remember him playing it for James, and James adding that accent to it and all of a sudden, it changed. It’s such a crazy riff. To this day, I think, ‘How did he write that?’ Whenever I hear it nowadays, it’s like, ‘OK, Cliff’s in the house.’”

The song starts with a 4 bar bass riff that’s classic early Metallica. A triplet feel combined with a Bb5 tritone chord that’s rounded off with a triplet quarter note run to break things up. It’s a crushing example of Burton’s ‘lead bass’ approach and his frightening fingerstyle technique. “Ride the Lightning was the first time that both Cliff and Kirk got a chance to add what they were doing,” said drummer Lars Ulrich. “They just came from a different school, especially Cliff, who came from a much more melodic approach.”

During the studio sessions for Ride The Lightning, Cliff’s influence really began to assert itself. According to producer Flemming Rasmussen, who recorded the band in Copenhagen’s Sweet Silence Studio, while it was “Lars and James that were more or less in charge” in terms of pure musical vision, “from an artistic point of view it’d probably be Cliff.”

“He was more like a soloist than a regular bass player,” said Flemming. “The first time I recorded him, I tried all sorts of shit to make him feel comfortable, because he was more used to the live environment. Eventually, I put his amp in another room, and he’d play in the main room like he was onstage, with the sound blasting from these speakers. It was pretty wild.”

Prior to joining Metallica in 1982, Burton cut his teeth with California-based power trio Agents of Misfortune. At 09:53 of this next clip, Burton can be seen jamming For Whom the Bell Tolls having entered a local Battle of the Bands contest. Rickenbacker 4001 in hand, Burton is clearly the star of the show. “The bass player was completely outrageous,” Ulrich said of their first viewing of Cliff on stage. “We just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s our new bass player.’”

Burton was tragically killed in a bus accident in September 1986 and has since become something of a bass legend. He was only with Metallica for the first three albums, Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets. 

Metallica’s 72 Seasons, their first album since 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, is available now on Amazon.

Born on February 10, 1962, in Castro Valley, California, Cliff Burton had three years in Metallica, recording three groundbreaking albums.

1983’s Kill ‘Em All, featured jaw-dropping bass guitar solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth, which stamped Burton's identity firmly on the emerging thrash metal movement. Ride the Lightning, released a year later, saw Cliff at his best on Call of Ktulu and For Whom the Bell Tolls, while Metallica fans would argue that his creative peak came on 1986’s Master of Puppets.

“Cliff was absolutely amazing for Metallica,” said Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bass player since 2003. “His ideas, his presence, and where he was taking the bass and taking metal, were so special. And his stage presence – he was such a physical player. He played what he felt, and that was the bottom line. His approach was, “I’m gonna play what I feel, and if you don’t like it, screw you!'”

Cliff would undoubtedly have made an even greater impact on the heavy metal and hard-rock worlds had his life not been cut short at the age of only 24. Following his tragic death in a bus accident in 1986, the band hired Jason Newsted, who helped them reach superstardom before his departure in 2001, which led to the appointment of Robert Trujillo.

“When I auditioned for Metallica in 2002, I was playing in Ozzy Osbourne’s band with one of Cliff’s best friends, Mike Bordin of Faith No More,” says Trujillo.

“I was staying at Mike’s house in San Francisco and in the guest room at Mike’s house, where I would be practising Metallica’s music, there is a big photo of Cliff - and at a random moment at two in the morning, I looked up and saw that photo. I actually spoke to the photo. I said, ‘Cliff, I won’t let you down, I promise. I’ll give it my best shot.’ So in a weird way I feel connected to Cliff. I feel like I know him."

For Trujillo, learning Cliff’s basslines presented quite a challenge. “When I learned The Call of Ktulu, I really directed Cliff’s bass parts and took a lot of pride in doing that. I really wanted to know it, and feel it, and get it into my soul, so I spent time with it.”

Cliff gave the band’s early albums a unique charisma that has never been obscured, despite the enormous success which the group achieved in the 1990s and beyond. “No disrespect to my brothers in Metallica, but Cliff was older than the other guys, and in a lot of ways a better musician,” says Trujillo. “He had a very broad creative skill set – a musician’s musician, in a lot of ways.

"He could play the piano and he knew classical music, as well as being a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He used to ask Kirk to show him Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar solos so he could play them on bass, and not many bass players were doing that back then. I thought that was so cool. Cliff was a force on a lot of different levels.”

• Joel McIver’s book, To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton, is available now.

San Francisco metal kings Machine Head are probably the biggest band to emerge in the post-Metallica era, delivering albums powered by Adam Duce’s razor-sharp bass parts throughout the early 2000s. "Being in a successful band is a matter of having a lot of different components come together and the stars and the planets aligning," he tells us. "There's a lot of hard work too, but for most bands that hard work goes completely unrewarded. There's a lot of luck involved in remaining a heavy metal band for 20 years or whatever."

The essence of Duce's bass sound is the same as that which underpins all his heroes: energy, and its release into a headbanging crowd. "My heroes were Geezer Butler, Steve Harris and Cliff Burton," he says. "Seeing those old videos of Cliff when Metallica were opening for Ozzy in 1996, you think 'Look at that dude attack that bass!' and that's what it's all about to me. Some of the stuff that he did on those early Metallica albums was incredible."

“I’m going to risk upsetting a few Metallica fans here,"says Duce. "But for me, when I think of my favourite Cliff Burton bassline it’s not '(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth'… but 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', first released on the group's second album, Ride the Lightning.

"Cliff’s overall influence on the sound stands out so much. I have no idea how he got that insane tone at the beginning, but I know he had a Stratocaster pickup hidden under the bridge of the old Rickenbacker 4001 that he used.

"You can completely hear the difference between this album and their first one, Kill ’Em All. I used to play that album over and over again, saying, ‘What’s Cliff doing there?’ and that’s how I really learnt to play bass."

Last time we spoke with Duce, he was playing a Zon bass. As he recalls, “I remember telling them how badly I sweat on stage, and that I needed the most simple, non-moving parts bridge that I could get, so it wouldn’t get rusty!”

