Metallica

San Francisco metal band formed in the early 80's. Their four albums from the 80's are class, and incidentally their best known offerings. However the material released post-1991 is of curiously low standard with the occasional great track. In 2002 (or was it 03?) they released St. Anger, an album which shocked us again at how low they could go. They completely removed the guitar solo (a vital part of the heavy metal song) from all the songs. This resulted in their worst album and their grouping with nu-metal. One shouldn't forget, however, that their 80's albums are some of the best from that decade, including great tracks like Fade To Black, Sanitarium, One, Ride The Lightning, Battery, The Four Horsemen, Master Of Puppets.