The young musician picked up his first bass guitar at age 13, after the death of his brother, with the declaration: “I’m going to be the best bassist for my brother.” He practiced feverishly for up to six hours a day incorporating elements of classical and jazz with rock, blues and metal riffs. Teenage YearsĬliff’s teenage years saw his musical interests grow in not just classical, but also in rock, country and heavy metal.
The young Cliff’s love of music developed after his father introduced him to classical music leading him to begin piano lessons. Cliff Burton’s BeginningsĬlifford Lee Burton was born in Castro Valley, California, to Ray and Jan Burton. It didn’t necessarily get worse or better for that matter, it just changed. However, after Cliff’s untimely death in 1986, the band’s sound seemed to change. When looking at METALLICA‘s first three albums – 1983’s ‘ Kill Em All‘, 1984’s ‘ Ride The Lightning‘ and 1986’s monumental ‘ Master Of Puppets‘ (all which feature Cliff) – you can’t deny the fact that all three releases are absolute thrash metal necessities which scream with aggression and distortion in that remarkable, pulverizing way. Its breathtaking symphonic reimagining on S&M shunts it a few spots further up this list.But it worked. Although the shapeshifting darkness of Until It Sleeps, the pained introspection of Bleeding Me, and the stadium-rattling heft of Fuel and The Memory Remains all deserve recognition, the colossal scale of The Outlaw Torn – stretching, like Monument Valley, towards the horizon – remains the era’s perennially-underrated highlight. Not to take anything more from the much-maligned Canadians, but such continued (mis)interpretations fail to grasp the rich Southern Gothic textures and far more emotionally reflexive songwriting of those records’ finest moments. So deep was the betrayal felt by metal traditionalists that recently, some 24 years after the fact, All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte was still making headlines with his (good-natured) observation that “almost any of the tracks from Load and Reload could go on a Nickelback record”.
With all that in mind, proceed in the knowledge that we’ve not forgotten those thumping crowd-pleasers (Fuel, Wherever I May Roam), experimental epics (The Call Of Ktulu, …And Justice For All) and straight-up bangers (Fight Fire With Fire, Disposable Heroes, Of Wolf And Man, All Nightmare Long) absent from our list, but that these best of the best are just that little bit better…įive years after they changed the face of metal forever with the Black Album, Metallica cut their hair, began experimenting with their sound and aesthetic and alienated a whole generation of fans.
Not so the Bay Area giants, who’ve easily produced double that number with the complexity, innovation and sheer power to be considered solid gold classics.īetween frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and their three bassists Rob Trujillo, Jason Newsted and the venerable Cliff Burton (not to forget past six-string contributor Dave Mustaine) they’ve produced 10 studio albums, numerous thrilling live albums, experimental releases that’ve varied from the wildly successful (1999’s orchestral masterpiece S&M) to the risible (2011’s admirable but ultimately misguided Lou Reed collaboration Lulu) and game-changing progressions that’ve shunted the whole scene forward. For most outfits, Top 20 lists like these largely pick themselves: a slew of hit singles rounded-out by deeper cuts and fan favourites that’ve shown their quality over time. Metallica are a band apart, in terms of importance, influence and the sheer quality scattered (lop-sidedly) through their catalogue.
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