The most unorthodox element of that Zon, which Duce has replicated on his current Yamaha, was the suspicious lack of visible tone controls. “I had the bass and treble pots on the back of the bass. They were set into the body and adjusted with a screwdriver. You could set them where you wanted and then roll with it, without accidentally hitting them when you played live.”

This remains an important consideration for Duce, who often hits the bass with wide, hard-hitting strokes. Asked what tips he can give us for building picking precision, Duce explains: "Being in time with the drums is quintessential to good bass playing. You can't be sloppy. We do so many intricate things, and it's got to be good. If it's not tight it's going to sound terrible."

Tickets for Machine Head's US tour are on sale now. Visit machinehead1.com for details.

When Cliff Burton joined Metallica in 1982, he arrived a readymade bass hero: a virtuosic soloist, furious fingerstyle player and classically savvy musician who elevated the band’s output prior to his untimely death in 1986.

Yet like all great musicians, Burton cut his teeth with a wealth of groups before hitting the big time – and those early lineups would often feature his childhood pal Jim Martin, who later achieved success of his own in ’90s alt-metal icons Faith No More.

During their teenage years in California, the pair bonded over their shared love of Black Sabbath, Rush and Thin Lizzy. They soon formed their first band, EZ-Street – named after a Bay Area strip club, no less – and took future FNM drummer Mike Bordin along for the ride. Burton would later dismiss the outfit as “pretty silly, actually. We did a lot of covers, just wimpy shit.”

Yet out of those wimpy covers, a true friendship blossomed: Burton and Martin would go on to college together, and their Hayward, California-based psychedelic power trio Agents of Misfortune became the new vehicle for their rapidly developing improvisatory abilities, not to mention ambitions.

So, the band – completed by Dave Donato on drums – were quick to pounce on the opportunity to enter the local Hayward Area Recreation Department's Battle of the Bands contest in 1981, despite a highly experimental sound that was unlikely to win over judges. And, as Martin tells it, it was never meant to.

“Me, Dave and Cliff finally did a show together, in the Bay Area at a Battle of the Bands thing – it was right around the time when Mötley Crüe were happening, so the trend was huge hair, spandex, eyeliner, all that crap,” the guitarist recalled in FNM’s 1994 biography The Real Story (via Faith No More Followers).

“So all the bands had that shit and there was us: three fuckin' slobs playing this rock music. They gave us 12 minutes to play a few songs and we just played the same one for 12 minutes. We threw things into a huge, vicious turmoil.”

He ain’t kidding. The band’s wild exploratory improvisations recall Primus at their most esoteric and nod to early Pink Floyd and Velvet Underground’s more impenetrable works. It’s no wonder Cliff’s mom, Jan Burton, said they sounded like “fucked-up weirdos”.

While the content may not be palatable to a mainstream audience, video footage shows the trio’s musicianship is undeniable. Although Martin was yet to adopt his trademark double-sunglasses look, there’s plenty of oddball energy in his Flying V licks, which traverse everything from blinding metal leads to Frank Zappa weirdness and Jimmy Page-esque violin bowing.

But Burton is clearly the star of the show: Rickenbacker 4001 in hand, his presence is undeniable, and his wah solo is a glimpse of what was to come in (Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth, his awe-inspiring low-end showcase with Metallica. But there are glimpses at other sides of his playing, too: tapped harmonics add a Jaco-esque flair, while the omnipresent analog delay adds an altogether warped edge to proceedings.

Perhaps the wildest part of the clip is its final minute, which finds Burton jamming For Whom the Bell Tolls – one of the most headbangable basslines of all time – on the floor in what looks like a high school ampitheater. Martin, meanwhile, adds some wah pedal wacka-wackas of his own, but remove the Cry Baby and they bear a striking resemblance to his verse tracks in Faith No More’s future monster hit Epic.

As Martin notes, the band’s jam sessions – both on and offstage – would produce material that later found its way into their headline-grabbing acts.

“We'd make recordings of jams like that, and to make up a set we'd just take various portions of jams and use ’em – it was a beautiful thing,” he recalled.

“There’s some Metallica songs that were born from those jam sessions, such as For Whom the Bell Tolls, and obviously Faith No More songs such as Surprise! You’re Dead.”

After one more project – short-lived thrash band Vicious Hatred – in 1982, Burton and Martin would part musical ways: Martin would eventually rejoin drummer Mike Bordin in Faith No More the following year, while Burton was recruited by metal outfit Trauma – something his guitarist friend advised him against, telling him in no uncertain terms, “Fuck those guys, they suck.”

It wasn’t long before Trauma’s increasingly commercial slant annoyed Burton, but his mind-blowing solo spots with the group soon caught the attention of James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and they poached him to replace the departing Ron McGovney in their nascent thrash outfit Metallica. And the rest is history.

Following Burton’s tragic death in a 1986 bus crash, Metallica and Faith No More maintained close ties. Hetfield regularly wore FNM t-shirts at shows, later inviting the band to open the metal behemoth’s 1992 co-headlining tour with Guns N’ Roses, while Martin has jumped onstage with Papa Het for covers of the Misfits’ Last Caress on multiple occasions.

Not long after his departure from Faith No More in 1993, the guitarist became something of a recluse, but is always willing to discuss his old friend, most recently during the Cliff Burton Day 2022 livestream.

Even decades after his passing, Martin’s love for his teenage jam buddy has never dimmed. In a 2012 fan Q&A, the guitarist was asked: if he could collaborate with any musician alive or dead, who would it be? There could only be one answer – and it all harks back to the era of that wild battle of the bands performance.

“I sure miss Cliff,” he said. “We could do any song and twist it up horribly. I think if there were an opportunity to collaborate, we would write something new. Put Dave [Donato – Agents of Misfortune] in there on the drum kit and create something Cliff’s mother would call ‘Fucked Up Weirdos’.”

