I just heard an old metallica song on the radio, you know anything about them?
Yup! They're an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California.
I am trying to remember what year they formed and started playing?
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles, California, by drummer Lars Ulrich and vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield, and has been based in San Francisco, California for most of its career. The group's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Metallica's current lineup comprises founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo
, they're not about blasting you with blast beats and kind of froggy vocals you know, they've got a bit of melody and have an old school kind of groove to them as well. Think Pantera mixed with Machine Head with a bit of Metallica as well!"" - Johnny Doom - Kerrang Radio 
""Formed in London as recently as December 2007, Dragnerve are out to fly their flag against the forces of metal-gone-pop they see much of the present day metal scene to be devolving