Metallica might not have a new album coming out anytime soon, but it’s not stopping them from continuing to tour – and giving their fans a taste of some new music. The band have just announced that they’ll be playing some European dates next Summer, and have added a twist. What’s the twist? Get ready for “Metallica By Request.” What’s that mean? It means that for each date (there are three announced so far, with more coming next week), those that purchase tickets will be able to pick the band’s set list. of the 18 songs that are in a typical Metallica set list, 17 of those will be decided by fans. The 18th will be a new song. They haven’t said whether or not there will be different new songs or just one, but that definitely means that the new album is at least starting to come together. Here’s what Lars Ulrich had to say, via a press release:
“We are once again psyched to break free of the four walls in the studio to get energized by our devoted European friends for a couple of weeks next May and June,” said Lars Ulrich. “On top of that, the fact that all our nutty fans will pick the songs we play should be some next level fun and take a big load off my shoulders as the guy who usually writes the set list!”
That’s potentially an amazing idea, except for the fact that with over 140 songs to choose from, the typical Metallica fans will mostly want to hear the hits. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, but unless there’s a concerted effort amongst Metallica fans to pick a unified set list, get ready for about half the Black Album, a quarter Master of Puppets, and another quarter Ride the Lightning. It’ll be interesting to hear what direction new music from the band takes. Here are the dates so far, with more coming next week.
June 4 – Hamburg, Germany @ Imtech Arena, Sonisphere
June 5-8 – Nurburgring, Germany @ Rock am Ring
June 6-9 – Nuremberg, Germany @ Rock im Park
More info here.