“The major rager on the four-string motherfucker”, as the late Cliff Burton was approvingly described during his first gig with Metallica on March 5, 1983, is a revealing phrase. It’s a very California-in-the-’80s thing to call a musician, one part Bill & Ted and one part Spinal Tap, but at the same time it’s completely perfect. 

The “major rager” tag was bestowed on Cliff by Metallica’s then-guitarist Dave Mustaine, something of a rager himself, and it has gone on to represent an era of heavy metal – and specifically, the beginnings of garage-level thrash metal – that still entrances a tribe of metalheads, even those too young to witness it in person. 

Nowadays, Metallica are huge, with a brand as powerful as that of Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, and they’re in their fourth decade of playing arenas. Back then, Cliff plus the other three members James Hetfield (vocals, guitar) and Lars Ulrich (drums), and either Mustaine or his successor Kirk Hammett, were young, broke, and feeling their way into a new sound that was influenced equally by classic metal and hardcore punk. 

Thrash metal was fast, obnoxious, and unsophisticated at first, but soon evolved into a more polished sound. Many of you will already know all the historical details, so I won’t go too deeply into the chronology here, but with their first three albums Metallica established an influential template that, purists argue, even the band themselves have not surpassed.

Cliff was a huge part of this, even though he was only a member of the band from 1983 to his death in September ’86. Heavy metal bass guitar was not known for being particularly inventive before he came to prominence, the blues and prog explorations of Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden aside – but right from the off, Cliff was unstoppable, even playing a bass solo track called Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) on Metallica’s debut album, Kill ’Em All (1983).

“Cliff strikes me as a player who would have said, ‘This is how we’re doing it’,” says Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bass player since 2003. “He had a vision, and he would go for that vision. Rather than a producer trying to control him, I could see Cliff having an idea for what statement he wanted to make with the instrument. More power to him – Jaco Pastorius was the same way.”

Trujillo, the producer of the acclaimed 2014 biopic Jaco, invokes the comparison seriously. “Somehow, Cliff would have the freedom to express the instrument and give it a personality that it did not have before in metal. He took that attitude and edge that the fusion players had, and he brought it in – and especially in thrash metal, that was pretty impressive.”

Cliff’s uncompromising attitude was just one aspect of his character as a bass player: he brought unique influences, powerful technique, and his own tone. Those were assets in his favor, and therefore the band, with whom he recorded parts that metal bassists still learn as a part of their basic training.

Anesthesia, with its famous classical motifs derived from J.S. Bach and a hugely overdriven tone, was just the first of these. Burton fans will also point to his intro line in For Whom The Bell Tolls and the fills in The Call Of Ktulu from the 1984 album Ride The Lightning, as well as the intros and solos in Orion and Damage, Inc. from Metallica’s masterpiece Master of Puppets (’86), as his career-best parts. 

“Cliff’s style was very aggressive,” explains Trujillo. “When I joined Metallica, I became more familiar with him as a composer, and where he was coming from creatively. That’s when I realized how special he was, because of his influences. He had an extreme connection to classical music, and you could hear that in him as a composer, but at the same time he loved punk rock. This guy came from the same place that Stanley Clarke was coming from. He was one of those kinds of players.” 

A gearhead from the time he started playing bass at the age of 13, Cliff’s most famous instrument is his 1979 Burgundyglo Rickenbacker 4001, uniquely modded with three replacement pickups: a Gibson EB, a Seymour Duncan stacked Jazz, and a Duncan Stratocaster pickup under the bridge for extra top end. 

It’s this bass that you can hear on Kill ’Em All and Ride The Lightning, but by the time of Master Of Puppets, he had switched to an Aria Pro II.

This bass has become so associated with him that a signature instrument was released in 2013, followed by a Burton wah pedal from Morley two years later. 

Finding Cliff’s tones, let alone playing his parts, presented quite a challenge for Jason Newsted, who was Cliff’s successor, and for Trujillo, who successfully auditioned after Newsted quit in 2001. 

Fortunately, expert help was at hand. “When I joined Metallica, my bass tech Zach Harmon had a pretty good idea of what direction we would want to go for that tone,” says Trujillo, “but we also had ‘Big’ Mick Hughes at front of house, who was a part of that original team. All those factors help when you’re trying to dial the tones.”

He adds: “Although I don’t play Aria, the Aria bass has a lot to do with Cliff’s sound as well. It’s a very midrange, edgy tone, as you know. My son Tye [now in Suicidal Tendencies] plays an Aria, and it’s a great tone; it cuts through. So there’s a lot of factors that would go into how to get that tone, including the Morley pedal. All that stuff plays a role.”

Presumably he models Cliff’s sound, rather than attempting to replicate the old gear? 

“I do. It depends on the gig, but I’ve embraced the modeling systems. There’s a lot of efficiency in that, in the way we tour and the size of how we tour. I use a Fractal, although I’m just gonna tell you and all your readers this: there’s nothing like air moving behind you from a stack of speakers and the amp of your choice, which for me would be an Ampeg SVT from the early ’70s, just pumping air and hitting my ass. There’s no better feeling.” 

Then there’s Cliff’s picking technique to consider. A two-finger player from the Steve Harris school, he still managed to play the tremolo parts on mercilessly fast songs such as Disposable Heroes and Fight Fire With Fire, and in uptempo song sections like the final part of No Remorse with ease. 

Trujillo, a three-finger player, salutes his predecessor’s incredible facility. “Two-finger picking has feel: it’s definitely a really grooving sort of way to play that fast stuff, and Cliff was a master of that. He could hold it down with the two fingers at a high speed and maintain the attack – and that’s really special. 

“When I first joined Metallica, I would actually start cramping up, so over the years I devised a three-finger method. Now I can cover all the tempos pretty well, and if things get too fast I throw in the third finger, but I do try to hang in there with the two-finger system as much as possible, because it just feels really good.”

As Cliff’s supportive, non-solo parts on Lightning and Puppets are mixed fairly low, Trujillo had to work hard to learn them when he joined Metallica. Remember, back in 2003 we didn’t just go to YouTube to see what notes to play... 

