Before sold-out stadiums and multi-platinum albums, Metallica was just another name circulating in the smoky underground clubs of Northern California. But unlike many peers, their appearance on the scene was not ephemeral, but became the launchpad that propelled their game to another level.
According to former Vio-Lence and Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, those early days were way more than formative: they were a battlefield for identity, ambition, and sonic dominance.
"We were watching Exodus become what they're becoming," Demmel recalled during a conversation on the Garza Podcast. "We watched Metallica become what they were. We saw them play in the clubs. They've always been super cool with this. They did this kind of unannounced show at the smaller clubs, and people were just all over the place. They're the people's band, man. They always have been, and they remain that."
The Bay Area in the early '80s was a pressure cooker. New bands were constantly forming, evolving, and elbowing their way toward the spotlight. Some eventually found massive success, others carved out niche cult followings. In this volatile environment, transformation was constant.
"So watching that all grow, watching Legacy become Testament, become the monster that they are and still are… yeah, it's crazy. There was like this incredible competition of all these lower-tier bands trying to fight [for position]: y'know, the Forbiddens and the Heathens."
But as Demmel made clear, it wasn’t all camaraderie and shared goals. Underneath the shared passion was a current of rivalry; sometimes quiet, sometimes overt.
"It was healthy, but there was beef," he admitted. "And I think that we had beef with everybody at one point. Not like the older bands, like Exodus and Legacy, or Testament, who are clearly above us. I mean, Death Angel at that point, too. But we felt like we could hold our own with any of them. A lot of them didn't want us playing right before them. The band brought it live, for sure."
At its peak, Vio-Lence cultivated an intense and loyal fan base, especially at home. Demmel compared it to the fevered devotion typically reserved for bands like Slayer, and while their reach may have been more regional than global, their impact was undeniable.
"And we had that cult, kind of Slayer fan mentality, where they're there just for fucking Vio-Lence. In the Bay Area. Everywhere else, L.A. is a little bit. But anywhere else, we never really broke outside of the Bay Area."
The hunger, the competition, the grudges, it was all part of what made that era unforgettable. For Demmel and countless others, the Bay Area was a crucible that forged legends, and at the heart of it stood a young Metallica, already beginning to show the world what it meant to build something bigger than themselves.
