Metallica was formed the year I was born (1981) so I couldn’t recall their New Wave British Metal influence or anything about the birth of Thrash in the US. I later became a fan by default since my older brother obsessively blared them from his bedroom. He and I saw them live recently and, in a burst of nostalgia, I picked up this biography. Central to their story is bassist Cliff Burton’s wholly devastating death in 1986; something they never really recovered from even with their massive success. Mick Wall gets bogged down in the minutiae, but it’s a fascinating history. And they put on one hell of a show now in their late 50s!