“Half the time, if I want to figure something out, and it’s complicated or I can’t hear it, I just go to YouTube and go_, ‘Oh, there it is!’ because you hear the bass on its own. Back then, though, I did a little bit of everything. I had those Cherry Lane [transcription] books, believe it or not, because I didn’t know where to go. I was thrown all these songs that I had to learn, and depending on the album or the song, sometimes the bass was mixed a little low, and I had to wing it. 

“I did as much as I could on my own, and then when I got together with James, I knew that he would help me fine-tune whatever I needed. He was obviously very helpful, but I didn’t want to take all his time and go ‘How does this go?’ or ‘What did Cliff do here?’”

“For the first couple of years, I was literally just hanging on,” he chuckles. “And what ended up happening was I got tired of hanging on, so I started learning songs that Metallica wasn’t playing. The Call of Ktulu and Orion hadn’t been played; we hadn’t even done Anesthesia until the Puppets anniversary show in 2006, so I started preparing for all this stuff maybe two years before, because I didn’t want to be caught at the last minute, trying to figure those songs out. I did a lot on my own, to stay ahead of the game, because for the first three years I was chasing it.” 

Newsted, a very different bassist to Burton who used a pick for immense solidity, but who was also required to play much simpler parts than his predecessor, presented less of a challenge, Trujillo says. 

“You could hear Jason’s parts better for sure, and they were a bit more delegated, but still great, though. Those players are completely different, but they’re both really, really great at what they do. There’s an art to simplicity, and Jason brought that art. Obviously Cliff was very aggressive, very melodic, and a busier player, but very tasteful, so it’s not like one way’s better than the other. Everybody knows that, but it would be safe to say that his parts were easier for me to learn, for sure.”

Trujillo, still yet to find fame in the crossover punk/metal band Suicidal Tendencies when Cliff died in 1986, never met the great man. 

“I never met Cliff, but I wish I would have,” he says. “I have friends that I grew up with who met Cliff, and a lot of the guys in the Suicidal camp met him. It’s weird: one of my best friends is Mike Bordin of Faith No More, and another great friend is Jim Martin [formerly of the same band], and both of those guys were best friends with Cliff. 

“When I joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band and Mike was the drummer, I’d see photos of him and Cliff at Mike’s house when I’d come up to stay with him in San Francisco. I could feel this energy and vibe there, with the spirit of Cliff. I didn’t know him, but it’s always nice to feel the connection.”

For decades after Cliff’s death, his father Ray Burton represented him among Metallica’s fanbase, right up until he passed away in 2020 at the age of 92. 

“Ray Burton was a good friend,” says Trujillo. “He would come and see me play with my bands Mass Mental or Infectious Grooves. He was very supportive of music as a whole, and he loved music that was driven by bass. I looked up to him, because he’d been through so much in his life. 

“He kept a positive frame of mind through everything, and I admire that tremendously. He was very good with my kids, too. He would encourage Tye to play, and to study piano and theory, because that was what Cliff did. Tye took that in, and studied, and it made him a better musician. Ray was like that with everyone.”

So how do the members of Metallica look back on their fallen bass player, so long after his departure? 

“It’s about looking back and being thankful for what he brought them,” says Trujillo. “Cliff was wise in a lot of ways, and very musical. He had a knowledge and a palette of music that was very broad, so he would have been teaching them classical to Lynyrd Skynyrd to punk rock. He brought all those ingredients into Metallica.” 

“I always believe that everybody brings something into Metallica: it’s the sign of a great band. They learned a lot from him, and they looked up to him, and they celebrate him with every show they do and every song that they play that he was a part of. They feel that from the heart.”

When I was 17 in 1988, I bought my first bass guitar, a $50 Fender Precision copy. It was terrible, and my rudimentary playing was even worse, but in my head, of course, I sounded exactly like Paul McCartney, John Taylor, Geezer Butler and most of all, Cliff Burton, who had died just a couple of years before.

As a teenage Metallica fan, I was intrigued by the unexpectedly melodic nature of Cliff’s playing. Nowadays we know that this was the result of his study of Geddy Lee, Steve Harris and Johann Sebastian Bach, but back then, all I knew was that he was playing great-sounding lines and fills, often through a barrage of distortion. I gave it my best shot, and several decades later I should really thank my long-suffering parents for putting up with it.

Here we are in 2022, and Cliff’s legacy is – if anything – stronger than ever. Long-time disciples like me have never forgotten the wizardry of his bass playing, or the bitter injustice of his early death for that matter, which makes it all the more fulfilling to be able to celebrate him on the cover of BP, literally the best magazine on the planet for that purpose. Metallica's Robert Trujillo speaks to us in depth about his admiration for Cliff, as well as the challenges in following in his huge footsteps, and we also jump on a plane to Sweden to attend the opening of the new Cliff museum near Ljungby, where he died on that fateful day in '86. 

We also meet Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s, Rick Savage of Def Leppard and Randy Jackson of Journey, one of the best-known bassists in the world thanks to his tenure on American Idol. We look back at a legendary interview with Jack Bruce, we test bass gear from Gibson, Gallien-Krueger and Luna Guitars, and we provide you with the best bass education on the planet. Get the mag at Magazines Direct.

See you next month!

Joel McIver, Editor

Cliff Burton’s estate has launched Burton: Cliff ‘Em All, an official limited-edition IPA beer in honor of the late Metallica bass guitar player.

The beverage – created by KnuckleBonz and Calicraft Brewing, a company based out of Walnut Creek, California – is made using simcoe and citra hops, packs a 6.4 percent alcohol content and is described as “hoppy, bold and crushable”.

A percentage of proceeds from the sale of the beer will be donated to the Cliff Burton Music Scholarship Foundation for Rising Youth Musicians.

“Continuing the mission of Cliff’s father, the late Ray Burton, the Cliff Burton Foundation is centered on fostering the next generation of musical talent,” says a statement from the Burton family.

“We hand pick young individuals from around the world with the same enthusiasm for music and dedication to their craft as the late bassist Cliff Burton had. Cheers to Cliff and Ray Burton who loved a good beer!”

