Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Who are the great metal heavyweights? Certainly you'd want to include Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses, Black Sabbath, Slayer, and Judas Priest. But it's hard to imagine any band taking poll position in the list, other than the mighty Metallica. Alongside the likes of Anthrax, they pumped speed into the veins of an already breakneck genre and unleashed an amphetamine-fed beast unto the world, which has never been the same since. It's the combination of innovative musicality and unfettered, teeth-clenched rawness that really sets Metallica aside though i a band that are technically streets ahead of most peers but also louder and harder and heavier and far less compromising. Here, the outfit play The Hits Live, tracks recorded at two separate performances during their ascendancy to rock god status, one in 1989 the other in 1994. We are not worthy.

Review: Arriving in 2008, a half-decade on from their controversial eighth full-length St. Anger, thrash metal heavyweights Metallica would dig deep on LP number nine to produce what many avid fans consider to be one of the band's best post-1980's records (with the obvious exception of 1991's The Black Album). Restoring the face-melting shredfests completely absent from their preceding effort, while looking inward to gauge how much of the Metallica formula should be modernised without losing sight of why they originally resonated with so many a headbanger in the first place, Death Magnetic struck the ideal balance between the epic thrash spectacle of old, with cuts like 'Cyanide' harking back to the anthemic theatrics of 'Creeping Death', while 'The Day That Never Comes' offers up a slow burning metallic ballad that would've fit right in during their 80s/90s transitional period, yet embellished by frontman James Hetfield's more seasoned bravado and demeanour. Switching out producer Bob Rock (who many had felt was well beyond outstaying his welcome) for bearded guru Rick Rubin, the results speak for themselves as Death Magnetic can likely be attributed to Metallica's continuing reign as the ultimate thrash giants, while each subsequent project since has followed the album's retro-revitalised blueprint.

Review: The second and final instalment of thrash metal titans Metallica's Orion Music + More festival took place in Detroit, Michigan, on June 8th/9th 2013, and while the ordeal itself was a complete and utter financial disaster (hence there has yet to be a third event in the decade since), the line-up and performances across the weekend are still hyped and discussed to this day. Where the 4:30pm slot at the Vans Damage Inc Stage on the first day was originally allotted to a mysterious group named Dehaan, eagle-eyed fans connected the dots when remembering the name of actor Dane Dehaan who played the lead role in the Metallica concert film Through The Never. Then, as the "band's" logo was covered up with a hastily spray-painted "Metal Up Your Ass" banner (the original title to Metallica's 1982 debut full-length Kill 'Em All), attendees flocked in their droves just in time for a mid-afternoon shredfest of the iconic first album in its entirety, complete with the first ever performance of original bassist Cliff Burton's solo piece '(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth', by his replacement Robert Trujillo.

Review: This unmissable two-disc bundle nets Metallica's explosive live performances at the Seattle Center Coliseum on 29-30 August 1989, during their legendary Damaged Justice Tour. Widely regarded by fans as among of the band's finest shows, this tearout time capsule boasts a stellar setlist, including 'Seek & Destroy', 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', 'Creeping Death', 'Battery', 'Master of Puppets' and 'The Thing That Should Not Be'. Unleashed to the world like a cageful of batwinged, sledgehammer wielding demons, it came right after their fourth LP release And Justice for All, which in turn set the Damaged Justice tour in motion; these menacers will always come back to haunt us through the tube amps.

Review: It isn't much of an understatement to say that thrash metal giants Metallica got off on the wrong creative foot entering into the 21st century, with 2003's controversial St. Anger still causing ample debate amongst the fanbase to this day. A five-year respite would see a re-channelling of their ethos and approach, resulting in 2008's exceptional return to form Death Magnetic, which finally saw the band crack the code of how to modernise their signature formula without losing sight of why it resonated with so many headbangers in the first place. Following another near-decade long gap, 2016 saw the arrival of Hardwired...To Self-Destruct; a project that furthered their sonic realignment with a near 80-minute opus of lengthy compositions, galloping riffage and anthemic hooks; harking authentically back to the progressive, controlled meanderings of their late 80s peek. If its predecessor was the re-charting of course, Hardwired can easily be accepted as the arrival at the shore of placated fan acceptance and fluid artistic rediscovery.