By Rya Backer
Metalheads of the world, rejoice! Today is the day that one of the greatest metal bands of all time — and certainly the greatest to arise in the past 25 years — has finally gotten its due. Bay Area legends Metallica are headlining the new class of Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
The band's first full-length — Kill 'Em All, released on then-tiny indie Megaforce Records in 1983 — came out just over 25 years ago, which means they've been inducted in the first year of their eligibility. There, they'll be rubbing shoulders with the likes of such sonic standards as Jimi Hendrix, Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Madonna and (er) Michael Jackson.
MTV has long kept close tabs on the band, and I just screened a fair amount of their interview footage throughout the '80s, particularly 1986, when bassist Cliff Burton was killed in a tour-bus accident. In one interview, drummer Lars Ulrich makes fun of bands that wear eyeliner (I wonder if 23-year-old Lars ever thought he'd make a video like the one for "Until It Sleeps"); in another, the band talks about the hazing process for then-new bassist Jason Newsted, which the band discussed ad nauseum in their therapeutic flick, "Some Kind of Monster." The guys also humbly discussed their newfound success.
We sat down with them around the time they first cracked the Top 30 and earned a gold record in 1986 with their classic Master of Puppets. Reaching such heights on the charts was a coup for the quartet, as they crawled out of the American metal metal underground without a fancy image, major radio support or a music video to play on, er, MTV.
Despite that success, guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett remained calm while discussing their new status. And Ulrich discussed the future of Metallica during a phone interview with a radio DJ in Babylon, Long Island — in the somehow-perfect setting of a wood-paneled room covered with posters of assorted metal bands. Enjoy!
We know "Guitar Hero: Metallica" is coming. "Guitar Hero" publisher Activision announced the game in a financial filing (odd, we know) a couple of months ago.
That didn't stop Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich from getting a bit secretive about it when one of our MTV News reporters asked him about it recently.
Read the rest of this post on our Multiplayer blog ...
Last week, when we sent our cameras to the set of Metallica's forthcoming video for their track "The Day That Never Comes," we were greeted by a band that seemed genuinely happy — not the same contentious group we saw in 2004's "Some Kind of Monster."
And the difference, it seems, is bassist Robert Trujillo.
Not only does Trujillo sometimes play referee between frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, he also pitches in with his own ideas, coming through in the clutch when the band gets stuck during the songwriting and recording process. Hetfield praised Rob's skills when we asked him what it was like working with the band's newest member on Death Magnetic, which hits stores September 12.
"If someone had said 10, 15 years ago that this dude was going to be in my band, I would have said no way," Hetfield said. "In the studio — and no offense towards Jason — but Rob has already contributed more to this record than [Jason Newsted] did in 14 years. A lot of it did have to do with our fear of losing some kind of control, no doubt about that. But Rob has slipped in somehow easier."
Perhaps the real difference for Metallica isn't Trujillo's presence but the former bassist's absence. Check out the full story here.
Here's the thing about being Metallica: You kind of get to play by your own rules. And if people don't like it, well, kill 'em all, right? So, in keeping with their disdain for doing things the way everyone else does — which extends to recording hundreds of guitar riffs for just a few seconds of actual shredding — the band announced that its new album, Death Magnetic, will come out on Friday, September 12, busting the traditional Tuesday new release tradition (which we suspect they think is for girly-men anyway).
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By Todd Brown
Yesterday afternoon I drove an hour north of Los Angeles into the desert to the set of Metallica's "The Day That Never Comes" video shoot. The location is designed to look like someplace in the Middle East, and when we arrived, the crew was filming a scene wherein U.S. Marines were apparently negotiating a situation involving a Middle Eastern man, his burka-clad wife and a broken-down Yugo.
This was day one of a two-day epic video shoot that, according to James Hetfield, has to do with humanity and forgiveness. From what I witnessed, it looks more like a short film than a video, and it's certainly timely given the current global situation. However, both James and Lars were adamant that they are not making a political statement about the war but instead trying to bring together people of different political views and religions, and focus on humanity. Regardless, the video has action, soldiers, explosions, wounded men and a helicopter. Read more...
Last week, a mysterious image popped up on Metallica's Web site — an image that continued to morph over the next few days. It began June 9 with just two letters, D and C, in the middle of four sideways Metallica M's arranged to look like magnetic rays. Each day, more letters were added. Because the band had promised it would soon divulge the title of its forthcoming album (due in stores this fall), several fans accurately surmised that the image would eventually reveal the LP's name. Some guessed the title would be Magnetica.
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