Echoing the Burton family’s statement, KnuckleBonz CEO Tony Simerman says: “We are honored to be working with the estate to bring premium products to music super fans that help contribute to help these talented and hard-working youth musicians.

“Not only is this foundation and what it stands for near and dear to our hearts here at KnuckleBonz, but honoring Cliff in any way, whatsoever, is very important to us. The integrity, passion and drive he always had along with his obvious musical talent has gained him the highest place of respect in our company. We are truly honored to be working with the family on anything that can pay tribute to Cliff Burton.”

Burton: Cliff ‘Em All is only available in the US, and comes in 8- 12- or 24-packs. The first 500 orders come with a free poster. For more information, head to Craftshack.com.

The new limited-edition beer is the latest in a string of alcoholic beverages associated with the Metallica brand. Back in 2019, the thrash metal legends launched their own beer – Enter Night pilsner – and the band continue to sell their own Blackened American Whiskey.

In other Metallica news, Master of Puppets was recently featured in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, leading to its temporary resurgence in popular culture and prompting online guitar lesson platform Yousician to claim that the 1986 classic is now the number one song aspiring guitarists want to learn.

You couldn’t pick a less likely spot to celebrate a fallen thrash metal icon than Laganland, a gathering of buildings by a remote country road in rural Sweden. Drive right in, though, and you’ll see a hotel, a petrol station, a hunting store, a moose reserve (really) and now the Cliff Burton Museum, dedicated to the Metallica bassist who lost his life in a nearby coach crash on September 27, 1986.

There’s quite a back story here. The memorial stone – installed nearby in 2006, 20 years after the accident – was the initiative of a group of Swedish fans called Cliff In Our Minds, primarily Mattias Ekberg, Tony Asplund, Erik Lysén and Johan Mörling, together with the owners of a nearby pub, Gyllene Rasten. The funds to create the stone were raised privately.

Sixteen years later, the Cliff Burton Museum has been created as a meeting-place for the fans who visit the memorial stone. The project initiated at the local tourism department – in Swedish, föreningen Bergabygdens Kultur och Turism – and primarily their associates Krister Ljungberg, Anna-Lena Ljungberg and Magnus Strömberg. Funding for the museum installation came from the Swedish National Heritage Board, which assisted the Museum with a grant of SEK 300,000 (around $30,000).

Krister Ljungberg tells us that the museum’s main purpose, as well as caring for and preserving the memorial stone, is to continue the work begun by the fans when they began raising funds for the stone. “The museum’s board has had a fantastic collaboration with members of Cliff In Our Minds, and also members of the Mextallica chapter, Aelfredo LeRoux and Terry Rodriguez,” he says, adding “The Burton family will also contribute items to the exhibition.”

The fact that these groups of devoted fans have pulled it off so successfully – with no assistance other than the moral support of Cliff’s family, who shared details of the museum launch at their social media – is miraculous.

In a speech that I gave at the event, I made a point of congratulating these fans on their hard work: there’s no equivalent monument to any other prematurely fallen musician that I can think of, whether to Marc Bolan, Randy Rhoads or any of hundreds of others.  

At the launch event today, the idea is to celebrate Cliff’s legacy and the final days of his life, spent not in his hometown of San Francisco but here, half a planet away. As his death in the coach crash has never really been explained – the driver claimed black ice was the cause, although this seems to have been unlikely – there’s never been closure for Burton fans, on this continent or elsewhere.

It’s still surreal that he died so young and so unnecessarily, and to be here today, knowing that we’re minutes away from the place where he died, is to experience a wave of mixed emotions. 

As the visitors, a trickle at first but a loud and enthusiastic crowd of hundreds by mid-afternoon, peruse the exhibits, some are deep in thought, others are tearful, and still others are in full metal mode, slamming beers and throwing the horns.

Cliff’s story, as told through documents, diaries, book excerpts, films and memorabilia collected by Scandinavian and Mexican fans, is totally compelling: it’s almost like he’s with us as we watch a tribute band, Metaholica, power through their set. 

Cliff’s friend Frank Bello of Anthrax – who opened for Metallica on that final tour – dials in on Zoom to pay a heartfelt tribute to his fallen comrade, to the loud appreciation of the crowd.

We’re treated to a rendition of Cliff’s famous solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth by YouTube sensation Kello Gonzalez and LeRoux on drums, and as evening comes, visitors begin to drift away, evidently affected by what they’ve experienced.

We’re not done, though, and after paying our respects at the memorial stone, we transfer to Hotel Terraza in Ljungby – the same hotel where the shellshocked members of Metallica stayed after the crash. We watch Metaholica deliver another pulverising set, and there’s a lot of drinking... and also quite a few tears, as you might imagine. Cliff definitely would have appreciated it.

• Thanks to Krister and Anna-Lena Ljungberg. The Cliff Burton Museum is located near Ljungby, Sweden, about two hours by car or train from Copenhagen Airport. The memorial stone is located 10 minutes from the museum; its history is explained in detail at Cliff In Our Minds.
• Instagram: cliffburtonmuseum
• Facebook: Cliff Burton Museum & Memorial Stone

The municipality of Ljungby in Sweden has announced the opening of the Cliff Burton Museum, a partially government-funded building set up as a tribute to the late Metallica bassist.

Burton lost his life in a coach crash near Ljungby in 1986, while Metallica were touring Europe with Anthrax. A memorial stone was installed near the crash site by the band's Swedish fanclub a decade ago, and the area regularly attracts metal fans keen to honor his memory. 

The museum will include pictures, albums, posters and tickets, along with interviews and photos from the first photographer at the crash site – Lennart Wennberg of the newspaper Expressen – plus a film of recollections from first responders at the crash scene.

Other exhibits include a stage that recreates Metallica’s last gig with Burton in Stockholm, with copies of the bass and drum kit he and Lars Ulrich used.

As the organisers tell GW, “We primarily want to honor Cliff Burton, who died so tragically in the middle of his career, and talk about who he was as a person and a musician.

