Enter Night

In this "fast-paced" biography, "it's fun to see the band transform . . . from scruffy, Mötorhead-loving teenagers to hard-partying gods of thunder" ( Rolling Stone ). Their roots lie in the heavy rock of 70s groups like Deep Purple. The music they played—heavy metal mixed with punk attitude—became its own genre: thrash. As grunge threatened to overtake them, they reinvented themselves. They are Metallica, the most influential heavy metal band of the last thirty years. As Led Zeppelin was for hard rock and the Sex Pistols were for punk, Metallica became the band that defined the sound of 1980s heavy metal. Inventors of thrash metal, Metallica led the way for Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. Metallica is the fifth-largest selling artist of all time, with 100 million records sold worldwide. Their music has extended its reach beyond rock and metal, and into the pop mainstream, as they went from speed metal to MTV with their hit single "Enter Sandman." Until now there hasn't been an authoritative, in-depth portrait of the band. Mick Wall's thoroughly researched, insightful work is enriched by his interviews with band members, record company execs, roadies, and fellow musicians. Enter Night follows the band through tragedy and triumph, from the bus crash that killed their bassist Cliff Burton in 1986 to the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster, and on to their status as the leaders of the Big Four festival. Enter Night delves into the various incarnations of the band, and the personalities of all key members, past and present—especially Ulrich and Hetfield—to produce the definitive word on the biggest metal band on the planet. "[A] flaming juggernaut of a heavy-metal biog." — Guardian (UK)