Metallica

1
  • Year:
    2009
  • Inducted by:
    Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
  • Category:
    Performers

Introduction

Heavy metal went mainstream thanks to Metallica.

A thrashing Bay Area quartet fond of breakneck-speed riffs glinting with menace and aggression—owing to their affinity for new wave of British heavy metal bands—the group are responsible for some of the most brutal, enduring rock & roll albums of the '80s and '90s.

Hall of Fame Essay

2009

Deborah Frost

Happy families, Leo Tolstoy noted, are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

That goes double, if not quadruple, for bands, particularly those who achieve greatness. The picture has never been painted so graphically as in Some Kind of Monster, the 2004 documentary that chronicled the previous three years and crack-up of Metallica, at the very pinnacle of its fortune and fame.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 2009
1 of 3
Quote_Metallica
Heavy music is turning a source of misery into something beautiful
Flea

2

Gallery

Photography: Getty/WireImage