Metallica's latest album 'Death Magnetic' In US

"Death Magnetic", Latest album for Metallica, was officially certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 28, 2010 for shipments in the United States in excess of two million copies.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse of Radio in an October 2008 interview that he didn't understand the controversy that had broken out over the audio quality of "Death Magnetic" shortly after the LP's release. Some fans and publications had accused the group and producer Rick Rubin of mixing the album at such a loud volume that the music is distorted and difficult to listen to. But Ulrich said that he's more than glad with the way it turned out. "I listen to this record, and I listen to it every couple of days," he said. "And when I hear it, it puts a smile on my face and it blows me away, and I don't understand what people are talking about. Somebody told me the other day that there were 12,000 people that had signed a petition to remix the record. We've sold two and a half million copies (worldwide) of 'Death Magnetic'. You do the math yourself."
A number of fans said online that they prefer the versions of the CD's tracks prepared for the Guitar Hero video game, which are mixed differently.
Ted Jensen, the engineer who mastered the album at Sterling Sound in New York, responded to fan complaints that the CD is too loud and the audio is pushed to distortion levels by writing, "I'm certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me, I'm not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else."
Mastering is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device, the "master," from which all copies will be produced.
Blame for the sound quality has been laid at the feet of the band itself, producer Rick Rubin and his recording engineer, Greg Fidelman.
Metallica will end the "Death Magnetic" world tour later this fall with shows in Australia and New Zealand before taking a break.

''Some Kind Of Monster' film was a stupid idea', Metallica's Lars Ulrich

Metallica's Lars Ulrich has said that in retrospect he thinks it was "stupid" of the band to allow themselves to be filmed for 2004 documentary Some Kind Of Monster. The drummer told the Sydney Herald Sun that the film, which followed the band during the making of their 2003 album 'St. Anger', was a "mindfuck". They were receiving group therapy at the time."Every time I see Noel Gallagher he quotes lines from that movie back to me," he said. "That thing has taken on a life of its own. I had to live that shit for three fucking years! The whole thing was a mindfuck."He added: "I am aware a lot of other musicians seem to have lived a lot of those moments. They weren't necessarily stupid enough to film them like we were and share them with the rest of the world."

Metallica: Announce 2nd Chch gig

A second Christchurch show Metallica have announced show before tickets for their first show officially go on sale yet.
Because of overwhelming demand from South Island fans during recent pre sale for Metallica's show on September 22, they have announced another show at the CBS Canterbury Arena for September 21.
The announcement comes after fierce online attempts by fans to purchase tickets. MetClub members found the site overloaded. All Visa pre sale tickets to the September 22 were snapped up in 15 minutes despite costing $179.90 plus a whopping $20 booking fee. The Press received dozens of calls from irate fans, unable to purchase tickets from the Ticketek site or by phone with both immediately overloaded when they went on sale at noon yesterday.
Tickets to both shows are available during the MyTicketek pre sale which is available now.
Tickets, limited to four per buyer, go on general sale at 9am on Thursday.
Owner of Real Groovy Christchurch, Paul Huggins, is pleased to hear of another show.
That will make a lot of people glad. We have had people in here who don't have credit cards or are young fans and they said they were going to start queuing outside the door from 3am on Thursday. Even then I didn't like their opportunities of getting tickets. Now it looks like they will.''
Perhaps inspired by the success of Metallica fan Andrea Grom's Facebook page Bring Metallica to Christchurch which has 21,556 members, other Facebook pages have emerged, including Bring 30 Seconds to Mars to Christchurch.
Metallica will now begin the first leg of their Australasian World Magnetic Tour in Melbourne on September 15 and 16, before heading onto Sydney on September 18, then to Christchurch.
The American heavy metal band will then continue on to Japan before returning to Australasia in October and November for their 15 sold out arena shows.
Performing for over two hours, Metallica will feature material drawn from throughout their career including their recent album Death Magnetic.

Metallica: Ulrich Delighted With Movie Debut

METALLICA star LARS ULRICH jumped at the opportunity to make his acting debut in new movie GET HIM TO THE GREEK - because he relished the challenge of relinquishing "control" on the movie set.
The Danish drummer stepped up to play himself in the new comedy alongside Russell Brand, Jonah Hill and Sean 'Diddy' Combs.
Ulrich admits acting in a film was a completely alien experience, but he enjoying being bossed around by the director.
He tells the Sonisphere festival web site, "I got a call from manager (sic) saying that the people who made Forgetting Sarah Marshall were making a new movie with some of the same people and they asked if I would be interested in playing myself. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is really one of my favourite movies from the last couple of years. I thought it was actually well written, actually well directed and the gang involved in it are all great people so I thought it would be interesting to be part of that...
"So I flew down to L.A. and did as I was told for two days. It's always fun to go into other areas and worlds that are unknown. The world of Metallica and the world of music we know so well and we control all the elements of it. You walk onto a movie set, you have to do as you're told and do it with a smile and just play along. It's fun to forfeit control and just be part of a ride like that."