Metallica History – The 2010s

This decade isn’t even halfway through and Metallica has already made huge waves by collaborating with an unlikely musical partner, creating their own music festival and preparing to dominate Hollywood once again, this time in the form of a 3D movie covering some live performances. What’s in store for Metallica this decade? If the first few years are any indication, fans are in for one hell of a ride.

2010

Ready to take the world by storm, Metallica began planning one of the most historical concerts of all time: The Big Four. Teaming up with Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer, The Big Four would find the four biggest metal acts in the world joining the same stage for the first time ever on June 16 in Warsaw, Poland. On June 22, during another Big Four performance from Sofia, Bulgaria, the concert was broadcasted to thousands of movie theaters throughout the world. This year brought with it two exclusive EPs, ‘Six Feet Down Under’ and ‘Six Feet Down Under Part II.’ These releases covered songs performed live on the ‘World Magnetic Tour’ in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to these two live releases, on Record Day (Nov. 26), ‘Live at Grimey’s’ hit store shelves. This album chronicled the exclusive performance that took place two years earlier in the basement of Grimey’s in Nashville, Tennessee to only a few hundred fans and industry professionals.

2011

A new documentary, ‘Lemmy: 49% Motherf—er, 51% Son of a Bitch,’ featured interviews with Metallica, as well as footage of live performances. It’s no secret Metallica are huge fans of Lemmy and Motorhead (see ‘Garage Inc.’ disc two), so this came as no surprise to fans of both bands when the doc was released on Feb. 15. This year brought with it a huge announcement that surprised many metal fans: Metallica would collaborate with the one and only Lou Reed of Velvet Underground fame. Released on Nov. 1, the collaborative album, ‘Lulu,’ was met with harsh reviews from both fans and music critics alike. Six weeks later, Metallica released the ‘Beyond Magnetic‘ EP on December 13. This release featured four tracks from the ‘Death Magnetic’ recording sessions that were never before released. The release of this EP came on the heels of the band celebrating their 30th anniversary for four nights at The Fillmore in San Francisco, Calif., which saw guest appearances from former members Jason Newsted, Dave Mustaine and Ron McGovney.

2012

This year is still writing itself, but what a year it’s already been! After celebrating their 30th anniversary in San Francisco, it would have been completely acceptable for Metallica to take a breather and enjoy some much-deserved downtime. As fans might expect, that didn’t happen. On Feb. 7, Metallica announced their next step to total world domination, their own two-day music festival called Orion Music + More. Taking place on June 23 and 24 at Bader Field in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Orion Music + More featured over forty bands that spanned several different genres, and saw Metallica headlining both nights. The first night, Metallica played ‘Ride the Lightning’ in its entirety for the first time ever the first night, followed by The Black Album the second night. After Orion, Metallica kept on their fast pace by getting ready to film their own 3D movie. While details are a bit sparse, the movie will cover shows that took place in Edmonton and Vancouver. In addition to the 3D movie, it was also announced that there will be yet another live DVD/Blu-Ray released to fans, this time covering shows in Quebec City during 2009′s ‘World Magnetic Tour’ stops.

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