IMAX and the mixture of a Sci-Fi adventure and some live recordings with Metallica performing mainly good-old classics can bring back the band to fortune and fame? Maybe not, but probably yes. Smells like flogging a dead horse and desperately trying to cash-in much as it’s possible from their own past.
Metallica is not a band, but a brand. It’s important to understand and accept the differences. I loved Metallica back in the eighties, but that Metallica was a metal band and not the brand they become after ’91.
Although in a recent interview, Lars Ulrich stated that “2014 will be all about making a new Metallica record”, and that the album most likely will be released in 2015, all that they were able to came up with so far are some live recordings from August 2012. The last Metallica album was the killer “Death Magnetic” in 2008, a really strong and defying album after some adventurous releases. 2011 bring us the dubious “Lulu”, the disappointing collaboration with Lou Reed. Two years later still no new songs, new recordings, but meanwhile Metallica managed what not any other artist managed, they have acquired the rights to all of their studio albums and launched their independent record label, Blackened Recordings, which – obviously – will produce all future releases from the band. Now I’m expecting that Lars Ulrich will set up a Bandcamp page for Metallica and put up there for free download (name your price) all their albums. 🙂 Well, probably not in this life!! 😆
But for now, if you’re an IMAX and cinema maniac and a Metallica fan, this is probably the perfect opportunity to bang your head in a cinema theater.
The setlist it’s definitively very tempting:
CD1:
01 – The Ecstasy of Gold
02 – Creeping Death
03 – For Whom the Bell Tolls
04 – Fuel
05 – Ride the Lightning
06 – One
07 – The Memory Remains
08 – Wherever I May Roam
CD2:
01 – Cyanide
02 – And Justice for All
03 – Master of Puppets
04 – Battery
05 – Nothing Else Matters
06 – Enter Sandman
07 – Hit the Lights
08 – Orion
The performance is honorable, don’t we know actually how many overdubs they actually performed and from how many recordings the show was merged into one, but that’s not the point here because the live vibe is pretty genuine.
The plot. As Metallica performs a roaring live set for fans in a sold-out arena, a young roadie named Trip (performed by actor Dane DeHaan) is sent on a mission to meet a disabled truck and retrieve a particular item. However, the routine task turns into a surreal odyssey when Trip’s van is hit by another vehicle and he subsequently finds himself up against a death-dealing horseman. As Trip flees through desolate streets, he has only his wits to help him avoid the deadly horseman and deliver Metallica’s cargo. I’m glad it’s not with zombies! Or at least I hope it’s not! 😆
The film will be released in IMAX theaters across the United States on September 27, 2013 – the 27th anniversary of former Metallica bassist Cliff Burton’s death -, before being rolled out to normal cinemas in 3D the week after (October 4).
I’m waiting for their tenth studio album and the year 2015. If comet Ison will not strike earth since then, or anything else, or zombies will not eat us up, aliens abduct us or godknows what any other horrible thing will not happen to us meanwhile.
