Metallica have released a studio version of their first new track in nearly six years, an eight-minute long shredder that bodes well for the band’s forthcoming new album.
The band have issued a “Garage Demo Version” of new cut ‘Lords Of Summer’ following the worldwide debut of the track at Bogotá, Colombia on Sunday night as part of the current Metallica By Request Tour of South America.
Perhaps to combat the surfeit of fan footage of the brand new song that quickly surfaced online, Metallica have uploaded a high quality studio version of ‘Lords Of Summer’ where you can better hear frontman James Hetfield’s lyrics; “Are you remembering the sound/recall the shaking of the ground/ Crawling, crawling all as one/ Lords of Summer bring the sun.”
While the words are unexpectedly bright in tone (especially for a band that just finished playing the Arctic), the pure speed metal tempo and thrashing riffs are familiar territory for the four-piece. The long-winding structure recalls both 2008’s Death Magnetic, and in turn 1988’s …And Justice For All, while the suffix is an obvious nod to Metallica’s Garage Days demo era of the early 80s.
In short, it’s a stab at classic ‘tallica, complete with needling twin guitar solos from Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, while Lars Ulrich’s bulldog drumming barks away consistently beneath.
Ulrich tells Rolling Stone that the eight-minute-plus cut is “fairly representative of where our creative headspace is at right now,” but may not actually be included on a new Metallica album.
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By comparison, Ulrich explained back in February how new songs debuted in 2006 ahead of Death Magnetic ended up being rearranged and broken down as parts for new songs. “That’s how we work; stuff just gets changed around, moved over and this goes over there and the rest of that gets sacked and that ends up in the intro in song five,” says the drumming Dane.
Meanwhile, Hammett says there’s plenty of material for the band’s forthcoming 10th studio album. “James has 800 pieces of music. I have 400 pieces of music. Once we figure out what pieces of music are actually gonna work for us, then we’re going to start turning those pieces of music into songs and seeing where that leads us,” said the guitarist earlier this year.
Though a new record will be Metallica’s first new studio material since 2008’s Death Magnetic, the band have been keeping plenty busy since then. 2011 saw them collaborating with the late, great Lou Reed on the (not so great) Lulu, the following year led to an outtakes album, Beyond Magnetic, and a headline slot with Soundwave, and last year brought 3D concert/fantasy movie Through The Never and accompanying live soundtrack.
The Metallica By Request tour continues through South America this month before Metallica hit a a long run of music festivals across the globe, with dates booked from April through to August.
