Metallica are set to release thier first album in half a decade. The long awaited album, titled “Death Magnetic”, is scheduled for Friday September the 2nd and is the second time the band has had an unusual release date, industry standard in the US being a Monday or Tuesday.
The band recorded the video for their first single off the new album, “The Day That Never Comes”, which was shot in California and was directed by Thomas Vinterberg, an old pal of Lars Ulrich.
The promo is set to a war theme, but has no relation to the current problems in Iraq. James Hetfield said in a recent interview with MTV news, “The one thing that I wasn’t keen on here was Metallica plugging into a modern war or a current event that might be construed as some sort of political statement on our part. There are so many celebrities that soapbox their opinions, and people believe it’s more valid because they’re popular. For us, people are people - you should all have your own opinion. We are hopefully putting the human element in what is an unfortunate part of life. There are people over there dealing with situations like this, and we’re showing the human part of being there.”
“The main theme of the video is the human element of forgiveness. Someone doing you wrong, you feeling resentment and you being able to see through that in the next situation that might be similar and not take your rage or resentment out on the next person and basically keep spreading the disease of that through life.”
“It’s the forgiveness part - that is key. Metallica has never plugged into any current event visually, but this one is kind of a hotbed. People have very high opinions about this war, and we’re trying to cut through all of that. The politics and the religion tend to separate people, and what we’re trying to do is bring it together with the common thread of resentment and forgiveness.”
In the same interview with MTV news, Lars Ulrich tells the story behind the single, “It’s a story about human beings who don’t know each other, in a particularly tense situation. It could be a contemporary war setting, but it’s really about forgiveness and redemption and understanding what goes on in people’s minds. We really feel that this was such a beautiful and epic way to treat the song in something that was really radically different than the specificity of the lyrics.”
Metallica will be playing at the reknowned Ozzfest held in Dallas on the Saturday. The guitarist, Kirk Hammett, will be playing in a tribute to Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott, the late guitarist from Pantera who was mudered in Columbus, Ohio, whilst playing on stage in 2004. He will be joined by Kerry King from Slayer, Scott Ian from Anthrax and Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains. A concert surely not to be missed for those of you who can actually get tickets.
