New Metallica Album.com

The German-language television network 3SAT recently conducted an interview with METALLICA guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield about the band’s new album, “Death Magnetic”, the “Some Kind of Monster” movie and the use of METALLICA’s music to torture Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prisoners. “Part of me is proud is because they chose METALLICA,” Hetfield said about the reports that the band’s song “Enter Sandman” was used during the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani — known as the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11 — and that listening to the track brought al-Qahtani to tears “because he thought he was hearing the sound of Satan.” James added, “It’s strong; it’s music that’s powerful. It represents something that they don’t like — maybe freedom, aggression… I don’t know… freedom of speech. And then part of me is kind of bummed about it that people worry about us being attached to some political statement because of that. We’ve got nothing to do with this and we’re trying to be as apolitical as possible, ’cause I think politics and music, at least for us, don’t mix. It separates people, [and] we wanna bring people together. So, so be it. I can’t say ‘Stop.’ I can’t say ‘Do it.’ It is just a thing — it’s not good or bad.”

Watch 3SAT’s entire 26-minute chat with Hetfield in three parts. (more…)

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield joined reactivated NWOBHM legends SWEET SAVAGE (based in Belfast, Northern Ireland) on stage at their August 20, 2008 concert at Marlay Park in Dublin, Ireland (where they supported METALLICA) for a rendition of the SWEET SAVAGE classic “Killing Time”. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be viewed below.

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James talks about ride the lightning…and the good ole days

METALLICA rocker JAMES HETFIELD is struggling to stay off alcohol as the band embark on another world tour.
The singer is a recovering alcoholic, who has managed 12 years without booze.
But he admits its a hard temptation to resist - particularly when the band is on the road.
Hetfield says, “The temptation to drink is with me for ever. When you’ve done something a certain way for so long, doing it a different way is difficult.
“You start to doubt yourself. I’ll never be cured. It’s one of those things that I’ll have to deal with all my life.” source

“OUR relationship is part of what makes Metallica special. If everything goes smooth all the time then something is wrong.

“You have to have friction as it creates energy, brainstorms, pro-activity and we go forward.”

Man-mountain James Hetfield is talking about his 27-year friendship with drummer and Metallica founder Lars Ulrich.

It’s one of rock’s most turbulent partnerships, a roller-coaster ride of egos, heavy boozing and over-indulgence. (more…)

Front-man James Hetfield: “It started out as kind of a tribute to people that have fallen in our business, like Layne Staley and a lot of the people that have died, basically - rock and roll martyrs of sorts. And then it kind of grew from there. Thinking about death… just like a magnet, some people are drawn towards it, other people are afraid of it and push away. The concept that we’re all gonna die sometimes is over-talked about and then a lot of times never talked about - no one wants to bring it up; it’s the big white elephant in the living room. But we all have to deal with it at some point.”

A five-minute interview with METALLICA guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield conducted yesterday (Wednesday, July 16) by VG TV at the opening show of the second leg of the band’s European summer tour in Bergen, Norway can be viewed below. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

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James was interviewed at the KROQ Weenie Roast. See both parts..

Part I

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This isn’t quite new, but WTF? James covers the song originally by Waylon Jennings(Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit) and supposedly played all the instruments when recording this track. It seems he has changed his tune when it comes to side projects. I wonder what Jason thinks about it. It’s not that bad…if you like country…see the video…?Bob Rock on bass?… (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…)

These are the vocalists that when I hear I can sit back and enjoy purely based upon the vocals. They capture the rawness of metal and have the ability to change. In other words, there is some dynamics to their vocals…don’t look for alot of “Cookie Monster” vocals on this list. Enjoy

1. James Hetfield (Metallica) - This is like THE best vocalist I have ever heard. Some hate his newer style of delivery, but it works for me. It wasn’t TBA that made me pick him as number one, it was the Load-Era (Load/Re-Load/Garage Inc.) His early work is raw, but works great with the music. Even St. Anger works for me, his off key notes and out of tune screams have that “garage band” feel that they were going for.
Best performance: Garage Inc. (covers both new and old Metallica) see the rest…

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Author and journalist Joel McIver spoke with James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo of METALLICA before their spectacular Wembley Stadium show on Sunday night (July 8). McIver has released the following excerpts from the conversation to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:Q: A lot of long-time METALLICA fans are asking one simple question. Is your new album going to be old-school thrash metal?

Trujillo: “There’s a lot of everything, man. There’s speed on this. There’s a couple of tracks where you’re gonna go ‘Wow!’ and I know you’re gonna like it because it has the flavor of the old. But it has this kind of groove and power behind it that I think is us today. And then there’s stuff that I think is pretty progressive. Sometimes, when you’re in the thick of it, when we’re all creating it together, it’s hard to get the feel of an outside perspective. But then you get someone like Scott Ian from ANTHRAX, who is in the lounge waiting for us to go to dinner or something, and he’s like ‘Rob, man! That riff fuckin’ ruled, bro! What song is that? Is that on the album?’ and stuff like that — and you go, I think we’re doing the right thing. I gotta say, the attitude and the conviction of the old school is there, the speed is there and the power, there’s an element of groove there that’s really strong.” (more…)

See NBC 11 report on Metallica on record day here.

Hetfield: “Record stores are disappearing, and we want them to stay.”

“You can call it old school, or we’re dinosaurs, or whatever, but I grew up going to a record store, hanging with my friends, just going through stuff. We weren’t texting each other, what was the new thing.”

Hammett: “It was a place to meet other like-minded individuals. You’d see someone in the heavy metal section that you never saw before. I would go up to them and say, ‘Hey, man, you’re into metal? I am too.’” (more…)

Metallica is letting out little tidbits about their upcoming album in drips and drabs, and the latest is that it will be out “this fall,” while frontman James Hetfield said that U.S. tour dates are planned for September. (more…)