Test your knowledge of Metallica's biggest hits, deep cuts and iconic moments.
From the clean intro of 'Nothing Else Matters' to the gallop of 'Master of Puppets', Metallica's songs give themselves away fast once you know the riffs. See how quick your ear really is.
A drummer's 1981 classified ad in a Los Angeles paper, a Grammy that famously went to Jethro Tull instead, and a 1986 album picked for the Library of Congress: the details off the setlist are where real fans pull ahead.
Metallica's catalog climbs from radio metal to thrash blurs to wordless instrumentals. Start with the singles everyone knows, then see which tier trips you up first.
Start here for the easy points. The 1991 self-titled record, universally called the Black Album, streamlined Metallica for radio, and its singles are the ones nearly everyone can name: 'Enter Sandman', 'Sad but True', 'The Unforgiven', 'Wherever I May Roam' and 'Nothing Else Matters'. If a Metallica quiz opens with one of these, it is handing you a point.
This is where the quiz gets tricky. The early albums, Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, are built on fast, down-picked riffs that sound like cousins of each other. Telling 'Battery' from 'Whiplash', or 'Seek & Destroy' from 'Damage, Inc.', from a short intro is the mark of a real thrash listener, not a casual one.
Metallica's slow songs trip up anyone who assumes the band only plays loud and fast. 'Fade to Black', 'Nothing Else Matters', 'Mama Said' and 'The Day That Never Comes' open with clean, gentle guitar, and players who expect a wall of noise often guess a different artist entirely. In a guess-the-song round, the quiet intros are the classic trap.
At the top end sit the songs with no vocals to help you. 'Orion' and 'The Call of Ktulu' are full instrumentals, and the long, multi-part epics 'One', 'Master of Puppets' and '...And Justice for All' shift through several sections before any singing starts. Name these from a single riff and you are in the top tier of any Metallica quiz.
Play the free Metallica quiz on Songtrivia and find out. You will guess songs from a short clip, from Black Album singles to 80s thrash, and answer trivia about the band's albums, lineup and history. It runs in your browser with no signup.
Expect the staples, 'Enter Sandman', 'Master of Puppets', 'Nothing Else Matters', 'One' and 'Sad but True', mixed with deeper cuts like the instrumentals 'Orion' and 'The Call of Ktulu' that sort the superfans from the rest.
The singles are easy, but the early thrash riffs sound alike until you learn them, and the clean-guitar ballads fool players who expect only fast and heavy. That range is what makes the guess-the-song round fun.
Only if you know more than the radio hits. Naming an instrumental like 'Orion', or telling 'Battery' from 'Blackened' before the vocals arrive, is what turns a good score into a perfect one.
Metallica formed in Los Angeles in 1981 after Lars Ulrich placed a classified ad. The long-running lineup is James Hetfield (vocals, guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums), Kirk Hammett (lead guitar) and Robert Trujillo (bass). Founding bassist Cliff Burton died in 1986.
Yes. The Metallica quiz is completely free, needs no account, and plays straight from your browser on phone or desktop. You can also guess the song with friends in a multiplayer music quiz from there.
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