Upcoming U2 Tour Dates:
Source: http://www.NationalShowTickets.com
12/05/2009 Las Vegas , NV Mandalay Bay
12/07/2009 Boise, ID Idaho Center
12/08/2009 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
12/10/2009 Anaheim, CA Honda Center
12/12/2009 San Jose, CA

Wikipedia Fact: Metallica /məˈtælɨkə/ is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1981. Founded when drummer Lars Ulrich posted an advertisement in a local newspaper, Metallica’s line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists. Currently, the spot is held by Robert Trujillo.

El rumor de una nueva visita a Mx por parte de James, Kirk, Lars y Robert ha sido confirmado en la nota acerca del DVD ORGULLO PASION Y GLORIA, TRES NOCHES EN LA CIUDAD DE MEXICO.

Metallica en su sitio comenta lo grnadioso que fueron los 3 conciertos que dieron a principios del año y nos da detalles acerca del contenido del DVD/BLUE RAY. Seran 18 los temas que conformen el paquete asi como ediciones especiales, este DVD estara enventa solo en algunas tiendas de latinoamerica y en la tienda en linea de la banda.

Al finalizar la nota el grupo dice :

“Y claro despues de pasarnosla tan bien en la ciudad de Mx, no podemos esperar a regresar…, nos vemos pronto en Monterrey y Guadalajara, esten pendientes para mas informacion…”

Con esta declaracion no se descarta que la nueva visita de la banda sea solo en estas ciudades.

Da mesma sessão de fotos…

Vi no fórum do ST esse video que é de fazer qualquer fã tremer na base. Em um evento organizado em benefício do baixista do Deftones, Chi Cheng (com dificuldades para pagar as despesas médicas após sofrer um grave acidente), nada menos que Mike Muir, Mike Clark, Rocky George e Robert Trujillo, juntos no palco, executando War Inside My Head!

Ou seja, faltou só o Ralph Herrera para completar a mais clássica formação do Suicidal. Emocionante ver o quarteto em ação novamente e reparar que, aparentemente, não há treta nenhuma entre eles. Assim, embora os atuais integrantes da banda estejam dando conta do recado, não custa sonhar com uma reunião desse time para um show absolutamente histórico.

A apresentação é recentíssima, rolou na última sexta-feira, e contou ainda com a participação de integrantes do System of a Down e Slayer (o mítico Dave Lombardo que, ao que parece, segurou as baquetas em War Inside My Head).

Pintaram hoje no site do Metallica as datas de dois shows do grupo californiano no Brasil no comecinho do ano que vem: 28 de janeiro de 2010 – Porto Alegre – estádio do Zequinha, apelido do Esporte Clube São José. E em 30 de janeiro de 2010, a volta a São Paulo – primeiro show da banda no Morumbi.

Outro dia passou na TV uma edição do programa inglês Later With Jools Holland. O Jools entrevistou o Lars, que é o porta-voz da banda. Eu já sabia que o batera era fã de carteirinha da banda britânica Diamond Head (de quem o Metallica regravaria a espetacular “Am I Evil?”, “The Prince” e “Helpless“). O que fiquei sabendo no Later é que por conta desse fanatismo pelo Diamond Head, na adolescência o Lars viajou para Inglaterra para ver a banda tocar.  E acabou passando uma temporada instalado na sala de um dos caras do Diamond Head, é mole?

Metallica podría regresar a México en marzo del 2010

Un diario mexicano asegura que Metallica regresará a México, en la última etapa de su gira Death Magnetic, donde daría conciertos tanto en el Distrito Federal, así como en Guadalajara y Monterrey, durante marzo del 2010.

El periódico Récord apuntó que una fuente cercana a la banda detalló que Metallica tendrá un tour latinoamericano amplio, pasando por Costa Rica, Panamá y regresando a Venezuela, Perú, Colombia, incluyendo a México.

La banda integrada por James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammet y Robert Trujillo, tuvieron gran éxito en la capital mexicana durante sus actuaciones en el Foro Sol, donde tuvieron llenos completos.

La próxima semana se presentará un DVD sobre los conciertos de Metallica en México, titulado “Orgullo, pasión y gloria: Tres noches en la Ciudad de México”.

Have you ever been to a concert and been so far back from the stage on the floor or in the stands that the musicians looked like little pins on a huge map that you could barely make out?  Me too… and it can be really frustrating.

