This Thursday, Metallica are splitting up – just for the day – to attend premieres of their new feature film Metallica Through The Never all across the country. Frontman James Hetfield will be in San Francisco on Thursday to host a 10PM showing at a theater to be determined, and midnight at the AMC Emeryville on Thursday Drummer Lars Ulrich will host two screenings in Los Angeles – 10PM at the Chinese, and the following day at Norwalk’s AMC Norwalk and Riverside’s AMC Tyler Galleria. guitar Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett will host the 10PM Thursday showing at the AMC Mayfair in Wauwatosa, WI and midnight showing at the AMC Woodfield in Schaumburg in Chicago, IL. On Friday, Hammett will head to the AMC Gulf Point in Houston and the AMC Northpark in Dallas. Bassist Robert Trujillo will be attending the Thursday screening at the AMC New Brunswick in New Jersey at 10 PM, and midnight show at Philadelphia’s AMC Franklin Mills. On Friday, Trujillo will attend screenings at both Washington, D.C.’s Regal Majestic 20 and Boston’s AMC Boston Commons. The film, which premiered in Toronto, stars Dane DeHaan and was written by Metallica with director Nimrod Antal. The film is being released via Picturehouse Films in IMAX 3D on September 27, and in theaters everywhere on October 4. Tickets for the Trujillo-attended screening at AMC Franklin Mills can be purchased here – Metallica Through The Never Philadelphia.
Metallica have been touring relentlessly since 2008 off their Grammy Award-winning album Death Magnetic. While the band did not tour as extensively in 2012, with the help of several major festival appearances (including their very own Orion Music + More Festival), they hauled in $86 million. Their last studio effort saw the band return to form. Both heavy and thrashy, it’s a nice mix of …And Justice and Black Album. The disc debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200, and has since gone multi-platinum. It was nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, winning two of them (“Best Recording Package” and “Best Metal Performance” for “My Apocalypse”).
After Orion Festival 2012, the band jetted off to Mexico City for an epic 8-show run at Palacio de los Deportes (Sports Palace) in Mexico City; the same arena the band played
in 1993 on the Black Album Tour, Metallica played 5 shows at the arena and recorded the live CD/DVD box set Live Sh*t! Binge & Purge, and in 2009 for 3 shows on the World Magnetic Tour which were recorded for the Mexico City Live DVD. During the press conference beforehand, Metallica made a couple comments on writing a new record, and the will to get the process started. “We’re not going to start recording, we’re going to start writing,” Lars stated. ”We don’t know what’s inspiring us right now,” said frontman James Hetfield. “I’ve been itching to write for a long time — all of us have — so there’s lots of ideas.” Bassist Robert Trujillo added, “[There are] lots of riffs to jam on, and that’s pretty exciting for us.”. Back in early June 2012, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett stated in an interview with Guitar World Magazine that he has over 400 riffs already written for the new album. Tentatively, Metallica plans to head into the studio in September to begin working on the new album. Producer Rick Ruben, who won the Grammy for “Producer of The Year – Non-Classical” for his work on Death Magnetic, will once again be leading Metallica’s charge. Metallica released another live DVD from their World Magnetic Tour, Quebec Magnetic, last fall. It was the band’s first release on their own newly founded North American label, Blackened Recordings. – by Matt Bishop (Top left Photo Courtesy of Picture House, Bottom Right Photo Courtesy of Metallica)