It’s game on for Robert Trujillo and his Metallica mates…
After conquering all terrestrial continents, the 59-year-old half-Mexican American musician and his Metallica band mates are headed to Fortnite later this month when they become the first band to appear across all Fortnite experiences.
After launching Metallica-themed gameplay starting Thursday, June 13, in Fortnite Festival, Battle Royale, LEGO Fortnite and Rocket Racing, the Bay Area rockers will play a series of in-game concerts for players only on June 22 and 23 entitled Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury.
Epic Games announced the news on Wednesday (June 12), revealing that users will have six opportunities to catch the concerts at 2:00 pm, 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm on the 22nd and 10:00 am, 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm on the 23rd.
The company said the concert was completely customized and built from the ground-up using the powerful Unreal Editor 3D computer graphic game engine.
The gig is described as an immersive experience with, “a brand-new playable concert that will journey through six of Metallica’s fan-favorite songs with themed gameplay that complements the intensity of a Metallica live show.”
The band follows previous Fortnite Festival guests Lady Gaga, the Weeknd and Billie Eilish, who’ve been featured in the game that was developed by the same company that gave you Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
With band members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Trujillo as the icons for Fortnite Festival Season 4, fans will be able to play along to such Metallica classics as “Enter Sandman,” “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets.”
The band will also be part of the new season of Fortnite Festival‘s Battle Stage, a new competitive way to play the rhythmic music game that will be available to play after the concerts take place.
The Stage will welcome 16 players in each match, with all competitors playing the same four-song set until one comes out on top. Season 4 beings on Thursday and lasts through 12:00 am ET on August 16. Users can also grab Metallica-themed collectibles — including instruments and outfits — and go on band-themed quests.
The 58-year-old half-Mexican American musician and his Metallica band mates will release a new album and launch a massive world tour next year.
The veteran metal band’s 12th studio album, 72 Seasons, will be released on April 14 via the band’s Blackened Recordings imprint.
The first full-length from the band since 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, was produced by Greg Fidelman along with Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. At more than 77 minutes, the 12-track collection can be previewed now via the thundering, breakneck first single, “Lux Æterna.”
“72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves,” Hetfield said in a statement announcing the album. “The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
The band also announced a massive 2023-2024 Live Nation-promoted tour on Monday, November 28, during which they will play two nights in every city they visit, with each No Repeat Weekend featuring two completely different setlists and support acts.
The M72 world tour will feature an in-the-round stage set-up that will move the signature up-close Metallica Snake Pit section to center stage, with the band performing on the circular stage around the 800-1,000-person fan area. The tour will also feature discounted tickets for fans 16 and under.
The world trek is currently slated to kick off on April 27 with a pair of shows at the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam, followed by two-night stands in Paris, Hamburg (Germany) and Gothenburg (Sweden) before hitting U.S. shores on August 4 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. for a series of North American gigs currently slated to run through a November 12 show at Ford Field in Detroit. The outing will pick up again on May 24, 2024 with another European swing before returning to North America in August 2024.
Among the rotating group of opening acts slated to join them are: Architects, Mammoth WVH, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, Volbeat, Pantera and Greta Van Fleet. Two-day tickets will go on sale on Friday, December 2 and will include the option of pre-ordering the 72 Seasons vinyl and/or CD; click here for more ticketing information.
72 Seasons track list: “72 Seasons”
“Shadows Follow”
“Screaming Suicide”
“Sleepwalk My Life Away”
“You Must Burn!”
“Lux Æterna”
“Crown of Barbed Wire”
“Chasing Light”
“If Darkness Had a Son”
“Too Far Gone?”
