Cleveland.com has issued the following report:

The groundbreaking heavy-metal band METALLICA was the top vote-getter in The Plain Dealer's ninth annual Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame poll. We asked newspaper readers and visitors to Cleveland.com to tell us which nominees on the latest official Rock Hall ballot are most worthy of induction.

"That's really nice to hear!" Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said by phone from his home in Northern California.

"It's been a great year for Metallica," he said. "There's a lot of love and goodwill from the fans, from the critics, from the peers, from all the sixth-graders over at my son's school. There's a lot of love everywhere I look.

"It's amazing to be able to say 27 years into your career that you actually feel like you're on top of your game."

Founded by Ulrich and singer-guitarist James Hetfield, Metallica established its headbanging credentials on albums such as 1983's Kill 'em All, 1988's . . . And Justice for All and 1991's Grammy-winning self-titled effort, which yielded the hit 'Enter Sandman'.

The band is set to perform Sunday, Nov. 9, at Value City Arena in Columbus, the sole Ohio stop on a tour promoting Metallica's latest No. 1 album, Death Magnetic.

In order of popularity, the hip-hop group Run-D.M.C, the funky rock 'n' roll group War, Iggy Pop's proto-punk Stooges and doo-wop veterans Little Anthony and the Imperials were the other top finishers in our poll, which was just for kicks. More than 250 ballots were cast.

Besides our finalists, the other hopefuls who are up for Rock Hall honors are Jeff Beck, Chic, Wanda Jackson and Bobby Womack.

Our call for write-in candidates generated outpourings of support for "Weird Al" Yankovic, Kiss and the Moody Blues, among others.