New Metallica Album.com

Summer 2009 will see the premiere of a second Billabong/Metallica co-op design, the “Death Magnetic” boardshort. Featuring imagery from the “Death Magnetic” album, live fast and play hard in this limited edition boardshort available in two color ways. The style emulates the bands “thrashy riffs” and “tight patterns” while maintaining their hard-core appearance. Also set to debut is a limited edition Metallica jersey like the one bassist Robert Trujillo wears on stage. Being an avid surfer, Trujillo helps to legitimize the collaborative design and preserve the core style of Billabong’s “Death Magnetic” series. With their recent induction into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and “Death Magnetic” being the band’s fifth consecutive album to reach #1, Metallica has proven that they are anything BUT past their prime. Furthermore, a recent partnering with Guitar Hero enables the band’s continuous expansion and influence on younger generations. For more information on these and other hardcore products go to Billabong.com or Metallica.com. Source

Dave Mustaine has been making some very ominous noises about Megadeth’s upcoming touring schedule.

In a recent posting, Dave Mustaine has said the following: “Today is the 9th of April and I have agreed to doing something last night that I am sure a lot of people are going to be very excited about, and something that I had hoped would one day lead to another one of the potential feuds going away for good, if not for a long while. (more…)

Download: Testament – More Than Meets The Eye

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich sat down with “That Metal Show” host Eddie Trunk on January 31, 2009 before the band’s concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, Jersey to talk about the group’s latest album, “Death Magnetic“, and the future of Metallica. Click here to watch the interview before it airs on VH1 Classic this weekend.

Artisan News Service caught up with vocalist Chuck Billy of thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT at the first-ever Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which was held April 7 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles, to get his thoughts on METALLICA’s recent induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and why it will open a lot of doors for future metal bands.

“I thought it was great,” Billy said. “It’s wonderful, and I think, like James (Hetfield) said, it’s wonderful that it could open a lot of doors for a lot more metal acts to get inducted there. So, I think it’s wonderful. Metal in America, it’s got some legs right now.” (more…)

Jimmy Page (LED ZEPPELIN), Flea (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS), Joe Perry (AEROSMITH), Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX) and Scott Ian (ANTHRAX) are among the musicians who attended METALLICA private party last night (Friday, April 3) at the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio ahead of the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later today.

Other people seen at last night’s party: 

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See more pics after the break 

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Ever seen Metallica look this happy? Guess that’s what happens when you get to announce your new home in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Enjoy these pics of Metallica’s visit to the Fuse studios, and smile along with these legends of metal while you can. They’ll be back to growling and sneering before you know it. Hey, nobody does it better than Metallica — and now it’s official.
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After emotional induction speeches, five-piece band delivers ‘Master of Puppets,’ ‘Enter Sandman.’

You’ve all probably seen them a couple hundred times. Guitar Hero commercials directed by Brett Ratner, featuring sports stars and supermodels in a parody of Tom Cruise’s famous Risky Business scene. And if you’re like myself, you can’t stand them and immediately change the channel before anyone slides their goofy asses onto the screen.

In preparation for the brand new Guitar Hero: Metallica edition, though, two more commercials were filmed using the same basic premise, but these commercials are actually pretty entertaining.

The first commercial will most likely only be funny to sports fans and college basketball fans. Instead of the mega-star athletes and models, the commercial features legendary (and older) college basketball coaches: Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, and Bob Knight. After these gentleman do their best Risky Business slide is when Metallica shows up and it gets pretty funny — especially if you’re familiar with Bob Knight and his infamous temper.

The second commercial is all about Metallica and it really needs no description — you just have to watch it.

Guitar hero: Metallica will feature 28 of the band’s songs as well as 21 songs from other bands hand-picked by Metallica such as Alice in Chains, Motörhead, System of a Down, Slayer, Foo Fighters, Judas Priest, Bob Seger, and Lynyrd Skynyrd

Yesterday, Rock Daily was watching the UNC Tar Heels bulldoze the Blake Griffin’s Oklahoma Sooners on their way to a Final Four spot when suddenly a TV time-out led to the above commercial, which left us perplexed for the remaining five minutes of the game. Like previous Guitar Hero ads, famed coaches like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, UNC’s Roy Williams, Louisville’s Rick Pitino and noted hothead Bobby Knight donned tidy-whities while paying homage to Risky Business, fake-playing Guitar Hero to Bob Seger’s “Old-Time Rock N’ Roll” just like Michael Phelps, Alex Rodriguez, American Idol finalists David Cook and Archuleta and Heidi Klum before them.

However, the curve ball here is an out-of-nowhere appearance by Metallica, whose own Guitar Hero game was released yesterday (Rock Daily talked to James Hetfield about the game at SXSW.) Together, the juxtaposition of college coaches and heavy metal icons make for the strangest pairing ever in a commercial. We get it, March Madness is going on, Metallica has a game out, but the whole synergy just seems so weird, especially when James Hetfield says, “It means you’re gonna have to put on some pants, pops.” Still, we can watch Rick Pitino cluelessly play drums with only one hand all day, so someone please make a .gif out of that.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has moved its TV home to Fuse, giving Dave Weier a challenge in the weeks leading up to the induction Saturday in Cleveland.

Weier, vice president of talent and music at the cable channel, must try to interest Fuse’s young viewers in an event that many of them might dismiss as being for relics only. At the same time, he’s trying to entice older rock fans who wouldn’t know Fuse favorites Paramore or Avenged Sevenfold if the bands were playing in their basement.

“I’m inspired by it,” Weier said. 

Fuse signed a three-year deal to televise the annual induction ceremony, ending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 12-year relationship with VH1.

VH1 was a music channel with its primary focus on older rock fans when the initial deal with the rock hall was made. But as it shifted to more lifestyle programming, live coverage of the induction ceremony was shunted off to VH1 Classic. (more…)

More than two dozen Detroit-based bands were in Austin, Texas, through last weekend as part of the South by Southwest Music Convention, the annual gathering of bands, business and media types and music fans that featured more than 1,000 performances.

Traditionally, the festival is a place for independent bands to get noticed by the industry professionals and media gathered to scout talent. But a not-so-secret Friday night performance by metal gods Metallica stole some of that independent thunder.

The godfathers of thrash were secretly listed on the official schedule as Volsung, a metal band from Norway.

But word quickly spread about the group’s performance, which was tied to the release of a new Metallica “Guitar Hero” video game. When thousands of fans gathered to see them perform at Stubb’s — a venue in the heart of the SXSW clubbing district — it left some lesser-known independent artists to perform in half-full venues. (more…)

Metallica’s first video game will be released in multiple flavors for all the major video game consoles available March 29, 2009.  Which will you be buying?

Wii,  PS2,  PS3,  or X-Box