“Room of Mirrors”
“Inamorata”
M72 2023-2024 Tour Dates April 27 – Amsterdam NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena
April 29 – Amsterdam NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena
May 17 – Paris FR @ Stade de France*
May 19 – Paris FR @ Stade de France
May 26 – Hamburg DE @ Volksparkstadion
May 28 – Hamburg DE @ Volksparkstadion
June 16 – Gothenburg SE @ Ullevi Stadium**
June 18 – Gothenburg SE @ Ullevi Stadium
August 4 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
August 6 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
August 11 – Montreal, QC @ Stade Olympique
August 13 – Montreal, QC @ Stade Olympique
August 18 – Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium
August 20 – Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium
August 25 – Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium
August 27 – Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium
Sept. 1 – Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
Sept. 3 – Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
Nov. 3 – St. Louis, MO @ The Dome at America’s Center
Nov. 5 – St. Louis, MO @ The Dome at America’s Center
Nov. 10 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
Nov. 12 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
May 24, 2024 – Munich DE @ Olympiastadion
May 26, 2024 – Munich DE @ Olympiastadion
June 7, 2024 – Helsinki FI @ Olympic Stadium
June 9, 2024 – Helsinki FI @ Olympic Stadium
June 14, 2024 – Copenhagen DK @ Parken Stadium
June 16, 2024 – Copenhagen DK @ Parken Stadium
July 5, 2024 – Warsaw PL @ PGE Narodowy
July 7, 2024 – Warsaw PL @ PGE Narodowy
July 12, 2024 – Madrid ES @ Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano
July 14, 2024 – Madrid ES @ Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano
August 2, 2024 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
August 4, 2024 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
August 9, 2024 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
August 11, 2024 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
August 16, 2024 – Minneapolis, MN @ US Bank Stadium
August 18, 2024 – Minneapolis, MN @ US Bank Stadium
August 23, 2024 – Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium
August 25, 2024 – Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium
August 30, 2024 – Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field
Sept. 1, 2024 – Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field
Sept. 20, 2024 – Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol***
Sept. 22, 2024 – Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol
Sept. 27, 2024 – Mexico City MX @ Foro Sol***
Sept. 29, 2024 – Mexico City MX – Foro Sol
Show 1 Support Europe: Architects & Mammoth WVH** Show 2 Support Europe: Five Finger Death Punch & Ice Nine Kills
*Five Finger Death Punch/Ice Nine Kills play show 1 in Paris, Architects & Mammoth WVH play show 2 in Paris
**Volbeat replaces Architects on show 1 in Gothenburg
Show 1 Support North America: Pantera & Mammoth WVH*** Show 2 Support North America: Five Finger Death Punch & Ice Nine Kills
***Greta Van Fleet replaces Pantera on show 1 both weekends in Mexico City
Robert Trujillo is ready to help educate and train essential workers…
The 56-year-old half-Mexican American musician and songwriter and his Metallica band mates are celebrating raising more than $377,000 over the Labor Day weekend through the group’s All Within My Hands Foundation.
The heavy metal icons teamed up with workwear brand Carhartt on the initiative, with the clothing brand donating all of their sales proceeds on Monday to the band’s Metallica Scholars initiative, which provides opportunities to people interested in pursuing essential workforce jobs.
“Thank you, Carhartt! Thank you, shoppers! Thank you, AWMH supporters! Labor Day was an exciting day for All Within My Hands,” AWMH tweeted on Tuesday night (Sept. 7). “You helped raise $377,450! We are excited to turn this donation into more training, more tools, and more certifications by expanding our program to reach even more people interested in the skilled trades across the US.”
“Carhartt and All Within My Hands are bound by our shared passion for supporting workforce education,” said AWMH executive director Dr. Edward Frank in a statement. “As two organizations dedicated to providing opportunity, we hope to expand the Metallica Scholars program to include even more schools this year and to get even more students trained for a career in the skilled trades.”
The campaign tapped into a bit of Metallica history, reaching back almost four decades to the legendary classified ad drummer Lars Ulrich placed in a Los Angeles newspaper that teamed him with singer James Hetfield. The want ad promoting the Labor Day event aimed to recruit a new generation to take on skilled trades as the nation faces a labor shortage, especially in the live events space, according to AWMH.
“A few lucky job seekers who answered the ad attended the stage-building workshop hosted by our friends at Upstaging, who have worked with Metallica for decades and put on shows for some of the biggest names in the music and entertainment business,” the band’s charitable foundation said.
The 56-year-old half-Mexican American bassist and songwriter and his Metallica band mates will headline the second annual ATLive alongside George Strait on November 5-6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Produced by AMB Sports and Entertainment and presented by Mercedes-EQ, Strait will be joined by Eric Church and Caitlyn Smith on November 5, while Cage the Elephant and Greta Van Fleet round out the November 6 lineup alongside Metallica.
In perhaps a first, Strait and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich appear “together” in a video promoting the festival.
The inaugural ATLive took place November 15 and 17, 2019 and drew more than 90,000 to the all country lineup including Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Church, Sugarland, Sam Huntand Luke Combs.
Like the 2019 concert, this year’s festival also has a charitable component with a portion of the proceeds going to the Strait-supported Military Warriors Support Foundation and Metallica’s All Within My Hands nonprofit.
“We are thrilled to be bringing ATLive back with an incredible lineup of artists,” said Tim Zulawski, SVP and chief revenue officer for AMB Sports and Entertainment in a statement. “From the beginning, our goal was to create a concert series that will become the must-see event for Atlanta. In our first year, we delivered a world-class experience for fans from across the world and we are excited to create that same experience again while giving back to our communities and those in need.”
Robert Trujillo is enjoying the (di)still of the night…
The 55-year-old half-Mexican American bassist and his Metallica band mates have launched their Batch 100 limited-edition box set of Blackened American Whiskey.
The set pairs with two 12″ vinyl picture discs of Metallica’s playlist used in the distilling process.
