Metallica
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120 free Metallica trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
57 free Metallica trivia questions with answers. Think you know Metallica? This quiz runs from the first gig in Anaheim in 1982 through the Cliff Burton years, the Black Album, the Napster fight, Some Kind of Monster and 72 Seasons. It covers the members, the albums, the singles, the producers, the Grammys and the odd corners of the story: the fanzine that gave the band its name, the film they bought the rights to, and the concert in Antarctica. The 120 questions are mixed from easy to expert, so casual fans can score well on the classics while lifers get tested on Lulu, the Big Four and Load's running time. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, mostly the band's and albums' documented histories, and each explanation adds one more fact you can use at your next trivia night.
30 of 120 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Metallica formed in 1981, before it moved north?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles was home only briefly: new bassist Cliff Burton agreed to join only if the band moved north to the Bay Area, and it did.
Q 02In which country was Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich born?
Denmark
Denmark is where it began: at nine, Lars Ulrich got a spare ticket to a 1973 Deep Purple concert in Copenhagen and bought the band's album Fireball the next day.
Q 03Lars Ulrich moved to California at 16 to train professionally in which sport?
Tennis
Tennis was the plan, but after failing to make the Corona del Mar High School team, Lars Ulrich turned to drums and formed a band.
Q 04Which lead guitarist did Metallica fire on April 11, 1983, just before recording its debut album?
Dave Mustaine
Dave Mustaine was sent home on a Greyhound bus, and lyrics he scribbled along the way fed his next band, Megadeth.
Q 05Metallica's lead guitarist since 1983 had co-founded which Bay Area thrash band in 1979?
Exodus
Exodus's demo song Die By His Hand supplied the riff under the Die by my hand chant in Creeping Death, carried over by the guitarist who left for Metallica.
Q 06Lars Ulrich took the name Metallica from a friend who was weighing it as a title for what?
A fanzine
A fanzine: Ron Quintana asked whether to call his Metal Mania or Metallica, and Lars Ulrich steered him to Metal Mania so he could keep Metallica.
Q 07Who played bass at Metallica's first gig, in March 1982?
Ron McGovney
Ron McGovney quit in December 1982 amid band tensions, and later said he never regretted leaving because it was not a lifestyle he could have survived.
Q 08Cliff Burton died in 1986 when Metallica's tour bus overturned in which country?
Sweden
Sweden is where the bus overturned, near Dörarp; by one bandmate's account, Cliff Burton had won the bunk he slept in by drawing the ace of spades.
Q 09Which track on Metallica's debut album is a bass solo by Cliff Burton, backed only by drums?
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth
(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth was recorded with Cliff Burton alone in a big empty room upstairs, while the engineers set his sound in the control room below.
Q 10What was Metallica's debut album originally going to be called?
Metal Up Your Ass
Metal Up Your Ass was dropped after distributors balked, and Cliff Burton reportedly yelled the new title, Kill 'Em All, in frustration.
Q 11Which independent label released Metallica's debut album, Kill 'Em All, in the US in 1983?
Megaforce
Megaforce was founded to release this album: when no label would take a chance on Metallica, Jon Zazula and his wife Marsha started their own.
Q 12The title 'Ride the Lightning' was lifted from a passage in which Stephen King novel?
The Stand
The Stand; Metallica recorded the album through the night, because other bands had the studio booked during the day.
Q 13What object is shown being struck by lightning on the Ride the Lightning cover?
An electric chair
An electric chair; after Metallica signed with major label Elektra, the album was reissued on the new label in November 1984.
Q 21Which Metallica song got the band's first video, intercut with 'Johnny Got His Gun' scenes?
One
One; paying royalties to keep showing the film footage got costly, so Metallica bought the rights to Johnny Got His Gun.
Q 22What was made almost inaudible in the final mix of '...And Justice for All'?
The bass guitar
The bass guitar; Ulrich later insisted it wasn't spite, saying the band just kept turning everything else up until the bass disappeared.
Q 23Which Metallica song opens with a phrase borrowed from 'America' in West Side Story?
Don't Tread on Me
Don't Tread on Me; a Canadian woman walking her dog once scared off an approaching cougar by playing the song on her phone.
Q 14Which Ride the Lightning song was Metallica's first power ballad?
Fade to Black
Fade to Black; Hetfield wrote it while depressed after the band's gear, including his favourite Marshall amp, was stolen.
Q 15Which Metallica album became the first metal recording chosen for the US National Recording Registry?
Master of Puppets
Master of Puppets; the Library of Congress said it showed the group moving away from its thrash history and exploring new ideas.
Q 16'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' was based on which novel?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; years later, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo realized his band's song 'Undone – The Sweater Song' was almost a complete rip-off of Sanitarium.
Q 17In 1986 Metallica played its first arena tour opening for which headliner?
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne; when Hetfield broke his wrist skateboarding mid-tour, he kept singing while a guitar tech played his rhythm parts.
Q 18Which Metallica track was played at bassist Cliff Burton's funeral?
Orion
Orion; Hetfield later had notes from the song's middle section tattooed on his left arm.
Q 19Who won the audition to replace Cliff Burton in late 1986?
Jason Newsted
Jason Newsted; the other members initiated him with pranks, including tricking him into eating a ball of wasabi.
Q 20At the 1989 Grammys, Metallica lost the first-ever hard rock/metal award to which act?
Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull; Metallica responded by adding a 'Grammy Award LOSERS' sticker to later copies of ...And Justice for All.
Q 24Which Black Album track opens with the sound of a sitar?
Wherever I May Roam
Wherever I May Roam; the song is about life on the road, and Metallica named the album's world tour after it.
Q 25Who wrote the main riff of 'Enter Sandman'?
Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett; he wrote it trying to capture the heavy riffs of Soundgarden's Louder Than Love, and Ulrich suggested repeating its first part.
Q 26'Enter Sandman' was the entrance music for which New York Yankees closer?
Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera; the Yankee Stadium scoreboard staff chose the song, and Rivera himself was indifferent to his entrance music.
Q 27Which college football team adopted 'Enter Sandman' as its entrance theme in 2000?
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech; when Metallica played Lane Stadium in 2025, fans jumping to the song registered as a small earthquake.
Q 28Which Metallica song is among the few where James Hetfield plays the guitar solo?
Nothing Else Matters
Nothing Else Matters; Hetfield wrote it for himself about a girlfriend, and at first thought a love song had no place in Metallica.
Q 29Hetfield was badly burned by pyrotechnics at a 1992 Montreal show co-headlined with which band?
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses; after Metallica's set was cut short, Axl Rose's band went on late and left early, and fans rioted in and around the stadium.
Q 30Which artist created the cover art for 'Load' by pressing blood and semen between sheets of Plexiglas?
Andres Serrano
Andres Serrano; Ulrich loved the image but Hetfield did not, and the band still went back to the artist for Reload's cover.