METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich will dedicate this weekend's episode of his Apple Music Beats 1 radio show "It's Electric" to his fifteen favorite heavy metal and hard rock records of all time.

The list, which he initially prepared for Rolling Stone magazine, covers a wide spectrum of styles, from the Satanic lyricism of MERCYFUL FATE's "Melissa" to the politically charged rap-metal sounds of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's "The Battle Of Los Angeles".

"For each artist that's part of my ultimate metal or hard-rock albums, I went for what you would call the definitive moment in their catalogue," Ulrich told Rolling Stone. "And for a lot of these bands, they went through a kind of evolution, a kind of a growth and a lot of them have a lot of great records. So what I picked is a combination of what that album represents from the artist and what impact it had on me."

Lars Ulrich's Top 15 metal and hard rock albums, presented in alphabetical order.

* AC/DC - "Let There Be Rock" (1977)

* ALICE IN CHAINS - "Dirt" (1992)

* BLACK SABBATH - "Sabotage" (1975)

* BLUE ÖYSTER CULT - "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" (1975)

* DEEP PURPLE - "Made in Japan" (1972)

* DIAMOND HEAD - "Lightning To The Nations" (1980)

* GUNS N' ROSES - "aPPETITE FOR dESTRUCTION" (1987)

* IRON MAIDEN - "The Number Of The Beast" (1982)

* JUDAS PRIEST - "Unleashed In The East" (1979)

* MERCYFUL FATE - "Melissa" (1983)

* MOTÖRHEAD - "Overkill" (1979)

* RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - "The Battle Of Los Angeles" (1999)

* SYSTEM OF A DOWN - "Toxicity" (2001)

* UFO - "Strangers In The Night" (1979)

* WARRIOR SOUL - "The Space Age Playboys" (1994)

You can read Ulrich's commentary on each of his fifteen picks at RollingStone.com.

METALLICA's latest album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", came out last November, eight years after "Death Magnetic".

METALLICA is currently on a short break from its first North American tour in more than seven years, which resumes on July 5 in Orlando, Florida.

This tour marks the first time that METALLICA has offered "enhanced" or "VIP" experiences for fans, with some willing to cough up as much as $2,500 for personal meetings, photos and autographs from the group.