New Metallica Album.com

To headline Glastonbury? To start a huge mosh pit? To be Shakin’ Stevens? Jaimie Hodgson (music.guardian.co.uk) puts the questions to some of the festival season’s biggest stars

Lars Ulrich
Drummer, Metallica

What is it like soundtracking the world’s biggest mosh pits?

When you’re put in front of a crowd of 60,000 who have been partying and living in tents for three days, and generally been reduced to a more primal level of existence, there’s very little rhyme and reason to what goes on both on and off stage. No matter how drilled you are as a band, or how prepared you are, you never feel like you’re more than a second away from something insane happening. When you show up at these festivals there has to be a certain amount of rolling with the punches and going with the flow, whether you’re opening or headlining, and that suits us great. We consider the festivals in Europe the highlight of the year. When you play in a band with as much energy as Metallica, performing in such an unhinged environment, the spirit of what we do really comes into its own. After 25 years of doing this crazy thing non-stop, we feel very privileged to be the last band on at a festival that spans so many genres.

· Metallica play Reading / Leeds on 22 and 24 August (more…)

Music fans who can’t trek to Tennessee for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts festival still have a chance to see the action: Fuse TV is televising parts of the three-day extravaganza, its first national TV exposure. Acts ranging from Kanye West to Metallica to Pearl Jam are slated to perform at Bonnaroo, the yearly event that is held on a farm in Manchester, TN. The event will also feature comedians including Chris Rock and Janeane Garofalo. Fuse plans to televise six hours of programming from the festival, ranging from performances to interviews with the artists. The network will also broadcast live from the event. “We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Fuse as our broadcast partner,” said Jonathan Mayers, Bonnaroo Co-founder, Superfly Productions, said in a statement Monday. (more…)

Metallica continued the sumer warm up series at KROQ’s weenie fest in LA. The set was pretty standard full of the classics. Again no new material was played. Different with this show was that it was broadcast live on KROQ.com for the whole world to see. Oberall there were no significant technical issues and the sound and mix seemed pretty good. They seemed pretty tight and seem to be getting into the groove. See the setlist and a lot of videos  and setlist from the show. UPDATE: Youtube seems to have taken down the videos. Some video still available here.

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Mission:Metallica has set up a booth to let people sign up for a chance to meet the band.

See setlist and more video. 

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If you don’t make it to the KROQ Weenie Roast Y Fiesta you don’t have to miss any of the action! Listen to the show streamed live on KROQ.com. Metallica to go on 9:20 PST (12:20 EST) for a 90 minute set.

On Saturday May 17th, log on to KROQ.com to hear the whole festival beginning at 12:30PM to check out complete uncut performances, backstage interviews with the bands and more in our exclusive Webcast! See set times.

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*This was the first time Metallica played the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. The show was a benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music and all profits from the sale of this recording will be donated to the school. *Flea, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the reason for this whole concert (he co-founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music), performed his favorite Metallica song with the band. He performed Fight Fire With Fire, which was last played on November 17, 2004 in Dallas, TX. *The last time Metallica played in Southern California was on November 27, 2004 at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA. *This was the first time No Remorse had been performed since playing in Quebec City on October 14, 2004. *This was the first time in 19 years that …And Justice for All was performed in the US. It was last performed in the US on September 23, 1989 at Irvine Meadows in Irvine, CA.  Download Now!

Seek and Destroy

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Video footage of the RHCP bassist jamming out on his favourite Metallica track with the band. Metallica were joined onstage at their LA performance last night by none other than Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. The Chili’s man, who is responsible for putting on the Silverlake Conservatory of Music show that Metallica played last night, got up with the Metallica chaps to have a run through ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ from 1984’s ‘Ride The Lightning’. In the clip’s intro, frontman James Hetfield describes the song as ‘Flea’s favourite Metallica track’. The band can still f*cking rock the house!

“We have this phrase in Metallica land, which is ‘no-brainer,’” drummer Lars Ulrich told Spinner backstage of why the band returned to the stage after a near four-year absence at a benefit for the Silver Lake Conservatory, a music school for kids, spearheaded by Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Flea. “It’s for Flea and it’s for inner-city, underprivileged kids who need access to instruments and to be around musical education,” he expounded. (more…)

“That was the first show of the tour,” announced Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, who, along with his bandmates, shredded through a nearly two-hour set with such hits as “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Fuel,” “Master of Puppets,” “…And Justice for All,” “Enter Sandman,” and “Seek and Destroy,” at Los Angeles’ 2,300-capacity Wiltern Theatre. (more…)

Metallica got extra loud in their first live set in a year on Wednesday, headlining a benefit concert in Los Angeles for Flea’s music school for kids, the Silverlake Conservatory. That meant no ballads and no new songs from the band’s upcoming Rick Rubin-produced album. Instead, for nearly two hours at the Wiltern Theater, Metallica erupted with big sludgy riffs and epic speed metal going all the way back to the early Eighties.

“Now that’s a beautiful sound right there,” singer James Hetfield told the crowd, responding to the cheers from 2,000 fans who had paid $300 (or $500 for VIP seats) for a rare chance to see the band in a smaller venue. “It’s great to be playing live again.” (more…)

METALLICA will play a May 14th benefit concert for L.A.’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music. The non-profit organization was created in 2001 by RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS bassist FLEA to provide reasonably-priced music education. SCARS ON BROADWAY, featuring DARON MALAKIAN and JOHN DOLMAYAN of SYSTEM OF A DOWN, will open the show. Tickets, were priced at 200 dollars and 500 dollars.

Will any new material in the form of a bootleg make it to us? Check back here to find out.

OZZFEST–the original and iconic hard rock festival–returns in 2008 as a one-day stadium spectacular that teams OZZFEST founder and namesake Ozzy Osbourne (in his only U.S. concert appearance this summer) with Metallica (marking their OZZFEST debut).

Produced by Sharon Osbourne and AEG LIVE, the all-day festival at Pizza Hut Park in hard music-loving Dallas will feature three stages of non-stop talent (with many OZZFEST alumni) and reliably twisted OZZFEST side attractions.

The full main stage lineup will also spotlight performances by Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Hellyeah, Jonathan Davis (Korn), Cavalera Conspiracy, Shadows Fall, Apocalyptica and In This Moment. Also scheduled on the main stage is a special all-star tribute to slain Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott. Second stage acts include Sevendust, Devildriver, Kingdom of Sorrow, Soilent Green, Witchcraft and Goatwhore.  The Texas (third) stage—“an homage to the “many great metal bands that come from Texas,” says Sharon Osbourne–features The Sword, Drowning Pool and Rigor Mortis. (more…)

Metallica has announced yet another live performance in the U.S. in a posting online:

“Our friend Flea asked us if we could squeeze in one more day in Los Angeles and we just couldn’t say “no”, so we’re honored to partake in the annual “Hullabaloo” benefit concert for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music to be held at the Wiltern Theatre on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, along with our buddies Scars on Broadway.

“Flea and fellow musician Keith Barry founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in 2001 to help fill the void left by music education program cuts in public schools. Money raised by the benefit will go into scholarships for low income students who would otherwise be unable to afford instruments and/or lessons and will help expand the school’s summer camp program and fund a new building. For more information, check out www.silverlakeconservatory.com.” (more…)