I must admit, I have had some pretty great opportunities to interview bands, or sit up close from time to time through my years as a reporter and former rock radio DJ, but there is NOTHING like being in the protected area in front of the stage called the “Photo Pit”.   You are actually closer than being in the front row, and protected from concertgoers who might push their way around you while trying to get a good spot to see the band.   Last night, I had the rockin’ opportunity to be in the Photo Pit for Metallica’s sold out show at Madison Square Garden, and I took some great shots to share with you.

!!!

Getting into the Photo Pit area is quite a process, but a really exciting one to be a part of.  First security checks you in, searches you, and has you in a holding pattern in the bowels of the arena where everything sounds muffled and has the charm of an abandoned hospital ward.  Then you are loaded into a service elevator and taken to the main floor where waiting fans are filling the arena with nervous and excited energy.   Because Metallica plays “in the round” which is a stage in the center of the arena, you are led out through the tunnel in the middle of MSG to the stage, and once fans see the photographers being led out in a row… they know that the band is very close to going on.  There are loud hoots and cheers, hands go in the air, the volume of the arena cranks up to 9  (11 is saved for Metallica of course).   Photographers get in position, roaming the area between the barricade and stage like cats pacing for milk.     Once the lights go down, and the band comes out, you have 3 songs only to get as many shots as you can before you are escorted back to the service elevator and led back outside.  That’s right, no free tickets come along with the Photo Pit pass, but once you see the slide show and video clip here, I think you’ll agree, it’s not a bad payoff!

This was a pretty easy one. Record companies bitch about stuff being downloaded over the internet, and Metallica have had their say in the matter as well. The fact of the matter is that if you are great, you are great. Whatever Metallica gives out, I will buy. It is simply because they are the best band out there now, and perhaps of all time.

James Hetfield, king of rock, monster of metal and God...

People talk about The Beatles all the time, as do I, but one has to remember that they didn’t play live. I think that whether a band is good or not is determined by how they play live. Metallica is even better live than on albums. I don’t know any other band where I’d rather listen to a live recording than to a studio album. My love for the band began in 1991, when the black album came out. Enter Sandman was something bone chillingly cool, something I’d never heard before. I can’t remember if we had a cd player back then, but as a kid, 8-9 years old, I didn’t have the money to buy the album. We usually copied vinyls or cd’s to cassette. The whole notion of going to the store to buy an album was a little strange, because I’d never really liked anything the way I liked Metallica. Guns N’ Roses gave out their Use Your Illusion albums the same time, but although I liked them, I never really thought they were as good. They were a little stupid with Axl’s cycling shorts and all that. I was afraid of James Hetfield. I thought he was going to kill me if I ever went to a Metallica concert. I was without any money and raised back then to believe that if you want something, you can only get it on your birthday. Me and my friend used to go to a library that was close to our school and listen to the album there. I remember how they had these cool soundproof rooms, where you could turn up the volume as high as you wanted to. I was a kid growing up and a year was a long time, so naturally when the band took their sabbaticals, I also forgot about them. It wasn’t until about ten years ago when I returned and this time I wasn’t going away.

(Here’s a little taste from their upcoming live DVD.)

