James Hetfield

Metallica Through the Never Is One of the Great Concert Films

Metallica - Apollo Theater - 9/21/13

Better Than: Megadeth. It was anything but amateur night at the Apollo Theater Saturday night as Metallica, unarguably the world's preeminent metal band, raged through a two hour-plus private concert on the hallowed Harlem stage. About 1,500 SiriusXM listeners were the fortunate audience members, ... More >>

Top 10 Spitters In Music History (w/ VIDEO)

Spitting. It's gross in any language or culture -- a sign of disrespect that garners admiration or adoration from no one. Well, except for fans. Stars and celebrities themselves get mighty pissed off if you spit on them, but if they spit on you, you better just grin and take it. That's why we decid ... More >>

The 10 Douchiest Drummers of All Time

By Nate Jackson What would music be without a beat, a rhythm or a backbone? Though they qualify as the first instruments ever created, the drums are probably the last thing most music fans can live without. And while we worship plenty of drummers in modern music, there are some Gods of Thunder who ... More >>

Orion Festival In Photos: The Bands, The Scene, And The "Potato Tornado"

I spent the past two days at Atlantic City's Bader Field, which played host to the inaugural Orion Music More Festival, a two-day "music, arts and lifestyle" bonanza put together by the thrash kings in Metallica. It was pretty great all around—James Hetfield kept referring to the bash as a " ... More >>

James Hetfield And Kirk Hammett Look Back On Metallica's Black Album

This weekend, Metallica will perform 1984's Ride the Lightning and 1991's Metallica during their Orion Music More Festival in Atlantic City. In the spirit of reviving those albums, frontman James Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett talked about select tracks from each album. Today, they look ... More >>

Metallica Hits the Lights

Looking back on its legacy at Orion Music + More

This Week In The Voice: Metallica Hit The Lights; Large Professor Adds To His Legend

In this week's Village Voice, out now: Chris Steffen talks to James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica on the eve of the band's weekend-long Orion Music More festival; and J. Pablo hangs out with the New York hip-hop legend Large Professor.

This Week in The Voice: 'Gay Inc.' and Free Speech

This week in the Voice, out today, Steven Thrasher wants to know whether "Gay Inc." believes in free speech: "Today's movement is quite unlike ACT UP, the Gay Liberation Front, or the Mattachine Society. In their use of confrontation, those groups looked far more like Occupy Wall Street than the Hum ... More >>

James Hetfield And Kirk Hammett Look Back On Metallica's "Ride The Lightning"

This weekend, Metallica will perform 1984's Ride the Lightning and 1991's Metallica during their Orion Music More Festival in Atlantic City. In the spirit of reviving those albums, frontman James Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett agreed to look back on a few tracks from both. Here's some di ... More >>

Pazz & Jop 2011: Brad Nelson On Why Lou Reed And Metallica's Lulu Was 2011's Best Album

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. Here, Brad Nelson talks about the much-discussed collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica, Lulu, which topped his ballot and came in at No. 94 on the albums poll. ... More >>

Lou Reed And Metallica And Darren Aronofsky Make A Video

​Last month lots of ink and pixels were spent on Lulu, the collaboration between downtown bard Lou Reed and thrash lifers Metallica—"worst album of the year or maybe ever" declarations; "you just don't understand what Lou is trying to do" cries from partisans/people suspicious of the unw ... More >>

We Love to Hate Nickelback (and Lulu)

Two recent bad decisions—one in Detroit, one on an album—bring out the knives

Lulu: Lou Reed, Metallica, And The Sound Of Comment Sections Howling In Protest

​The ever-evolving microgenre of "trollgaze" isn't just limited to whippersnapper up-and-comers. Today we look at one of this week's most chattered-about albums, the Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration Lulu, to try and deduce one thing: Can a 90-minute double album based off German Expressionist ... More >>

Live: The Big 4 Go To Bat For Metal At Yankee Stadium

River Avenue, 3:45 p.m. Most of the Anthrax shirt-wearers were inside by this point. ​ The Big 4: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax Yankee Stadium Wednesday, September 14 Better than: "Nationals beat the Mets, 2-0. WP: Brad Peacock (1-0), LP: Mike Pelfrey (7-12)" Truth be told, the crowd ... More >>

Free Will Astrology: March 16-22, 2011

Top 10 Guitar Hero Tracks To Commemorate The Series' Untimely Death

No thanks​As announced yesterday, Activision is pulling the plug on their Guitar Hero franchise, signaling the end of the iconic plastic-guitar video-game series, which began in 2005 and has since offered six main games and countless expansions. To celebrate this weird, wonderful be-your-own-r ... More >>

Q&A: Iraqi Metal Band Acrassicauda on Moving to Brooklyn, Their Ongoing Green Card Struggles, and Shredding on James Hetfield's Guitar

"I know there are a lot of metal bands that are trying to live like they were already living in war but what I'd say is: you guys have a better life than we did." ​In 2002, with an U.S.-led invasion looming, it seemed unlikely that four young Iraqis, reared on Metallica, Megadeth and Slipknot ... More >>

Live: Even Lou Reed Gets Sentimental At Rock Hall MSG Blowout #2 (Featuring U2, The Boss, The Black Eyed Peas, And Some Dude Named Mick)

Ooooh plus "Iron Man" Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration Madison Square Garden Friday, October 30 "When we were down, rock 'n' roll lifted us up," says Tom Hanks in his introductory remarks for the final night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's benefit-concert extravaganza ... More >>

SXSW 2009: METALLICA. YEAHHHHHHHHH.

Oh why not. Metallica (Stubb's) SXSW Friday Night, March 20 "Surprise!" says James Hetfield, acknowledging the lack of same. Given Metallica fans' historically rational and peaceful responses to disappointment, it would've been way more entertaining perhaps if they'd not shown up, given the ram ... More >>

SXSW 2009: Meet Tinted Windows, the Taylor Hanson, James Iha, Cheap Trick, Fountains of Wayne "Super"-Group

CamilleTaylor, Adam, Bun, James Right now, Tinted Windows are sitting on the couch across from me at the Driskoll Hotel lobby. Tinted Windows?!? Yes, Tinted Windows: the mind-boggling "super"-group of Taylor Hanson, James Iha, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schleslinger, and Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. ... More >>

Live: Metallica at the Newark Prudential Center, With Set-List Bonus

photos of Metallica, a few nights earlier at the Nassau Coliseum, by David Atlas Metallica Newark Prudential Center Saturday, January 31 Metallica's Death Magnetic was supposed to be the band's return to its thrash glory days; it turned out to be much better than that, to my ear, a fusion of the ... More >>

Lars Ulrich in a Cowboy Hat, FTW: The Best Three Microsoft Songsmith Remixes

In the annals of inadvertent viral humiliation, the Microsoft Songsmith ad falls squarely between Tay Zonday and the Numa Numa Guy--cringeworthy, but not permanently ruinous. In case you've missed this particular case of public humiliation, Songsmith is Microsoft's new music-making software, a Gar ... More >>

NBC's Live Earth Special: A Running Diary

Axl Rose: Still Crazy

Live: Trivium, the Jackson 5 of Underground Metal

Metallica Finally Gives In to the iTunes Empire

Noise-Rock is Neither Noise nor Rock: Discuss

Is Hipster-Metal the Enemy?

NY Mirror

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Seminal speedmetal thrashers, despised by their own fans, seek and find psychiatric help

A Band Apart

Stressing value of therapy, directors issue anti-laughter edict

Although They Really Don't Mind It, They Are the Lord of Your Flies

Listings

Timing Is Everything

The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Stank of the Crowd

Double Shot

Statue of Limitations