
Preface by Steve Di Giorgio of Testament
Foreword by Kirk Hammett of Metallica
Afterword by Frank Bello of Anthrax
Published April 2023
ISBN 9781911036999
296pp with 8pp photo insert
6 x 8.5 in (150 x 215mm)
£14.95 UK / $24.95 US / $32.95 CAN
‘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. 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 – this revised and updated edition of To Live Is To Die adds a new chapter that looks at Burton’s enduring legacy from a fresh perspective and includes commentary from current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Aquaman star Jason Momoa, as well as an eyewitness account of the opening of the Cliff Burton Museum in Ljungby, Sweden, in 2022. There is also a brand new preface by Testament bass master Steve Di Giorgio, who shares his memories of meeting Burton as a teenager and then watching on from close quarters as Metallica began to take off.
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 Megadeth, Deep Purple, Soulfly, the Spiders From Mars, and the Sex Pistols. He writes for many publications and often appears on radio, podcasts, and TV.