Papa Het makes the holidays extra heavy
James Hetfield has one of the most undeniable voices in rock music. Millions of fans recognize the Metallica frontman for belting out thrash metal hits over the last four decades, but this holiday season, James has used his vocal talents for something else – narrating a classic Christmas story. There’s actually something pretty soothing about his voice when he’s not screaming “Master!”
Hetfield has shared his telling of the popular Christmas tale A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly known as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. The narration first premiered on Metallica’s new SiriusXM channel, Maximum Metallica. Gather ’round, now, and listen to Papa Het bring the holiday magic in the video below.
Next year, Metallica are returning to Europe and the UK for another leg of their M72 World Tour. The trek will feature very special guests Gojira, Pantera, Knocked Loose, and Avatar. The trek will be hitting London, Cardiff, Dublin, Berlin, Bucharest, Athens, and more. The trek will see Metallica play 16 shows across 9 countries. They will be hitting London, Cardiff, Dublin, Berlin, Bucharest, Athens, and more. Select cities will feature Metallica’s No Repeat Weekend format across two shows.
Metallica released their eleventh studio album 72 Seasons, which arrived in April of 2023 via the band’s own label, Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman alongside frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, 72 Seasons is Metallica’s first full length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct. The 12-track album clocks in at just over 77 minutes. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock and Top Hard Rock Albums Charts. It also topped the UK Albums and UK Rock & Metal Albums charts, and went No. 1 in several other countries around the world.
The album garnered the band a 2024 GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Rock Album, while the lead single “Lux Æterna” was nominated for Best Rock Song. The band won the GRAMMY® for Best Metal Performance for the title track, “72 Seasons.” They beat out Disturbed, Ghost, Slipknot and first-time nominees Spiritbox.