It’s the Sick of the Studio ´07 tour. The much anticipated day kicked off around 8 am. That’s when the alarm went off. It was surprisingly difficult to get out of bed, seeing as how this was a day much anticipated. After breakfast me and the missus headed over to the stadium where Metallica would go on stage in just under 12 hours.
The idea was to get there in time, get the passes for the snake pit and then just hang around the general area without having to worry about any queues. This was wishful thinking. We arrived there half a day before the show would start and found hundreds of die hard fans standing in line. Did I mention it was raining? The rumor was that the first 5000 fans would get passes to the “snake pit” the area right in front of the stage. This was where we were headed and nothing would come in our way. We were informed pretty quickly that these rumors were true, but we also learned that we would get them once inside the stadium. This is what I thought might be the procedure but I didn’t want to take the chance of coming too late and being left with a crappy view of the stage. After about 20 minutes of standing at the end of this long snake of a line, something started to happen. Suddenly the line started moving forward and fast. The walking turned into running, the running turned into tackling and elbowing and in just a few seconds it was every man for himself. All desperately fighting for something, not really sure what. Why was the line moving so damn fast? Were they letting us in already? Or was there in fact someone with the passes to the snake pit handing them out to a few lucky ones. The reason for this sudden rush was that the line had to be tightened. Just minutes ago we were hundreds of yards away from the stadium gates, and now we were around 15 yards from those metal gates. My bashing elbows and tackles had worked out great for us. But what now? We were like sardines packed in that line. It was so tight that even talking to the missus demanded great effort. So now it was 7 hrs until the gates would open and the situation we were in sucked ass. Standing in line with a bunch of assholes, packed so tight that their dandruff brushed off onto my shoulders for the next 7 hrs was not how I had planned this day to turn out. But what else would I do? Here’s a chance to see James Hetfield, a guy I have idolized since I was about 9 years old, from a few yards away. On the other hand I could fuck off from this line, go to the Metallica party being held in a bar a few blocks away, and kick back a few brewskies and just chill out. I would have to sacrifice my front row tickets. No way, we came to see Metallica and that’s what we were going to do. Literally. So the next 7 hrs just flew by. Not. It was the worst thing ever. A bunch of drunken kids having a food fight and hitting me in the face with various meats. If the line wouldn’t have been so tight, they would have gotten a piece of my meat hooks. BEEATCH!
5 PM, the line starts moving. The gates are open. “No running!” the security guards scream. Having been in that line all day, standing without moving, knees locked all the time, made it really hard to walk at all. When that line started to move I noticed that my legs just weren’t working. They were collapsing under me. Now everyone was running despite what the guards were shouting. Dammit, I’m not gonna make it. My legs are spaghetti. But I had to move. I need to get in there. I walked through the security checks and through the gates like an injured spider. We almost ran through the tunnel that led out to the stadium field. The light at the end of the tunnel made the experience almost religious. Coming out of that tunnel and on to the field in front of that huge stage was unbelievable. How could all these tickets have been sold out in under 45 minutes. 65000 tickets. I couldn’t get tickets myself. I had to buy black market tickets at four times the cost, but it was so worth it. Even with my legs all beat up. We get inside the snake pit among the first hundred fans. No problems what so ever. –But now what? It’s not like the show will start. It’s still hours until the band takes the stage. We made our way to the front of the stage. It was really crowded and you couldn’t really see anything that close anyway because of how high up the stage was. So we decided to move to the back of the snake pit where we could sit down and chill for a while. I had already purchased my t-shirts and accessories while my wife held our spot in the line, so we were pretty settled. Now my wife needs to pee. We look around and see that there is a peeing section way back on the other end of the field. This is the cool thing about being in the snake pit. As we walk out of there we get the armband that allows us to get back in there. So now we can walk around.

We buy some nachos and pizza slices and eat them while we walk towards the urine section. That might have been the most expensive meal I’ve ever eaten. When we get to where the Porta-Johns are, my wife disappears into one of them. Surrounded by walls of Porta-Johns , in the middle, was a star shaped object made out of five one-man-urinals with their backs connected to each other. –I could pee, I thought and went to do my business. I unzipped and tried to pee, but nothing came out. I looked up and noticed that I am actually trying to pee in front of tens of thousands of people. Some other dudes came and peed in their own urinals, now facing me so close that we could actually kiss without having to lean forward. I couldn’t get a drop out. The line behind me grew bigger. Come on!!! PUSH!!! I thought to myself. Nothing… Finally I just gave up and walked over to my wife who wasn’t so happy with her experience either. As we walked back towards the pit some piece of shit band started to warm up the crowd. I couldn’t care less. All I could think about was whether or not I would manage through the entire concert without having to pee.

A few hours and a couple of bands later, the loudspeakers started to play Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone. This only means one thing for those who know Metallica. The concert was starting. Ennio fades out, the crowd is screaming as Lars enters. He walks behind his drums, hits his cymbal four times and so the concert begins with Creeping Death. Hetfield, Hammett and Trujillo all enter from various parts of the stage. The crowd goes wild.
It’s just after the 3 minute mark of the song. Hammett has rocked his solo and the crowd all know what to do. 65000 fans all start pumping their fists in the air screaming die, die, die, die, die, die, die. It is amazing. Hetfield covers his ears, like the sound of us is making his tinnitus act up. Thank you Metallica.

Max Koljonen at the Cliff Burton memorial in Sweden, summer 2009.

