Happy Birthday Lars Ulrich!
Founder of the most successful Metal band in rock history, was born in Denmark, but his family moved to California in 1980. With James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine he formed Metallica, and the band would move to San Francisco to join bassist Cliff Burton to become the leaders of the new Thrash metal scene.
One of the founding "big four" bands of thrash, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer, the bands first album Kill Em All has become an all time classic, but they found commercial success with the release of Master of Puppets in 1986. They would push the genre as far as it could go with their Grammy nominated ...And Justice For All in 1988, despite losing the first ever Grammy for Heavy Metal to Jethro Tull of all bands.
Their self titled fifth album, came in 1991, which saw them transition from thrash to a more mainstream metal sound selling more than 16 million copies in the U.S. This would lead to a string of commercially successful albums that would divide some of their fanbase while gaining even more, a feat that rarely happens in rock.
Metallica would return to their thrash metal roots with Death Magnetic in 2008, which drew critical and fans praise which has continued to recent release, 72 Seasons. Metallica has released eleven albums, won nine Grammy Awards, six consecutive albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200, and ranked as one of the most successful bands of all time.
Happy Birthday Lars, you are a true trailblazer of rock!