Published to coincide with the release of Metallica's first new album in seven years - and the 40th anniversary of their landmark debut, Kill 'Em All - the updated edition of Joel McIver's essential biography, To Live Is To Die: The Life & Death Of Metallica's Cliff Burton, tells the full story of the life and career of Cliff Burton, their founding bass player, who died tragically young but continues to have a profound impact on the band and the entire landscape of heavy metal.
On sale April 11, complete with a brand new foreword by Steve Di Giorgio of Testament.
"One of the best biographies you’ll ever read." Robb Flynn, Machine Head
Today, Metallica are known as consummate musicians, but it wasn’t always that way. Their early career is marked by a gradual evolution from garage thrash to sophisticated, progressive heights - an evolution driven by their bass player, Cliff Burton, who pushed the band to new heights with his songwriting ability and phenomenal bass skills across the band’s first three albums, including their undisputed masterpiece, Master Of Puppets.
Cliff’s life was short but influential; his death at the age of 24 in a tour bus crash on a Swedish mountain road was sudden and shocking. Following his passing, Metallica went on to huge global success, but by their own admission they never pushed the creative envelope as radically as they had done during the first four years of their career.
The cult of Burton grows year on year, and so too the list of bassists acknowledging his influence in metal and beyond. This revised and updated edition of To Live Is To Die adds a new chapter on Cliff’s enduring legacy as well as a preface from Testament bass master Steve Di Giorgio.
Joel McIver is the author of 35 books on music. As well as writing biographies of leading figures in rock and metal, he has co-written the memoirs of a number of musicians, including members of Deep Purple, the Spiders From Mars, and the Sex Pistols. He was the editor of Bass Guitar and Bass Player magazines for a decade, and often appears on radio, podcasts, and TV. He is available for interviews.
- To Live Is To Die: The Life & Death Of Metallica's Cliff Burton
- Published April 11 by Jawbone Press
- 296pp softcover with 16pp photo insert