After the 2007 tour the band returned to the studio to polish their album Death Magnetic. This took some time, but eventually the album came out in September of 2008. The album is the band’s fifth consecutive studio album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States, making Metallica the first band ever to achieve five consecutive number one debuts. Metallica went out on a world tour with their new album. I planned a trip to Copenhagen, Lars Ulrich’s hometown and where Metallica would be performing five nights in a row, in July of 2009. I would also be visiting the Cliff Burton memorial in Sweden. On September 27, 1986, during the European leg of Metallica’s Damage Inc. tour, members drew cards to see which bunk of the tour bus they would sleep in. Burton won and chose to sleep in Hammett’s bunk. Around dawn near Dörarp, Sweden, the bus driver lost control and skidded, which caused the bus to flip several times. Ulrich, Hammett, and Hetfield sustained no serious injuries; however, bassist Burton was pinned under the bus and was killed. Hetfield recalls, “I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other people. I just went, ‘Don’t fucking do that!’ I already wanted to kill the guy.”
The trip was sort of a success, except for that I somehow got my mother and my sister, who lives in Denmark, to join me and my wife. Now, my car is a 2004 Volvo stationwagon with the deluxe comfort package, but there was no comfort on that trip. Everything I’d planned was voted down by these women in my life. My mother, the dark cloud, couldn’t go an hour without talking about how little money I make and that I should get a proper job. My sister, well… Let’s just say that watching Janice on The Sopranos always gives me Déjà vu. But alls well that ends well. Then I had the food poisoning. The day of the Metallica show. Had some mussels the night before, and spent the next two weeks on the shitter. I was able to pull through and make it to the concert, the first one of the five scheduled. I had around twenty anti-diarrhea pills and they kept it in just long enough for me to get back to the hotel. The concert was great though. Indoor concert, a small crowd and pyrotechnics. I have to say that the Death Magnetic album truly comes to life on stage. The album doesn’t do justice to the raw power of the songs when played live. My wife is not a Metallica fan per se, but she always comes with me because we’re partners and best friends. We were in the front row during Mastodon and Lamb of God, but someone threw a pint of beer on my wife between Lamb of God and Metallica and she threw a fit. She barged away leaving me alone, thinking if I should follow her and check if she’s alright or stay where I was, front row. I had to follow her, and as she came out of the bathroom the music started. Ennio that is. This was such a small venue that even though we decided to hang back, we were only some meters away from the stage. Awesome show. Awesome album. Awesome band. Thank you. Let’s not forget the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Guitar Hero: Metallica. –Thank you again… –SEEEEK AND DEEEESTROOOYYY!!!

Discography:
Kill ‘Em All(1983), Ride the Lightning(1984), Master of Puppets(1986), …And Justice for All(1988), Metallica(1991), Load(1996), ReLoad(1997), St. Anger(2003), Death Magnetic(2008)

]]> http://metalbrains.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/wallpapers-de-metallica/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:57:20 +0000 Renzo http://metalbrains.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/wallpapers-de-metallica/

Recolecte 40 muy buenos wallpapers de Metallica y los subí comprimidos en un solo RAR.

Descargar (click aquí) (megaupload.com)

* Mirror 1 (rapidshare.com)
* Mirror 2 (easy-share.com)
* Mirror 3 (depositfiles.com)
* Mirror 4 (zshare.net)
* Mirror 5 (filefactory.com)
* Mirror 6 (badongo.com)
* Mirror 7 (hotfile.com)
* Mirror 8 (megashare.com)
* Mirror 9 (sendspace.com)
* Mirror 10 (2shared.com)
* Mirror 11 (netload.in)
* Mirror 12 (ul.to)

Awesome…

No post sobre o Trujillo esqueci de publicar uma foto muito bacana que encontrei por aí. Em frente da loja da Venice Originals,  estão o atual ex-baixista do ST e atual do Metallica e Louichi Mayorga, titular do instrumento nos dois primeiros discos dos Cycos. Clássica

.

São tantos os temas sobre o Suicidal que nesse tempo todo de blog  (já são três meses) eu mal falei de um personagem importantíssimo na história da banda: Rob Trujillo.

O baixista Roberto Agustín Trujillo entrou para o ST em 1989, substituindo Bob Heathcote, indicado pelo camarada Rocky George, conhecido dos tempos de moleque em Culver City.

George e Trujillo nos bastidores: camaradas da antiga e dupla de ouro do ST

Deixou a banda oito anos depois, após a gravação de seis discos e a participação no projeto paralelo Infectious Grooves, ao lado de Mike Muir. A partir daí, tocou com Ozzy Osborne e ganhou mega-projeção mundial ao integrar o Metallica, em 2003.

Encontrei no Suicidal Fan Forum uma entrevista excelente do Trujillo para a Juice Magazine, revista de Venice, na edição 61. No papo, o monstro das quatro cordas (ou mais) dá uma geral na carreira para o entrevistador Jeff Ho (ele mesmo, o lendário shaper das pranchas de surf Zephyr).

