“The major rager on the four-string motherfucker.” – Dave Mustaine describing Metallica bassist Cliff Burton   Metallica (founding bassist Cliff Burton on far right) during their 1986 Damage Tour The appearance of Metallica in the 1980s felt as momentous to metal fans as the breakout of Nirvana for punk fans a decade later. They were harder, louder, leaner, and meaner than anyone else on the scene, and they created a new template for angry guitar rock. Like Nirvana, their no-frills approach derived from a love of punk rock and hardcore, an anti-establishment pose, and a commitment to outré topics like mental health care, and the lack thereof. Of course, Metallica would embrace fame and fortune in a way Nirvana never could, but they may have gone in a different direction at one time. One does not need to spell out the differences between the sounds of these two bands and their genres, whatever we call them. Take a listen, for example, to this concert at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on December 9, 1986, maybe the fastest show Metallica ever played. ‘If you watch closely,’ Greg Kennelty writes at Metal Injection, ‘you can even see [James] Hetfield’s right hand smoking as it reaches terminal velocity!’ What came to be called Grunge generally sounds slow and murky, like certain late Metallica songs. The metal sub-genre of thrash, for which bands like Anthrax and Metallica get founding credit, is nothing without speed and mind-blowing precision. There’s another reason to highlight the December ’86 concert. It took place ‘about three months after the death of [bassist] Cliff Burton,’ Kennelty notes, and is ‘one of Metallica’s first shows with [new bassist] Jason Newsted. So mentally I’m sure this was a rough one for the group.’ Surely an understatement. It’s a testament to how Metallica shredded even harder into success after losing a important member at the midpoint of their breakout 1986 Damage, Inc. tour.   Cliff Burton’s Last Show with Metallica, Stockholm, 1986     Named for the last song on their third album, Master of Puppets, the Damage, Inc. tour had already seen plenty of personal drama in a band that had weathered more than its share, since drummer Lars Ulrich put an ad in the paper for metal musicians in 1981. That included the firing of lead guitarist Dave Mustaine (of Megadeth fame), just before the recording of their debut album Kill ‘Em All (originally titled Metal Up Your Ass). Hetfield, who hit terminal velocity in December, can be all the more admired for the achievement since he’d broken his wrist skateboarding the previous summer and had to give his guitar parts to the his tech for several tour dates. Moreover, band members Hetfield, Burton, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett had been in talks about firing Ulrich, the band’s first original member, replacing him just as Hammett had replaced Mustaine.     Of course, every metal band worth the name has a soap opera story, with tragic deaths a sadly common motif. In 1982, Ozzy Osbourne, whom Metallica supported on their first leg of the Damage, Inc. tour, lost his star guitarist Randy Rhoads in a plane crash. In September of 1986, while Hetfield’s wrist healed and the band thought of firing their drummer, their tour bus flipped during the drive through Stockholm, Sweden, pinning Burton underneath and killing him. Metallica cancelled their remaining European tour, began auditioning replacement bassists, including Les Claypool, later of Primus, and chose Newsted in November, resuming shows at home in California that month, then internationally in Tokyo.   The post Metallica Embarks on Their 1986 Damage Tour, Their Last with Founding Bassist Cliff Burton appeared first on Flashbak.