Metallica
Metallica in London, England in 2017. From left to right: Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Heavy metal thrash metal hard rock speed metal
Years active	1981–present
Labels	Megaforce Elektra Vertigo Warner Bros. Blackened
Associated acts	Leather Charm Lou Reed San Francisco Symphony Spastik Children
Website	metallica.com
Members	James Hetfield Lars Ulrich Kirk Hammett Robert Trujillo
Past members	Dave Mustaine Ron McGovney Cliff Burton† Jason Newsted

Metallica is an American thrash metal/heavy metal band. The band started in Los Angeles in 1981, and helped make the thrash sub-genre of heavy metal. The band is one of the "Big Four" of early thrash metal, with Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. They are well known for many of their songs, including "Master of Puppets", "The Unforgiven", "One", "Enter Sandman", and "Nothing Else Matters". Since then, they have become one of the most popular and successful bands in metal, and have sold over 100 million albums worldwide. The band's fifth album, Metallica, has sold over 22 million copies, making it one of the top 20 best selling albums of all time. Metallica's current members are guitarist and singer James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Hetfield and Ulrich write most of the band's songs.