Selecionei as partes em que o músico fala sobre os tempos de Suicidal (em inglês). A íntegra você pode conferir aqui.

How did you meet up with Mike Muir?
I used to work at a jazz café called the Comeback Inn. It was on West Washington, which is now called Abbott Kinney. Back in the day, the Comeback Inn would have these concerts outdoors. This was when new age was starting to come in to the picture. They had a lot of great jazz-fusion bands there. I wanted to work there, so that I could hang out with the hot, ripping jazz players. There was a surf shop next door to the Comeback Inn, and Mike Muir and Jim Muir lived behind the shop in the old pagoda or the “pumpkin”. Mike Muir and his friends would point the PA speakers over at the Comeback Inn in the patio area where the stage was set up, and these new age bands were playing. They would blast punk rock music through the PA. My boss would get so pissed. He would start screaming at them to turn it off. They would yell back on the PA, “Will’s a fag!” That was my first encounter with Muir. The other encounter I had with Muir was in the early ‘80s at a party in Venice. I remember him and his homies coming into the party, and they were just destroying shit. They owned that party. They just dismantled the party and scared everybody. Those were my early encounters with Muir and the hoodrats back in the early ‘80s.

When did you start playing with Suicidal Tendencies?
I hooked up with Suicidal Tendencies in ‘89. I was really good friends with Rocky George, their guitar player. Rocky and I went to high school together. He was from Culver City. Rocky George, played on “Join the Army” and “How Will I Laugh…” He was their guitar player from ‘84 to ‘96. Rocky was the one that got me into Suicidal. I auditioned for the band. I thought it would be this massive audition with all of these different players, but they were like, “If you want the gig, you got the gig.” That was the best break for me, because, in ‘89, Suicidal was going on one of their first real true arena tours. The next thing you know, I’m in Europe with Suicidal, opening for Anthrax. After that, we were opening for Slayer on the Clash of the Titans tour. It just started to blossom from there with Suicidal.

Trujillo em show com o Suicidal

Was Suicidal the first group that you actually broke out with and did a tour with?
Yeah. That was the first, true, serious band that I was in. I was breaking away from the local scene, and from the semi-Hollywood type thing that I didn’t enjoy at all. Suicidal was the band that took me all around the U.S. and took me to Europe, Japan, etc. It was great because with Suicidal, everything was a challenge. We went from playing funky little theaters and clubs, to headlining Irvine Meadows, to opening for Metallica in 1993 in front of huge crowds.

So you were stoked.
Yeah.

Did that allow you to feel more creative?
Absolutely. Suicidal was such an important time for me. It also reacquainted me with surfing. Mike Clark, who’s a really amazing surfer, got me back into surfing. I surfed a lot from ’82 to‘86, and then I kind of, started slacking. When I joined Suicidal Tendencies, whenever we’d end up in Australia, or anywhere there was a wave, Mike would surf it. He’d drag me along with him. We’d be in New Zealand, and he’d say, “Dude, let’s go surfing.” He was really good, and I was kind of, okay. He’d get me out there and I finally realized through him that I had an amazing opportunity as a touring musician to explore some of the most amazing waves all over the world.

Oh, yeah.
Being able to surf in Tahiti, and places like Brazil was unreal. We’d always end up in Hawaii at some point. We’d do a killer concert in Hawaii and then we’d be able to go surfing for a few days. Because of those experiences with Mike Clark, and now with Metallica, I’ve been to Portugal, for instance, surfing southern Portugal, about six times now. I love it down there.

Trujillo, e a cabeleira que virou marca registrada, ao lado de Mike Clark nos anos 90

Talk to me a little bit about the years with Suicidal. You were over in Europe, having a really good time over there. You were snowboarding, too?
Yeah, that was another great thing. I used to push it back then and snowboard on the same day as a show. I would go snowboarding in Austria and take a train to get to Italy to do a show. I’d call Mike at the hotel. Back then it was all European pay phones. There were no international cell phones. I’d call Mike because they were all waiting for me and say, “I’m in a train depot about an hour outside of Torino, Italy.” I never really knew if I was going to make it. What if I missed the train? Finally, I had to chill out on that. I had to stop pushing the limit on that stuff. I was so addicted to snowboarding back then that it was starting to tamper with the music. It could potentially create a disaster for the band. I did a lot of snowboarding in Europe, probably more than I should have.