“Our second main purpose is to create a meeting place for all those who seek the memorial site in the small community of Dörarp. We want to continue the fine work that the fans started when they started raising funds to make Cliff's memorial stone.”

Details of the Museum's launch event on Saturday 14 May can be found on Instagram. Bass Player magazine editor Joel McIver, who wrote a 2009 biography on Burton featuring a foreword by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, will be delivering a talk on the late icon's life and work.

Late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is due to be commemorated in action figure form by collectible toy makers Super7.

The bassist who tragically lost his life in the band’s 1986 tour bus crash played a huge role in Metallica’s early years. Indeed, Burton was the reason the band relocated to San Francisco, after flooring James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich at an LA show with his band, Trauma.

Super7 announced the arrival of the Burton figure on Instagram, with the words “Bass solo. Take one.” – a reference to the words at the beginning of Burton’s signature showcase, (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth from Metallica’s 1983 debut Kill ‘Em All.

The brand specialise in pop culture collectibles and will add the Burton figure to its ReAction series, alongside the likes of Run DMC, Lemmy, Exodus singer Paul Baloff and Johnny Cash. 

“ReAction figures celebrate the iconic 3¾ action figure of our childhood,” says Super7. “With ReAction Figures, we continue the classic size while making the figures we wished we had while growing up.”

The Super7 Cliff Burton ReAction figure will be available to order on Super7.com from February 10.

On September 27, 1986, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was tragically killed when the band's tour bus crashed in Sweden.

The surviving three members of the thrash metal group decided to carry on, but not without a great deal of discussion first, not to mention the blessing of Burton's family. 

Out of the dozens of bass guitar players who auditioned to be Burton's replacement, it was Flotsam and Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted who impressed the group the most during his initial audition in the band's home base of San Francisco, California. 

Newsted – asked back for another, more in-depth audition – quickly returned to San Francisco a second time, where he received the seal of approval from Metallica's inner circle, including Jan Burton, Cliff's mother.

In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Newsted recalled his emotional first encounter with Burton's mother.

“That evening, it was the third day that I played with the boys, I think I stayed overnight in San Francisco for the first time,” Newsted said. “That third night, they had ‘the elders’ come in for their blessing. So Torben Ulrich, the Burtons, a couple of the crew guys, people that had been there from the get-go. We got through about six tunes: Master, Fade To Black, …Bell Tolls, the masterpieces.

"So I am just composing myself for a second, putting my bass down, turning off Cliff’s amp – I’m playing fucking Cliff’s amp dude! Jan [Burton] comes walking in the room by herself, and she grabs me, and gets my attention. 

"She says, ‘Great job, son’ and I’m like, ‘Oh fuck!’ She embraced me, and it seemed like it was quite a while, and she said, ‘You’re the one, you must be the one. Please be safe, we love you,’ and she gave me a kiss. That was 35 years ago, and I'll never, ever forget it.”

The Newsted interview is part of Metal Hammer's ‘Metallica 40’ issue, which celebrates the metal pioneers' 40th anniversary with 40 exclusive new interviews with a breathtaking all-star cast of band members, famous friends and other important figures in the band's history.

To pick up a copy of the magazine, stop by Magazines Direct.

Late Metallica bass player Cliff Burton would have turned 59 on February 10, and his birthday will be honored this year with an online livestream event.

The online event will be held on the Twitch channel of filmmaker Nicholas Gomez, and will feature a host of Burton’s friends and bandmates, including Metallica roadie and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall, Vio-lence singer Sean Killian, former Megaforce Records A&R executive “Metal” Maria Ferrero, Fred Cotton and James McDaniel of Metallica punk side-project Spastik Children, photographer Harald O and more.

The livestream takes place at 7pm PST on February 10. 

In 2018, Alameda County, California, where Burton grew up, declared February 10 "Cliff Burton Day" after Metallica fans started a petition on change.org to recognize the late bassist, who was killed in a bus crash in Sweden on September 27, 1986.

For more information on the livestream, head to Twitch TV.

On September 27, 1986, Metallica’s tour bus was involved in a crash while the band was traveling between gigs from Sweden to Denmark. Shortly after 7 A.M. that morning, the band members were awakened in their bunks as the bus began skidding from side to side.

The bus driver would later tell authorities he had hit a patch of black ice and lost control of the vehicle. As the bus careened off the road, it flipped over onto its side and bassist Cliff Burton was thrown through the window, with the bus landing on top of him. Burton was 24 years old when he died.

The bassist’s influence and legend has only grown over the years - so much so that February 10 was recognized as Cliff Burton Day in Alameda County, California (Burton was raised in Castro Valley, CA), after Metallica fans started a petition on change.org to recognize the late bassist on what would have been his 56th birthday.

In honor of the late bassist, check out this video of Burton performing his trademark solo, (Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth onstage with Metallica in 1983.

February 10, 2018 is now "Cliff Burton Day" in Alameda County, California. Four weeks ago, Metallica fans started a petition on change.org to recognize Metallica's late bassist, who was killed in a bus crash in Sweden on September 27, 1986.

The petition soon reached the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, who yesterday officially proclaimed that February 10 to be "Cliff Burton Day" in Alameda County, and Burton's hometown of Castro Valley.

Metallica celebrated the proclamation with an Instagram post, writing "As many of you know, Cliff was born and raised in Castro Valley and was the reason we high-tailed it to the Bay Area back in ’83."

"Thanks to all of the fans who got behind this initiative and we’d like to send our appreciation and respect to all of you who continue to honor Cliff in your own personal ways. We love that he remains so revered."

Back in August, Metallica announced a truly gargantuan reissue of their landmark 1986 album, Master of Puppets.

Multiple editions of the reissue feature entire discs of demos, live recordings and other previously unreleased material. Now, you can hear the latest nugget from the reissue, an early demo of the album's title track.

This particular demo of "Master of Puppets" was recorded in June 1985, at the The Carlson House in El Cerrito, California. Though the song had already largely taken shape by this point, it's fascinating to hear it as a scrappy, lo-fi recording.

