Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica Book Review

Metallica ultimately became probably the biggest heavy metal band ever, but like all bands, they started small.

This book Enter Night:  A Biography of Metallica, written by music journalist Mick Wall, came out in 2011 and it chronicles pre-band days of members growing up, how the band got started, and a lot of other times from then on up to 2010.

Metallica are still growing strong in 2025, and to quote music journalist Lonn Friend “they are the Led Zeppelin of this generation”.  Lonn said this in the 90s, but I believe he is correct.

Who knew that a band that heavy would ultimately become the biggest band out of the music scene they came out of, and really became a U2 level size band.

But they did it and they did it by working very hard and with a lot of luck and great timing.

Sadly, not everyone made it through the whole thing.  Bassist Cliff Burton tragically passed away in a band bus accident in 1987.  Original lead guitarist Dave Mustaine, who later formed the great metal band Megadeth, was fired in 1983, and bassist Jason Newsted quit after 14 years of being in the band in 2001.

But three out of the four core members, singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist/occasional lead guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett are still there, and bassist Robert Trujillo has been in the band for almost 22 years as of this writing.

And through all the ups and downs (going through therapy and rehab) and controversies among fans (the band cutting their hair and eventually making different sounding albums, especially in the 90s, fighting against Napster and ultimately fans who used Napster), Metallica have ultimately stayed strong, still make what I think are very good albums, and still are playing stadiums and frankly don’t need an opening act to sell that many tickets, but they still have openers and usually are great ones.

Not many bands can play stadiums, but Metallica can.

And they do it very well.

They’ve earned their success and this book chronicles all of this.

It’s not an official autobiography, but Mick Wall, the author, has interviewed most of the band members over the years and has used quotes from said interviews, along with quotes from other people who knew/know them and he put together what I consider to be an almost official autobiography.

My only complaint is that he puts his opinion in the book sometimes too much, but otherwise, it’s a great book and I highly recommend it.

I’ve been a Metallica fan for over 25 years and I always will be.