Quoted:
Metalife is one shop's name for their version of hard chrome.  Guy's name is Ron Mahovsky, IIRC.  He's the only one who does 'Metalife', but you can find lots of shops who  will do hard chrome.

I had Metalife plate a Beretta slide and some magazines.  It was a Brigadier slide with a dovetailed front sight and the crappy polymer safety.  They didn't remove the front sight and actually chromed it in place, and buggered up the plastic safety.  I asked them about the sight, and they said my instructions didn't specifically say to remove it, so they didn't.  That made absolutely zero sense to me and I didn't want a silver front sight, so I asked them to re-do it.  To their credit they did, and replaced the safety, but it took just as long as it did the first time (which was several weeks), which told me they put my 're-do' of their mistakes at the back of the que, which I thought was bullshit.  The magazines also had black splotches on them, but I didn't bother to have them re-done.

As far as the 'Metalife' finish itself, it's hard chrome.  I didn't notice it being any better or worse than any other parts I've had hard chromed.  If I have any other guns or parts chromed in the future, I'll probably go with a shop that gives a shit about attention to detail.