What led up to the break up of Suicidal?
Well, there have been different phases of Suicidal over the years. I think, during the era that I was in Suicidal Tendencies, which was ‘89-‘96, we were working so hard. We were touring all the time. When we weren’t touring, we were making an album. I was writing and recording, with Mike Muir. We were doing a band called Infectious Grooves. That was another musical project that we were involved with. That was great. We made three albums with Infectious Grooves. People tell me, to this day, that they are fans of Infectious Grooves. These were the creative challenges that we had taken on, plus the hard work we did with our shows. I think it became very taxing on everyone in the band and it created tension. Sometimes, the tension can stir up resentment with your band mates. Sometimes you need to take time off. Take a break for a year. That’s what we did with Metallica. My first two years with Metallica, we were non-stop. Then we took a year off. I talked to the guys in the band, twice in the year off from the band. It’s not because we have a problem with each other. It’s just that when you’re with each other so much on the road for a couple of years, when you do have time off, you really take time off. It’s a great thing. It’s not a problem. That’s just how we are. Now we started doing shows again and we’re writing material for the next album and we’re moving forward. Sometimes that’s necessary. With Suicidal, I don’t know if we just couldn’t afford to do that, but it was just something we never really got to do.

Everyone just diffused.
Yeah. I remember when Suicidal was on tour with Metallica, I was getting in fistfights with Rocky George, who was one of my best friends.

No way.
Yeah.

Muir e Trujillo, parceiros também com o Infectious Grooves

There was just a lot of tension?
Yeah, I remember he and I were literally throwing each other around and socking each other on stage while Metallica was playing. Rocky and I were right there beside James Hetfield’s guitars, and we’re brawling. I’m thinking to myself, “This fuckin’ sucks. What is this?” That happened a couple of times. It was kind of funny. We’re brawling and Metallica is jamming. We were having a fight right on stage, probably during the song “Fight Fire with Fire”.

Did you have a disagreement?
No, it was just tension, and maybe there was a little alcohol involved.

[Laughs.] Okay.
It was tension and alcohol.

And stress?
It was a lot of things. That was the end of that era. On a good note, Mike Muir and I hung out a few weeks ago and spent about four hours together, shooting the shit and hanging out. Everybody’s cool. Rocky is still a great friend.

Are you working with Mike at all?
Mike actually has some material that may potentially be released in the future. It’s recordings from 14 years ago that we’d done together with this amazing drummer, Josh Freese and members of Infectious Grooves. It’s not Suicidal Tendencies. It’s very different, but it’s amazing. For me, right now, my main focus and number one priority is Metallica. We’re working hard writing and, hopefully, in about a year, we’ll have an album ready to go. We’ll get back on the road and kick ass again.

Metallica es una banda originaria de Estados Unidos. Fue fundada en 1981 en Los Ángeles por el danés Lars Ulrich y James Hetfield, a los que se les unirían Lloyd Grant y Ron McGovney. Estos dos músicos fueron después sustituidos por el guitarrista Dave Mustaine y el bajista Cliff Burton, respectivamente. Mustaine fue despedido un año después de ingresar en la banda debido a su excesiva adicción a las drogas y al alcohol, y fundó la banda Megadeth, siendo sustituido en Metallica por Kirk Hammett. Por otra parte, en 1986, la muerte de Cliff Burton en un accidente de autobús en Suecia provocó la entrada al grupo de Jason Newsted, que, quince años más tarde, sería sustituido tras su deserción por el bajista actual de la banda, Robert Trujillo.

Hasta la fecha, la banda ha editado nueve discos de estudio. Las ventas totales de Metallica superan los 100 millones, y son considerados uno de los cuatro grandes del thrash metal junto con Anthrax, Slayer y Megadeth. Además, el grupo ha conseguido numerosos premios musicales, entre los que destacan siete Grammys, dos premios otorgados por la cadena musical MTV, dos galardones de la Academia de Música Americana y un premio de la revista Billboard, y posee una estrella en el paseo de la fama de la revista Kerrang!.

