HEAVY METAL HAS LONG BEEN ROCK'S RUDE underbelly, scorned by adult tastemakers while it's beloved by fans by now, it is the entrenched music of young America, especially white male suburban teen-agers. ''Seek!'' barks James Hetfield, holding his microphone out to the audience. Later, with the Troubadour packed to the rafters, there's pandemonium from the moment the band steps on stage - a mixture of the band's high-speed, high-decibel rock the crowd's applause and waving fists, and shared, frenzied singalongs to lyrics about death on the battlefield, suicide, drug addiction and madness. ''To go from one extreme to the other, with no boundaries,'' he says. (The band is billed on the marquee as ''Frayed Ends.'') Ulrich likes the idea of playing for a few hundred people one night and 40,000 a few days later. The fans outside have found out about the show, the first night of a two-night stand, through a fan-club mailing and by word of mouth. Tonight's unadvertised performance will be a warm-up for Metallica and a preview. The quintuple bill, headlined by Van Halen, will play stadiums in 23 cities (including Kansas City, Mo., today) with a prospective audience of more than a million people. ''We've played worse gigs than this for real,'' he says, with a grin.Īt the end of the week, Metallica will join the Monsters of Rock Tour, one of the summer's biggest traveling extravaganzas. For the moment, however, anticipation has conquered fatigue. And Justice for All,'' Metallica's forthcoming album. Ulrich is working on about two hours of sleep after an all-night recording session to complete ''. Lars Ulrich, 24, takes a break from the drums, rounding the waist-high barrier around the stage to get to the concrete floor, which is darkened by spilled beer. Jason Newsted, 25, plunks notes from his bass as Kirk Hammett, 25, hunches over his black guitar, which has tiny skulls inlaid along the fretboard. James Hetfield, the group's 24-year-old blond-maned lyricist and lead singer, wanders up to the balcony with a wireless electric guitar, snapping out an occasional, disembodied chord. The kids are waiting, listening through the walls to random blasts of electric guitar, the methodical thumping of a drum kit - the standard noises of a rock sound check - while inside, the four members of the heavy metal rock band, Metallica, prepare for their first performance in more than a year. but Who's Buying?' (1986)Ĥ.LATE ON A MONDAY AFTERNOON, A line of teen-agers in black T-shirts snakes around the corner from the door of the Troubadour, a two-story shoebox on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. Ozzy Osbourne, 'Blizzard of Ozz' (1980)Ĩ. Pantera, 'Vulgar Display of Power' (1992)ĩ. Metallica, 'Ride the Lightning' (1984)ġ0. Judas Priest, 'Screaming for Vengeance' (1982)ġ1. Ozzy Osbourne, 'Diary of a Madman' (1981)ġ2. Metallica, '.And Justice for All' (1988)ġ5. Rage Against the Machine, 'Rage Against the Machine' (1992)Ģ2. Megadeth, 'Countdown to Extinction' (1992)ģ1. Black Sabbath, 'Master of Reality' (1971)ģ3. Van Halen, 'Women and Children First' (1980)ģ4. Black Sabbath, 'Heaven and Hell' (1980)ģ6. Mayhem, 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' (1994)ģ7. Diamond Head, 'Lightning to the Nations' (1980)Ĥ1. Neurosis, 'Through Silver in Blood' (1996)Ĥ4. Type O Negative, 'Bloody Kisses' (1993)Ĥ9. The Dillinger Escape Plan, 'Calculating Infinity' (1999)ĥ3. Emperor, 'Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk' (1997)ĥ6. Life of Agony, 'River Runs Red' (1993)ĥ7. Napalm Death, 'From Enslavement to Obliteration' (1988)ĥ8. Queensrÿche, 'Operation: Mindcrime' (1988)ĥ9. Marilyn Manson, 'Portrait of an American Family' (1994)Ħ7. Soundgarden, 'Louder Than Love' (1989)Ħ8. Meshuggah, 'Destroy Erase Improve' (1995)Ħ9. At the Gates, 'Slaughter of the Soul' (1995)ħ7. Ministry, 'Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs' (1992)ħ9. Bathory, 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark' (1987)Ĩ0. High on Fire, 'Blessed Black Wings' (2005)Ĩ1. Darkthrone, 'Transilvanian Hunger' (1994)Ĩ4. Lamb of God, 'As the Palaces Burn' (2003)Ĩ5. Eyehategod, 'Take as Needed for Pain' (1993)Ĩ6. White Zombie, 'La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One' (1992)ĩ2. Dream Theater, 'Images and Words' (1992)ĩ3. Avenged Sevenfold, 'City of Evil' (2005)ĩ8. Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Timeġ00.