METAL

01 CLIFF BURTON

Like Jaco Pastorius, Metallica’s second and most gifted bassist, Cliff Burton was a prodigy who lost his life in a tragic accident at an early age, and in so doing deprived us all of decades of horizon-expanding playing. While we can only surmise what musical direction the 1962-born San Franciscan might have taken, had he survived that fatal Swedish coach crash in 1986, it’s likely that he would have elevated his signature style—thrash metal and hardcore punk aggression, combined with classical fugues and magical effects trickery—to unparalleled levels.

Cliff’s legacy lies not just in the many studio and bootleg performances that still unnerve many of us today, but in the enormous cultural impact of his work. On the extreme metal scene of the early to mid-1980s, bass players were expected to stick to precise root notes,