The Master of Puppets reissue will be available physically on November 10 as a Standard LP, Standard CD, 3 CD Expanded Edition, and Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set and digitally as a Standard CD (available to stream and download), a 3 CD Expanded Edition (available for download only), and a Digital Deluxe Box Set (available for streaming and download).

The Expanded Edition will include previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, interviews, live tracks, and a 28-page booklet. The Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set will include a 108-page hardcover book including never before seen photos, outtakes and previously unreleased interviews, three LPs, ten CDs, a cassette, two DVDs, a lithograph, a folder with handwritten lyrics, and a set of six buttons.

You can listen to the demo below, and preorder the Master of Puppets reissue here.

Talk Is Jericho recently checked in with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.

During the interview, Ulrich touched upon the late Cliff Burton’s musical contributions to the band, elaborating on exactly what the bassist brought to the band in their early days.

"If you listen to the difference between Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning, obviously there was this huge … the pallet was expanded," Ulrich said.

"We've never experimented with harmonies, melodies … If you take 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' that melody, 'Fade to Black,' the super-melodic outro—that was all stuff [Cliff] brought to the table. The intro of 'Fight Fire with Fire,' that was more or less his. There was this whole thing that came from the classical upbringing that he had.

"He studied classical music and he could sit down and talk with you about Bach and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. In 1981, James Hetfield and I didn't sit there and talk a lot about classical endeavors, you know? [Laughs] We had a little more narrow-minded outlook. So Cliff—he loved the energy, he loved the aggression, but I don’t think he was a big fan of like, Iron Maiden. I remember early on when we started traveling on the tour bus, I'd put on some Maiden or something—he didn't get out of his seat to start banging up and down. [Chuckles]

"I'd play some Maiden, some Diamond Head, and then he'd put on [ZZ Top's] Rio Grande Mud or Degüello or some Yes album I'd never heard of, and I was like, 'Huh?' He'd sit there and fly the flag for Jethro Tull or … one band he loved was the Police, he'd always play the Police.

"His whole net was just really wide and really unencumbered by how it was supposed to be if you were in a metal band, which obviously James and I hadn't quite graduated to at that time.

"Cliff, hands down, was the one that was the most musically varied at that time. Anybody that sits and goes, 'Cliff wouldn't have done this, Cliff wouldn't have done that,' it's just a nonstarter of a conversation, because we don't know. If you take like, 'Enter Sandman,' it's a great riff and we tried a lot of stuff with [Jason] Newsted and it was just sort of like, just thumping straight eighth notes—it just works for the song! I don't think Cliff would have said, 'Fuck you, I'm not doing that!' His thing was just what's best for the song."

Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died September 27, 1986, when the band’s tour bus rolled over on a stretch of icy road, killing him instantly.

Metallica were on tour for their recently released album Master of Puppets and had written most of the songs for their next LP, …And Justice for All.

Bassist Andriy Vasylenko—the man behind Total Cliff, a noncommercial tribute to Burton—wondered how …And Justice for All would have sounded if Burton had been alive to record it. He assembled this video clip of him playing snippets from the album’s tracks in the style he feels Burton might have played.

“Of course you’ve thought about it—what if Cliff were still alive and recorded all the Metallica albums featured Jason Newsted,” Vasylenko writes. “This topic often leads to a hot discussion that makes no sense, actually. Nevertheless, the question ‘what if’ could teach some interesting things in terms of music.

“So, this is my speculative …And Justice for All bass medley, how it might sound with Cliff’s bass arrangement approach, based on what I’ve learned making Total Cliff.”

Check it out below, and visit Total Cliff’s Facebook page for more information.

Morley, makers of pedals, switches and Ebtech audio solutions, in collaboration with Ray Burton (late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton’s father) has released the Limited Edition Power Fuzz Wah in Chrome.

In 2015, Morley released the Cliff Burton Tribute Power Fuzz Wah, which became one of the most sought-after Morley pedals in the history of the company.

This combination Wah and Fuzz pedal has separate Wah level control, Fuzz level and intensity as well as a Modern/Vintage switch to select between two types of fuzz. The Wah and Fuzz can be used individually or together.

“When we released the Tribute Power Fuzz Wah,” says Morley’s Scott Flesher, “it was an immediate hit as people had been asking us to do this for many years. It was originally released in silver, but Cliff fans kept asking for a chrome version like the original Tel-Ray Morley version.”

Morley’s Bill Wenzloff adds, “This chrome version is an extremely limited edition so there will only 500 pedals available worldwide. Make sure to get yours before they’re gone! In addition, some will be autographed by Ray Burton.”

The Chrome Power Fuzz Wah is suitable for use with guitar, bass, keys or any instrument you can plug into it. It is housed in a mirror-finished chrome cold rolled steel chassis, equipped with dual LED indication and a Quick Clip battery door. It has a street price of $250. There will be 250 units available in the company's World Famous Optical design and an additional 250 units in an M2 European version.

As with all Morley products, it comes with a no-hassle two-year warranty.

For Morley ordering information, call Bill Wenzloff at 800-284-5172, Ext. 12., and visit morleypedals.com.

In another new new video promoting Metallica's new Back to the Front book, James Hetfield remembers the time the band jammed with Cliff Burton for the first time.

"I will never forget that day in the living room where we first jammed with Cliff," Hetfield says in the clip, which you can check out below.

"I remember 'Seek and Destroy,' just hearing Cliff doing that [sings bass line]. It was like, 'Whoa! Whoa! Alright! We have a bass player. [Laughs] Or we have another guitar player who plays bass. [Laughs]"

Burton, the band's beloved bassist, died at age 24 in bus crash during the 1986 European leg of Metallica’s Master of Puppets tour.

“I still miss Cliff, no doubt. I’d love to see him again at some point,” Hetfield says in a previous clip. “So seeing photos that I haven’t seen before, especially where we’re together, that is awesome. To get another piece of him back into my heart is great.”

