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The 40 definitive moments — and their details — that shaped Metallica’s unprecedented career.

Back when homemade cassette tapes of new bands were traded like highly coveted contraband, a friend of a friend handed me a copy of a copy of “No Life 'Til Leather” by a group calling itself Metallica.

Little about Metallica’s formative days hinted that the group was already charting its every move and documenting each step for future purposes. The youthful members looked as menacing and resistant as they sounded. Their acne-splotched faces, worn denim jackets, long hair and bullet belts conveyed the same darkness and danger embodied by the high-school druggies-stoners and dropouts parents warned their own kids to avoid. The quartet’s music proved equally intimidating. 

The identity crisis Metallica began to experience in the mid-’90s coincided with a host of deeper-seated issues. Only a few years removed from releasing a blockbuster album, conquering the planet with a 24-month tour and cementing its status as one of the world’s biggest bands, the quartet found itself in an alien landscape hostile to established rock stars and lukewarm about heavy music. Times and tastes were changing as rapidly as Lars Urich’s galloping beat in “Motorbreath.”