New Metallica Album.com

Well, almost! Today (Wed June 04) Metallica’s management flew into London to exclusively play almost finished tracks from the San Francisco giant’s new studio album.

Set for a release in late August / early September, the as-yet-untitled album is in the final stages of mixing. Recorded with Rick Rubin, the album will feature 10 tracks and clock in at around the 75-minute mark.

The album has been described as “nine epics and one song”, with each of the nine tracks being between six to eight minutes in length. Like the recent Death Cab For Cutie single, the first release is eight minutes in length.

On first impressions and just one listen, Rock Sound can confirm that the songs we’ve heard sound very much like classic Metallica in vibe, harking back to the days of ‘Master Of Puppets’, ‘…And Justice For All’ (but with bass) and ‘The Black Album’ – without sounding dated or tired.

Of the six tracks Rock Sound heard this afternoon, only one had a working title – ‘Flamingo’. With a slow intro, the song was reminiscent of ‘Battery’ in vibe, with two guitar solos and an undercurrent of melody and groove.

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METALLICA’s European Vacation Tour 2008 hit Slavia Stadium in Prague, Czech Republic on June 3rd. No new songs..

The band’s setlist:

Encore: ‘Last Caress’, ‘So What’, ‘Seek And Destroy’.

More video from the guys…

Jun 3rd – More video

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New on MissionMetallica.com.

Metallica’s intimate benefit concert May 14 at Los Angeles’ 2,300-capacity Wiltern Theatre raised more than $375,000 for the city’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music.

“We were very pleased and it exceeded our expectations,” said Bill White, the conservatory’s director of development. The benefit was pulled together at the last minute to help raise funds for the nonprofit conservatory, which was co-founded by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, who joined Metallica onstage for “Fight Fire With Fire.”

Money will go toward the conservatory’s programs and scholarships for low-income students. “How many people in here have been saved by music?” Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield asked a packed audience. “Metallica is very proud to be here for the cause.”

The following list – the Definitive 200 – was developed by NARM, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in celebration of the art form of the record album. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is pleased to recognize this varied collection of some of history’s most influential and popular albums, many of which are Hall of Fame Inductees.

Metallica shows up 4 times with the Black Album at #14, Master of Puppets at #75, …And justice For All at #114, and Ride the Lightning at #138.

Do you agree with this list?

See the whole list.

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The dates are set for what Rolling Stone Magazine has hailed “the ultimate over-the-top summer festival,” and Bonnaroo ‘08 is scheduled to kick off June 12 and run until June 15.

That means, in less than two weeks, the peaceful meadows of a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn. will be stormed by an army of 80,000 musicians, artists, hippies and metal-enthusiasts for the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Offering a weekend worth of live music, comedy, film, camping and a smorgasbord of psychoactives available for more than accommodating prices, Bonnaroo will transform the farmland into a cauldron of wide-ranging entertainment.

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History channel will be airing the second edition of its musical series ‘History Rocks’ starting 5 June in India. The new 17 part edition of ‘History Rocks’ promises to bring together great concerts, rare documentaries and interviews featuring ‘Gods of Music’ and offer a glimpse into the life of rock legends. The series will be broadcast Thursdays starting 9.00 pm with a repeat 11.00 pm on Saturdays.

This year’s ‘History Rocks’ includes classic albums of bands from the 1980’s such as Metallica (Black);U2 (The Joshua Tree); Pink Floyd (Dark side of the moon);J imi Hendrix (Electric Ladyland), etc., among others.

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It seems that sometimes being a financial analyst can lead you to hot video game stories no one else knows about. Such is the case for Edward Woo, an employee of Wedbush Morgan, who was looking through Activision’s most recent SEC filing and discovered that the company is launching Guitar Hero: Metallica in Fiscal 2009. Given Activision’s fiscal calendar, that means the game could drop anytime between now and March 31 of next year.

The big mystery right now is if the game will be guitar only, or feature all the peripherals that Activision is planning to add in the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour. The song list is also unknown (God help us if they put anything from St. Anger on there), as is whether it will be a solely Metallica-laden disc or if it will feature other bands much like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

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The next artist to get top billing in the Guitar Hero franchise is Metallica, as Wedbush Morgan analyst Edward Woo uncovered the fiscal 2009 release of Guitar Hero:Metallica in a recent filling with the SEC. Said to ship by March 31 of ‘09—the end of Activision’s financial year—it appears that the metal outfit will get Guitar Hero: Aerosmith style treatment with a heavy dose of heavy rock. Metallica’s “One” was already featured in Guitar Hero III, with additional tracks already available on Rock Band.

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Mission Metallica would like to offer one lucky fan the chance to win a pair of tickets and meet-and-greet passes to see Metallica play live at the Slavia Stadium in Prague. Click below to enter and we’ll notify you if you’ve been successful. Good luck! Enter here.

Show Highlights:

*It has been four years since Metallica played in Poland. The last time was on May 31, 2004.

*Devil’s Dance. Here are a few bits about this heaaaavy, groovin’ song: The last time it was played, it was played with a symphony orchestra behind it. That date was November 23, 1999 at Madison Square Garden in New York…nine years ago. The last time the “regular” version was played was 10 years ago… on July 19, 1998 in Mansfield, MA.

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Metallica play Pinkpop 2008, Landgraaf, Netherlands. See Seek and Destroy high quality live video here. They seem to be getting their live legs back. Its a pretty flawless performance with high energy. James sounds a lot more old school without trying to sing too much. Kirks is playing a pretty cool Flying V. The crowd was loud and seems way into it. Looks like they should be putting on a pretty strong live show this time around. More Video… 

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