The “Black Noise” custom sonic-enhancement process plays a unique mix of Metallica’s rare, live and studio recordings from its wide-spanning career, which was curated by master distiller/blender Rob Dietrich, at such a low frequency that it assists in the actual making of the liquor.
The low vibrations “pummel the black brandy casks during the finishing process, agitating the whiskey and extracting more flavor from the wood,” according to a press release.
Dietrich, who’s the first person outside of the band to blend the official playlist for one of its 19 batches of Blackened American Whiskey, adds a special personal touch by including the live version of “One,” which he played during his deployment in Somalia.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to be able to create a whiskey and pour so much of myself personally into the process,” Dietrich said in the release. “Music and distilling are two things I have dedicated my life to, and I do not take for granted how rare it is to be able to blend, literally, these worlds.”
Metallica frontman Lars Ulrich approved of his picks. “When I look at Rob’s playlist, I love the selections. I love the variety and I love that he’s gone for two deeper live tracks from the Damaged Justice tour,” he said in a statement. “I love seeing both the Binge & Purge and Through the Nevereras represented. And he even tapped the Helping Hands album, so it’s clear he is not a part-timer!”
The Batch 100 limited-edition box set not only comes with the booze and accompanying beats but also with a first-edition Blackened Zine, which features Dietrich and Ulrich’s commentary on the whiskey blending process, iconic images of the heavy metal heavyweights, and behind-the-scenes footage of Metallica’s headquarters and rehearsal space.
Fans can purchase the Batch 100 limited-edition box set for $149 (although prices may vary by state) here and catch Ulrich’s unboxing video, as well as the tracklist for the two vinyl discs, below.
Robert Trujillo is banding together for firestorm relief…
The 52-year-old Mexican American bassist and his fellow Metallica members will perform as part of Band Together Bay Area’s relief concert.
A coalition of Bay Area business and community leaders launched Band Together Bay Area in response to the North Bay firestorm — the most destructive and deadliest firestorm disaster in California history — to support the local relief effort with a concert November 9 at AT&T Park in San Francisco featuring Metallica, Dave Matthews, G-Eazy and more.
“For 34 years, Metallica has flown the flag for the Bay Area all over the world,” says Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in a statement provided to Billboard. “The recent tragic events up in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties have left us all saddened. We’re here to help as much as we can, and this concert on November 9 is one small way we can do that.”
The concert will be underwritten by sponsors, with 100 percent of ticket sales going to the Tipping Point Emergency Relief Fund.
Live Nation and Another Planet Entertainment are joining forces to help produce and manage the event. The best seats in the house will be donated to first responders, volunteers and families impacted by the firestorm.
“Sometimes you just need to stop and do something meaningful,” says Gregg Perloff, CEO of indie concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment. “This is one of those times. We are one community and together we act as one.”
Tickets for the Band Together Bay Area concert will go on public sale Friday at 10 a.m. at bandtogetherbayarea.org and Ticketmaster.com. Tickets range from $49.50 to $199.50 plus fees. Ticketmaster will donate all processing fees to the relief effort.
Band Together Bay Area — a business coalition including Kaiser Permanente, Marc and Lynne Benioff, Salesforce, Google, Twilio, the San Francisco Giants, Live Nation and Another Planet Entertainment — has raised an initial $6.5 million from partners and founding sponsors.
The funds raised by Band Together Bay Area will go into an emergency relief fund established by Tipping Point Community and will be directed to the North Bay community foundations, service providers and government partners supporting the low-income communities hit hardest by the fires.
The fires have burned an estimated 200,000 acres and 6,000 homes in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake Counties, displacing thousands of residents. Damage estimates are in the billions of dollars and rising, and the cleanup and recovery efforts will be the largest and costliest in California history.
“Live Nation, along with our BottleRock Festival family in Napa, are honored to be a part of an effort to help raise funding for so many deeply affected by the North Bay wildfires,” says Jodi Goodman, president of Live Nation Northern California. “Seeing the Bay Area music community come together to help those in need is truly inspiring. Thanks to all of the artists and companies who have banded together to make it all possible.”
The 51-year-old bassist and his fellow Metallica band mates are starring in Brioni’s new ad campaign.
Justin O’Shea, the new creative director of the Italian luxury menswear label, tapped the heavy metal band — current members Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Trujillo — to star in the brand’s new black-and-white ad.
The images, photographed by Zackery Michael in San Francisco, were inspired by Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” cover art.
“We are beyond thrilled to have been invited to be the face of Italian luxury menswear powerhouse Brioni as they kick off their first creative campaign under the direction of newly appointed creative director, uber cool style star Justin O’Shea,” the band wrote on their Instagram account.
The 51-year-old bassist and his fellow Metallica band mates will serve as the official 2016 ambassadors for this year’s Record Store Day, which is set for April 16, the same day a multitude of vinyl exclusives are set to descend on independent record stores across America.
