Having overcome the 1986 tour death of bassist Cliff Burton, coping with frontman James Hetfield's recent substance-abuse problems while simultaously taking on Internet music 2thieves' Napster, replacing Burton's want-away replacement Jason Newsted was a piece of cake. Heading happily into the new millennium with the chart-scaling St Anger album, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Hetfield remained as uncompromising and successful as ever.