Miembros actuales:

* James Hetfield – Voz / Guitarra rítmica (1981 – presente)
* Lars Ulrich – Batería (1981 – presente)
* Kirk Hammett – Guitarra solista (1983 – presente)
* Robert Trujillo – Bajo (2003 – presente)Ron McGovney – Bajo (1982)
* Dave Mustaine – Guitarra solista (1982 – 1983)
* Cliff Burton † – Bajo (1982 – 1986)
* Jason Newsted – Bajo (1986 – 2001)
                   

Miembros anteriores:

* Lloyd Grant – Guitarra solista (1981 – 1982)
*

This is our pride and joy. The Bed Head Bus Team had it autographed backstage @ Sonisphere 2009 by none other than festival headliners Metallica.  Signed by LEGENDS James Hetfield, Lars Urlrich, Kirk Hammett & Robert Trujillo. The signatures are addressed to TCT – Teenage Cancer Trust. I think we dont need to say anymore! Awesome.

This will be up for auction soon – all proceeds go to Charity. Any queries please contact Alex Barron-Hough on abarron-hough@tigi.co.uk

 Investigate – Conversate – Illustrate

There is a man on the other side of the pond, who has a mission. With an impressive array of sites ranging from personal blogs to collectives in both the art and literary world, Mr. Robert Trujillo and his fam, work together to tell the stories of his neighbourhood, from the grassroots.

In a time where the yoof are blamed for much, praised for very little and villified and made to be something feared by adults; Robert is brushing that all aside and provides a beacon of hope for kids who struggle.

All the projects are collaborative: Come Bien Books which means ‘good food’ alludes to the nourishing, enriching, satisfying and basic necessity of the right thoughts and influences. We have for example, a variety of contributors who all add their own spices  to the mix and also hints and tips for readers/parents who are looking for influences away from the mainstream such as Lee and Low, a publishing house which specialises in multicultural voices but whose slogan is ‘About Everyone For Everyone.’ Let us not confuse ‘multiculturalism’ as ‘ethnic’ and then as a result bordify them and shun them. It is important that children from all backgrounds see  themselves in literature and books, as it is usually what we associate as a child (and then go out and see the movie.)

Come Bien also supports illustration – Robert himself being a gifted artist but the other collaborators certainly know how to twizzle a pen about: check out Nicaragua written and illustrated by Alejandra Perez, the Come Bien answer to Gordon Ramsay. It is fun and a useful place to get info; it is a place dedicated to books, poetry and comics that are not always picked up by mainstream society.

Trust Your Struggle has more of a Taking A Stand feeling to it, it is where Robert actively goes out with other artists under the umbrella to “reflect the struggles and beauty of our own communities as well as the communities around the world.” Today, he is in the process of presenting The Black Art Show in San Fran, a place where artists can express their interpretation of what ‘Trust Your Struggle Means.’ Yoshi and Shaun Burner have impressively collaborated with Credhos, a human rights organisation by completing a mural for them – impressive right?  With the amount of stamina he displays he’ll be an inspiration for many on his side of the Atlantic and hopefully – the way he’ll weild his paint brush, for many more, further afield.

Wow some news! Seems that the Four HORSEMEN of Thrash Metal WILL start a tour according to Kerry King from Slayer. In an interview he said for the Metal Hammer Magazine in the UK he said:

“I think it would be cool but I knew we had this planned before all of this Megadeth stuff started happening,” said King. “They’re going to Australia with us, they’re going to Canada again with us. I think it would be cool for the European fans to bring that over here because, shit, we didn’t even consider playing with those guys since 1990.”

“I’ve heard people referencing Lars,” said King. “I don’t know Lars that well and I haven’t heard it from Lars, but apparently he’s talking to somebody about it. Maybe us, Metallica, Megadeth (and), I think he even threw in Anthrax and I said in this day and age, I know we had that time together, but how do you leave out Machine Head? There’s better options than ANTHRAX and that’s nothing against Anthrax, but they’ve just been in pieces for quite some time and that doesn’t make as much sense to me.“

Will this be true?? All the feuds between Metallica, Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) and Kerry King (Slayer) have finally being resolved?? It seems so.

In my opinion, I think this had to happen sooner. They knew they always where the Big Four of Thrash Metal and maybe they should have put this thing together for the fans in 2000 or 2002, when the big boom of the Nü Metal exploded. It would have been an awesome way to really educate the new young fans of heavy metal and for that, the ultimate way to really influence a new generation of BELIEVERS!

My only hope is that these guys come here, it would be a dream come true. Although, the ranks in the Metal Army from my country are not that bast and it would be a really big risk for the organizers of the event. On the other hand, it would make Lima the capital of Metal in south america.

Over the weekend, we watched ‘Some Kind of Monster’, a documentary on metal band Metallica.

Granted, it is not our standard movie fare. I prefer romantic comedies, which Husband vetoes in favour of gritty thrillers or anything that stars Adam Sandler.