“Very emotional memories seeing Cliff,” Kirk Hammett adds. “Seeing pictures of Cliff and I in the hotel rooms, Cliff and I hanging out. Pictures of us in the dressing rooms when our dressing room was a deli tray, a stack of towels and, disproportionately, just a ton of booze. … I respect Cliff’s memory.”

Back to the Front will be available September 13.

Back to the Front, a new book focusing on Metallica’s final album and sessions with the late Cliff Burton, will be available September 13.

In advance of the book's release, the band has posted several Burton-centric promotional videos.

In the latest—and perhaps most touching—clip, the members of Metallica reflect on the tragic loss of Burton, their beloved bassist, who died at age 24 in bus crash during the 1986 European leg of Metallica’s Master of Puppets tour. Some of the memories were sparked by the book's impressive collection of rare, never-before-seen photos from sessions for Master of Puppets.

“I still miss Cliff, no doubt. I’d love to see him again at some point,” James Hetfield says in the video, which you can check out below. “So seeing photos that I haven’t seen before, especially where we’re together, that is awesome. To get another piece of him back into my heart is great.”

“Very emotional memories seeing Cliff,” Kirk Hammett adds. “Seeing pictures of Cliff and I in the hotel rooms, Cliff and I hanging out. Pictures of us in the dressing rooms when our dressing room was a deli tray, a stack of towels and, disproportionately, just a ton of booze. … I respect Cliff’s memory.”

The band also praises Burton’s father, Ray, who is still a part of the Metallica family.

As part of what he's calling May-tallica, multi-talented internet sensation Rob Scallon has been creating and posting a series of imaginative Metallica-related videos.

For instance, there's the one where he performs "Enter Sandman" backwards.

Anyway, he's back with a new one.

In his latest video, which he posted 27.7777 minutes ago (not that we're stalking him or anything), Scallon performs "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)," a Cliff Burton track from 1983's Kill 'Em All, on upright bass.

Enjoy!

Morley, in collaboration with Ray Burton (father of the late Cliff Burton of Metallica), has released a tribute version of the pedal Burton made famous, the Power Fuzz Wah.

This is a combination classic wah pedal with built-in fuzz.

The Wah has separate level control, the fuzz has level and intensity as well as a Modern/Vintage switch to select between two types of fuzz. The Wah and fuzz can be used individually or together.

“This is not a reissue,” says Morley’s Bill Wenzloff. “The original Tel-Ray Morley version was extremely large, had a power cord attached, had no battery option and is simply not adequate for today’s players.

"The sound and tone, however, were duplicated exactly. The combination of the fuzz and the Wah is what gave Cliff his signature tone, especially when soloing. We wanted that aspect of the pedal to be the same but with a modern look and features. This is the most sought after pedal in Morley’s history, we are honored to be able to finally release this to those who have been asking for it for so many years.”

Designer Scott Flesher adds, “Even though Cliff made this pedal famous, it was originally a guitar pedal that could be used for guitar, bass or keys. We designed this tribute version to do the same so it’s not only for bass.”

The Power Fuzz Wah is housed in a faux chrome cold rolled steel chassis, equipped with dual LED indication and easy-access battery compartment. Of course, it comes with Morley’s two-year warranty, is made in the U.S. and retails for $316.

For more information, visit morleypedals.com.

Metallica have posted a free download of a September 21, 1986, London show in support of Master of Puppets.

The concert, which place at the Hammersmith Odeon, marks one of the band's last shows with bassist Cliff Burton, who died September 27 in Sweden after a bus accident.

Tracks include "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," "Seek & Destroy," "Whiplash," "Creeping Death" and "Master of Puppets." There are 14 tracks in all.

It's also notable that Kirk Hammett's guitar tech filled in on rhythm guitar for the show, because James Hetfield had recently broken his arm in a skateboarding accident.

The show is available for download — for FREE, we remind you — at MetallicaLive.com.

December will see the release of Murder In The Front Row: Shots from the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, a retrospective which includes 400 photos chronicling the rise of San Francisco's thrash scene in the mid '80s. Brutal Existence Radio recently caught up with photographer and co-author of Murder in the Front Row Harald Oimoen, who among other things, shared some memories of late Metallica bassist and friend Cliff Burton. Cliff was like the greatest, most down-to-Earth guy ever. It's interesting to think what Metallica would sound like now, if he was still with the band. He was the most level-headed guy in the band, I think. They used to go to him, he was the tiebreaker when there was a decision to be made. If they were going to do something that was lame or stupid, he would kinda stop them from doing that. Cliff was amazing. He was brutally honest, too, if he didn't like something he let you know about it." You can check out the full interview here.

Earlier this week was the 25th anniversary of the day the world lost one of heavy metal's true legends and a monster of the bass guitar, late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.

While the metal community still mourns his loss, there has been no more touching a remembrance than the below video posted by Cliff's father Ray earlier this week. You may remember that Ray spoke on Cliff's behalf when Metallica were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in April of 2009.

As we mentioned earlier, today marks the 25th anniversary of the passing of legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.

Revolver have just posted outtakes from their interview with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich which was featured in their "Fallen Heroes" issue. You can check out an excerpt below, and read the full thing here.

What are your fondest memories of [Cliff]?

LARS ULRICH: "My fondest memories of Cliff are his total disregard for convention and his total disregard for playing things out the way you expected them. He was up to challenge the normalcy, to challenge the status quo, to just fuck with things musically, attitude-wise—the way he dressed, the way he carried himself, his sense of humor, his relationship with the music that inspired him, the music that he played. It was always very unconventional, and it was very unusual. You could certainly argue that me and James [Hetfield] at that time were more kind of the squarer guys, ’cause we were more like, “Motörhead, Iron Maiden!” Heavy metal T-shirts, and long hair and bang our heads into the wall. Cliff was just so fast in his palette of things that he was into and things that were inspiring him and the things that he was doing. So it was definitely his music, and his attitude, and his approach towards life that really inspired me and James to broaden our horizons, broaden Metallica’s horizons musically. So when I think of Cliff, that’s what I think…that’s just kind of variety and unpredictability, you know."