The metal legends broke the news in an eight-minute video featuring all four members recounting their lifelong vinyl love.
But that’s not all. Metallica will have a special record store day release. The same day, the band will release a new live album called Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Metallica! featuring nine tracks recorded at a 2003 gig at Paris’ Bataclan, the same venue victimized by the November 2015 Paris attacks. All proceeds from the LP will go towards the Fondation de France‘s Give For France charity.
Metallica has a long history of involvement with Record Store Day. In 2008, the band hung out with fans at Rasputin Records in Mountain View, Calif., to help promote the event’s inaugural year. And last year, the reissue of Metallica’s 1982 demo cassette, No Life Til Leather, was crowned Record Store Day’s top seller.
“Independent record stores are part of Metallica’s DNA,” drummer Lars Ulrich said in an official statement. “They have been pivotal in shaping each one of us into the music fanatics we’ve all become. We could not be any prouder to be Record Store Day Ambassadors for 2016 and are looking forward to screaming from every rooftop the next few months about everything independent record store and beyond.”
Last year’s ambassador was Foo Fighter‘s Dave Grohl, preceded by Chuck D. in 2014 and Jack White in 2013.
Earlier this month, Metallica detailed plans to reissue its first two albums, 1983’s Kill ‘Em All and 1984’s Ride the Lightning. Both of these vault-opening box sets were scheduled to be released April 15, which now, conveniently, arrives just a day ahead of Record Store Day.
All this comes while Metallica is working on its so-far-untitled 10th studio album.
Here’s the track listing for Metallica’s forthcoming live album, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Metallica! – Live at Le Bataclan. Paris, France – June 11th, 2003.
Following footage of a new song surfacing earlier this week from a performance in Colombia, the 49-year-old Mexican American musician and his Metallica bandmates have released a garage demo of the track, “Lords of Summer,” on the band’s YouTube page, according to Rolling Stone.
Metallica last released new material in 2008, when Death Magnetic, the band’s ninth album, was released, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
The new eight-minute song, an epic in the vein of Death Magnetic — all its songs clocked at above five minutes — features a mid-tempo lurch of guitars and drums before launching into a riff reminiscent of its earlier thrash metal days, as well as of Death Magnetic opener “That Was Just Your Life.”
“Go trade your darkness for the sun / Soon the lords of summer shall return,” frontman James Hetfield sings before guitarist Kirk Hammett contributes a characteristically shredding solo.
Hammett told Billboard last January that the band was about to convene to record a new album, which would be its 10th since its debut in the early ’80s.
That album doesn’t currently have any sort of timeframe for its release, nor is “Lords of Summer” ensured a spot on that album; drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone in a recent interview that the song could very well not make the final cut.
Death Magnetic sold 490,000 copies upon its initial release in 2008. Since, the band recorded a record with Lou Reed, titled “Lulu,” in 2011 and dropped a live concert film, Through the Never, last year.
He may be a hard-core bassist, but Robert Trujillo has managed to steal the show at his first-ever appearance at Comic-Con.
The 48-year-old Mexican musician and his Metallica bandmates made their highly anticipated debut at the convention to preview their new film “Metallica Through the Never: An IMAX 3D Experience,” which is being called a twist on the traditional concert film.
“This is f—ing awesome,” said Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, as the band was greeted with a thunderous standing ovation from a near capacity crowd at Hall H.
Ulrich was joined onstage by Trujillo, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and the film’s star Dane DeHaan, writer-director Nimrod Antal and producer Charlotte Huggins.
The panel began with an adrenaline-rush as the band premiered the new theatrical poster and trailer for the film, which featured more Metallica and more post-apocalyptic violence than the teaser released in May.
The film features a monstrous stage that takes up nearly the whole floor of Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, where the band performs in the film.
“The stage was the first part of all of it,” said Hetfield. Adding that the band treated the concerts as a film shoot, sometimes starting and stopping for multiple takes, sometime performing full sets during their five shows at Rogers Arena.
“The stage is the star of the film,” added Ulrich. “Making a movie about a stage, and then bringing it to the people is a cool idea.”
The audience was also treated to a never-before-seen scene from the film that featured more post-apocalyptic mayhem. The band’s blistering song “Cyanide” serves as the scene’s backdrop.
The IMAX 3D film comes out on September 27th and will be in wide release on October 4th.
After launching Metallica-themed gameplay starting Thursday, June 13, in Fortnite Festival, Battle Royale, LEGO Fortnite and Rocket Racing, the Bay Area rockers will play a series of in-game concerts for players only on June 22 and 23 entitled Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury. 
With band members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Trujillo as the icons for Fortnite Festival Season 4, fans will be able to play along to such Metallica classics as “Enter Sandman,” “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets.”