However, I insisted we watch Some Kind of Monster, since I was pondering whether I was a closet Metallica fan. It may not be as fundamental a question as – for example – whether I believe in god, or my sexual orientation, or even whether I prefer eating or sleeping. However, I know the answers to these questions (not usually, relatively straight in most social contexts, hard to say).

Much to everyone’s surprise, the documentary was awesome. It was filmed in 2003, during the recording of the Metallica’s eighth album, St Anger.

The band is in disarray after their bassist leaves, not because he set someone’s hair on fire, or trashes the tourbus, or rapes another bandmember’s girlfriend. Disappointingly, it is due to his founding another band which ‘takes away from the strength of Metallica’, according to lead singer James Hetfield.

Will the band be torn asunder by petty quarrels, or stay together to continue making squillions of millions of dollars? That, my friends, is what is called ‘dramatic tension’.

Since the answer seems entirely uncertain, the band hires a therapist – Dr Phil – to help them deal with their issues and talk about their feelings with plenty of ‘I’ messages.

I would have expected a band of Metallica’s calibre to just snort a couple of lines and kick each others’ faces in. If someone had recorded it (had they been thinking far enough ahead), there’s your album without any of the creative angst and I’m sure nobody would have noticed any difference.

But that, I suppose, would have made for a short documentary.

Then James Hetfield checks into a rehab centre for six months. The only discernible impact appears to be that Lars Ulrich has to spend more personal time with Dr Phil, who tries to persuade him to bond with his father – a freak who practices lewd yoga.

Dr Phil engineers a face-off between Lars and Dave Mustaine, a former band member. Over twenty years before, after playing bass less than two years for Metallica, Mustaine was sacked for substance abuse – although the state of his hair would have been enough. He subsequently founded Megadeth.

It is difficult generating much sympathy for a poor little multimillionaire metal god, especially when Mustaine’s main gripe appears to be a riff on the fact that Metallica has sold 90m records and Megadeth only 15m.

To his credit, Lars doesn’t suggest Dave write better songs, or not be such a dick, or kick his face in.

What struck me was how ordinary these guys are (with the exception of the exploding egos). I’m pretty sure I saw Kirk Hammett drinking tea at one point. Tea! Let’s face it, James Hetfield sounds less like a rock god than someone sent down from Oxford for fondling a tutor’s daughter beneath a rosebush. Lars Ulrich is undoubtedly a better businessman than musician. And although none of the band is capable of passing a camera without flicking the bird, not one of them said the ‘c’ word, even once.

So the documentary answered my question, although undoubtedly the result would have been different had there been face-kicking

No doubt you’ve seen this squirrel picture already. However, you probably don’t know that this wasn’t the first time the little guy had awesome-ified a picture. Before turning mainstream, he spent his days rocking out with some of my heroes. He’s reared his little head in metal photoshoots, on stage with some of the biggest bands on earth, and even in bars, hanging out with rockstars. The evidence is below.

With King Diamond:

With Mastodon:

With Iron Maiden:

With Tool:

With Rob Halford of Judas Priest:

With Robert Trujillo of Metallica:

With Immortal:

With Lemmy:

Unfortunately, after all his recent press, it seems as if he’s turned his back on the metal community. Bruce Dickinson, King Diamond, and Lemmy have all expressed outrage at his recent about-face and his move to Los Angeles. Sure, he may be basking in the internet meme glory right now, but how many minutes of fame does he have left? All we can do is hope that when everything dies down, he remembers who his true friends are. Until then, though, we’re going to see more pictures like these:

(Squirrelizer is awesome)

A casi dos meses de las presentaciones de Metallica en México, encontré un video que me volvió a emocionar hasta llegar al llanto, pero ahora bajo la perspectiva de la emoción de James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo y Kirk Hammet, quienes son filmados antes de salir a escena ante el público azteca, donde se ve su nerviosismo ante el monstruo de más de 40 mil almas que los esperaban para verlos en vivo y corear sus clásicos.

Se ve cómo Lars en una especie de oración abrazado junto a sus otros compañeros se animan para subir al escenario, deseandose lo mejor para la presentación. Luego Ulrich pide un trago de agua a una asistente, y de inmediato sale a escena, donde no puedo imaginar lo debió sentir cuando fue recibido por el público mexicano con una euforia tremenda,  que lo comprometía a dar más del 100 por ciento junto a los otros músicos.

Les dejo este video para que lo disfruten, filmado por el propio equipo de camarógrafos de Metallica.